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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.
Engaged Buddhists need radical social theory
We need both the Buddha's insights on the human condition and a non-deterministic, humanistic Marxism to create a 'culture of awakening' and just society in which all human beings have the opportunity to flourish. As each perspective has strengths and weaknesses, we need to bring these perspectives together in a complementary, mutually enriching way.
My journey to secular Buddhism and the creation of the Exeter Meditation Circle
After many years of Soto Zen practice, John Danvers created a home for secular Buddhists by establishing the Exeter Meditation Circle in England in October 2016. The meetings of the group are simple and non-ritualistic, non-dogmatic and free of attachment to any particular teacher or tradition. Together, the group members are developing a secular Buddhist way of life that is of our time and place.
Buddhism and Hellenistic philosophies: secular wisdoms on the Silk Road
Counter to the stereotype that sees East and West as two distant worlds, with entirely different cultures and value systems, the Buddha and the ancient Greeks spoke a very similar language and provided us with wise insights that we can rediscover today for our secular practice.
How to stop confrontations in 2020
I’m not questioning the wonders of critical thinking, but the reactivity and lack of awareness with which we engage in mental and communicative patterns. We listen to find fault, we exaggerate the positions of others, and we look for that one example which does not work so we can disagree or invalidate. What if discussions were not about arguing, refuting and convincing?
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