Buddhist Geeks

"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." - Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Episode Description: Richard Brown--a long time Buddhist and contemplative educator--joins us to share some of the details from his recent involvement in helping the small Buddhist country of Bhutan reform their public education system. Bhutan, which since the early 70's has had as its main goal to increase Gross National Happiness, wants to create an education system that pulls the best from the West. The main principles they're holding with this reform, include Contemplation, a Holistic approach, Sustainability, Cultural Integrity, and Critical Intellect. They're aim is to educate their populace in such a way that they're prepared for ...

The wholeness and freedom we seek is our own true nature, who we really are. Whenever we start a spiritual practice, read a spiritual book, or contemplative what it means to live well, we have begun the inevitable process of opening to this truth, the truth of life itself. - Jack Kornfield

"Emptiness is described as the basis that makes everything possible" - The Twelfth Tai Situpa Rinpoche, Awakening the Sleeping Buddha

“The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.” - Pema Chodron

“When in doubt, bow.” – anonymous master

Episode Description: In this episode we're joined by Soren Gordhamer, long time tech writer, and author of Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected. Soren often writes for the Huffington Post and Mashable (a social media blog) on the relationship between the inner world with technology and social media. He explores with us some of the potential shadow sides of technology, as well as some of the remedies that can be used in balancing our internal life with our external. He suggests that focusing more consciously on our internal world actually puts us in a ...

Episode Description: In this episode we wrap up our discussion with meditation teachers Tina Rasmussen and Stephen Snyder, two of the only lay Western teachers authorized to teach the jhana system of Pa Auk Sayadaw. They share the deeper purpose of concentration practice, which isn't to attain any particular states, but rather is to serve as a purification of the mind stream, what they describe as the "thinning of the me." They describe the 8 jhanas as states that progressively reach toward the unconditioned, with the 8th jhana, neither perception nor non-perception, as a realm that is as close as ...

Episode Description: This week we speak with Theravada mediation teachers Tina Rasmussen and Stephen Snyder. In 2005, while on a 2-month retreat, they were the first Western lay practitioners (i.e. non-monks) to complete the traditional concentration practices of Pa Auk Sayadaw--a well-regarded Burmese jhana master. The Sayadaw encouraged them to teach what they've learned, and they have, as a result, starting leading retreats and have written a book entitled, Practicing the Jhanas. In this episode they share the progressive practice that they did with Pa Auk Sayadaw, which includes all sorts of traditional practices from the Pali Canon. They ...

Episode Description: James Zito is a Buddhist film-maker, and the director of a newly released documentary on the history of Zen Buddhism, Inquiry Into the Great Matter. James joins us to discuss his new film, focusing primarily on what he learned while making the film. He shares some specifics on the lives of the famous Zen masters, Daito Kokushi and Ikkyu Sojun. While quite different, each masters reflected very important aspects of Zen Buddhism. We conclude our discussion, exploring the state of Zen in Japan today, which compared to times in the past several hundred years, has declined ...

Episode Description: We're joined again this week by Kenneth Folk, a long-time Theravada practitioner and meditation teacher. Kenneth completes his harrowing spiritual story, all the way to the point, where he says that he, "got off the ride and was done." He speaks about how uncommon it is, in Western Buddhist circles, to believe that enlightenment is possible, a phenomenon that his teacher Bill Hamilton described as the "mushroom culture." Kenneth then goes on to describe two different ways of understanding enlightenment: one as a developmental process, much the way his path is described, and then two, as a ...