Secular Buddhist Association Archives - Secular Buddhist Network

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Secular Buddhist Association

Selected Articles from the SBA Website

Over the course of 10 years, the Secular Buddhist Association (SBA) published over 300 articles. Below you'll find a chronological list (most recent to the oldest) of some of SBA's most important and influential articles.

SBA-SBN Merger Process Moves Forward

On December 13, the Secular Buddhist Network (SBN) Planning Committee and representatives of the Secular Buddhist Association (SBA) met to discuss the ongoing process of merging the two organizations.

Secular Buddhist Association to Merge with the Secular Buddhist Network

We are pleased to announce that the Secular Buddhist Association (SBA) has begun a process of merging with the Secular Buddhist Network (SBN).

Ted Meissner reflects on the past, present, and future of secular Buddhism

Ted Meissner has been interviewing Buddhist practitioners and writers involved in a wide range of lineages and approaches on his podcast, The Secular Buddhist, and is the Executive Director of the Secular Buddhist Association (USA). Ted offers his views of how secular Buddhism has evolved, its current status, and his hopes for its future development.

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 […]

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 […]

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, Thin and Thick

By Doug Smith | April 9, 2013 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/secular-buddhism-thin-and-thick/. There is an important split in the way many of us approach Secular Buddhism. Some of us want a "big tent" form of Secular Buddhism that welcomes believers from any and all faith backgrounds who are looking for a way to incorporate meditative […]

So What? On Glenn Wallis and Speculative Non-Buddhism

By Stephen Schettini | May 14, 2012 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/so-what/. (provoked by Wallis’s article, On the Faith of Secular Buddhists) The hardest thing I ever did was walk away from Buddhism. It had saved my sanity and my life. After decades of self-destructive behavior, I’d found myself at home in the arms of […]

Being a Mindful, Politically Engaged Buddhist

By Dana Nourie | April 18, 2012 Originally appeared on the SBA website at https://secularbuddhism.org/being-a-mindful-politically-engaged-buddhist/. Minds are turning towards politics, especially in the US where we have a big election coming up. Arguments and opinions are flying back and forth, along with facts and misinformation. As Buddhist practitioners, we are handed challenges in many forms. I've often heard […]