Buddhist Geeks

In this episode Vince Fakhoury Horn is joined in dialogue with Lama Rod Owens, author of the newly released book, Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation.

During the 2nd part of my conversation with Raghu Markus, director of the Love Serve Remember Foundation, we speak about the powerful fusion of of bhakti (devotion) practice and more traditional buddhist meditation practice. Episode Links: - Rick Doblin’s Psychedelic Studies: https://beherenownetwork.com/mindrolling-ep-148-rick-doblins-psychedelic-studies/ - Ram Dass: https://www.ramdass.org - Be Here Now Network: http://beherenownetwork.com - SHARANAGATI: The True Meaning of Surrender from the Bhakti Yoga Tradition: https://www.ramdass.org/sharanagati-the-true-meaning-of-surrender-from-the-bhakti-yoga-tradition/ - The Buddhist Geeks Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/?&tag=buddhistgee0c-20 Bookmark the link above and whenever you use to to buy something on Amazon Buddhist Geeks will receive a small percentage

Support Buddhist Geeks and get some sweet rewards by becoming a Patreon: www.patreon.com/buddhistgeeks Raghu Markus lives in Asheville (my hometown) and is the executive director of the Love Serve Remember Foundation, the same organization that runs RamDass.org. Raghu traveled with Ram Dass (formerly Richard Alpert) in the 70s to India and studied with the Indian guru Neem Karoli Baba. There he also met Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, & Lama Surya Das, who all became lifelong friends. During this first part of our conversation Raghu & I met up at a local tea shop and spoke about psychedelics. I hadn't expected to discuss this topic with Raghu originally, but it made sense given his connection with Ram Dass as well as his own journey through the psychedelic 60s & 70s, so that's where our conversation began. I hope you enjoy the lively stories and reflections that Raghu shares about his time with Ram Dass, Neem Karoli Babi, his father, as he explored spiritual practice and psychedelics side-by-side as a young seeker. Episode Links: Ram Dass - https://www.ramdass.org Be Here Now Network - http://beherenownetwork.com "Be Here Now" - http://amzn.to/2vMBAhc

In this episode we speak with Dr. Douglas Osto, author of "Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America". Episode Links: - Become a Buddhist Geeks Patreon http://www.patreon.com/buddhistgeeks - Douglas Osto http://www.douglasosto.com - “Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America” https://cup.columbia.edu/book/altered-states/9780231177306 - “Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars” http://amzn.to/2urpb2s - “Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics” http://amzn.to/2uqMrhj - 'She didn't know what was real': Did 10-day meditation retreat trigger woman's suicide? http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/06/york_county_suicide_megan_vogt.html

The intention of this series is to gain a deeper understanding of the relative merits and dangers of the mixing Buddhist contemplative practice and ritualized psychedelic use. Episode Links: - www.buddhistgeeks.org - "Meditating on Pyschedelics: What Camp Are You In?" http://bit.ly/2fcNQW1

Buddhist Geeks is stirring from the state in-between lives. It looks like a rebirth is eminent. Episode Links: - www.buddhistgeeks.org - The Buddhist Geeks Death Poem: https://goo.gl/w9csbS

Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei is a maverick spiritual teacher, master trainer, and founder of Center for Transformative Change. She is the author of "Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation". Sensei williams joins host Vincent Horn to continue the current series on ethics in a talk about race, love, and liberation. They address race and class in American capitalism, the construct of “whiteness” as a social form of ego structure, and how Buddhism provides the tools to uncover entrenched social structures and implicit bias. Links Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei - http://angelkyodowilliams.com TransformativeChange.org - http://transformativechange.org @zenchangeangel - https://twitter.com/zenchangeangel Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation - https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Dharma-Talking-Race-Liberation/dp/1623170982 Buddhist Geeks: Ethics Series - https://soundcloud.com/buddhistgeeks/sets/ethics

Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. He is the author of "Buddhism Without Beliefs" and most recently has written "After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age". In this entry to the Buddhist Geeks series on ethics, Stephen joins host Vincent Horn to consider what it means to secularize Buddhist ethics. They discuss the process of removing early Buddhist ethics from its early Indian metaphysics, and between the ethical practice laid out by early Buddhism and more Western versions of ethics. They finish by discussing the metaphysical faith of secularism, in particular the role that rationalism & individualism play in this translation project. Episode Links: - StephenBatchelor.org http://www.stephenbatchelor.org/ - "After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age" by Stephen Batchelor http://www.amazon.com/After-Buddhism-Rethinking-Dharma-Secular/dp/030020518X - "Syntheism: Creating God in the Internet Age" by Alexander Bard & Jan Söderqvist http://syntheism.org/wp-content/syntheism_book/Syntheism.html - "Cyber Philosophy and the Void" http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2014/03/bg-315-cyber-philosophy-void/ - "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari-ebook/dp/B00ICN066A?ie=UTF8&me=&ref_=mt_kindle - Buddhist Geeks: Ethics Series https://soundcloud.com/buddhistgeeks/sets/ethics

