Buddhist Geeks

We’re back again with Artificial Intelligence researcher and Zen-dabbler, Ben Goertzel. We continue our exploration of some of the major themes in his non-fiction story “Enlightenment 2.0″. This precipitates a conversation about whether consciousness is a result of the mechanisms of the brain, or whether it is fundamental. And connected to that, what are the ethical implications of creating an art...

This week we speak with Ben Goertzel, an artificial intelligence researcher and Zen-dabbling spiritual seeker. Ben shares with us his introduction to Zen and his on-going relationship to spiritual practice. He also explains what is meant by “strong artificial intelligence” and AGI (artificial general intelligence) and explains why he thinks a fully functioning AI may be as little as a decade away....

In this episode we speak with Karma Kagyu teacher, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. He starts off by telling us about how he got into formal Buddhist practice, at the tender age of 9. He also shares some of his initial challenges with anxiety, and how he was able to work with it on his first 3-year retreat. Rinpoche also shares some suggestions for meditators who are fairly new to the path, suggesting tha...

We’re joined today by Vidyuddeva, a young Zen teacher who spent 5 years in monastic training with Zen Master Steve Hagen. Vid is now a teacher in his own right, and teaches with both the iEvolve Practice Community as well as with the Integral Spiritual Center (founded by Ken Wilber). In this episode, Vid shares with us how he came to the dharma, and how it eventually led to his time as a Zen monas...

Erik Curren is a business leader, community activist, author, Buddhist meditator, and politician—who is running for state legislature in Virginia during the 2010 election period. We were contacted by Erik’s campaign manager, who told us that Erik’s Buddhist background was causing a backlash of religious intolerance from some camps, including his fellow Democrats. We spoke with Erik about the impor...

This week we’re joined by Reverend Danny Fisher–a Buddhist Chaplain and author. Danny shares with us his reasons for becoming chaplain, where the notion of chaplaincy or service to others comes from in the Buddhist tradition, and what it’s like to undertake a Buddhist-based divinity program. In the 2nd half of our conversation we ask him about his take on the challenges and opportunities that youn...

This week we speak with esteemed scholar, and the former professor of Buddhist Studies at UC Berkely, Dr. Lewis Lancaster. Lewis shares with us the important history of the Buddhist tradition, focusing in particular on the unique attributes of Buddhism that made it the first “world religion,” a religion that is able to detach from it’s original homeland and language and travel wide and far. We als...

Zen teacher Norman Fischer—a teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi—joins us again to speak about the religion, evolution, and Buddhism’s unique role in both. The conversation begins with an overview of American sociologist Robert Bellah’s schema on the evolution of religion throughout the ages. We then discuss the important role that Buddhism can play in the evolution of religion in the W...

As Buddhism transitions to the West, we see that it is doing so in a couple different ways. Some forms look more like their original Asian roots, while others are secular and non-Religious in their presentation. Zen teacher Norman Fischer, an early 2nd generation teacher in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, calls the more traditional forms part of “Plan A” and the more secular forms, “Plan B.”...

This week, I speak with non-dual teacher and former Tibetan monk, Peter Fenner. Peter was a monk for nearly a decade before he disrobed, realizing that the Buddhist practices he was engaged in weren’t leading him to what he was looking for. He then looked to Western psychotherapeutic technologies, and in the process developed a non-dual teaching that relates in part to Madhyamika, Advaita Vedanta,...

This week we speak with Shambhala acharya and cultural anthropologist, Gaylon Ferguson. Gaylon speaks about the view of Natural Wakefulness, in short that innate wisdom is there from the beginning. We also discuss the four foundations of mindfulness as they were taught by Chogyam Trungpa, and the differences between emphasizing naturalness and training on the spiritual path. We wrap up by explorin...

This week we speak with Gen-X Zen teacher Brad Warner, author of the newly released Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate. We talk a little bit about his book, which leads to a critique of what we might call “Popular Buddhism.” We then ask Brad about an article he wrote called, “Satori Porn”, where he argues that descriptions of enlightenment that make it sound like an experience just aren’t th...

