Buddhist Geeks

The first ever Buddhist Geeks conference wrapped up last weekend to thunderous applause and what looked like some exhausted yet happy geeks. With two full days of material spread out over three days and TONS of great conversations in-between sessions, this event was a jam-packed exploration of the emerging face(s) of Buddhism. Some of the [...]

Mahamudra noting combines the beauty and simplicity of Mahamudra with the mightiness of noting. Noting, especially noting aloud with a partner, harnesses the power of the feedback loop, allowing you to stay on track throughout the meditation session; less time spent in drifting or mind wandering results in more efficient use of precious cushion time, [...]

The Ships in the Harbor technique is a way of pointing to “the essential nature of mind.” One of the challenges for beginning and intermediate students is the tendency to fix upon subtle phenomena and try to possess them. The Ships in the Harbor technique uses the act of listening to tease the mind away [...]

[This article is part of a currently-in-progress resource for meditation practitioners entitled Pragmatic Dharma : A Digital Guidebook] Pragmatic Dharma is a modern approach to the path of awakening. It pulls from the time-tested teachings and practices of the Buddhist tradition, but is simultaneously infused with a modern mindset that isn’t afraid to tinker with [...]

Rebirth is such a potentially divisive topic, I’m cautious of reviving it. We’ve been privileged to witness on Buddhist Geeks a fascinating exchange between Stephen Batchelor and Charles Tart, representing two eminent poles of this most polarised debate, and also Dennis Hunter’s assessment of ‘Buddhism’s New Rationalists’. I want to approach rebirth from the angle [...]

Open Practice is a Twitter hashtag and now also a website: www.openpractice.me But what does this mean!? The Community About half way through my first retreat, after spending 3 days right next to the most sublimely annoying cough—well I say it was a cough, it was more like being chained to an infinite loop of [...]

As a therapist and a meditation teacher, I live a surreal life. At the office I’m helping people to gain greater self-esteem, more positive self-regard, and encouraging them to see themselves as competent, empowered and strong. But when I teach meditation I strongly encourage people to see that the self is an illusion. On the [...]

Two-player meditation is a method for two people to actively explore meditative states, experiences, & techniques together. If we take the common structure of many video games as an analogy, one player mode would be the equivalent of what in traditional terms we would call solitary or formal practice. In the two-player mode of meditation [...]

A few years ago, when I was helping start my 2nd spiritually oriented start-up company, I got really into various productivity practices and systems. Some of my favorite at the time were Bit Literacy, Getting Things Done (GTD), and the organizational system Holacracy. Back then I even wrote an elaborate two-part series called Personal Productivity++ [...]

It is a damp, frigid evening in Oregon, the kind that generally makes me pray for the warmth and protection of the homeless people I cook for every Tuesday night at a local church. I worry about them on a regular basis, yet sometimes I think I shouldn’t, as they are a hardy, resourceful, and [...]