The Secular Buddhist Network is sponsoring a new online meditation group for secular Buddhists and those interested in a secular approach to the dharma. The group will meet every Sunday, at 11 am U.S. Eastern Time.
A review of Winton Higgins’s ‘Revamp: writings on secular Buddhism’
Winton Higgins’s latest book, Revamp: writings on secular Buddhism, provides the best account of the history of secular Buddhism available today and identifies the core characteristics of this relatively new trend within Buddhism. While reflecting on its key perspectives and practices, Higgins also identifies the key challenges facing secular Buddhists.
‘Don’t Expect a Standing Ovation’: Richard Winter’s new book on 59 ‘Mind-Training’ slogans
Richard Winter presents the 59 slogans of the Tibetan teachings on ‘Mind-Training’ in a style that is familiar and accessible not just for ‘Buddhists’ but for any of us who, irrespective of systems of belief or cultural allegiances, are open to the appeal of Buddhist-inspired meditation practice, as a resource for trying to flourish in a difficult world.
Meditators needed for a collaborative photography project
Cameron Macfie, a documentary photographer, is asking meditators to send him photos of themselves in the spaces in which they meditate and a photo that represents meditation for them. His goal is to bring all participants together in a shared online space for a collective meditation, and to provide a visual representation for inner experiences.
An interview with David Edwards on corporate media bias, political activism, and meditation
SBN interviewed David Edwards, the co-editor of the UK-based media watch site Media Lens and author of several books. David discussed his critique of corporate media bias and how political activists can make a real difference by focusing on being, not just on doing; on learning to truly live and feel, rather than solely on external change.
Science, meditation, emotion, creativity
Commenting on the English novelist Phillip Pullman’s interview with the New Scientist journal, Ramsey Margolis urges us to to develop a creative, imaginative approach to the dharma so that we can respond to the issues we’re facing today as living beings on this planet: climate emergency, social inequality and exclusion, species extinction (including our own), and much more.
Creating sangha: a secular meditation group in Hamilton, New Zealand
There is now a secular meditation group in Hamilton, New Zealand. The group will be meeting in-person every Monday night at 6:15 pm at the local library.
Participants needed for meditation study
Despite its increasing popularity, there is much we do not know about how people practice meditation, including the optimal amount or ‘dose’ associated with particular outcomes. Consider joining a study to help researchers learn more about the impact of meditation.
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.