Secular Buddhism

Psychological acceptance is "the active embracing of subjective experience, particularly distressing experiences." In this episode, I will discuss practicing acceptance and using the OODA loop as decision-making tools to help us act more skillfully during difficult or stressful times. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat...

Something whole is comprised of ALL its undiminished parts or elements. We are a combination of our body and mind (hardware and software). The key to feeling whole is to understand and embrace all of the parts that make us who we are. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acas...

The 5 remembrances are wake-up calls that help us to see more clearly, the nature of reality. They are wake-up calls that help us to live more intentionally and skillfully. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I will share my thoughts about the 84,000 gates and the notion of Emptiness. In the last 2 episodes, I shared my thoughts around Signlessness and Aimlessness and now I will share my thoughts around Emptiness. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acast. See ac...

The three doors of liberation refer to Formlessless, Signlessness, and Aimlessness. In this episode, I will talk about signlessness and what this teaching means to me and how we can practice signlessness in our day-to-day lives. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acast. See...

The three doors of liberation refer to Formlessless, Signlessness, and Aimlessness. In this episode, I will talk about Aimlessness and what this teaching means to me. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Craving for and attachment to feelings is what leads to suffering; on the flip side of that, awareness and understanding of our feelings can lead to Enlightenment. In this episode, I will share my thoughts around the Buddhist concept of feelings tones / Vedana. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode...

"A student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something every day." What does it mean to "unlearn"? In this episode, I will share my thoughts around the notion of learning and unlearning in the context of practicing Buddhism. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

One of the final teachings the Buddha gave, had to do with becoming an island unto yourself. In a way, he was telling his followers that it was time to leave the nest and to take refuge in themselves. In this episode, I will share my thoughts on this teaching. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode o...

In this episode, I will talk about the story of Sundari, an ascetic who was killed in an attempt to frame Sidhartha and bring dishonor to him and his followers. How the Buddha handled this ordeal sheds light on the Buddhist approach to words and accusations. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or...

The games we play...some thoughts about Right View. Thich Nhat Hanh says: "Our happiness and the happiness of those around us depend on our degree of Right View. Touching reality deeply -- knowing what is going on inside and outside of ourselves -- is the way to liberate ourselves from the suffering that is caused by wrong perceptions. Right View is not an ideology, a system, or even a path. It is...

The backwards law proposes that the more we chase after something, the more difficult it becomes to catch it and the more disappointed we feel. In other words, the harder we try, the less likely we are to succeed. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...

In a culture that tends to feel gratitude for only the pleasant things in our life, the Buddhist approach is to feel gratitude for all things, even the unpleasant ones. Gratitude develops patience and patience is an antidote to the poison of greed. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching....

The nature of reality is that things come together and things fall apart and then things come together and things fall apart and that cycle goes on and on. Instead of running from the difficulties and the pain, the Buddhist approach is to move toward the painful situations and become intimate with them. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI,...

Mara is "the personification of the forces antagonistic to enlightenment." Mara wants to be feared. We tend to run from the things that we fear, but what happens when we stop running and we look at Mara and say "I see you, Mara!"In this episode, I will share my thoughts about the interaction between the Buddha and Mara. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, cour...

Dependent Origination is a Buddhist notion that is common among all schools of Buddhism. It's the doctrine that states that all phenomena arise in dependence upon other phenomena. In other words, "this is because that is and this is not because that is not". In this episode, I will share my thoughts about how this concept can be beneficial in our day-to-day lives. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com...

Within any given discipline, we all have a circle of skills. In order to grow the circle of skills, we need to do things that are just outside the circle and once we master a new skill, that circle grows. The key to safely growing the circle is to go slowly and not attempt skills that are too far outside the current circle we have. I believe this is also the case with how we can approach Mindfulne...

In this episode, I will talk about "The First Meditation" a story about an experience that Siddhartha (the Buddha) had when he was 9 years old. I believe this experience shaped his understanding of the importance of experiential vs intellectual understanding and I believe there are some good lessons to be learned by us as we hear this story. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, gu...

It can be easy to get caught up "in the thick of thin things" when our perspective is too narrow or zoomed in. When we take the long view, we learn to zoom out and see things from a different perspective. In this podcast episode, I will talk about taking the long view and also discuss the parable of the lute and the analogy of tuning the strings of an instrument. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com...

Zen Master Seung Sahn said "I do not teach Buddhism. I only teach don't know." The beauty of not knowing arises when we understand that reality is unknowable as a complete picture. First, because it's always changing, and second, we are limited in our perspective in terms of space and time. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you ca...

Liberation is not a destination we strive to reach, it's a state of mind that is available to us right here and right now. When we fully understand the reality of emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness, we become liberated from the type of thinking that has us trapped in the prison of our own mind. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an...

Observation in Buddhist practice is an active thing, it's not passive and it's not a form of resignation. The skilled observer, observes precisely in order to be able to act more skillfully. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any episode or teaching. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

In this podcast episode, I share my thoughts about "Buddha nature" and what it means to me. I also share the story of the little rock in my backyard that had a Buddha painted on the rock. When the paint started to fade, I was able to see the buddha nature of that rock. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you can chat with about any...

Every moment that arises is simultaneously the first time and last time that moment exists. I used to value moments based on their pleasantness or unpleasantness but now I see the beauty of the uniqueness of each moment. In this episode, I will be vulnerable and share my thoughts as I process the recent loss of a loved one. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations,...

I love thinking about life as a great song, with high notes and low notes and quiet pauses in between each note. I like to think of my relationship to this song as the dance of life. In this episode, I will share my thoughts about going through life as if it were a dance instead of a fight. Explore more at eightfoldpath.com : full transcripts, guided meditations, courses, and Noah AI, an AI you ca...