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Aug 15, 2011, 6:10 pm
I was recently invited to participate in a panel at the upcoming SXSWi festival in Austin, Texas. SXSWi has been described to me as “geek spring break” and although I’ve wanted to go the last couple years I haven’t been able to make it. But this year I might, because I may on the panel, Cl... Comment - Like
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Aug 11, 2011, 5:56 pm
Buddhist Geeks received a wonderful write-up last week in the Los Angeles Times. The article was entitled, “Buddhist wonks? No, Buddhist Geeks”
Mitchell Landsberg, the author of the piece, joined us at the Buddhist Geeks Conference and afterwards we did an interview at the 18th St. Coffeesho... Comment - Like
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Aug 9, 2011, 5:34 pm
[This is the 2nd part of a interview I did with New Zealand based teacher Peter Fernando. It appeared on his site A Month of Mindfulness.]
Peter: So another question I have relates to what you call an ‘Open Source’ approach to meditation, where there is a freedom to draw from all kinds of prac... Comment - Like
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Jun 9, 2011, 12:00 pm
“I say vulnerable is woundable.” – The Guru Pitka
So much of what I’ve been learning about lately is around vulnerability. Vulnerability in a psychological sense, of seeing my own limitations and being willing to acknowledge them. And also in a more cognitive and spiritual sense. The cog... Comment - Like
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May 22, 2011, 5:15 am
[The following is an edited transcript from a recent exchange I had with a student in one of my pragmatic dharma classes online. I'm posting it here because it brings together several main themes that keep cropping up in how I'm teaching, which I find very important in approaching meditation practi... Comment - Like
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May 14, 2011, 2:48 pm
I was recently interviewed by James Arnfinsen for his scandanavian podcast show Levevei, which translates as “way of life” or “profession” in english. The title of the episode is, “Creating change through informal learning communities.” Here’s a little description of the some of the ... Comment - Like
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Apr 15, 2011, 3:36 pm
For many years I relied exclusively on a single technique of meditation: the noting method of vipassana. It’s a simple technique that I learned from one of my teachers, and was originally devised by a Burmese monk named Mahasi Sayadaw. In this technique you use a mental note (or label) to descri... Comment - Like
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Mar 21, 2011, 2:19 pm
From one perspective there is absolutely no need to practice. From another perspective, practice is essential. Why is it that both are true, and how do we keep from not deluding ourselves as to which is helpful at any given time?
So, let’s take the first perspective, which we could call the non... Comment - Like
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Mar 15, 2011, 12:26 pm
By the end of this month Emily and I will have moved across the country 3 times in less than a year! Our first move, last summer, was from Boulder, CO to Asheville, NC—both Emily and I are originally from small towns in the Appalachian mountains. That move was unsuccessful for a number of reason... Comment - Like
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Mar 1, 2011, 6:55 pm
I was recently asked to share some thoughts on the evolution of dharma & technology for a series on Evolutionary Landscapes. Here is a little excerpt from the original piece:
As I look around I see the “digital” and “real” worlds are quickly converging, and the result is going to be a futu... Comment - Like
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Feb 13, 2011, 10:25 am
I’m helping to organize and am also participating in the first ever Buddhist Geeks event, Buddhist Geeks | The Conference. Here is a short description of the event:
Taking place July 29th – 31st, 2011 in Los Angeles, Buddhist Geeks | The Conference brings together some of the most exciting tea... Comment - Like
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Feb 2, 2011, 1:00 pm
I wrote a new article up on Buddhist Geeks on productivity from a Buddhist perspective. I included in there some recent observations about how to marry the natural rhythms of our lives with our discipline. A little snippet from the article:
For some, productivity is the antithesis of meditative e... Comment - Like
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Jan 10, 2011, 1:00 pm
I officially launched a new project last week, which will be home to much of my dharma writing, exploration, and teaching. It’s called Pragmatic Dharma, after the approach that several of my most important teachers helped forge. Please take a look if you’re interested in a Buddhist approach to... Comment - Like
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Jan 3, 2011, 2:57 pm
For those blog readers who might be interested, I’m leading a 5-week live online class starting February 9th on the topic of Pragmatic Dharma.
