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Reimagining Community newsletter #12 September 2020
Welcome to our September 2020 newsletter. This month we highlight articles on anti-racist resources for secular Buddhists, SBN's online course on secular Buddhism, and an important research study on meditation. The secular Buddhist glossary item for the month is SECULAR BUDDHISM. Finally, our feature is an excerpt from a new article by Stephen Batchelor on the threat of climate extinction.
Anti-racist resources for secular Buddhists
Among Buddhists of all lineages, including secular Buddhists, the need to confront racism has become increasingly apparent in recent years. This article provides SBN readers with useful resources selected from Buddhist meditation centers and other sources to aid us in the process of confronting racism in the Buddhist community in the West and in society as a whole.
The Secular Buddhist Network in Germany
There is a vibrant network of secular Buddhists in Germany. Learn about their network and the foundation that organizes symposia, discussions, retreats, open meditation evenings and publishes books and online content on Secular Buddhism.
A secular approach to practicing meditation
Secular Buddhists can and do practice meditation in a variety of ways, but there is no secular Buddhist meditation practice per se. Instead, secular Buddhists bring a secular outlook and orientation to existing forms of meditation practice.
A secular Buddhist perspective on the threat of climate extinction
Stephen Batchelor argues that a wise and compassionate response to the threat of climate extinction demands direct engagement with life itself irrespective of any a priori beliefs about the origins and end of suffering. By entering into a contemplative, empathetic, and existential relationship with the pain of the world, one seeks to respond with situation-specific compassion.
Reimagining Community newsletter #11 August 2020
Welcome to our August 2020 newsletter. This month we introduce new articles by Bill Gayner and Alex Carr, as well as a recent dharma talk by Stephen Batchelor. We announce a new online course on secular Buddhism. The secular Buddhist glossary item for the month is SANGHA. Finally, our feature is an excerpt from a new article by Stefano Bettera.
Teaching the dharma, avoiding ‘the ego trap’
When we give a dharma talk and fall into 'the ego trap,' the focus is one's self and making sure the ego is gratified. Alex Carr confronts the key question: How could I be fostering a sense of equanimity and non-reactivity if my sangha was becoming a place where I would inflame my own craving for praise and admiration and my aversion to failure?
Laughing is a serious matter on the secular Buddhist path!
The lightness of laughter can help us to break the connected dualisms of right/wrong, true/false, internal/external, and us/the others. These standards ways of viewing the world keep us hooked to our ego and hold us back from the freedom to experiment, to be open, to enjoy the time we have and all our experiences, including the negative ones.
Stephen Batchelor on ‘Everyday Nirvana’
In a dharma talk given to the Community Meditation Center (New York City, USA), Stephen Batchelor emphasized that nirvana should be understood as an experience of the cessation of reactivity rather than an end state or experience of complete and ultimate freedom from the poisons of greed, hatred, and confusion.
Update on Touching the Earth
Bill Gayner provides an update on Touching the Earth, a non-teacher-centric, democratic self-help community for cultivating mindfulness as an embodied social practice. Practices include meditation, journaling, sharing and exploring meditation experience in triads or dyads, and then gathering back in the larger group to reflect on the process.
Reimagining Community newsletter #10 July 2020
Welcome to our July 2020 newsletter. This month’s glossary item is NOT SELF and we introduce new articles by Stefano Bettera, Ted Meissner, and Mike Slott. Our feature is an excerpt from an article by Lenore Lambert.
How to stop bigotry
We can practice pulling bigotry out by the roots every day in our own worlds. Identify who you treat as ‘other’, be kind to yourself about it, then focus your attention on commonality of experience - of basic human needs. Practice it again and again and again. This is wise attention.
Why Buddhism is NOT a science of the mind: a review of Evan Thompson’s ‘Why I am not a Buddhist’
Bernat Font provides a summary and review of Evan Thompson's recent book, 'Why I am not a Buddhist'. While criticizing key concepts in 'Buddhist modernism', Thompson asserts that, at its best, Buddhism can challenge our excessive confidence that science explains what the world really is like while offering a radical critique to our narcissistic concern with the self.
Take on the challenge of the unknown
We have to choose between the freedom that is the condition of an open, awakened mind or to defend any kind of orthodoxy, traditional or not. If we choose the former, we need a wisdom that is capable of capturing every moment of wonder and in the next instant letting it go without any sense of regret or bewilderment.
Transforming ourselves and transforming the world
Meditation is invaluable in developing the skills and qualities for us to play a productive role in movements for social change, but engaging in social change with others is essential if we want to fully develop these skills and qualities. We should see individual and social transformation as a simultaneous, mutually interactive process.
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