- Creating secular
dharma practice
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Aotearoa New Zealand -
Bhikkhu Bodhi faces a great divide Prominent U.S. Pali translator contrasts 'Classical' and 'Secular' Buddhisms
A fruitful start for meaningful discussion perhaps?
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Category Archives for Dharma study
The ten undeclared topics
Known as the ten undeclared topics, these are the statements that Gotama, the Buddha, refused to give a view on.
Can anyone spot an initial capital letter?
In a Burmese square script called Magyi-zi, or ‘tamarind seed script’, blocks such as this in the Pali language, used in the earliest Buddhist texts, were commissioned by a Sri Lankan family when a son entered a Buddhist monastery, for use in the ordination ceremony.
Tagged christianity, dhamma, Pali study, Sri Lanka
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Are secular Buddhists modern or traditional?
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?
Introduction to secular dharma – a study group
What is secular Buddhism, or a secular dharma? Recently, Wellington’s secular dharma practice community, One Mindful Breath, ran a successful study group which investigated this question. This is what we did.
Awakening community – a weekend workshop
The workshop Awakening Community which will be taking place in Sydney on November 12 & 13 will look at the contemporary relevance of Buddhist practice. The SIM newsletter editor spoke with Winton Higgins, one of the workshop teachers, to find out how he sees the relevance of the dharma in our current context.
De-Mystifying Mindfulness – an online course
Mindfulness is big business; for millions of people around the world it has become a lifestyle choice, enhancing and enriching everyday experience. The University of Leiden in the Netherlands has put together a course in English and made it available free online through coursera.org.
Tagged online course, study course
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Being Completely Human – a study course in secular Buddhism
A group of people from Simply Meditation will shortly be holding the first of eight discussions around a series of talks by Stephen Batchelor and Roshi Joan Halifax from a retreat titled Being Completely Human, Secular Buddhism and Beyond.
Good snowflakes
Using the koan ‘Good snowflakes: they don’t fall anywhere else’, Stephen Batchelor goes on to expand on it – trying to resist attempts at explaining it – using examples from modern, Western culture, specifically from the natural sciences.
Why I think the Pali canon is relevant
I have decided to read the Pali canon, albeit in English, from front to back as available translations permit. I have a number of reasons for doing this, but the one that stands out most pointedly right now, is that this is the ground on which the modern secular interpretation of buddhism has to be based.
Tagged Pali canon
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3 useful articles
The March 2016 Bodhi College newsletter contains links to longer articles by three of the four core members of the college faculty, Ancincano M. Weber, John Peacock and Stephen Batchelor. As there’s no facility to discuss them on the Bodhi College website, feel free to comment on them here.