Inspired by a listener question, we explore some of the superficial similarities between Pure Land Buddhism and the monotheistic religions. After considering the difficulty of really knowing the historical origins of Mahayana Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism, let alone what sort of connections may have existed between South Asia and the Near East, we think… Continue reading Startling Superficial Soteriological Similarities
It's been six months since our last episode. Where've we been? What did we do all summer? Now that we're back in the "studio," we recap some of the stuff we've been working on and promise to release new episodes this fall. After a short chat about what it's like to be a professional Buddhist,… Continue reading Episode 51: We’re back!
Hey! This is our fiftieth episode! This week, we take up our conversation from last time about aspects of American culture and their intersection with Buddhism — this time, talking about freedom. What does freedom mean in an American context? And how is this more political understanding different from or similar to soteriological concerns of… Continue reading Buddhism, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness
Inspired by a Dharma Talk at the BCA National Council Meeting, Rev. Harry starts us off by suggesting that individualism is a point of contact between Buddhism and American culture. This seems somewhat counterintuitive given that individuality seems at odds with Buddhist ideas of interdependence, no-self, or non-attachment to the ego. But we think there… Continue reading America, Buddhism, and Individualism
For some reason, we thought we'd start talking about the Seven Masters. But we get immediately sidetracked by Herbert Güenther, a Buddhist scholar who wrote about the Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools of Buddhism. Interestingly, his discussion of the development of these schools isn't exactly historically accurate from a Western point of view -- but it… Continue reading A Buddhist view of History
In this episode, we continue our conversation on ichinen-sanzen, but take the conversation up a notch. We're wrestling with some difficult issues in Buddhist philosophy; namely, if we understand samsara to be the realm of delusion and defilements and nirvana to be a purified realm, how do we reconcile this dichotomy with a generally non-dualistic… Continue reading Ichinen-sanzen (part two)
Rev. Harry brings up the complex idea of ichinen sanzen -- three thousands things in a single thought moment -- from Tendai (Tiantai) Buddhism. In short, ichinen sanzen says that each thought moment contains within it all of existence -- wait, what? How does all of existence exist within each thought moment? Whose thought moment?… Continue reading Ichinen-sanzen (part one)
Inspired by a listener question/discussion on Facebook, we tackle the issue of belief in (Shin) Buddhism, specifically when it comes to Pure Land imagery. Are we expected to believe in it in some substantive, literal sense? Or do we take it as metaphorical? Symbolic? Symbolic of what exactly? We start by suggesting that wrestling with… Continue reading Buddhism and belief
In this episode, we wrap up our conversation about humanism and Buddhism and what the two might have to say to one another, starting off with a question about what Buddhism might say regarding the value or importance of humanity. Humanism seems to suggest that humanity is rather important. But in Buddhism we find ourselves,… Continue reading Buddhism and humanity
Even though this week's episode isn't really about humanism per se, we pick up where we left off last time, allowing Scott a moment to clarify what he meant when he said that Buddhism doesn't care about the individual. This week is really all about individual practice versus community practice, what does it mean to… Continue reading Individual practice, community practice
