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A Goal-less Goal An Interview with Acharya, Moh Hardin |
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Moh Hardin is a senior student of Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (1940-1987), a Tibetan meditation master who did much during his lifetime to establish Buddhism in the West. Mr. Hardin was recently named an Acharya, master teacher, by Trungpa's son and dharma heir, Sakyong Mipham, Rinpoche. I sat down with Mr. Hardin recently at the Shambhala Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Mr. Hardin serves as co-director. What follows is the transcript of that interview. —Edward Michalik |
Michalik: Moh, you come from a family of Methodist ministers in the South. How do you think your roots prepared you for your journey towards the Buddhadharma? Hardin: I don't know. It seems like the basic thing there is that I had questions. I was brought up in the church. I respected my father very much. He was a very good minister; he helped people. And I had some attraction to that. At the same time, I had a lot of questions, and I wasn't satisfied. Therefore, I went on a search, and, luckily, I met a teacher, a genuine teacher, and connected with him, and found the discipline of meditation. So, in some way, I would say that my roots are irrelevant. Whether you are a Methodist minister's son in the South or a used car salesman's daughter from Illinois, the sense of having some kind of question or inquisitiveness about the meaning and purpose of your life is the real route to the possibility of discovering or connecting with the Buddhadharma. The Buddhadharma is very much an open exploration of that inquisitiveness. The specifics of your life are the situation you have to work with, but they're not particularly what might propel you on your journey, so to speak. |