Robert M. Ellis, Author at Secular Buddhist Network

POSTS:

Robert M. Ellis

The five principles of the Middle Way

Robert M. Ellis offers five principles of the Middle Way as a useful model for practice and as a set of principles that focus on judgment as a process rather than on beliefs in ultimates or absolutes.

What’s the problem? Not ‘suffering’ but absolutization

Robert M. Ellis argues that absolutization, the assumption that we have the whole story, is the basis for our failure to respond optimally in problematic situations. By synthesizing Buddhist insights and other perspectives, we can avoid absolutization and live more skillfully.

Tirylan House: A new retreat centre for integrative practice

Robert M. Ellis and his partner, Viryanaya, have opened a new retreat centre in Wales: Tirylan House. Beginning in March 2022, they will host a variety of retreats, some with the ‘Buddhist’ and others with the ‘Middle Way’ labels, but what binds them together is the commitment to bringing a range of integrative practices together.

Robert M. Ellis’s rejoinder to Winton Higgins’s comments on ‘Middle Way Philosophy and Secular Buddhism’

In a rejoinder to Winton Higgins's comments on his article, 'the Middle Way Philosophy and Secular Buddhism', Robert M. Ellis disputes Winton Higgins's criticisms of Middle Way Philosophy and contends that this approach, rather than secular Buddhism, identifies and applies the valuable insights of the Buddha in the most universal way available.

Middle Way Philosophy and Secular Buddhism

Robert M. Ellis explains that his Middle Way Philosophy shares with secular Buddhism a critical approach to the Buddhist tradition, but he argues that ‘secular’ is not a term that provides the criteria we need to skillfully interrogate Buddhism and other traditions.