Articles
Sitting with Dukkha
Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha; association with the unbeloved is dukkha; separation from the loved is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are dukkha. (Saṃyutta Nikāya 56.11) I sat down on my cushion for my most…
Read MoreSplit Second Decisons
Sometimes, we are challenged by the big events that occur in our lives – a death, a wedding, an accident, a birth, a move away from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Sometimes, however, it’s the little moments that can cause us some pretty decent challenges in our daily lives. For myself, I’ve recently run into…
Read MoreDignity and Right Speech
What comes to mind when you hear the word “dignity?” The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights starts off, “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…” Dignity relates to protection…
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 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 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 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…
Read MoreThe Four Noble Truths
According to the tales in the Pali Canon, the very first teaching Gotama gave after his awakening was what we have come to know as the Four Noble Truths. This concept is foundational to all traditions that we call Buddhism, Secular Buddhism included. To the extent that newcomers to dharma practice know any Buddhist doctrine…
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