Search results for: secular understanding
A Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #4 Name and Form
It is with this link in the chain that this secular understanding of dependent arising finds a deeper insight into the processes through which we create anatta, deeper insight than offered by the confusion of the traditional views of what’s going on. The Pali word for this step is namarupa — nama shares a root…
Read MoreA Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #3 Consciousness
We come into the world ignorant of the things we do that end up causing dukkha in our lives, and in particular ignorant of the drive for existence of our sense-of-self: that’s step #1: ignorance, and step #2: sankhara. Sankhara is simultaneously that natural tendency to develop and protect our sense-of-self taken to extremes, and…
Read MoreA Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #2 Sankhara
In the last post I offered a fairly plain description of what was meant by “ignorance” in the first link in the chain of dependent arising. It is ignorance of what dukkha is, how it comes about, that it can come to an end, and the way to do that. I said that dukkha is…
Read MoreA Secular Understanding of Dependent Origination: #1 Ignorance
This post is the first in a series of twelve on dependent arising (the translation of paticca samuppada that I prefer over dependent origination, or co-dependent arising, or interdependent origination or any of the other variations). I plan to take each link in the classic chain of twelve and explain — in the plainest language…
Read MoreSecular Buddhism and the Real Reasons to Meditate
In the most recent issue of Lions Roar magazine (July 2018), Buddhist teachers representing Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajryana lineages discussed the “real” reasons to meditate. While the responses were insightful and reflected the full range of beliefs among Buddhist lineages, there is a glaring omission: no one presents a secular Buddhist view of the real…
Read MoreEpisode 298 :: Sara Rahmani :: Understanding Unbelief: Mindfulness Meditation Project
Sara Rahmani Dr. Sara Rahmani speaks with us about her work Understanding Unbelief: Mindfulness Meditation project. What is it like to be faced with adopting a religious belief system that’s not part of your personal background? Or perhaps it is, and once there, you find an increasing cognitive dissonance with what’s overtly or subtley encouraged…
Read MoreTuwhiri: An Educational Resource For Secular Buddhists
The following article is from Ramsey Margolis of Secular Buddhism New Zealand. Towards the end of 2014, Stephen Batchelor sent proofs of his unpublished book After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age to Winton Higgins, a secular Buddhist teacher in Sydney, Australia, asking him to critically examine the text. Having provided the required…
Read MoreSecular Buddhism: Divisive Criticism Instead of Collaborative Dialogue Once Again
Many years ago I took lifetime precepts at Bhavana Society under Bhante Gunaratana, and have renewed them several times. One in particular is challenging me lately: Pisunavacha veramani sikkahapadam samadiyami. I take the precept to abstain from divisive speech. It’s with a heavy heart that I continue to stumble in this, especially in response to…
Read MoreThree Paths for Secular Buddhists
Introduction As secular Buddhism has become an increasingly prominent trend in the U.S., it’s a good time to reflect on the diverse paths being taken by those of us who identify as secular Buddhists. While these paths are not mutually exclusive and thus practitioners may be involved, to some extent, in all of them, they…
Read MoreInsight Buddhism is Secular Buddhism: Reviewing Heartwood
Wendy Cadge’s 2005 book Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America is a fascinating look at the way this form of Buddhism is adapting to contemporary American life. Although the book stems from her PhD dissertation it is readable, filled with descriptions of practitioners and their approaches. Cadge spent several years doing…
Read More