The Imperfect Buddha Podcast

This is the second instalment of my wide-ranging conversation with Ken McLeod and Hokai Sobol. It features an extended introduction that is, in part, a response to feedback from episode 50, and I invite our more critically leaning listeners to gift feedback on what is an ongoing experiment in crafting conversations that will increasingly respond to the challenges raised and explored throughout the life of this podcast.

The conversation was largely unplanned and improvised & this means it features free-flowing exploration, rather than a programmed engagement with a few straightforward ideas. We journey into the terrain of mysticism and practice and most of the topics covered are explored within the context of these two. Here's just some of what we cover;

- Mysticism

- Sloterdjik & Jonathon Haidt (Žižek too!)

- Ethics V Morality

- Social duty & mystical practice

- Universal human rights & authority

- Transactional & utilitarian approaches to practice

- Verbing outcomes: nirvana & freedom as practices

- Purity & purification

- Critical thinking & engaging with the taboos of our time

- Risqué practices & the Protestant strain in western Buddhism

- Teacher/Student relationships & ongoing challenges

End music is by Bristol based artist Aisha Chaouche and is called "So what?" https://chaouche.bandcamp.com/

Enjoy the episode and let us know what you think at the usual places.

Links

Hokai Sobol: https://hokai.eu/

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

This is a quick introduction to help you on your way through the new season of the Imperfect Buddha Podcast. After a year of traipsing the globe with academics in an outrageous attempt to address the anti-intellectualism rife across Buddhism, and spirituality more generally, we have landed with both feet on the ground in the terrain of practice.

The challenge for this season is clear: to approach the whole concept of practice afresh. Not ignoring the past, but looking at it all in as contemporary a lens as possible, whilst bringing the great wealth of knowledge gained from our academics to bear on the personal, the subjective, the intimate, and the phenomenological.

Our first foray into such terrain is carried out in Kostrena, Croatia with Ken McLeod and Hokai Sobol and together we discussed all manner of topic from practice to culture wars, from Peter Sloterdjik to Jonathon Haidt, from non-conceptual mind to evil, from social duty to the great themes of our time, and the way they all interrelate with practice.

The conversation is divided into two parts. Being recorded live outside the studio, the quality is not the best but it is perfectly listenable and I hope the occasional passing car and slight echo won’t get in the way of your listening pleasure.

End music provided by The Naturals from Bristol. The track is entitled 2HGS and is rather wild.

Enjoy the episode and let us know what you think at the usual places.

Links

Hokai Sobol: https://hokai.eu/

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

We have come to the end of our series engaging with academics from the world of Buddhist studies and other relevant disciplines and what better way to complete it than with an interview with Donald S. Lopez Jr. Donald is the Arthur E. Link distinguished professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at Michigan University and the well-known author of many books on Buddhism. He specialises in late Indian Mahayana Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism and his books include Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West, The Madman’s Middle Way, Buddhism and Science: a Guide for the Perplexed, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: a Biography, and two titles that will be coming out this year with one on the Lotus Sutra that I am looking forward to. Donald’s books are aimed at the general public as well as fellow academics and they are entertaining and very well written. He draws on rich historical analysis and contemporary analytical tools for understanding complex religious phenomena and the West’s relationship with them in a way that is insightful and illuminating. They are also full of unexpected moments and wit.

Donald and I talk about his work, his writing, his books, Buddhism, philosophy, and more. It was a pleasure and honour for me to speak with him and I think this is a great way to round up this series before we move on to the practitioner and teacher cycle later this year. Thank you for listening to the podcast and I hope you found it as stimulating as I have.

Music by Ghosts & Kate Stapley

Links

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

We reach our penultimate episode in this series with Buddhist academics. Richard K. Payne is former Dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies and Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies at Berkley. Richard also trained as a Shingon Priest, and provides interesting insight into Buddhism at his blog, Critical Reflections on Buddhist Thought.

We get stuck into a whole range of topics in the conversation, from White Buddhism to perennialism, from Robert Wright's Why Buddhism is True? to mind-body dualism. We also touch on popular themes to the podcast such as transcendence, ideology and anti-intellectualism. You will find the article on Traditionalist Representations of Buddhism at the podcast site, along with further links: http://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

This article is discussed and it is is a must read for contextualizing some of the odd fantasies Westerners still hold onto regarding Buddhism.

There is also a slightly longer introduction than usual which contextualizes this year's output, provides a view to where we're heading and provides a few updates.

Incite Events: https://inciteseminars.com/seminars-calendar/

Links

O'Connell Coaching: http://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: http://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

Here we are, the last in our three-part series on Buddhist Modernism, post-Modernism, and what comes after. We hope you've enjoyed it and found it educational and are ready for the final run.

Professor Ann Gleig joins the podcast from sunny Florida for a discussion of her brand new book 'American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity'. Our discussion centres on her text and expands out to touch on issues such as social justice, recent sexual scandals in Buddhist communities, the loss of boundaries between the academic and practitioner, and obviously, lots more. A big theme in Ann's book is the development of post-modern influences in the current western Buddhist landscape, she explores multiple modernities and the ways scholars are attempting to make sense of the changes afoot, which you dear listener are part of. Ann's book is as new as can be, surveying the current landscape of American Buddhism and beyond.

Find out more about Ann at: https://philosophy.cah.ucf.edu/faculty-staff/?id=569

Links

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

Music from Bristol's Idles. I couldn't resist putting on their very punky 'White Privilege', which will make sense when you get through the interview.

