Seth Zuiho Segall is a Zen Buddhist priest, clinical psychologist, and writer.  He has served on the clinical faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine for nearly three decades. He is also a science writer for the Mindfulness Research Monthly, a contributing editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and a review editor for The Humanistic Psychologist. Seth has been engaged with meditation and Buddhism for almost thirty years and is ordained in the White Plum lineage. He currently leads Pamsula Zen of Westchester and guest teaches at the New York Insight Meditation Center. He is also the author of several books, including “Buddhism and Human Flourishing” and his latest, “The House We Live In”. He writes consistently on his blog, The Existential Buddhist, covering a range of Buddhist topics from a naturalized, pragmatic, eudaimonic, and cosmopolitan perspective. In this episode, we explore Seth’s unique journey into Buddhism as well as his pragmatic and naturalistic understanding of it, the relationship between virtue, wisdom and pluralism, the foundations of flourishing, navigating political polarization, ethical ideals and the myth of the perfect person, better ways of thinking about enlightenment and why Seth became a Zen priest.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Seth’s personal site
• Seth’s blog
• Seth’s latest book “The House We Live In”
• Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Secular Buddhist Network
• The Avoidant Dharma by Daniel Thorson
• Stephen Batchelor
• Larry Rosenberg
• Andrew Cohen
• Paradox of Tolerance
• Mastering The Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram
• Already Free by Bruce Tift

📝[Show Notes] 📝

0:00 - Introduction 
2:10 - Unpacking a naturalistic, pragmatic, eudaimonic, and cosmopolitan Buddhism 
7:57 - Naturalistic vs. Secular Buddhism
12:07 - Agnosticism & Beliefs 
13:30 - Exploring Judaism and finding Buddhism 
20:20 - Further questioning Secularization and modernization of Buddhism 
29:18 - There is no one Buddhism; There are many Buddhisms 
33:36 - Virtue, wisdom, and pluralism 
36:17 - Has humanity become less violent over time?
38:26 - The foundations of flourishing 
42:22 - Disagreements on values and vulnerability 
45:31 - Facing the dragon at your own pace 
48:52 - Navigating political polarization & engaged Buddhism 
53:53 - Ethical ideals and the myth of the perfect person 
57:33 - The paradox of tolerance & cancel culture 
1:03:48 - Better ways of thinking about enlightenment 
1:12:15 - Why become a Zen priest 
1:17:26 - Engaging with a religious tradition before you critique it

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