Articles
Batchelor's Ten Theses of Secular Dharma
All of the discussion on this website can be said to revolve around a single question: What is Secular Buddhism? How is it secular, and how is it Buddhist? What can we take from the traditional texts and practices, and what ought we leave behind? How does the dharma fit in with our knowledge from…
Read MoreAt Cātumā: the Fallibility of Human Perfection
What is the aim of practice? Following right effort, it is to emphasize the skillful and deemphasize the unskillful in thought and action. So we aim in meditation to become more directly aware of the real character of our minds, and particularly our motivations. In so doing we begin to see how the pain that…
Read MorePractice Circle: Relax
I think every contemplative technique I’m aware of involves at least some degree of relaxation. The practices I was taught in MBSR all begin with bringing awareness to areas of tightness and holding in the body and inviting them to relax; the Body Scan, which is the first technique one learns in MBSR, consists of…
Read MoreMeditating Without Nirvana
Introduction A specter is haunting secular Buddhism;[1] it is the ghostly remnant of the non-naturalistic, supra-mundane dimension of traditional Buddhism. While we, as secular Buddhists, embrace the core insights of the Buddha about our human- existential condition, we need to usher this specter – the notion of nirvana – politely but firmly away from our…
Read MoreNationalism and Engaged Buddhism
Walpola Rahula’s What the Buddha Taught was one of my first, formative introductions to the dhamma, and it remains one of my favorites. So it was with some interest that I ran across a copy of an earlier volume by Rahula, The Heritage of the Bhikkhu, at a library sale last summer. In this book, Rahula…
Read MorePractice Circle: Three Minute Breathing Space
Several of us in the SBA are participating in the Mindfulness Summit, a free online program of interviews with leaders in contemplative practice. You can learn more about it in my interview with Melli O’Brien, the founder of the program, also known as Mrs. Mindfulness. The first of those interviews was with Professor Mark Williams…
Read MoreBook Review – A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution and Ethics in the Modern World by David R. Loy
In this age of widespread environmental deterioration, discussions about the global effects of unbridled consumerism often turn to religion for inspiration and solutions. David Loy’s new book “A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution and Ethics in the Modern World” (Wisdom Publications, 2015) examines how Buddhist philosophy provides a foundation upon which to develop an environmental…
Read MoreStephen Batchelor's "After Buddism": A Review
Stephen Batchelor, the controversial author and Buddhist teacher, has a new book just out this month from Yale University Press: After Buddhism, Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age. Mr. Batchelor, an advocate of a secular Buddhism, is probably best known for his books Buddhism Without Beliefs and most recently, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist.…
Read MorePractice Circle: Autumn and Impermanence
We’ve crossed the Equinox, and here in the northern USA where I live, the arrival of autumn is unmistakable. Green leaves dry and are touched with orange, red and gold. The evening turns cool and dark. Soon the lush profusion of life will give way to the barren cold of winter. It’s a very good…
Read MoreCompassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation: A Review
Having experienced for myself the difficulty of understanding Gotama’s teachings on both compassion and emptiness based on a reading of the Nikaya texts, I was excited to see Anālayo’s new book, Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation. The book comes out in print in October 2015, but is available now in a Kindle edition.…
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