In this second part of the series on Buddhist modernism, Buddhist post-modernism, and what comes next, I interview David L. McMahan, who is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin & Marshall College in the US. David is the well-known author of The Makings of Buddhist Modernism, which had a serious impact on more learned, thinking Buddhists in the West who were willing to challenge some of their assumptions about Buddhism and its development here. David’s book acted as an analysis of the Western influences on how Buddhism was shaped and showed that they had an insipid influence in ways that practitioners were generally oblivious to. From the role of romanticism, to secularism, to notions of selfhood, David’s book was an incredible journey into the underlying structure of Western Buddhism itself, revealing how this often described ancient wisdom tradition was actually in great part the creation of Westerners.

We touch on the book and discuss how he views it today and its influence, but most of our conversation is about work he has written since then, editing and making contributions to books including Meditation, Buddhism and Science from 2017 and Buddhism in the Modern World from 2012, and we touch on his first book, Empty Vision: Metaphor and Visionary Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism from 2002. David has an interest in the relationship between the humanities and science and how this affects Buddhism and is interested in maintaining an important role for the humanities in understanding Buddhism at a time when science has become fetishised and pushed to the forefront as a validating force for an idealised form of Buddhism and we talk about this in some detail. We also talk about phenomenology, Western philosophy, developments in contemporary Buddhism, and of course the issues of modernity and post-modern thought and its potential impact on the current Buddhist landscape.

I was still rather ill when interviewing David so if you hear my voice stammering and weak, this is the reason why. I don’t think it gets in the way of the interview but it was strange to hear myself with an almost alien voice, panting, and unfortunately, sounding ready for the hospital.

In two weeks the final part of this series will be available with Ann Gleig, a fellow Brit working in Florida, in which we explore her book American Dharma: Buddhism beyond Modernity, and it would be interesting to get some feedback on what you all think about all this. We are doing this for your benefit after all.

Links

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

Music by Stray Dogg from their fresh new album 'Look at the Moon'

https://straydogg.bandcamp.com/

Date: Saturday, February 23, 9am-1pm, at Culture Works in Philadelphia

Cost: Pay what you can, upwards to $90.

For more than a decade, movement-based scholar AK Thompson has worked with Benjamin to weigh in on the key debates of our crisis-filled era. From engagements with pop culture’s latent promise to critiques of the cherished certainties that guide movement struggles, he has foregrounded the operational value of Benjamin’s insights. In Premonitions: Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt (2018), Thompson reveals how we might do things with Benjamin today.

https://inciteseminars.com/the-culture-of-revolt/

“All Buddhism is Cultural Buddhism.” Scott Mitchell is the Rev. Yoshitaka Tamai Professor of Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley and the author of "Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Context"(2016). His research interests include Buddhism in Western contexts, Buddhist modernity, Pure Land Buddhism, translocal religions, ritual studies, and media studies.

Scott and I had a lively conversation and covered a variety of topics including; what are the live issues in American Buddhism right now, what is the relationship between America, Europe and the rest of the world in terms of innovation in Buddhism, S. N. Goenka & the practice of meditation in Asia, the rise of China and its potential influence on global Buddhism, the lingering problem of a single/true Buddhism, post-modernism & Buddhism, heritage Buddhisms and decolonisation.

This is the first episode in a three-part series on Buddhist Modernism, Post-Modernism and what comes after.

Links

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

Music by Stray Dogg from their fresh new album 'Look at the Moon'

straydogg.bandcamp.com/

Does western philosophy lack imagination when thinking about rebirth and reincarnation? What would Wittgenstein say?

This episode features Dr Mickel Burley, a philosopher of religion from Leeds university in the UK. He wrote a fascinating book called Rebirth and the Stream of Life, which inspired me to have him on. He’s a big fan of Ludwig Wittgenstein too and we get to talking about a man who is widely considered the greatest philosopher of the 20th century as well as his thought and its uses for thinking about spirituality, Buddhism, rebirth and more. We also bridge the episode to our earlier discussion of karma and rebirth with Jayarava.

Mick has also written on cannibalism, animal sacrifice, Hatha-Yoga, and the lack of imagination in philosophy surrounding rebirth and reincarnation. We manage to discuss philosophy East & West too.

Many of Mick’s article are freely available and curiously titled so check out his university page for further links;

https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/30/dr-mikel-burley

Links

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

Music by Stray Dogg from their fresh new album 'Look at the Moon'

https://straydogg.bandcamp.com/

Hey, it’s 2019 and we’re off to a bang with two new episodes! The first one is quite the experiment with our first guest host filling in for the mysterious, ephemeral stranger that is Mr Stuart Baldwin. Our first intrepid visitor is Gavin McCloskey from Northern Ireland has been China based for quite some time. He is his own man of course, and he brought some fine questions along for us to discuss. I’m afraid I did most of the talking, but Gavin had some great contributions to make and it was good having him on.

Our conversation touches primarily on practice and some of my more far out ideas emerge. You can hear Gavin’s views on Goenka and Mahasi Sayadaw and his experience of retreats with those lineages. We talk about innovation in practice, enlightenment, reincarnation, and much more.

See what you think and let us know how it goes in this experimental conversation. Feedback would be appreciated!

Links

O'Connell Coaching: https://oconnellcoaching.com

Post-Traditional Buddhism: https://posttraditionalbuddhism.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/imperfectbuddha

Twitter: twitter.com/Imperfectbuddha

Music by Stray Dogg from their fresh new album 'Look at the Moon'

https://straydogg.bandcamp.com/