Features
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Episode 240 :: Karma Yeshe Rabgye :: Ripples in the Stream: A Pragmatic Journey Through Gautama Buddha’s Teachings
Karma Yeshe Rabgye Yeshe Rabgye joins us to speak about pragmatic aspects of Buddha’s teaching. What’s it like to be a monastic in a Tibetan tradition, teaching secular mindfulness in India? Oddly enough, this combination does exist, and a secular approach to Buddhism is of more interest than traditional Buddhism, even when the teacher is […]
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Meditating With and For Each Other
While meditation retreats have always been challenging, rewarding, and in some ways, deeply moving experiences for me, I believe that they don’t sufficiently foster two key aspects of our practice: our ethical, socially-conscious engagement in the world and our active participation in sanghas. In a previous blog post I raised concerns about the negative effect […]
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Lovingkindness Now and in the Past
In contrast to the dominant role that mettā (lovingkindness) and the other Brahmavihāras (compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) play in contemporary Buddhist practice, they seem to have played a relatively minor role in the earliest tradition. One looks in vain for much elaboration on mettā’s dhammic role; largely it seems to have been seen as […]
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Episode 239 :: Rick Heller :: Secular Meditation: 32 Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy
Rick Heller Rick Heller returns to tell us about Secular Meditation: 32 Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy — A Guide from the Humanist Community at Harvard. Hi, everyone. Before we get started with today’s episode, I want to remind the listeners that we’ve started a new podcast which may also interest you. […]
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Secular Meditation: A Review
When I reviewed Sam Harris’ book, Waking Up, in these pages, I lamented that the book failed to live up to its subtitle, “A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion.” Indeed, there are a growing number of volumes, from writers like Harris, Stephen Batchelor and others, that discuss the philosophical underpinnings of living a spiritual life […]
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Episode 238 :: Ken McLeod :: A Trackless Path
Ken McLeod Ken McLeod joins us to speak about A Trackless Path, a translation of one of a key poem of the 18th century Tibetan mystic Jigme Lingpa. As we read, reflect, practice, and eventually embody the words and practices of our forebears in the tradition, it’s interesting how much of what they taught sounds […]
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Keeping Your Meditation Resolution
Is starting a regular meditation practice on your list of New Year’s resolutions? Congratulations! Making time for daily meditation is powerful act of self-compassion. As the Dhammapada tells us, not even one’s mother or father can be of greater help than one’s own well-cultivated mind. However, if starting a daily practice were easy, we wouldn’t […]
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Episode 237 :: Molly Hahn :: Buddha Doodles: Imagine the Possibilities
Molly Hahn Molly Hahn returns to speak with us about the growth of Buddha Doodles, her upcoming book Buddha Doodles: Imagine the Possibilities, and thriving after trauma. Hi, everyone. Before we get started with today’s episode, I want to remind the listeners that we’ve started a new podcast which may also interest you. It’s called […]
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On Materialist Disenchantment
In Buddhism there are two main unskillful approaches we may have towards the world: greed and aversion. Most contemporary dhamma discussions tend to revolve around mitigating aversion. To do that, we practice mettā, the other Brahmavihāras, and learn to accept and embrace the world with kindness and compassion, just as it is. So for example […]
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Pali Intensive Course Offered Online
There are some exciting things happening in the world of Buddhist studies. There is one in particular I’m familiar with that I thought you might like to know about, because – especially at this moment in time – you don’t need to be either a monastic or a student at a university, or a big […]
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The Importance of How We Translate: The End of Suffering
How readers understand Buddhism depends a great deal on how it is presented to us. This should be obvious. Though Buddhism teaches us to see for ourselves whether what we learn applies to our lives, how we practice, and what we look for when we practice is going to be affected by how […]
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Batchelor’s “After Buddhism”: A Review
With After Buddhism, Stephen Batchelor continues his project of cultivating a secular dhamma. Batchelor’s book is structured as an exegesis of the Pāli Canon, focusing almost exclusively on this early material to reconstruct what might be termed a secular Buddha. This is a Buddha who followed a kind of Pyrrhonian skepticism about truth, who declined […]
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Batchelor’s Ten Theses of Secular Dharma
All of the discussion on this website can be said to revolve around a single question: What is Secular Buddhism? How is it secular, and how is it Buddhist? What can we take from the traditional texts and practices, and what ought we leave behind? How does the dharma fit in with our knowledge from […]
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At Cātumā: the Fallibility of Human Perfection
