Posts by Ted Meissner
Episode 123 :: Ramsey Margolis :: Secular Buddhism Community Building in New Zealand
Ramsey Margolis Ramsey Margolis speaks with us today about building Secular Buddhism community in New Zealand. We’ve seen a surge recently in the creation and development of secular Buddhism sites across the world, serving our diverse public of contemporary practitioners with a wonderful variety of online resources. There are many approaches to a secular practice,…
Read MoreEpisode 122 :: Lee Carlson :: Passage to Nirvana
Lee Carlson Zen teacher Lee Carlson speaks with us about being a traumatic brain injury survivor, the healing companionship of dogs, and his new book, Passage to Nirvana. We are surprisingly resilient, and yet oddly fragile beings. We break. We get injured, and we heal. Sometimes those injuries are not visible wounds, but the effects…
Read MoreEpisode 121 :: Charles Prebish :: An American Buddhist Life
Charles Prebish Charles Prebish, scholar of American Buddhism, speaks with us about his book An American Buddhist Life: Memoirs of a Modern Dharma Pioneer. As Buddhism has moved into new cultures and societies, it has done two things: it has created outposts of its historical traditions in those new locations and times, and it has…
Read MoreEpisode 120 :: Lenorë Lambert :: Secular Buddhism Australia
Lenorë Lambert Lenorë Lambert joins us to speak about the new Secular Buddhism Australia website. There’s a great deal of discussion online lately about what secular Buddhism is, and what are the views of people who designate as secular Buddhists. Of course there is no one and only secular Buddhism, and there is a great…
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 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 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…
Read MoreEpisode 115 :: Sean Faircloth :: Attack of the Theocrats
Sean Faircloth Sean Faircloth returns to speak with us about his new book, Attack of the Theocrats, and his new role with the Richard Dawkins Foundation. Question: what does secular Buddhism have to do with politics? Or, maybe more accurately, what does politics have to do with secular Buddhism? The answer is quite alot, at…
Read MoreEpisode 114 :: Cheri Maples :: The Center for Mindfulness and Justice
Cheri Maples Meditation teacher and police officer Cheri Maples speaks with us today about The Center for Mindfulness and Justice. Ever been pulled over by a cop? Even off duty police officers who get pulled over have said they experience the same tension as everyone else when that happens. We’re nervous, even if we’ve done…
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