Secular Buddhism Archives - Secular Buddhist Network

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Secular Buddhism

Secular Buddhism briefly explained

Jochen Weber offers his perspective on the key elements of a secular approach to the dharma.

A practitioner’s journey to secular Buddhism: Craig

Craig Murphy encountered Buddhist-inspired meditation practices through John Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR approach in the early 1990s. Craig has found that a secular approach which eschews metaphysics to be most consistent with his perspective toward life and society.

Embrace what you play

Pedro Bellora explains how a phrase he read in a music book not only changed the way he played but helped him to connect more deeply to a basic concept of secular Buddhism, the four tasks.

Moving from regret to remorse

Tom Cummings discusses the difference between regret, which is linked to anger and resentment, and remorse, which elicits a response of compassion and caring.

Tread with care: a secular Buddhist’s approach

Tom Cummings discusses how Gotama’s injunction to tread the path with care, calls on us to think rigorously about how we’re living our one and only life, and especially about how we’re interacting with all those we meet along our path.

Secular Buddhism and Buddhist Modernism

Ira Rifkin discusses how the growth of secular Buddhism in recent years is part of a broader trend in society to question orthodox beliefs and to develop new forms of spirituality.

Mindfulness Based Ethical Living (MBEL): an update

Since November 2022, eighteen people from twelve countries have been developing a new online course, Mindfulness Based Ethical Living (MBEL). The course will offer an ethical and philosophical framework for a flourishing life, based on a secular interpretation of the Buddhist foundation of mindfulness.

In memory of Tom Bulley

In memory of his good friend Tom Bulley, a secular dharma practitioner who recently passed away, Keith Jackson offers a sample of Tom’s witty and imaginative mind.

The dharmic tasks of an improvising musician

When he played a wrong note during an improvisational jazz concert, Pedro Bellora used his secular dharma practice to move from a moment of contracted reactivity to a place of joyful non-reactivity.

A practitioner’s journey to secular Buddhism: Tom

Tom Cummings initially practiced Vipassana meditation, but he has found that secular Buddhism’s emphasis on our present human life as the one and only existence we have aligns well with the agnostic humanist perspective he has embraced for many years.

Mindfulness and the Four Noble Truths

At an online program sponsored by New York Insight Meditation Center, Dave Smith presented the Four Noble Truths as four tasks for engaging in an ethical, flourishing life.

The 12 steps and the 12 traditions of secular Buddhism

Kirk Mason argues that secular Buddhism allows us to integrate the principles of mindfulness and compassion in a more flexible way, and has been essential in his own recovery program.

A practitioner’s journey to secular Buddhism: Jim

Jim Bronson connected with the Theravāda tradition and Insight meditation over 20 years ago, after the death of his first wife. As a scientist, he was attracted to the secular aspects of Theravāda and began to learn more about secular Buddhism. He finds inspiration in Stephen Batchelor’s view that ‘a secular Buddhist is one who is committed to the practice of the dharma for the sake of this world alone.’

An interview with Stephen Batchelor on Mindfulness Based Ethical Living

On 22 February 2023, Stephen Batchelor was interviewed by Ayda Duroux, Saskia Graf, and Jochen Weber from Buddha-Stiftung, and Mike Slott from the Secular Buddhist Network. Stephen discussed the key aspects of a new practical and ethical philosophy, Mindfulness Based Ethical Living (MBEL).

A practitioner’s journey to secular Buddhism: Kathy

Kathy Lang particularly appreciates the secular Buddhist emphasis on bringing the practice to everyday life and the the view of nirvana as a process of reducing reactivity, rather than as the metaphysical goal of a state beyond our present reality.