I'm not going to rehash the ongoing conversation online about Aaron Alexis who, early this week, killed twelve people before being killed himself by a Washington, D.C., police officer. It's pretty clear by now that he had been interested in Buddhist for a while, but whether or not that's relevant to why he did what… Continue reading Reflections on mental health
We're back! And we're taking up a listener question about practicing Buddhism when you're not near a Shin community, so we're calling this one "how to do Shin practice?" This is an important question; what is our practice? How do we do the practice? Harry breaks it down into external and internal aspects where the… Continue reading How to do Shin Buddhist practice
We round out our conversation about music by focusing on Shin Buddhism, starting with Shinran. It's clear chanting was an important part of early Shin communities, and many of Shinran's wasan (poems) have come down to us as songs still sung today. We take a brief detour to talk about Herbie Hancock before getting into… Continue reading Buddhism and music, part three
In part two of our discussion of Buddhism and music, we talk (mostly) about the potential genre of "Buddhist music." Genre is a tricky; it raises all sorts of questions about who gets to define an artist or musician and whether or not it further divides people into camps of musical identity. But we definitely… Continue reading Buddhism and Music, part two
We've got a long-standing interest in music; coincidentally, a listener asked us a question about music on Facebook, so we took the subject and ran with it! This is the first of three episodes dedicated to the subject of Buddhism and music. Today's show is a general overview of the subject, both the question of… Continue reading Buddhism and Music, part one
"Won't somebody please think of the children!" This week we take up the tension in Buddhism between the ideal of monasticism, the renunciant, the solo practitioner who goes off in search of awakening versus the reality of home life, laity, and family. Our conversation is inspired, in part, by a post last fall over on… Continue reading Renunciation and Family
Let's pick up where we left off; last time we discussed how contemporary Shin Buddhists can make the teachings and practices applicable to modern life, balancing tradition and change. This raises the important question of how one can determine whether or not a particular interpretation of the Buddha Dharma is in line with traditional or… Continue reading Teachers, Authority, and Community
Prompted by a listener who's interested in how Buddhist teachings and practices change over time, in this episode we take up the tension between maintaining tradition versus adaptation to new circumstances. Whereas one could argue that we should look to Shinran as the final authority on what the orthodox Shinshu teaching or practice should be,… Continue reading Tradition and Change
The heart of Shin Buddhist practice is, I believe, to live your life. To live your life mindfully, purposefully, and with compassion, to recognize that each and every person is embraced by the wisdom and the compassion of the Buddha, and, as such, you should treat them accordingly. This is no easy task. Nagarjuna famously… Continue reading What is Shin Buddhist practice?
Today we go down the rabbit hole of the Tannisho, the so-called razor text of Shin Buddhism, a text that can cut away misunderstandings, or be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands! Specifically, we're talking about compassion and the question of whether or not great compassion is even possible. In Chapter Four of the Tannisho,… Continue reading Is compassion possible?
