POSTS:
Stephen Batchelor on Secular Dharma
In a chapter from his new book, Buddha, Socrates, and Us, Stephen Batchelor presents the core elements of a secular approach to the dharma.
Insights: Exploring Secular Dharma #73 October 2025
Welcome to our October 2025 newsletter. This month we feature articles by Vince Cavuoto, Tom Cummings, Nan DiBello, Robert M. Ellis, Linda Modaro, Mike Slott, Karsten Struhl, and Sharon Tobias. We also highlight Ted Meissner's 2018 interview with Bernat Font on the topic of secular mindfulness and Buddhism.
Stephen Batchelor on his New Book: Buddha, Socrates, and Us
Tom Cummings reports on a talk by Stephen Batchelor on his new book, Buddha, Socrates, and Us: Ethical Living in Uncertain Times.
A Secular Buddhist Response to Gaza
Sharon Tobias, Nan DiBello, and Karsten Struhl urge all Buddhists to condemn the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, support humanitarian assistance efforts, and demand that the U.S. stop supplying weapons to Israel.
Rediscovering the Core Cause of Human Suffering
Vince Cavuoto asserts that the Buddha's key discovery was to uncover the conditional root of suffering in the appropriation of the five aggregates as "I, me, mine."
How Secular Buddhists Can Contribute to Movements for Social Change
Mike Slott discusses the ways in which a secular approach to the dharma offers important resources to political activists.
Situational Ethics and Creative Precepts: Sex and Intoxicants
Based on her Reflective Meditation approach, Linda Modaro urges practitioners to creatively engage with the precepts regarding sex and intoxication.
Why Buddhists should be Interested in Embodied Meaning
Robert M. Ellis discusses how embodied meaning is a crucial aspect of the Buddha's Middle Way and thus should be an important part of any Buddhist practitioner's perspective.
Insights: Exploring Secular Dharma #72 September 2025
Welcome to our September 2025 newsletter. This month we feature articles by Piero Falci, Caspar Harris, Lenorë Lambert, Kenneth Leong, and Marc Symons. We also highlight Ted Meissner's 2024 interview with Shaila Catherine about her book, Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind.
A core concept of secular Buddhism: the four tasks
The core teachings and insights of Gotama are not ‘truths’ to be believed but a ‘fourfold’ task to help us live our lives in a mindful and compassionate way.
What am I Cultivating?
Marc Symons discusses how a meditation practice centered on "What am I cultivating?" helps us to discover any reactivity that is arising and brings us in touch with core teachings of Gotama.
The Case for a Socially Engaged Secular Dharma Practice
Caspar Harris argues that secular dharma practitioners should focus not just on personal development but engage with wider social issues and embrace what Thich Nhat Hanh calls interdependence.
We Need Mindfulness and Social Engagement
Piero Falci argues that inner peace remains elusive in a world grappling with significant challenges, that both mindfulness and social engagement are essential.
The origin of secular Buddhism
The emergence of secular Buddhism in the west is part of the secularization that has been developing since before the Renaissance. Secular Buddhism represents the attempt to continue the process of rooting the dharma in modern western culture where the earlier non-monastic insight movement left off.
Lama Rod Owens’ Program on Apocalyptic Grief
Lama Rod Owens will be offering a program on apocalyptic grief to help us respond to the collapse of systems in our contemporary society. The program incorporates the wisdom of Tantric Buddhism, West African spirituality, and the Black Prophetic tradition.
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