Articles
What Is Secular Buddhist Practice?
We often get asked by traditional Buddhist, and people of all kinds, what is secular Buddhist practice? This is a great question, and I’ll do my best to answer, but I hope other secular Buddhist practitioners will also comment on this article to share any practices not mentioned here. Also, I want to remind everyone that we have a discussion forum that is dedicated to secular Buddhist practice, where people can ask questions and share their practice.
What is secular Buddhist practice? For the most part, secular Buddhist practice is identical to traditional Buddhist practice. In every Buddhist tradition to my knowledge, the following are vital practices:
Read More"This World or the Other": The Contradiction at the Heart of Buddhist Tradition
In my review of Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s book on rebirth, I observed that there is a contradiction at the heart of traditional Theravadin orthodoxy regarding the goal of practice. In some of the Pali suttas, we encounter a Gotama who avoids and discourages metaphysical speculation, is ambiguous about the afterlife, and who emphasizes practice to gain…
Read MoreGood Faith, Bad Faith
While watching the Dalai Lama on YouTube the other day I was struck by a strange sensation. I was bored. Now don’t get me wrong. I like this ‘simple monk’ as Tenzin Gyatso likes to call himself. I had a long private audience with him years ago in Dharamsala that left me flying high for…
Read MoreDirecting Wholesome Intentions (Right Intention)
In Part 1 of the Eightfold path, I wrote about Seeing into Experience: Right View. In this article, Part 2, we’ll explore the next factor of the path, Directing Wholesome Intentions: Right Intention. Like Right View, Right Intentions isn’t something to explore and learn in isolation, but it touches on all other aspects of the path and everyday life.
Read MoreBeing a Mindful, Politically Engaged Buddhist
Minds are turning towards politics, especially in the US where we have a big election coming up. Arguments and opinions are flying back and forth, along with facts and misinformation. As Buddhist practitioners, we are handed challenges in many forms.
Read MoreFear and Love
If you’re like me, you work with fear a lot. Fear comes at us in all kinds of ways, from nagging anxiety over the petty annoyances of life, to worry about difficult relationships and troubling outcomes, to terror in the face of physical danger, serious illness and death. Fear is a survival mechanism — it keeps…
Read MoreRenewal
Five years ago, the results came in: at age 43, I had colon cancer. Let’s explain a bit what that means, because colon cancer runs in my family like The Force through Skywalkers (so far, only one person has laughed at that. It is intended to be funny, so please, laugh if so inclined). My…
Read MoreLoving Kindness Meditation
Starting to meditate, I was taught two practices and I am very grateful for both of them. The first was a meditation on the breath. Not something that we can easily control, all we do is watch it coming in and going out. Sounds simple but once we try we realize that it ain’t.
Read MoreAsking the Wrong Questions, and Letting Go of the Unknowable
Science is the process of asking questions, but not any question. Science is the pursuit of asking the right questions, intelligent inquiry. And there lies the rub . . . What is a wrong question? Here is an example of a wrong question.
Let’s say you went back in time, and found a man staring at the horizon. He asks you, “What happens when you fall off the horizon?”
Since you come from a time when we know that one can never reach the horizon, let alone fall off, you see immediately that you can’t specifically answer his question as he worded it. His question is incorrect. The right question might be, What is the horizon? Or Why does the horizon move away from me as I try to approach it? Can a person ever reach the horizon? You could answer those questions.
Read MoreDependent Origination: How did we get into this mess? (John Peacock)
Dependent origination is vital to our understanding of experience, how our suffering arises, dissatisfaction, disappointment, the causes, etc. In these two talks, John Peacock explains the details of why it’s important to understand, how we benefit, and that it’s easier to understand through practice:
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