Archive for September 2011
Episode 84 :: Katherine MacLean :: Psilocybin and Openness
Katherine MacLean Katherine MacLean speaks with us about a new study on the effects of the psychoactive drug psilocybin on the personality trait of Openness. Hi, everyone. This week as with last week, we’re enjoying the benefits of the kindness of others in sharing their work in a very timely fashion. I was very happy…
Read MoreEpisode 83 :: Owen Flanagan :: The Bodhisattva's Brain
Owen Flanagan Owen Flanagan speaks with us about his new book The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized. It’s not very often that I get a series of emails, FaceBook messages, and even Tweets about a new book that’s just come out, but recently that did occur. And because this is really a podcast for you, I…
Read MoreThe Secret of Happiness
by Mark Knickelbine In The Goal of Practice and elsewhere, I have argued along with Stephen Batchelor that the goal of secular dharma practice is not a final cessation of suffering (regardless of how many thousands of times the Pali canon says otherwise). As Batchelor points out, the word commonly translated as “suffering” in English…
Read MoreEpisode 82 :: Dan Bammes :: Early Web Skeptical Buddhism
Dan Bammes talks with us about one of the first, if not the first, skeptical Buddhist web presence.
When I started this podcast, it was a pretty clear and open field for secular and skeptical Buddhist websites. There was and still is a fairly limited but active set of people, promoting the ideas of reason and naturalism as it applies to our practice of Buddhism. And it’s a wonderful experience, as I hear from listeners to the podcast about how this has helped validate that they are not the only person who has a skeptical view of assertions not in evidence.
Read MoreEpisode 81 :: Dr. Dan Siegel :: Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation
Dr. Dan Siegel Dr. Dan Siegel speaks with us about Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation, and how we can describe what the mind really is. When we say mind is not simply limited to the body, that is often inaccurately perceived as a dichotomy between mind and body, that there is a separate…
Read MoreLetting Go of the Raft
*~*~* “I shall show you how the Dhamma is similar to a raft, being for the purpose of crossing over, not for the purpose of grasping…” *~*~* [MN 22.13 All translations of the sutta in this post are by Bhikkhu Bodhi] *~*~* The Buddha’s simile of the raft gets a lot of use lately…
Read MoreWhy Scientific Scrutiny is Vital to Buddhist Practice
In secular Buddhist practice, it’s essential that we welcome scientific scrutiny on our practices, and that we approach our own practices with skepticism and scientific methodology. So much of our practice involves subjective experience, and experimentation therein. Science has shown repeatedly how incredibly easy it is to fool oneself, and to create experiences derived of…
Read MoreEpisode 80 :: Dr. Elizabeth Loftus :: False Memory Creation
Dr. Elizabeth Loftus Dr. Elizabeth Loftus speaks with us about false memory creation. Many of us have had very compelling experiences during meditation. We’ve cleared away the mental noise, calmed our brains, and — supposedly — we’re seeing things as they are, we’re penetrating into Truth with a capital T. The term “direct knowing” is…
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