Archive for May 2013
Episode 171 :: Anita Feng :: Raku Pottery and Buddhist Art
Anita Feng Zen teacher and artist Anita Feng joins us to speak about raku pottery in contemporary Buddhist art. Early Buddhist art was missing one particular figure: Buddha. That changed over time, as Buddhism reached new shores and cultures, as the teaching itself has found new forms of expression. We see a growth of artistic…
Read MoreA Secular Evaluation of Rebirth
Rebirth: it’s one of those topics that defines the Secular Buddhist approach. Practitioners who accept the traditional Buddhist notions of rebirth and the kammic causation that accompanies it will be less interested in a naturalistic ‘secularization’ of the dhamma. Discussions along the frontiers of belief tend not to be very fruitful: people find their beliefs…
Read MoreWelcome to Practice Circle: An Update
Back last fall, we announced the start of an experiment, an online dharma practice group called the Practice Circle. As I write this, Practice Circle has met 16 times in the course of seven months, and so I thought it was time to write a fresh introduction to our online community as well as report…
Read MoreEpisode 170 :: Danny Ford :: Mindfulness and Psychotherapy: Let Go of Should
Danny Ford Danny Ford joins us to speak about how his own mindfulness practice has helped guide his therapy practice. Buddhism teaches one thing: suffering and the extinguishing of it. Contemporary mental health professionals encounter the suffering of their patients on a daily basis, and just as we see in the Dhammapada, many of the…
Read MoreIs Scholarship Important?
When I was doing my undergraduate and graduate work I sometimes heard snarky criticism of history of philosophy. “Why do I have to know all this?” they’d ask. True, if we’re studying ethics or theory of mind, it’s good to know what people have said about them in the past. But since appeal to authority…
Read MoreEpisode 169 :: Bernd Kaponig and Cristina Pecchia :: Säkularer Buddhismus
Bernd Kaponig Bernd Kaponig and Cristina Pecchia, two of the four founders of the new German language Secular Buddhism website, join us to speak about their work with communicating Secular Buddhism to the German speaking world. As the concepts and practices of secular Buddhism become more widely known, both for what they are and as…
Read MoreTwo Issues With Nibbāna
That’s the colloquialism: we don’t have problems with something nowadays, we have “issues”. “Issues” doesn’t mean we’re fed up, but there’s something there that’s just not right. There’s something that needs dealing with, working out. I have two main issues with the Buddha’s notion of nibbāna. But let me preface this by saying that since…
Read MoreEpisode 168 :: Jennifer Niedzielski :: Mindful Moms Network
Jennifer Niedzielski Jennifer Niedzielski joins us to talk about her work and joys with Mindful Moms Network. Hi, everyone, and happy Mothers’ Day. We’re going to talk about mindfulness and how it relates to motherhood, one of the most challenging, stressful, meaningful, and rewarding efforts anyone can do. For all the mothers out there who…
Read MoreListening to the Heart Sutra
The Shorter Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra (Heart Sutra) When Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajñāpāramitā, he illuminated the Five Skandhas and saw that they were all empty, and crossed over all suffering and affliction. “Śāriputra, form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. Form itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself…
Read MoreReflections for Pluralism Sunday
On Sunday 5 May 2013, progressive Christian churches worldwide were celebrating ‘Pluralism Sunday’. I was asked by the Minister of St Andrew’s on The Terrace here in Wellington, New Zealand, to talk about my ‘faith journey as a secular Buddhist’. Unsure how to approach the issue of ‘faith’, I posted some questions on the blog…
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