Pragmatic Dharma is a term that was coined around an approach that a couple of my teachers, Daniel Ingram and Kenneth Folk, have been pioneering. I spe... Comment - Like
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Dec 2, 2010, 10:00 am
I finished last year by spending 3-weeks meditating in Barre, Massachusetts at the Forest Refuge. This year, I’ll finish the year on retreat as well, with a week of practice in Crestone, CO. For me, retreat practice is a time to turn inward, to explore my human experience in a more personal way,... Comment - Like
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Oct 9, 2010, 11:12 am
I gave a dharma talk last week on Paradox on the Spiritual Path. Paradox is a topic that I’ve been really intrigued by the last few years, and it seemed a fitting topic to explore with our meditation group. After the talk one of the participants asked about certain “opposites” that aren’t ... Comment - Like
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Oct 2, 2010, 9:00 am
There’s an interesting conflict happening right now in the Philippines between the Catholic Church and the President of the country. The President supports the use of contraceptives for those citizens who wish to use them, and as a result the Catholic Bishops are threatening to ex-communicate the... Comment - Like
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Sep 14, 2010, 11:22 am
Last week, at the weekly meditation group I help lead, I spoke about A Pragmatic Approach to Dharma Practice. I found it really fun to do some research on the history of the pragmatist movement in Western philosophy, and see how much it overlaps with the Pragmatic (or Hardcore) Dharma movement that... Comment - Like
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Aug 27, 2010, 2:37 pm
“Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.” – Dogen Zenji
I was speaking with a practitioner recently who confided in me that they were going through a really challenging situation, and that there was a tremendous amount of fear coming up for them. She told me that she was doing her best to... Comment - Like
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Aug 26, 2010, 11:04 am
I gave a short talk last week, at Blue Ridge Meditation, on The Great Paradox of Freedom (it’s available there if you want to listen to it).
I decided to take on the topic of Freedom because it has been such an essential principle for me, from the very beginning of my practice. Interestingly, ... Comment - Like
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Aug 4, 2010, 1:07 pm
Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you more accident-prone. – Baker Roshi
Last night was the inaugural sit of Blue Ridge Meditation, and we were thrilled to have a really solid turnout. Besides Emily and I, there were 7 other people who showed up, and most of them we had never met. ... Comment - Like
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Jul 9, 2010, 7:00 am
“Live neither in the entanglements of outer things nor in inner feelings of emptiness.” – Chan Master Seng-T’san
One common hurdle to the development of wisdom is to identify with the sense of expansiveness in practice. By expansion, I mean those states that seem to be more open and free. ... Comment - Like
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Jun 7, 2010, 10:00 am
As I was sitting yesterday I had the very clear insight that, “What I am can never be separated from What I’m not.” The insight, like so many insights, came with a non-verbal holistic “knowing,” and then also the thought itself, which sort of framed the insight in mental terms. I’ve fou... Comment - Like
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Jun 1, 2010, 9:50 am
I’ve found that as my spiritual practice has developed, the highs and lows of life have been freed up to flow as they will. Some days I experience states of clarity, bliss, and joy. Other days I experience misery, hopelessness, and fear. And then the experiences change, and the next thing arriv... Comment - Like
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May 22, 2010, 9:18 am
I was both surprised and delighted, at the end of a recent interview with Roger Walsh, to hear him give this answer to my question about what he would say to a group of listeners who may identify as Buddhist Geeks.
Roger: Well, Buddhist Geeks, I love that phrase by the way, and I’m just delighted... Comment - Like
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May 6, 2010, 10:00 am
“I am just learning how to paint.” – Pierre-Auguste Renoir (in 1913 at the age of 72)
I saw this quote while viewing an exhibit of the last 30 years of Renoir’s work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Along with Monet, Renoir was a key figure in the Impressionist art move... Comment - Like
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May 3, 2010, 4:00 am
I received this question from a meditation practitioner named Tracy, and with their permission have posted their question and my response here.
Often the distinction between Hinayana and Mahayana is self-liberation versus liberation for all. The Hinayana is often described in Mahayana teachings as ... Comment - Like
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May 1, 2010, 4:00 am
I recently re-launched this site, and wanted to share a little about what has changed, and why it has changed. Firstly, I’ve changed the title of this site from Numinous Nonsense—my first title from when I started posting way back in the blogging stone-ages of 2003—to my name. I did this bec... Comment - Like
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Apr 28, 2010, 9:54 pm
One thing that vipassana meditation teaches is how to dis-embed oneself from experience. All experience is made an object, and by virtue of making it object, we know that the we, the subject, are not that. The subject—or more accurately, the sense of being a subject—moves to a higher and more ... Comment - Like
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Apr 28, 2010, 12:46 pm
One thing that vipassana meditation teaches is how to dis-embed oneself from experience. All experience is made an object, and by virtue of making it object, we know that the we, the subject, are not that. The subject—or more accurately, the sense of being a subject—moves to a higher and more ... Comment - Like
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Mar 3, 2010, 8:53 pm
I just posted a new article on the Buddhist Geeks site this morning, entitled The Path of Wholeness. I wrote the article as a way to explore a shift that has happened in my orientation, over the last couple of years, wherein I’ve moved away from a view of spirituality dominated by transcenden... Comment - Like
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Feb 25, 2010, 8:50 pm
Awakening needs no verification or validation from the outside. It stands on its own. Anytime we are looking for someone else to verify what we know, what we’re looking for is verification of experience. Experience can be verified and validated, though not always easily, because there are patt... Comment - Like
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Feb 14, 2010, 8:49 pm
“Being what you cannot not be is being what is.” – Karl Renz
Something I’ve come to understand deeply is that awakening is no-thing. It is not a state that one achieves, a place one can go, or a position one can take. It’s not even a perspective, as it is prior to the arisin... Comment - Like
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