Buddhist Geeks

We’re joined this week by Dr. Kelly McGonigal, to discuss her work at Stanford University, where she is teaching compassion-based practices from the Buddhist tradition, taught in a way that pulls from scientific research and appeals to a secular sensibility. As part of her work with CCARE she shares some of her background with Stanford as well as her long-standing Buddhist practice, which pulls fr...

We’re joined again this week by Brown University neuroscience researcher Willougbhy Britton. Willougbhy begins this episode by going into further depth into some of the typical experiences that have been reported during her research into the difficult stages of the contemplative path. She lists out typical changes in cognition, affect (emotion), perception, and other psychological material. She al...

We’re joined this week by Brown University neuroscience researcher Willoughby Britton. In this episode Dr. Britton shares some of the details of a research project that she’s working on called, “The Difficult Stages of the Contemplative Path.” She goes into the purpose of the research project and also some of the research methods she’s using to establish a helpful subjective phenomenology for thes...

This week’s episode comes from the recent Buddhist Geeks conference where Ethan Nichtern, a Buddhist teacher in the Shambhala tradition, speaks about ways in which the internet falls as a an aid in dharma. He uses the Tibetan teaching on co-emergence to frame the simultaneous benefits and harms of the internet, while also speaking about the limitations of a DIY (Do it Yourself) approach, especiall...

“You can perform neurosurgery on yourself.” – Kenneth Folk This week’s episode comes from the recent Buddhist Geeks Conference, where meditation teacher Kenneth Folk spoke about his three pillars of pragmatic dharma: 1) awakening is possible, 2) I know because it happened to me, and 3) here’s how. Kenneth cycles through each of these pillars, going deeper each time, first exploring what enlightenm...

“Obstacles in your path should not be regarded as obstacles. They are simply features of the landscape which have to be negotiated.” – Ken McLeod This week’s episode is taken from the recent Buddhist Geeks Conference, where Ken McLeod–a well known Buddhist teacher and management consultant–spoke about moving beyond ‘us vs. them,’ embracing the mystery of the human condition, and changing the world...

We’re joined this week by Comparative Religion scholar and Buddhist teacher Rita Gross. Rita shares how she got into Buddhist practice, first studying deeply in the Shambhala tradition and then in the last several years with the Tibetan Nun Jetün Khandro Rinpoche. Rita goes on to speak extensively on the value of studying religion, both as a comparative endeavor and also from the perspective of hi...

We’re joined this week by vipassana teacher Martin Alyward to hear his perspective on the Buddhist Teachers Council, a recent gathering of Western teachers that was held at the Garrison Institute. Martin was part of the group of next generation teachers who met with pioneering teachers to explore how they might better support one another. In addition to exploring some of what happened at the teach...

We’re joined again by Harvard trained social scientist Dr. Jeffery Martin. As a conclusion to our discussion on the initial findings on his research into “non-symbolic consciousness” Jeffery goes into the further reaches of his research participants. He speaks about the tendency for people on the higher range of his model to have a diminished sense of self-referential thoughts, emotions, and will,...

We’re joined by Harvard trained social scientist Dr. Jeffery Martin to discuss some of the incredible research that he’s doing into the further reaches of human potential. He speaks about his initial research, done during his first PhD program, wherein he extensively studied the self-help and positive psychology literature. He explains how this research led him to see that where the further reache...

We’re joined again by meditation teacher and actress Stephanie Nash, this time to explore some of the striking parallels between the disciplines of acting and meditation. Stephanie shares how a month-long Shakespeare acting intensive was her gateway to the spiritual path and how at it’s core acting is about allow the flow of experience and emotion. She relates some of the Vajrayana practices to th...

We’re joined this week by meditation teacher and actress Stephanie Nash, to discuss her experience of working with her Shinzen Young. Stephanie is one of Shinzen’s chief facilitators and has been working closely with him since the late 90s. She shares some of the key things she has learned in that process, including the practice of interactive meditation and radical experimentation. This is part 1...

