Buddhist Geeks

Soryu Forall is a teacher and leader at the Center for Mindful Learning. The second part of Soryu’s conversation with host Vincent Horn delves into the spaces between tradition and innovation. Soryu shares his gratitude for the traditional teachings he learned in Asia, and explains how useful those teachings are today. This leads to an exchange of ideas on rebirth and karma, teaching secular mindfulness in schools, and exploring the feedback loops that lead to the end of feedback loops.
This is part two of a two part series.
Listen to part one BG 349: Awakening is the End of All Feedback Loops.
Episode Links:
Center for Mindful Learning ( http://www.centerformindfullearning.org )
Modern Mindfulness ( http://www.modmind.org )

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Soryu Forall is the Director of Mindfulness Education at the Center for Mindful Learning. He also leads a unique “modern monastery” training program for those who want to integrate awakening and responsibility. In this conversation with host Vincent Horn, Soryu describes life within the CML Residential program, what it means to come to an end of all feedback loops, and how awakening is directly linked to personal discipline and responsibility.
This is part one of a two part series. Listen to part two: Conserve & Adapt.
Episode Links:
Center for Mindful Learning ( http://www.centerformindfullearning.org )
Sanskara ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskara )
Autocatalysis ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocatalysis )

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Mikey Siegel is a meditator, technologist, and pioneer in the field of “Enlightenment Engineering”. In this talk from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, Mikey explores the idea that enlightenment can be engineered through the use of applied contemplative science. Presenting various examples of technology applicable to a contemplative path, he states enlightenment is real, science can quantify it, and technology can facilitate it. Therefore, Mikey asks, what better use of technology in the service of humanity than the end of suffering?
Episode Links:
www.MikeySiegel.com
BioFluent Technologies ( http://www.biofluent.com )

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Robin Arnott is an indie game designer and interactive artist. In this presentation from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, he speaks about applying game design to meditation. Robin first explains how a state of trance is central to both the experience of meditation and the experience of game play. He then shows how game mechanics might be utilized in meditation practice to support a trance, and how these ideas are already being explored in the video game industry.
Episode Links:
SOUNDSELF ( http://soundselfgame.com )
Robin on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/VideoDreaming )

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Bodhipaksa is a Buddhist meditation teacher, author, and founder of Wildmind.org, an online meditation resource. In this talk from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, Bodhipaksa explores ways to identify and correct “bugs” in traditional Buddhist teachings. Providing specific examples of bugs and solutions, he encourages the audience to personally use scholarship and experiential practice to verify teachings and stop clinging to incorrect understandings of Buddhist teachings.
Episode Links:
www.Wildmind.org
Bodhipaksa on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/Bodhipaksa )

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Hokai Sobol is a teacher in the Shingon tradition of Japanese Vajrayana and a long time mentor to the Buddhist Geeks team. In this talk from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, Hokai speaks about the relationship between imagination and Buddhism. He explains why imagination is important to spiritual practice, he gives examples of the creative process found in Buddhist tradition, and he presents an examination of the state of contemporary Buddhist Art.
Episode Links:
www.Hokai.info
Hokai on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/hokaisobol )

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John F. Simon is a visual artist and software programmer. In this talk from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, John shares how he uses the simple act of drawing as a powerful contemplative practice. Detailing the process and growth he’s experienced from daily drawing, he examines how his artistic practice has led to a spiritual practice that in turn feeds back into his creative process.
Episode Links:
www.iclock.com
Every Icon Project ( http://www.numeral.com/eicon.html )

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Katherine MacLean, PhD. is an academically trained research scientist and meditation practitioner with a long-standing interest in the brain, consciousness and the science of well-being. As a postdoctoral research fellow and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, she worked on the largest study to date combining psychedelics and meditation. Her research on psilocybin and personality change suggests that psychedelic medicines may play an important role in enhancing mental health and promoting openness and creativity throughout the lifespan.

In this talk from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, Katherine presents her experience of studying psychedelics. She shares personal travel stories of mystical experiences in the Himalayas, research results from facilities around the world, and potential therapies for the injured and dying using psilocybin, MDMA, and other psychedelics. A proponent of psychedelic use for therapy and mental health, Katherine encourages the audience to rethink whatever preconceived ideas they might have about the skillful use of psychedelics.

Episode Links:

• Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• The Secular Buddhist Episode 84: Psilocybin and Openness
• C-Realm Episode 411: The Strange, Fuzzy, Fat Brick of Everything

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Lama Karma (Justin Wall) graduated from Columbia University with degrees in Religious Studies and Literature and has been practicing Buddhism for over 12 years. He completed two traditional three-year retreats under the direction of Lama Norlha Rinpoche at Kagyu Thubten Choling Monastery in New York, studying and practicing in the Karma Kagyu, Shangpa Kagyu and Nyingma Traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
In this talk from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, Lama Karma describes the gap between the modern mindfulness movement and the Mahamudra tradition. He argues that the presentation of secular mindfulness teachings without the context of Buddhist tradition can lead practitioners to mistakes resulting in harmful dualistic perception. He then presents a framework in which these mistakes of secular mindfulness can be addressed through the Mahamudra teachings.
Episode Links:
Milarepa Dzong Retreat Center ( http://www.mocd.org )

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Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx and Against The Stream, is a Buddhist teacher, author and counselor. He is trained to teach by Jack Kornfield of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, holds a masters degree in counseling psychology from CIIS, and has studied with many prominent teachers in both the Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions.
In this talk from the 2014 Buddhist Geeks Conference, Noah describes the benefits of a Buddhist oriented addiction recovery path. Telling the story of his personal experience with addiction recovery, he relates how The Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path filled in the gaps he experienced in the twelve step system. Noah then shares how he has helped others with a Buddhist oriented recovery path, and encourages the audience to make themselves and their sanghas places of refuge for those in addiction recovery.
Episode Links:
www.RefugeRecovery.org
Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction ( http://amzn.to/1t6lcAo )
Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society ( http://www.againstthestream.org )

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