What is the aim of practice? Following right effort, it is to emphasize the skillful and deemphasize the unskillful in thought and action. So we aim in meditation to become more directly aware of the real character of our minds, and particularly our motivations. In so doing we begin to see how the pain that […]
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Meditating Without Nirvana
Introduction A specter is haunting secular Buddhism;[1] it is the ghostly remnant of the non-naturalistic, supra-mundane dimension of traditional Buddhism. While we, as secular Buddhists, embrace the core insights of the Buddha about our human- existential condition, we need to usher this specter – the notion of nirvana – politely but firmly away from our […]
Previous Articles » click to see more
Meditating With and For Each Other
While meditation retreats have always been challenging, rewarding, and in some ways, deeply moving experiences for me, I believe that they don’t sufficiently foster two key aspects of our practice: our ethical, socially-conscious engagement in the world and our active participation in sanghas. In a previous blog post I raised concerns about the negative effect […]
Lovingkindness Now and in the Past
In contrast to the dominant role that mettā (lovingkindness) and the other Brahmavihāras (compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity) play in contemporary Buddhist practice, they seem to have played a relatively minor role in the earliest tradition. One looks in vain for much elaboration on mettā’s dhammic role; largely it seems to have been seen as […]
Secular Meditation: A Review
When I reviewed Sam Harris’ book, Waking Up, in these pages, I lamented that the book failed to live up to its subtitle, “A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion.” Indeed, there are a growing number of volumes, from writers like Harris, Stephen Batchelor and others, that discuss the philosophical underpinnings of living a spiritual life […]
Keeping Your Meditation Resolution
Is starting a regular meditation practice on your list of New Year’s resolutions? Congratulations! Making time for daily meditation is powerful act of self-compassion. As the Dhammapada tells us, not even one’s mother or father can be of greater help than one’s own well-cultivated mind. However, if starting a daily practice were easy, we wouldn’t […]
Previous Podcasts » click to see more
Episode 240 :: Karma Yeshe Rabgye :: Ripples in the Stream: A Pragmatic Journey Through Gautama Buddha’s Teachings
Karma Yeshe Rabgye Yeshe Rabgye joins us to speak about pragmatic aspects of Buddha’s teaching. What’s it like to be a monastic in a Tibetan tradition, teaching secular mindfulness in India? Oddly enough, this combination does exist, and a secular approach to Buddhism is of more interest than traditional Buddhism, even when the teacher is […]
Episode 239 :: Rick Heller :: Secular Meditation: 32 Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy
Rick Heller Rick Heller returns to tell us about Secular Meditation: 32 Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy — A Guide from the Humanist Community at Harvard. Hi, everyone. Before we get started with today’s episode, I want to remind the listeners that we’ve started a new podcast which may also interest you. […]
Episode 238 :: Ken McLeod :: A Trackless Path
Ken McLeod Ken McLeod joins us to speak about A Trackless Path, a translation of one of a key poem of the 18th century Tibetan mystic Jigme Lingpa. As we read, reflect, practice, and eventually embody the words and practices of our forebears in the tradition, it’s interesting how much of what they taught sounds […]
Episode 237 :: Molly Hahn :: Buddha Doodles: Imagine the Possibilities
Molly Hahn Molly Hahn returns to speak with us about the growth of Buddha Doodles, her upcoming book Buddha Doodles: Imagine the Possibilities, and thriving after trauma. Hi, everyone. Before we get started with today’s episode, I want to remind the listeners that we’ve started a new podcast which may also interest you. It’s called […]
Previous Audio Talks » click to see more
Ten Minute Sit with Music
This is a ten minute guided meditation with an ambient music soundtrack. I’d be interested to hear if you like it and would like to hear more of this kind of track. 10 minute sit with music
Finding Authority Outside of Tradition
In this episode host Vincent Horn concludes his conversation with Ted by exploring the role of Tradition in secular Buddhism. They consider the question of spiritual authority in secular Buddhism and whether it’s possible to see through the filter of culture and tradition. This is Part 2. Part 1 is listed below. This topic comes […]
Ted Interviewed by Buddhist Geeks
Ted Meissner is the host of The Secular Buddhist podcast and the Executive Director of the Secular Buddhist Association. In this episode with host Vincent Horn chief geek at Buddhist Geeks, Ted shares examples of secular Buddhism, why he is skeptical but not cynical about religion, and he stresses what he thinks is the importance of […]
Loving Kindness Guided Meditation
Guided Loving Kindness Meditation Follow this Guided Loving Kindness Meditation by Mark Knicklebine (about 35 minutes):
Previous Videos » click to see more
Superstition
From the QualiaSoup series of videos, this is a terrific examination of the concept of Superstition.
The Burden of Proof
From the QualiaSoup series of videos, this is a terrific examination of the concept of The Burden of Proof.
Critical Thinking
From the QualiaSoup series of videos, this is a terrific examination of Critical Thinking.
Open Mindedness
From the QualiaSoup series of videos, this is a terrific examination of the concept of Open Mindedness.
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