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Tables of Contents for Benedict's Dharma
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Editor's Preface
xiii
The Trellis
1
6
General guidelines for an inner journey
1
1
Contemplation can be practiced anyplace
2
1
Spiritual motivation changes in the course of practice
3
2
To help human goodness grow
5
2
Freedom and Forgiveness
7
27
Structure, boundary, and freedom
7
5
Freedom of not knowing
Freedom in clear awareness
Freedom in an undefended place
The knife needs some place to land
12
4
Freedom from guilt
Freedom in the mind's mirror
Freedom and skillful means
The quality of our permeability
16
2
Freedom from comparison
Freedom from fear
What does it mean that I have this car?
18
3
Urgency and impermanence
Nonattachment
21
3
Generosity
Benefit of all
Look at each other and ask for forgiveness
24
8
Not easy to enter, not easy to leave
Doubt as a fresh frontier
Vows that can't be kept completely but can be constantly repaired
Transforming spiritual crisis into awakening
Love and emptiness
32
2
Discipline and Spontaneity
34
25
Something a little more steady and normal in our lives
34
15
Discipline requires teacher, practice, community
Discipline overcomes impulse
Discipline becomes natural
Restraint and spontaneity
Why be good?
Impermanence and many lives
The psalms and the million recitations
49
3
Discipline beyond what one ``can do''
Shopping for yogurt
52
5
The proper amount of food and drink
Kitchen work a form of spiritual cultivation
Eating supports spiritual practice
It all depends on motivation
57
2
Tradition and Adaptation
59
27
Commitments in constantly changing circumstances
59
7
Crucible for transformation
Mandala of community
Usual criteria for leadership don't apply
Embodying the spirit of the tradition
Walking a tightrope across a chasm
There is no way not to adapt
66
15
How I came to the Dharma
The resistance I faced
A never-ending learning and adapting
The Buddha's flexibility
Monastic similarities
Monastic differences
Teachers cannot teach everything
The paradox of will
God and the Dharma
Humility and adaptability
The monastery wall always permeable
81
2
Adjusting asceticism
Encountering differences
Succession and accessibility
83
3
Leadership and Humility
86
35
An experimental place
86
7
Benedict's warmheartedness
A path of self-transcendence
Developing joy and freedom
Contemplation and action
Gentleness and urgency
Getting unstuck
93
11
Descend with the view, ascend with the practice
Finding our inheritance
We tend to be to hard on ourselves
The building blocks of compassion
What happens at the summit
Resistance and renunciation
After all, one never knows
Spiritual leadership
104
9
Obedience as a skillful means for awakening
No one is up to the task
Nothing beneath attention
Taking care of one's own happiness
Deeds more than words
Just doing a monastic's business
Authority and empowerment
113
8
The oddness and usefulness of humility
Not eliminated, but turned
Depth and accuracy
Ladders and bridges
Afterword: Conclusions About A Beginning
121
10
David Steindl-Rast
Introduction to Saint Benedict's Rule
131
7
Mary Margaret Funk
Saint Benedict's Rule
138
Patrick Barry