What is Realistic Dharma?

During this live event we will explore two questions. The session will be 90 minutes. 

1. In what ways can contemporary Buddhism and Dharma practice be misleading in the context of modern life?   

2. How can we balance aspiration and realism when it comes to making progress in ethics, meditation, mindfulness, and our overall relationship to the world?

These monthly events will explore a range of topics that are both rooted in early Buddhist thought and are relevant to the challenges and issues that we face in our current lived experience.
 

The format will not follow a traditional Dharma talk, but will take place in a dialogue format that is intended to raise more questions than provide answers. As the practice of the Dharma continues to make inroads into our culture through various channels, these dialogues have been created to address ideas, topics, and tensions that are not generally addressed in the greater arena of mindfulness, Dharma, and Buddhism.

Our hope is to address the existential, therapeutic, contemplative, and ethical dimensions of our humanity that can skillfully bring to light pragmatic and realistic sets of practices and perspectives that can have a meaningful impact on what it means to live in this world. Here and now.

Jay Michaelson is a professor, journalist, rabbi, and meditation teacher. He is a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, where he is convening the first-ever conference on psychedelics in Abrahamic religious traditions.ay was a teacher and editor at Ten Percent Happier for five years, and is authorized to teach in a the Theravadan Buddhist lineage of Ayya Khema.  He has had leadership roles at the New York Insight Meditation Center and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

https://jaymichaelson.substack.com/

Jay also is a journalist – he’s a commentator on CNN and a contributor to Rolling Stone, The Forward, and other publications, and he previously worked for ten years as an LGBTQ activist.  He is the author of ten books, and holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.  So, yes, he is Rabbi Doctor Jay Michaelson.