Buddhist Geeks

In this episode we speak with author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and dharmic psychonaut Erik Davis about the intersection of psychedelic practice & culture with dharmic practice & culture.

Episode Links:

- Become a Buddhist Geeks Patreon

- TechGnosis

- Expanding Mind Podcast

- "Zig, Zag, Zen"

- Dharma Protectors

- Erowid

- Cognitive liberty

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During the 2nd part of my conversation with Raghu Markus, director of the Love Serve Remember Foundation, we speak about the powerful fusion of bhakti (devotion) practice and more traditional Buddhist meditation practice.

Episode Links:

- Rick Doblin’s Psychedelic Studies

- Ram Dass

- Be Here Now Network

- SHARANAGATI: The True Meaning of Surrender from the Bhakti Yoga Tradition

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Raghu Markus lives in Asheville (my hometown) and is the executive director of the Love Serve Remember Foundation, the same organization that runs RamDass.org. Raghu traveled with Ram Dass (formerly Richard Alpert) in the 70s to India and studied with the Indian guru Neem Karoli Baba. There he also met Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, & Lama Surya Das, who all became lifelong friends.

During this first part of our conversation Raghu & I met up at a local tea shop and spoke about psychedelics. I hadn't expected to discuss this topic with Raghu originally, but it made sense given his connection with Ram Dass as well as his own journey through the psychedelic 60s & 70s, so that's where our conversation began.

I hope you enjoy the lively stories and reflections that Raghu shares about his time with Ram Dass, Neem Karoli Babi, his father, as he explored spiritual practice and psychedelics side-by-side as a young seeker.

Episode Links:

Ram Dass

Be Here Now Network

"Be Here Now"

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In this episode we speak with Dr. Douglas Osto, author of "Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America".

Episode Links:

- Become a Buddhist Geeks Patreon

- Douglas Osto

- “Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America”

- “Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars”

- “Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics”

- 'She didn't know what was real': Did 10-day meditation retreat trigger woman's suicide?

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The intention of this series is to gain a deeper understanding of the relative merits and dangers of the mixing Buddhist contemplative practice and ritualized psychedelic use.

Episode Links:

• "Meditating on Pyschedelics: What Camp Are You In?"

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Buddhist Geeks is stirring from the state in-between lives. It looks like a rebirth is eminent.
Episode Links:
- www.buddhistgeeks.org
- The Buddhist Geeks Death Poem: https://goo.gl/w9csbS

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Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei is a maverick spiritual teacher, master trainer, and founder of Center for Transformative Change. She is the author of "Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation". Sensei williams joins host Vincent Horn to continue the current series on ethics in a talk about race, love, and liberation. They address race and class in American capitalism, the construct of “whiteness” as a social form of ego structure, and how Buddhism provides the tools to uncover entrenched social structures and implicit bias.

Episode Links

• Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei
• TransformativeChange.org
• @zenchangeangel
• Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation

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Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. He is the author of "Buddhism Without Beliefs" and most recently has written "After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age". In this entry to the Buddhist Geeks series on ethics, Stephen joins host Vincent Horn to consider what it means to secularize Buddhist ethics. They discuss the process of removing early Buddhist ethics from its early Indian metaphysics, and between the ethical practice laid out by early Buddhism and more Western versions of ethics. They finish by discussing the metaphysical faith of secularism, in particular the role that rationalism & individualism play in this translation project.

Episode Links:

• StephenBatchelor.org http://www.stephenbatchelor.org/
• "After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age" by Stephen Batchelor http://www.amazon.com/After-Buddhism-Rethinking-Dharma-Secular/dp/030020518X
• "Syntheism: Creating God in the Internet Age" by Alexander Bard & Jan Söderqvist http://syntheism.org/wp-content/syntheism_book/Syntheism.html
• "Cyber Philosophy and the Void" http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2014/03/bg-315-cyber-philosophy-void/
• "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari-ebook/dp/B00ICN066A?ie=UTF8&me=&ref_=mt_kindle

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EMMA SEPPÄLÄ, Ph.D is Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Emma joins host Vincent Horn to share the science behind compassion. She describes the current state of compassion research, and she and Vincent discuss the effects of unbundling mindfulness, compassion, and ethics in a capitalist society.

Episode Links

• Emma Seppala - http://www.emmaseppala.com
• The Happiness Track - http://www.emmaseppala.com/book/
• @emmaseppala - https://twitter.com/emmaseppala

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James Hughes is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and the author of "Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future". Continuing in our series On Ethics, James joins host Vincent Horn to discuss the ethical frameworks that underpin our social systems. From economics and social justice to conservative vs liberal values, to a newly emerging technoprogressivism, James and Vincent deconstruct and explore various ethical operating systems.

Episode Links:

James Hughes on Twitter - https://twitter.com/citizencyborg

"Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond To The Redesigned Human Of The Future" - https://www.amazon.com/Citizen-Cyborg-Democratic-Societies-Redesigned/dp/0813341981?ie=UTF8&qid=1165506115&sr=8-1&tag=instforethiin-20

Technoprogressive Declaration - http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tpdec2014

BG 077: Transhumanism and the Authentic Self - http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2008/06/bg-077-transhumanism-and-the-authentic-self/ ]

Jonathan Haidt - http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/

Alexander Bard and The Syntheist Movement - http://syntheism.org

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