What is Nonattachment?

We’ll look at aspects of the Buddhist idea of nonattachment in this video, asking what it means and how we might go about practicing it. We will also look at the “near enemy” of nonattachment, something that should not be confused with it. Check out my Patreon page!  

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6/24 Practice Circle: More Mindful Self-Compassion

I’m eager to share some of the many very useful practices I learned while being trained in the basics of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) by its originators, Kristin Neff and Chris Germer, at a recent two-day workshop. This Sunday, June 24, at 6 pm Pacific, 7 Mountain, 8 Central and 9 Eastern, Practice Circle will explore…

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Don’t Buy This Book!

My good friend Justin Whitaker and I have a paper in the recently published Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics. I’ll discuss some aspects of our paper, how it relates to Buddhist ethics, and some other interesting points before getting to the meat of the matter: why you shouldn’t buy this book! Justin Whitaker’s blog (highly…

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How Compassion Became Empathy

Buddhist compassion practice changed radically over the first few centuries following the Buddha’s passing. One way it changed is outlined in a paper by Buddhist scholar Anālayo: compassion practice became more of a practice of empathy. This development coincided with a number of other interesting changes in Buddhist belief and practice that we will outline…

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Episode 295 :: Brad Warner :: It Came From Beyond Zen!

Brad Warner Zen teacher and author Brad Warner joins us to speak about his new book, It Came from Beyond Zen!: More Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan’s Greatest Zen Master. The Shobogenzo is one of Zen’s most treasured volumes from Dogen, written in the thirteenth century. But don’t let that timeframe fool you, the wisdom…

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6/10 Practice Circle: Mindful Self-Compassion

I’m eager to share some of the many very useful practices I learned while being trained in the basics of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) by its originators, Kristin Neff and Chris Germer, at a recent two-day workshop. We’ll begin this Sunday, June 10, at 6 pm Pacific, 7 Mountain, 8 Eastern, when Practice Circle will explore…

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Is Desire the Root of Suffering?

It is sometimes said that desire is the root of suffering, or that the Buddha claimed such a thing. We will look at the ways in which desire can be unskillful, including some that are very close to our hearts, and other ways in which desires can in fact be skillful. We will see that…

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Listen to the Suttas! – Audio Recordings of English Translations of the Pali Canon Suttas

Listen to the Suttas! Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtTMiZHe8419vKGsORMb1ow/videos   Example Video: The Sammaditthi Sutta (The Discourse on Right View, MN 9)   For those who have difficulty with written text (or Pali), there are few quality, widely-available audio recordings of English language translations of the Pali Canon Suttas. Our own Community Director, Jennifer Hawkins, who developed…

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Buddhist Compassion Meditation: a Brief History

Buddhist compassion meditation practices changed dramatically during the millennium from the Buddha’s lifetime to the lifetimes of some of his most famous commentators. Using a paper by the gifted scholar Anālayo as a guide, we will look at the earliest recorded compassion practices and at practices found in works by the later philosophers and commentators…

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