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Secular Buddhism
Core elements of a secular and socially-engaged Buddhism
Mike Slott explores how a radical social theory and core Buddhist insights are both essential to understanding the causes of suffering and creating a society in which all human beings can flourish.
The Dharma of Modern Mindfulness: A Review
By Mark Knickelbine | March 4, 2018 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/the-dharma-of-modern-mindfulness-a-review/. One of the most common misunderstandings about MBSR and the other mindfulness-based interventions is that they consist of meditation techniques that have somehow been extracted or divorced from their original context in traditional Buddhism. From this standpoint, critics have referred to mindfulness as […]
Are secular Buddhists modern or traditional?
Derek LeDayn discusses the following questions in this article: What is secular Buddhism, or what are secular Buddhisms? Is secular Buddhism the same as modern Buddhism, or Buddhist modernism? How different is it from traditional Buddhisms? Are individual secular Buddhists modern or traditional?
Secular Buddhism: Divisive Criticism Instead of Collaborative Dialogue Once Again
By Ted Meissner | September 24, 2017 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/secular-buddhism-divisive_criticism/. Many years ago I took lifetime precepts at Bhavana Society under Bhante Gunaratana, and have renewed them several times. One in particular is challenging me lately: Pisunavacha veramani sikkahapadam samadiyami. I take the precept to abstain from divisive speech. It's with a heavy […]
Buddhist Activism and Quietism
By Doug Smith | February 6, 2017 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/buddhist-activism-and-quietism/. Many of us are looking for the right way to engage with contemporary political concerns. What does Buddhism have to teach us? A couple of recent articles have taken this question in opposite directions. In “Let’s Stand Up Together”, Bhikkhu Bodhi argues that Buddhism has a […]
What is Dependent Arising?
By Linda Blanchard | January 29, 2017 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/buddhist-activism-and-quietism/. I said that dependent arising is both very simple, and very complex, but always helpful, and worth the effort to understand. Let me start with the very simple. It Really Is Simple Dependent arising says that we come into the world with certain […]
On Some Criticisms of Modern Mindfulness
By Doug Smith | May 16, 2016 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/on-some-criticisms-of-modern-mindfulness/. Is the contemporary mindfulness movement a kind of "fad" that misconstrues the essential message of the Buddha? Pieces by Edwin Ng and Ron Purser (2016a, 2016b) and Stephen Schettini (2014), not to mention the earlier “McMindfulness” critique by Purser and Loy (2013) argue that this […]
On Conventional and Ultimate Truth
By Doug Smith | March 12, 2015 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/on-conventional-and-ultimate-truth/. One of the most famous Buddhist tropes is the distinction between “conventional truth” and “ultimate truth”. While these terms never appear in the Nikāyas, and so cannot be traced back to the Buddha himself, they do trace to the abhidhamma period, perhaps as a […]
Impermanence and Emptiness: a Reversal in Perspective?
By Doug Smith | January 12, 2015 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/impermanence-and-emptiness-a-reversal-in-perspective/. The Buddhist notion of emptiness (suññatā/śunyatā) is famously difficult to get one’s head around. In a presentation this past Saturday Sharon Salzberg described it as a combination of impermanence (anicca) and interconnectedness. This is a good first go at understanding emptiness, although the simple concept […]
Stephen Batchelor on ‘Buddhism in a nutshell’
Stephen Batchelor offers a summary of secular Buddhism: "I’m supposed to take a risk and say in 25 words or less what Buddhism is. That of course is a very arrogant presumption on one level. But what I have concluded tentatively in recent years is to identify four points that the Buddha taught that cannot be derived from the socio-historical context of his time, in other words that are distinctively and non-controversially his own ideas."
Secular Buddhism: new vision or yet another of the myths it claims to cure?
Akincano Weber raises several concerns about secular Buddhism. In his view, advocates of secular Buddhism tend to promote, a 'flatland Buddhism' which overlooks the difference between a numinous personal experience in which one may feel connected to something beyond their self-construct and which may be truly transforming—and a metaphysical statement or supernatural belief.
An outline of secular Buddhism – a living tradition
In a 2013 talk Winton Higgins offers an outline of secular Buddhism as a recent extension of Buddhist modernism. He explains why "we need to know a lot about the Buddha’s saeculum, and about our own, to trace our living practice and tradition back to him, and make it relevant to us today".
From Both Sides: Secular Buddhism and the “McMindfulness” Question
By Mark Knickelbine | August 12, 2013 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/from-both-sides-secular-buddhism-and-the-mcmindfulness-question/. The debate over the relationship between Buddhism and the mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) has heated up recently to a red hot glow. On July 1, Ron Purser and David Loy published an attack on the mindfulness movement in the Huffington Post under the title, […]
Secular Buddhism: scientistic versus interpretive
In his 2013 talk to the secular Buddhist colloquium at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts, USA, Winton Higgins argues that secular Buddhism should avoid the pitfalls of anti-religious, scientistic approach.
Report on the 2013 Barre, USA, secular Buddhism colloquium
In this 2013 talk Winton Higgins discusses a colloquium held in Massachusetts, USA in 2013 regarding secular Buddhism. The colloquium revealed the diversity among those interested in and/or working to develop a secular dharma relevant to our age.
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