Articles
What is Metta?
With good will for the entire cosmos, Cultivate a limitless heart: Above, below, & all around, Unobstructed, without hostility or hate Whether standing, walking, Sitting, or lying down, As long as one is alert, One should be resolved on this mindfulness. This is called a sublime abiding, here and now. This is from Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s…
Read MoreAt Naḷakapāna: Did the Buddha "Scheme to Deceive"?
A couple of weeks ago I attended a lecture by jhana-expert Leigh Brasington where he brought up the Naḷakapāna Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 68; the linked translation is from Bhikkhuni Upalavanna, I use Ñaṇamoli/Bodhi). Brasington cited it as an example of where the Buddha may have opened the kimono a bit on some of his claimed supernormal…
Read MoreThe Buddha's Manifesto on Miracles and Revelation
The Kevaddha Sutta* (Dīgha Nikāya 11) opens with Kevaddha, a householder, who tells the Buddha that there are many potential converts to the Buddha dhamma living nearby in Nāḷandā. He suggests that the Buddha get one of his monks to use miracles to excite and amaze them. This would, he says, be sure to gain many…
Read MoreScenes from a Mindfulness Retreat: Experience
This is the final installment of four. Here are links to the first, second, and third part. It was 6 a.m. on the first morning of the retreat, and after a restless night’s sleep I was sitting on a wooden bench before a still farm pond, examining again my intention for being there. For several…
Read MoreScenes from a Mindfulness Retreat: Ritual
Here are links to Part One and Part Two. One of the things I’ve admired about the Friday night drop in mindfulness sessions at the UW Health Integrative Medicine Center is the creativity displayed by the teachers in developing rituals, symbolic objects and activities that help to express the wisdom of practice. There is no…
Read MoreBook Review: Donald Lopez on Buddhism and Science
With The Scientific Buddha, Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, has written a book that should be of interest to anyone who finds affinities between Buddhism and the sciences. The book is a reworked series of Terry Lectures that Lopez gave at Yale University in…
Read MoreNew Logo and Site Design for the SBA
You may have noticed that we’ve recently updated the design to the Secular Buddhist Association’s website, including a new logo. There are a number of reasons we’ve made this change, in keeping with our Mission to “Create and foster growth and continuity of an active and vibrant community for Secular Buddhism.” We’re on a journey,…
Read MoreScenes from a Mindfulness Retreat: The Work
Part two of a four-part series. You can read the introduction here. One of the things I think those of you who have been on more traditional retreats would find most unusual about the mindfulness retreat is how interactive it was. There were no long periods of silent meditation, broken by occasional meals, dharma talks…
Read MoreTribute to Our Mentor and Dear Friend, Jan Ford
I first met Jan Ford as Sung Hifeng in Second Life (SL). I’d bounced around various Buddhist sanghas in that virtual 3D environment, when I happened upon one called Skeptical Buddhists. The title nabbed my attention, and as I entered and sat, I found myself curious about the avatar of an old man beside me.…
Read MoreOn a Belief that Sends You to Hell
To believe there is no rebirth and no law of moral causation is an evil mental act that will lead to confusion and anguish in this life and hellfire in the world to come. And you did not need to say or do anything to commit it. All I had to do was hold an…
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