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I’ve struggled for a long time with metta practice, often called Loving Kindness meditation. Generally, this practice is carried out by sitting in guided meditation, then on your own later. During meditation, you picture in your mind a person you hold dear,  and are mindful of how that feels. Holding that feeling of endearment, you…

Let’s face it, practice requires continual attention,  intention, meditation time, and much of it is not easy. Learning about Buddhism is also challenging, especially since most books are not written for a secular viewpoint. Of course, that is why we created the SBA site, to provide you with information on secular Buddhism, and to make…

We started 2013 with a January Practice Challenge, a whim of an idea on our FaceBook page. That not only prompted many readers to start a meditation practice, but to re-invigorate an existing practice that had been languishing (like my own!). In addition to energizing people already part of our online community, we had an…

Spaceship It is six in the morning on the fourth of February, and I’m watching the sky slowly lighten enough to see waves foaming over small islands of rock on the Pacific coast, just north of Big Sur. The song of the surf and the occasional low boom of a wave striking shore has been…

For the past two months, I’ve had a lot of time to think, perhaps too much time. At any rate, thinking is natural to us all, and sometimes the way people write about it, you could get the impression that thinking is wrong in Buddhism. Not so. Buddha was clear that there is skillful thinking…

In metta (loving-kindness) practice, one widens the circle of concern from the self, to loved ones, to neutral and difficult people, and then to all beings. The question is, does the goal of minimizing suffering and maximizing well-being for all beings entail not killing any of them? From the traditional Buddhist point of view, it does.…

World’s First Materialist? Secular Buddhism is often described as a kind of materialism, so it might be helpful to investigate what that meant during the Buddha’s time. The Buddha’s references to the ascetic Ajita Kesakambalī are the place to look. Kesakambalī was the first recorded materialist in India, and perhaps the first in history. His…

“And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.” — SN 45.8 “Monks, a statement endowed with five factors is well-spoken, not ill-spoken. It is blameless & unfaulted by knowledgeable people. Which five? It is spoken at the right time. It…