The Secular Buddhist Podcast
Episode 57 :: Bernie Glassman :: Socially Engaged Buddhism
Bernie Glassman Bernie Glassman speaks with us about Socially Engaged Buddhism, and the organization Zen Peacemakers. There are many different ways in which our practice can show itself. We can sit with a group at a local center. Go on retreats. Reach deep states of mental calm in meditation. None of which is a bad…
Read MoreEpisode 56 :: Kevin Griffin :: A Burning Desire
Kevin Griffin Kevin Griffin speaks with us about his book A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery. Hi, everyone, thanks for being here. We’ve had guests on the podcast before who’ve spoken about how Buddhist teaching and practice have impacted addiction recovery programs, and often the subject of the classic Twelve Step…
Read MoreEpisode 55 :: Sam Trumbore :: Interfaith Dialogues
Sam Trumbore Sam Trumbore speaks with us about chess, secular spirituality, and the value of having interfaith dialogues. You ever find yourself talking with someone, and think you’re just never going to find any common ground? We have taboo subjects where this comes up quite a lot, religion and politics. How many of us avoid…
Read MoreEpisode 54 :: Toni Bernhard :: How to Be Sick
Raise your hand if you’ve ever gotten a cold. Felt run down. Had no energy. You’ve got the crud that’s been going around the office. Of course, we’ve all been sick in this way at some time in our lives. But even in that place of Nyquil-besotted sniffling and drowsiness, we’ve never really questioned whether or not we’d get better. We know we will, it just doesn’t typically come up as something to think about, and this confidence is one of the unsung heroes of making our illness tolerable.
Read MoreEpisode 53 :: Tom Clark :: Encountering Naturalism
Tom Clark Tom Clark speaks with us about his book Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses. How do we as secular Buddhists clarify that line between what we experience in the “real world”, and what we may tend to discount as mysticism? Secular practice does have that inclination away from the supernatural. We may…
Read MoreEpisode 52 :: Matteo Pistono :: In the Shadow of the Buddha
Matteo Pistono Our guest today Matteo Pistono speaks with us about his very new book, In the Shadow of the Buddha — Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet. Many of us have an oblique understanding of alleged human rights abuses against the Tibetan people by the Chinese government. We know the Dalai…
Read MoreEpisode 51 :: Chris McKenna :: Paradigms
Chris McKenna Author Chris McKenna speaks with us today about his post-apocalyptic Buddhist themed book, Paradigms. I think it’s fair to say that Buddhism is becoming something of a culturally iconic practice, even in the West. Just about everyone would recognize the Dalai Lama, the once utterly foreign idea of “contemplating your navel” is no…
Read MoreEpisode 50 :: Sara Lazar :: Meditation Effect on Brain Density
Sara Lazar Dr. Sara Lazar of Massachusetts General Hospital joins us to speak about a new study on the effects of meditation on brain density. Often when we tell people, particular other skeptics, about how beneficial meditation is to us, we’re met with, well, skepticism. And that’s okay. People should feel free to question with…
Read MoreEpisode 49 :: Tim Ward :: What The Buddha Never Taught
Today’s guest is Tim Ward, author of What The Buddha Never Taught, about his experiences as a Theravadin monk in Thailand.
Read MoreEpisode 48 :: Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche :: Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche Today we’re joined by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who speaks with us about breaking free of cultural accretions in his book Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom. Being a rebel. A rebel Buddha, no less. These are not words we expect to see together. We think of the word rebel, and images…
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