Buddhist Geeks

The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is the only Rinpoche we know who owns and uses a Blackberry! Rinpoche shares with us the different ways that he has adopted modern technology into the work that he does and into his teaching style. We also speak with Rinpoche about his most recent book, which explores the Bardo teachings, Mind Beyond Death. Rinpoche explains to us that death, one of the greatest sources of suffering, gives us a palpable opportunity to live well. He also points out that in terms of the trained mind, both death and life are but two sides of the same coin. Both can bring about enlightenment.
This is part 2 of a three-part series. Listen to part 1, Analytical Meditation: Going Beyond Coffee Table Dharma
Episode Links:
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche ( http://dpr.info )
Bodhi Magazine ( http://www.bodhionline.org )
Mind Beyond Death ( http://bit.ly/OJHKT )

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The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, one of the foremost teachers in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism, joins us to discuss his efforts in creating a genuinely Western form of the traditional shedra tract of Buddhist learning. This traditional scholastic training system is being translated and slightly altered for Westerners so that they can learn the full system of monastic training. In this episode we spoke with Rinpoche about the ways that these systems are being altered for Westerners, how this in-depth training is different from “coffee table dharma”, and how analytic meditation—using the mind to analyze the mind—actually works.
This is part 1 of a three-part series. Listen to part 2, The Best Preparation for Dying Well is Living Well.
Episode Links:
Nitartha Institute ( http://www.nitarthainstitute.org )
Bodhi Magazine ( http://www.bodhionline.org )
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche ( http://dpr.info )

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Long-time American Zen practitioner Stuart Lachs has spent some 40 years practicing Zen. First with Suzuki Roshi at the Tassajara Monastery in California and then with Eido Shimano Roshi, Walter Nowick, and finally with Ch’an Master Sheng-yen. In all of these communities Stuart ran up against strange and unfortunate dynamics playing out between the Zen Master and their communities. After getting heavily involved with the academic and sociological study of Zen, Stuart began seeing some of the cultural (and invisible) reasons that these communities would falter, whether from sexual scandals, the intense vanity of the teacher, or worse.
In this episode he shares with us some of the ways that the legitimacy, authority & power of the Zen Master are spread through the Zen institution, and how these sometimes ridiculous ideals are accepted without questions from many intelligent, well-meaning, people. If you’re a Buddhist practitioner of any sort, you won’t want to miss this conversation!
This is part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to part 2, The Darker Side of Zen: Institutions Defining Reality.
Episode Links:
Zen Master in America: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves ( http://mandala.hr/samsara/Stuart_Lachs.The_Zen_Master_in_America.pdf )
The Sacred Canopy ( http://bit.ly/Svhwi )

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"What the teacher really offers the student is literally living proof that all this talk and the seemingly impossible goals [of Zen] can be realized in this lifetime.” – Baker Roshi in the Introduction to Zen Mind, Begineer’s Mind
Stuart Lachs, who for many decades has studied Zen from within and from without, challenges the legitimacy and authority of the Zen Master by deconstructing the structures and invisible institutional systems that grant this authority to the Zen Master. Listen in to find out how Noam Chomsky’s notion of “useful doctrinal fabrications” applies to Zen, how the story of an unbroken lineage of Zen masters going back to the Buddha himself is basically bogus, how all of the elements of Zen itself weave together to form a seamless web of nearly unquestionable power, and why it’s so hard to leave these communities even if you want to.
This isn’t to say that the practice of Zen isn’t extremely powerful, and Stuart himself is a huge fan of the practices therein, but it is to say that many of us aren’t aware of the ways that the institution itself defines reality for us.
This is part 2 of a two-part series. Listen to part 1, Zen Masters: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves.
Episode Links:
Zen Mind, Begineer’s Mind ( http://bit.ly/pecQo )
Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center ( http://bit.ly/ipGKl )
Zen Master in America: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves ( http://mandala.hr/samsara/Stuart_Lachs.The_Zen_Master_in_America.pdf )
Mahākāśyapa ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahakashyapa )

