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Integrating contemplative practice into life
To integrate contemplative practice into life requires more than becoming proficient in techniques of meditation. It entails the cultivation and refinement of a sensibility about the totality of your existence—from intimate moments of personal anguish to the endless suffering of the world.
SBN guidelines for contributors and readers’ comments
As a ‘hub’ or space where dialogue is fostered and resources and experiences are shared among secular Buddhists, we will adhere to certain guidelines for contributors and readers' comments which are consistent with our approach and our intention to play a constructive role in the development of a secular approach to the dharma.
Metta in the time of the coronavirus: responses of secular Buddhists to the pandemic
Several contributors to the Secular Buddhist Network website offer their insights on how we can best respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The common theme is that by fully understanding core Buddhist insights regarding impermanence, suffering, and interconnection, as well as cultivating an ethical stance of care and compassion, we can skillfully respond to this current crisis.
Dharmic existentialist ethics in a time of pandemic
Today we find ourselves in the grip of a scary epidemic. Ours is due to the coronavirus (aka Covid-19). Some great creative writers have used these occasions to plunge into their deeper human meaning, particularly Albert Camus’s The plague (1947), which bristles with dharmic resonances.
Wise advice for uncertain times
The coronavirus emergency is a great opportunity to cultivate patience, care and integrity and rediscover what is truly ‘urgent’. When it is fragility that becomes the predominant characteristic in our lives, the superfluous becomes less urgent and the need to rediscover a more authentic, more intimate dimension becomes apparent.
Responding to the coronavirus: reflections from the Pine Street Sangha and Sati Sangha
The coronavirus reveals just how uncertain things can become. Health news changes daily, hourly. New cases are being diagnosed. New routes of transmission are being considered. This is destabilizing and scary. LInda Modaro and Nelly Kaufer offer some guidelines on how we can respond skillfully and compassionately to this crisis.
Covid or Co-life: from fear to love and community
As we face the world-wide pandemic caused by the Covid-19 (coronavirus), there is a tendency to retreat to social isolation, fear, and insecurity. In a recent online talk given to the Southsea Sangha, Bernat Font talks about the need to cultivate social connections, compassion and love in the midst of this great challenge.
A review of Evan Thompson’s ‘Why I am not a Buddhist’
In his recently published book, the philosopher Evan Thompson critiques Buddhist modernism and the notion that Buddhism is superior to other spiritual traditions because it provides us with a scientific understanding of the mind and our world. Is Thompson's criticism of Buddhist modernism valid? Do his criticisms apply to secular Buddhism?
Exploring secular Buddhism through courses and retreats
For those who want an introduction to secular Buddhism, or who wish to explore key ideas in secular Buddhism more thoroughly, there are a number of excellent courses and retreats to choose from.
A secular Buddhist ancestor?
Born in Ireland, U Dhammaloka was one of the first Europeans to become a Buddhist monk. Rather than understanding Buddhism as a philosophical position, he focused on affirming Buddhism and critiquing Christianity as part of his anti-colonial activism.
Three poetic heart-cries in our present crisis
Peter Cowley, the Director of The Tuwhiri Project, a publishing imprint for books and online courses dedicated to developing a secular approach to the dharma, forwarded SBN three poems dealing with the current coronavirus pandemic which were compiled by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the founder and director of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Secular Buddhism
Secular dharma lowers the moon of nirvana down to our reach. It is no longer treated as a metaphysical reality distinct from everything we could conceive, or as a goal farther than far: it is about living each moment of our life from that place of non-greed, non-aversion and non-confusion.
What if our ordinary experience is all that matters
To experience ourselves - our breath, the sensations in the body, the pain in the knees, the feeling of the wind or the rain on our cheeks - all of this is utterly pertinent to the question I am suggesting you ask: 'What is this?' But please remember that 'this' refers to what is so close to you that you tend to completely overlook it.
Stephen Batchelor’s ‘The Art of Solitude’
Yale University Press has just released Stephen Batchelor's new book, The Art of Solitude. In this book Stephen turns his attention to solitude, a practice integral to the meditative traditions he has long studied and taught. He aimed to venture more deeply into solitude, discovering its full extent and depth.
Interview with Winton Higgins on The Mindful Cranks podcast
In an interview for The Mindful Cranks podcast, Winton Higgins discusses different approaches to secular Buddhism, the tendency of Western Buddhists to focus on mindfulness meditation as a form of self-help and self-improvement, and the need for practitioners to become caring dharmic citizens, politically engaged in the struggles to create a just and sustainable society.
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