We’re joined again by Tami Simon–founder of the spiritual media company Sounds True and senior student of Vajrayana teacher Reggie Ray. This week we ask her about her new podcast series, Insights at the Edge, where she has been interviewing many of the best spiritual teachers in the world. Jokingly, Tami said that she wanted to name the show, “Grill the Guru.” Even though that was a joke, there is...

In this episode we speak with Tami Simon–founder of the spiritual media company Sounds True and senior student of Vajrayana teacher Reggie Ray. Tami shares us with us the intimate details of her initial meeting with Reggie, and the amazing results that followed. She also describes what she has learned from beginning to teach the dharma to others, while also making a vow to only teach that which sh...

This week we speak to the Buddhist-inspired musician Ravenna Michalsen. She explains why dharma music need not sound the way we think it should (think monks chanting in Asian in a cave). Instead, Ravenna’s music crosses musical genres and stretches our notion of what dharma music is. We also discuss the life and teachings of Machig Labdron, one of Tibet’s most famous female masters and the invento...

This week, Adam Engle, the business mastermind behind the Mind and Life Institute, joins us to discuss both the evolution of the project as well as its larger impact. The first Mind and Life Dialogue was held in Dharamsala, India in 1987 with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since then, Adam says, it has done more than any other organization to help “legitimatize the scientific study of meditation.” L...

Alan Chapman is a Western magick practitioner, and the author of the newly released book, Advanced Magick for Beginners. Alan found his way into the field of Chaos magick through the work of Aleister Crowley and since has worked with a powerful technique called “the Holy Guardian Angel,” which very much like the guru yoga techniques of the Vajrayana schools, allows one to surrender to an external...

Dr. Susan Blackmore–a psychologist and long-time Zen practitioner–shares with us the discoveries that she made while writing her latest book, Ten Zen Questions. Listen in to find out what she discovered after many, many hours of asking questions, such as: “Am I conscious now?”, “What was I conscious of a moment ago?”, & “There is no time. What is memory?” Also, listen in to hear how she feels this...

Daniel Ingram, Theravada meditation teacher, joins us today to discuss the online community he and Buddhist Geeks host, Vince Horn helped create, The Dharma Overground. Daniel shares how the Dharma Overground has been a grand experiment in discussing practical, down-to-earth, and empowering dharma out in the open and the results of that experiment thus far. This is part 2 of a two-part series. Lis...

Daniel Ingram, a Theravada meditation teacher and one of our most popular guests, joins us again to discuss his recently published book, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha. In discussing the book we dive into some of the more foundation distinctions he makes, including that of the three trainings. Daniel claims that the trainings in morality (or ethics), concentration (or meditation), and...

Lama Sarah Harding, Tibetan translator and student of the late Kalu Rinpoche, joins us again to discuss some of the major trends in Western Buddhism. Having taught a class on “Buddhism in America” for the past several years, Sarah is uniquely positioned to share some key insights on this topic. We cap the conversation off discussing the regular, and unfortunate, occurrence of scandal within differ...

Lama Sarah Harding, Tibetan translator and student of the late Kalu Rinpoche, joins us to discuss the experience of doing a traditional 3-year retreat in the Tibetan tradition. She was part of a small group of people, who in the mid 70’s did the first 3-year retreat held for Westerners. Listen in to find out more about the practices one does during the traditional retreat, what the biggest challen...

Insight Meditation teacher, Diana Winston, joins us to discuss an extremely relevant topic: Buddhism & Money. We explore whether or not spirituality and money are incompatible (as they are often seen) and if not how they might go together. Diana shares with us some of the original, though not so well known, teachings that the historical Buddha gave on money. She also discusses why both Buddhist te...

We continue our discussion with insight meditation teacher and author, Richard Shankman. In this episode we continue to dissect the different kinds of samadhi and their respective fruits–what in the Theravada tradition are called jhana (or “meditative absorption”). According to Shankman there are two ways of approaching the attainment of jhana, one as was taught in the original canonical texts of...

Richard Shankman, a teacher in the insight meditation tradition and the author of the recently released book The Experience of Samadhi , joins us to discuss the various teachings and approaches to what in the Theravada tradition is called samadhi or concentration meditation. During this episode Richard shares some of his personal background with samadhi practice and also explains two different for...