Archive for May 2012
A Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #4 Name and Form
It is with this link in the chain that this secular understanding of dependent arising finds a deeper insight into the processes through which we create anatta, deeper insight than offered by the confusion of the traditional views of what’s going on. The Pali word for this step is namarupa — nama shares a root…
Read MoreEpisode 119 :: Shinzen Young :: Meditation, Pain, and Science
Shinzen Young Shinzen Young joins us to speak about meditation, pain relief, and science. We encounter this practice in so many ways. Often through suffering. Sometimes through disciplines like the martial arts, or from an interest in fixing some issues we’re having with concentration. And sometimes, we come to it through a fascination with a…
Read MoreA Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #3 Consciousness
We come into the world ignorant of the things we do that end up causing dukkha in our lives, and in particular ignorant of the drive for existence of our sense-of-self: that’s step #1: ignorance, and step #2: sankhara. Sankhara is simultaneously that natural tendency to develop and protect our sense-of-self taken to extremes, and…
Read MoreA Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #2 Sankhara
In the last post I offered a fairly plain description of what was meant by “ignorance” in the first link in the chain of dependent arising. It is ignorance of what dukkha is, how it comes about, that it can come to an end, and the way to do that. I said that dukkha is…
Read MoreA Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #1 Ignorance
This post is the first in a series of twelve on dependent arising (the translation of paticca samuppada that I prefer over dependent origination, or co-dependent arising, or interdependent origination or any of the other variations). I plan to take each link in the classic chain of twelve and explain — in the plainest language…
Read MoreEpisode 118 :: Tim Ward :: Zombies on Kilimanjaro
Tim Ward Tim Ward, author of What the Buddha Never Taught, joins us again to talk about Buddhist practice, meme theory, and his new book Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father/Son Journey Above the Clouds. As we talk about the evolution of a secular Buddhism, it’s pretty easy to see it happening. There are an increasing…
Read MoreEpisode 117 :: Bonus Episode :: Rodrigo Rodriguez :: Shakuhachi Music
Rodrigo Rodriguez Rodrigo Rodriguez speaks with us about shakuhachi music and his new album, Traditional and Modern Pieces Shakuhachi, in this bonus episode. Hi, everyone. This week, May 2012, the podcast has had over two hundred thousand downloads. I’d like to celebrate this milestone by doing a special bonus episode in addition to the regular…
Read MoreSo What?
—On Glenn Wallis and Speculative Non-Buddhism (provoked by Wallis’s article, On the Faith of Secular Buddhists) The hardest thing I ever did was walk away from Buddhism. It had saved my sanity and my life. After decades of self-destructive behavior, I’d found myself at home in the arms of the Tibetan Diaspora. After years of…
Read MoreNo robes, no ritual, no religion
The following is from May 2012 issue of the New Zealand newsletter INSIGHTAotearoa. No robes, no ritual, no religion by Ramsey Margolis At Easter, a new website went live at secularbuddhism.org.nz. Within a week, 34 people had asked to go onto the mailing list for a yet-to-be issued newsletter. Something must have been in the air,…
Read MoreEpisode 116 :: Yeshe Rabgye :: The Best Way to Catch a Snake
Yeshe Rabgye Yeshe Rabgye speaks about having the progressive attitudes of a Westerner within the religious institution of an Asian tradition, and his new book The Best Way to Catch a Snake: A Practical Guide to the Buddha’s Teaching. People are tribal. We tend to gravitate to our particular groups, adhere to the ideals of…
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