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Our conversation with Susan Piver continues this week as we wrap our discussion on the relationship between meditation and writing. We also also explore the role that intention plays in offering or marketing the dharma. Finally, we wrap up the conversation by touching in on personality theory and productivity. Find out which enneagram type the Buddha was, and why productivity systems can bring about more bliss than meditation, in one of our geekiest (and fun) conversations to date!
This is part 2 of a two-part series. Listen to part 1, Susan Piver: The Fearless Writer.
Episode Links:
susanpiver.com
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity ( http://bit.ly/grQY1 )

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When Susan Piver’s book, The Hard Questions, hit the top of the NY Times Bestsellers list (and stayed there) she decided that she needed to deepen her practice immediately. Listen in this week as speak with Susan about her journey as a popular author and Buddhist practitioner. And if you have an interest in writing, or the creative process, you won’t want to miss out on her description of the “meditation for writers” retreats that she leads, where writers of all backgrounds are able to combine their interest in writing with the power of the retreat environment. Are creativity and meditation really all that different?
This is part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to part 2, Mind Like Space.
Episode Links:
How Not to be Afraid of Your Own Life ( http://bit.ly/UwJpP )
Susan Piver ( http://www.susanpiver.com )
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity ( http://bit.ly/YX85s )

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The Round Table Geeks continue their exploration of Whitney Joiner’s article, “Dive-bar Dharma”. In a flurry of paradox, perspectives, humor, and exploration they tackle questions of integrating dharma into life, the Buddhist secular movements, contemplative practices in other traditions, and the historical and sociological dimensions of Dharma’s spread to the West. We hope you enjoy this dynamic and fun conversation between fellow Buddhist geeks.
This is part 2 of a two-part series. Listen to part 1, Dive-bar Dharma: Making it Fresh or Sensationalizing it?.
Episode Links:
Dive-bar Dharma ( http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/02/20/dharma_in_dive_bars/ )

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Hokai Sobol and John Peacock continue their discussion about how the Buddha and Buddhism are described in the earliest Buddhist writings. By getting more accurate with translations of the earliest writings, Peacock believes modern Buddhism can free itself of the trappings of Religion, Humanism, and the need for consolation in the face of reality. They discuss the role and importance of critical inquiry in Buddhism’s future, and how all of this is leading to a secularization of Buddhism.
This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Listen to part 1, Will the Real Buddha Please Stand Up?
Episode Links:
Oxford Mindfulness Center ( http://oxfordmindfulness.org )
Hokai Sobol | 21st Century Dharma ( http://www.hokai.info )
Sutta Nipata ( http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/index.html )
Ariyapariyesana Sutta ( http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.026.than.html )

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Buddhist scholar and Chaplain Danny Fisher, joins us to explore various stories, or narratives, that run through the Buddhist world. There are a variety of different kind of stories in the Buddhist tradition, including those that are more traditional and those which are more modern. Included in those narratives are Buddhist hagiographies (traditional teaching stories about important figures), historical narratives, and more modern narratives. Listen in as we try and piece apart what some of these stories are, and find out how the stories that we believe in affect us as individuals and communities.

Episode Links:

www.DannyFisher.org

University of the West ( http://www.uwest.edu )

A People’s History of the United States ( http://amzn.to/eytcyu )

How the Swans Came to the Lake ( http://amzn.to/gtQqvB )

Buddhism in America ( http://amzn.to/hu3UWV )

Luminous Passage ( http://amzn.to/fAWiDL )

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry ( http://amzn.to/dHxc2N )

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We’re joined this week by Soto Zen teacher Zenkai Taiun Elliston. Along with the being the abbot of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center, Taiun is also a long-time professional designer, having trained and taught modern design. We ask him to share his perspective on the interplay and parallels between the two fields, which brings about a very interesting conversation about the aesthetic of simplicity, the importance of sensory engagement, and the nature of the medium we are exploring, whether it’s a physical medium, as in design, or the medium of consciousness itself, as in Zen.

Episode Links:

Silent Thunder Order ( http://silentthunderorder.org )

Atlanta Soto Zen Center ( http://www.aszc.org )

Bauhaus Design ( https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bauhaus )

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