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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.
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.
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.
An adventure in embracing life
For Lorna Edwards, David Whyte's poem, 'Enough', is an invitation to reflect on how we live in the world, how we need to embrace life as it is.
Ted Meissner reflects on the past, present, and future of secular Buddhism
Ted Meissner has been interviewing Buddhist practitioners and writers involved in a wide range of lineages and approaches on his podcast, The Secular Buddhist, and is the Executive Director of the Secular Buddhist Association (USA). Ted offers his views of how secular Buddhism has evolved, its current status, and his hopes for its future development.
Lockdown reflections: transmission, transformation and ‘secular Zen’
A secular version of Zen, taking account of the disciplines and traditions of mindful meditation practice but also grounded grounded in a creative, democratic and dynamic educational ethos, can play an important role in an emerging culture of awakening in which all beings, and the environment in which we live, are valued and cared for.
Buddhism is dead! Long live ‘Buddhism’!
Whether we like it or not, to reduce Buddhism to a detached and repetitive liturgical religiosity, means to keep our heads turned towards the past and also means losing the potential for a sensitive engagement with tradition. A vibrant and living spirituality must be known, lived, and experienced in our bodies, our practices, and our way of being.
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