POSTS:
Winton Higgins
What to tell your inner yogi about climate change
Responsible citizenship goes to the core of our ethical commitments as dharma practitioners. So the existential threat to ourselves and all other life-forms, that climate change poses, must stand high on our civic agenda. It mightily evokes the overarching ethic of the dharma – the ethic of care – understood both as concernful awareness, and as a prompt to action.
Challenges to Buddhist meditation practice now
In this talk given in 2018 Winton Higgins compares the expectations of people living in the Buddha’s era (5th century BCE) about meditation practice, and to our own views about the goals of meditation.
A dharmic understanding of evil: the banality of climate change
The mythical figure of Mara in the Pali canon provides us with an obvious starting point for understanding evil. He appears again and again to the Buddha and his advanced disciples, preferably when they’re meditating. He’s disguised as a well-meaning stranger offering friendly, banal advice, the import of which would throw the hearer right off course if s/he heeded him.
A review of After Buddhism – focussing dharma for years to come
Winton Higgins reviews Stephen Batchelor's 2015 book After Buddhism, discussing the book's key themes and its contribution to the development of a secular dharma for our age.
Not-self and the narcissism epidemic
Western countries accord their citizens the freedom to practise the religion of their choice. But also as harbingers of the narcissism epidemic, they give Buddhists an extra incentive to practise ardently, in order to remain in good non-narcissistic health and so live skilful, fulfilling lives – including the nurturing of deep relationships.
The dharma as a culture of awakening – developing a sanghic life
In this 2016 talk Winton Higgins discusses how awakening, gaining significant insight into our human condition and its full potential for personal development, is a key component of a secular Buddhist approach.
What is religion for now? a pragmatist inquiry
In this talk in 2013 Winton Higgins argues that religion is best understood from a pragmatic perspective. He says that "our ancestors developed our religious traditions as tools in aid of survival, well-being and self-improvement. Along with other significant inventions, they have served us well and utterly transformed us into self-aware moral agents."
A secular approach to insight meditation
In a dharma talk given in New Zealand in October 2015 Winton Higgins explores the differences between the traditional model of insight meditation using the foundational text of the Satipatthāna sutta and a secular approach.
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".
The dharmic foundations of the reflective meditation approach
Winton Higgins argues that taking a reflective approach to meditation is consistent with a secular Buddhist approach. He contends that ‘insight meditation practised in reflective mode is a quintessential dharma practice’.
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.
Making the most of the human condition: four talks on secular Buddhism
In four talks on secular Buddhism given at a day-long workshop in New Zealand in 2013, Winton Higgins provides an overall summary of key secular Buddhist ideas on the fourfold task, a non-formulaic approach to meditation, the flexible appropriation of tradition, and the need for a pragmatic theory of truth.
Secularity, religion and being human
In this 2012 talk Winton Higgins discusses various meanings of secularity in relation to the development of a secular dharma.
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