We’re joined again by Yoga and Buddhist meditation teacher Michael Stone, this time to look at Buddhism as a system. We speak about the interrelations between spiritual systems and the sociological, ecological, and cultural systems that also make up our lives. We also explore what it means for dharma to be in concert with its environment looking at how a systems view may support our motivations to...

We’re joined this week by Yoga and Buddhist meditation teacher Michael Stone. We begin by finding out how Michael got into spiritual practice, which happened to be at an early age through a profoundly spiritual uncle who suffered from schizophrenia. During his time in the asylum, visiting his uncle, he learned to meditate, to contemplative the words of great masters from the past, and to develop h...

We’re joined again this week by organizational expert, and founder of HolacracyOne , Brian Robertson. Brian begins by describing the pit-falls of both strict hierarchy and consensus based organizational structures, pointing out that in both cases the systems are fused with the people. He contrasts that with the Holacracy structure, which employs several methods designed such that the value of both...

We’re joined this week by Brian Robertson, founder of HolacracyOne, a company whose aim is to liberate the soul of organization. We discuss with Brian the main principles and practices behind Holacracy—a system that Brian helped develop as a new operating system on which businesses can run. He distinguishes between what he calls “predict-and-control” management practices and “sense-and-respond” pr...

We’re joined again by a regular contributor of Buddhist Geeks and blogger at 21awake.com , Rohan Gunatillake. Rohan joins us to explore three areas in which the aesthetic of meditation could be improved. Specifcally these areas are: 1) language, 2) look & feel, & 3) delivery models. We then explore various ideas on how to meet these design challenges with design-specific solutions. Rohan suggests...

This week we’re joined by Susan Kaiser Greenland a leader in bringing mindful awareness to children and teens. We explore the differences between mindful based approaches and Buddhist approaches, seeing in what ways they are mutually supportive and in what ways tensions exist between them. Susan then shares some of the methods she uses for introducing mindfulness to children in a natural way, whil...

We’re joined this week by Buddhist teacher and scholar Hokai Sobol to explore the broad, but crucial topic of Emergent Buddhism. As a preface to the panel that Hokai will be leading at the upcoming Buddhist Geeks Conference on “The Emerging Face of Buddhism,” he explores the nature of emergence in the history of Buddhism, pointing out that “everything that we call traditional now was at one point...

“Photography and Buddhism share essential interests: both are concerned with clear seeing.” – Andy Karr & Michael Wood We’re joined this week by Buddhist teacher and photography Andy Karr. We explore some of the principles and practices behind the practice of contemplative photography, a unique method developed by Michael Wood. We also look into the overlaps between Buddhism and photography, with...

We finish up our discussion with meditation teacher Ken McLeod, touching on a number of fascinating and challenging topics. Ken speaks about the distinction between answering the questions that drive us, as opposed to simply understanding “what the Buddha taught.” He gets into where he thinks these questions originate from, and also what meaning evolution might have on our personal stories. Ken al...

We’re joined this week by Buddhist teacher, Ken McLeod, to explore an approach he has coined “Pragmatic Buddhism.” We explore his early Buddhist training, which included 2 back-to-back 3-year retreats, completed under the guidance of Ven. Kalu Rinpoche. He describes this period as part boarding school, prison, and seminary. He shares why it was such a huge culture shock coming out of that traditio...

We’re joined this week by Ph. D Candidate and Buddhist blogger Brooke Schedneck, to explore her research into several emerging patterns in Western Buddhist communities. We begin with how, as a training academic, she got into Buddhism and how she ended up combining both 1st and 3rd person observation into her research. We also explore her current research at International meditation centers in Thai...

In the last part of our discussion with Buddhist teacher and scholar Hokai Sobol, we wrap up our exploration on some of the important influences and forces that shape Western Buddhism. As part of that we discuss the fluid nature of his consumer-client-colleague model. We also talk about the deep problems that have arisen from adopting traditional models, instead of current ones, and how this has g...

We’re joined by Buddhist teacher and scholar Hokai Sobol, as we continue exploring the different mindsets that we often take, while exchanging Dharma here in the West. In the last episode he described the Consumer mindset, and in this one goes on to speak about the Client and Colleague mindsets. He explores the healthy and unhealthy versions of each, as well as how each of the three mindsets diffe...