Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Via TRICYCLE TALKS: The Problems With ‘Buddhist Exceptionalism





 
Each month, the Tricycle Talks podcast features leading voices and important conversations from across the contemporary Buddhist world.

This month, Tricycle editor and publisher James Shaheen sits down with philosopher Evan Thompson to discuss his critique of what he calls “Buddhist exceptionalism”: The idea, widespread among modern practitioners, that Buddhism holds a unique place above other religions.

That shows up in statements like “Buddhism is the most scientific of all religions” and “Buddhism isn’t a religion, it’s a ‘science of the mind.’” In his new book Why I’m Not A Buddhist, Thompson challenges the popular belief that science and Buddhism are uniquely compatible—and that Buddhism’s relationship with science gives it a kind of superior status. Instead, Thompson argues that Buddhism is fundamentally a religion, and in order to understand it properly, we have to think of it that way.


You can listen to new and past episodes of Tricycle Talks on the Tricycle websiteiTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio.

Via Daily Dharma: The Power of Simple Acts

Simply by turning on the light, you can instantly destroy the darkness. Likewise, even a rather simple analysis of ego-clinging and afflictive emotions can make them collapse.

—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, “An Investigation of the Mind

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - January 29, 2020 💌





You and I are the force for transformation in the world. We are the the consciousness that will define the nature of the reality we are moving into. 

- Ram Dass -