Secular Buddhism

By Noah Rasheta

Health Self-Help Religion & Spirituality Other Spirituality Buddhism

What's Secular Buddhism about?

A podcast for secular-minded people who are interested in learning about Buddhist philosophy.

4.8

1,727 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

172 - Practicing Acceptance

09.25.2022

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.

Secular Buddhism episodes:

09.25.2022 172 - Practicing Acceptance 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.
08.28.2022 171 - How To Feel Whole And Complete 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 ...
06.28.2022 170 - The Five Remembrances 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.
05.22.2022 169 - 84000 Gates 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.
04.26.2022 168 - Signlessness 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.
04.12.2022 167 - Aimlessness 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.
03.06.2022 166 - Welcoming The Unwanted 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 ...
02.20.2022 165 - Unlearning "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.
02.07.2022 164 - Thrown Out Of The Nest 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 ...
01.16.2022 163 - Sticks And Stones 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 ...
01.02.2022 162 - The Games We Play 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 ...
12.14.2021 161 - The Backwards Law 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.
11.28.2021 160 - Gratitude And Patience 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 ...
11.21.2021 159 - When Things Fall Apart 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 ...
10.31.2021 158 - I See You Mara 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 ...
10.25.2021 157 - This Is Because That Is 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 ...
10.11.2021 156 - Circle Of Skills 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. ...
09.22.2021 155 - The First Meditation 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 ...
08.23.2021 154 - Taking The Long View 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 ...
08.06.2021 153 - The Beauty Of Not Knowing 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 ...
07.07.2021 152 - A Liberated State Of Mind 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 ...
05.22.2021 151 - Observation and Action 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.
04.21.2021 150 - Buddha Nature 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 ...
03.31.2021 149 - Firsts And Lasts 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 ...
03.04.2021 148 - The Dance Of Life 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, ...
02.18.2021 147 - Dharma Cat Life has a funny way of teaching us lessons even amidst circumstances or events that we don't particularly find to be pleasant. In this episode, I will share the story of how we ended up with a 3-legged cat as ...
02.03.2021 146 - The Freedom To Be You In this episode, I will talk about the idea of "branding". The story we have about ourselves is our personal brand and we do a lot to influence the way others perceive us. Practicing non-attachment to our brand may allow ...
12.22.2020 145 - The Quest For Answers In our search for answers to life's big questions, what if the question is actually more important than the answer? In this episode, I will talk about the quest for answers and how it may be more beneficial to focus ...
11.23.2020 144 - The Game Of Emotions In this podcast episode, I will share some thoughts around the idea that we can change our relationship to our emotions by pretending that we're playing a game where the goal is to experience the full range of possible emotions.
10.21.2020 143 - Eye Of The Beholder In this episode, I will talk about perception and the role it plays in how we experience our reality. Reality is in the eye of the beholder. “Dependent on the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises...The meeting of the three is ...
10.13.2020 142 - Wisdom and Fear "Some see something to fear where there is nothing to fear, and some see nothing to fear where there is something to fear." In this episode, I will talk about fear from a Buddhist perspective. Fear is universal but there ...
09.30.2020 141 - Smarter Not Harder I'm sure you've heard the expression "work smarter, not harder". In this episode, I will share my throughs regarding Skillful Effort of the Eightfold Path and how it pertains to not only mindfulness practice but to everything we do in ...
09.15.2020 140 - Mindfulness For Everyday Life ANNOUNCEMENT...I’m excited to present a new online workshop called "Mindfulness for Everyday Life" available exclusively through Himalaya Learning. Himalaya Learning is a new educational audio platform specializing in audio courses that focus on lifelong learning, business, personal development, and more, ...
09.01.2020 139 - Mindfulness Interview With Dr Sarah Shaw I recently had the opportunity of interviewing Dr Sarah Shaw about her new book "Mindfulness: Where it comes from and what it means". I hope you enjoy the conversation. To learn more about her book, visit: https://www.shambhala.com/buddhist-mindfulness.html
08.19.2020 138 - Sticky Hair Monster In this podcast episode, I will talk about the Buddhist story of Sticky Hair Monster and the prince who tried to battle him. This story points to the battle that often takes place in our minds against our own thoughts, ...
07.30.2020 137 - The Beauty Of Nothing Is nothing something? What happens when we do nothing? In this podcast episode, I will share my thoughts on the concept of nothingness and the beauty of nothing. I will also discuss the koan "every day is a good day".
07.16.2020 136 - Mountains And Rivers In this podcast episode, I will share some of my thoughts regarding the Mountains and Rivers Sutra by Zen master Dogen. This teaching reminds me of the simple yet complex nature of reality.
06.29.2020 135 - Weathering The Storm One of my favorite Pema quotes is the one where she says, "You are the sky, everything else is the weather". In this podcast episode, I will discuss the concept of mental weather patterns and the way I correlate weather ...
06.16.2020 134 - Emotional Enlightenment In this podcast episode, I will discuss the idea of Emotional Enlightenment and what that means for me. We often find ourselves seeking certain emotions and avoiding other emotions. I've found that by giving all my emotions a sense of ...
05.31.2020 133 - Five Daily Life Guidelines In this podcast episode, I will share five daily life guidelines that have been beneficial for me in my personal practice. They are: consume mindfully, practice loving kindness, practice gratitude, discover wisdom, and accept constant change.
05.19.2020 132 - Nowhere To Hide Nothing To Hold In this podcast episode, I will discuss the koan about the great meaning of the Buddha's teaching. I will also discuss some thoughts about the Buddhist approach of theism vs non-theism and how leaves us with nowhere to hide and ...
05.04.2020 131 - The Truth Of Unsatisfactoriness The nature of reality is that difficulties will arise, and we’ll experience suffering. We can begin to embrace that fact by recognizing that suffering, in general, is not personal. It’s simply part of the experience of existence. And we will ...
04.20.2020 130 - Three Approaches for Doubt and Mistrust In Buddhism, doubt is beneficial because it is the first step in weakening our wrong views. The wonderful thing about doubt is that it can propel us in the direction of more skillful views. There is a strong emphasis in ...
04.14.2020 129 - The HALT Method In this podcast episode, I will discuss the HALT Method and share my thoughts on the koan shared in the last episode: "What is your original face before you were born?". I will also leave you with this new koan ...
04.05.2020 128 - No Going Back A key Buddhist principle is a recognition that things are always changing. Life is transient. When we have the feeling of wanting things to return back to normal, we need to remember that normal was always relative, there is no ...
03.29.2020 127 - Becoming Nobody "Good concepts are like a gold chain, bad concepts are like an iron chain, they all equally bind you in the end." The concept we have about who we are is binding. What if instead of trying to become somebody, ...
03.21.2020 126 - Finding Peace Amidst Chaos How do we experience more peace in the midst of chaos? In this podcast episode, I will discuss the koan of the waiving mind and also discuss the idea of expanding our perspective to experience more peace amidst the chaos.
03.15.2020 125 - Keep Calm And Carry On Skillfully In light of the ongoing spread of COVID-19, I wanted to share some thoughts about skillful action. In this episode, I will also share my thoughts about the koan "There is Nothing I Dislike".
03.08.2020 124 - Dealing With People You Dislike We all deal with people or situations we dislike from time to time. In this podcast episode, I will talk about dealing with people we dislike. For me, the recognition of disliking someone is always an invitation to look inward ...
02.23.2020 123 - The Art Of Diving In In this podcast episode, I will discuss my thoughts on the idea of the art of diving in. Life is a lot like a pool and we are learning to dive in, we dive into new relationships, jobs, and countless ...

Older episodes