EMMA SEPPÄLÄ, Ph.D is Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Emma joins host Vincent Horn to share the science behind compassion. She describes the current state of compassion research, and she and Vincent discuss the effects of unbundling mindfulness, compassion, and ethics in a capitalist society. Links Emma Seppala - http://www.emmaseppala.com The Happiness Track - http://www.emmaseppala.com/book/ @emmaseppala - https://twitter.com/emmaseppala

James Hughes is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and the author of "Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future". Continuing in our series on ethics [https://soundcloud.com/buddhistgeeks/sets/ethics], James joins host Vincent Horn to discuss the ethical frameworks that underpin our social systems. From economics and social justice to conservative vs liberal values, to a newly emerging technoprogressivism, James and Vincent deconstruct and explore various ethical operating systems. Links James Hughes on Twitter - https://twitter.com/citizencyborg "Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond To The Redesigned Human Of The Future" - https://www.amazon.com/Citizen-Cyborg-Democratic-Societies-Redesigned/dp/0813341981?ie=UTF8&qid=1165506115&sr=8-1&tag=instforethiin-20 Technoprogressive Declaration - http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/tpdec2014 BG 077: Transhumanism and the Authentic Self - http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2008/06/bg-077-transhumanism-and-the-authentic-self/ ] Jonathan Haidt - http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/ Alexander Bard and The Syntheist Movement - http://syntheism.org Buddhist Geeks: Ethics Series - soundcloud.com/buddhistgeeks/sets/ethics

David Chapman is a writer, computer scientist, engineer and Buddhist practitioner. He blogs on several sites including the hypertext book Meaningness.com. In part two of a conversation on ethics with David Chapman and Vincent Horn, the discussion continues to explore a series of blog articles that David wrote on the theme of “Buddhist ethics”. They consider the usefulness of tantric ethics, examine Western Buddhism in context of Robert Kegan’s 5-stage developmental psychology model, and they speculate on how Western Buddhism might move into a next stage (stage 5: reconstructive postmodernism) of development. This is part two of a two part series. Listen to part one “Buddhist Ethics is a Fraud”. - http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2016/04/buddhist-ethics-fraud/ Links Meaningness.com http://meaningness.com/ David Chapman on Twitter https://twitter.com/Meaningness “Buddhist ethics” is a fraud by David Chapman https://meaningness.wordpress.com/2015/09/23/buddhist-ethics-is-a-fraud/#summary Consensus Buddhism and Mindful Mayo http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2011/12/bg-239-consensus-buddhism-and-mindful-mayonnaise/ Robert Kegan https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/robert-kegan In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Harvard University Press, 1994. (Paperback, 1995). (German translation, Kindt Verlag, in press),(1994) by Robert Kegan http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674445888 "The Further Reaches of Adult Development" - Robert Kegan https://youtu.be/BoasM4cCHBc

“Shakyamuni Buddha, 2,500 years ago, taught exactly the same ethics that was only rediscovered in California 30 years ago. He was a feminist, and sexually liberal, and environmentally conscious, and anti-racist. So great, we've got this religion that completely validates all the correct ethical positions and it's 2,500 years old.” - David Chapman David Chapman is a writer, computer scientist, engineer and Buddhist practitioner. He blogs on several sites including the hypertext book Meaningness.com. Beginning a season of episodes on the theme of ethics, Vincent Horn welcomes David to explore a series of blog articles that David wrote on the theme of “Buddhist ethics.” Together they question some long held secular, leftish beliefs about Buddhist ethics, they explore the distinction between morality and ethics, and they examine how Buddhist ethics are practiced in the modern age. This is part one of a two part series. Episode Links: Meaningness.com - http://meaningness.com David Chapman on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Meaningness “Buddhist ethics” is a fraud by David Chapman - https://meaningness.wordpress.com/2015/09/23/buddhist-ethics-is-a-fraud/#summary “Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction” by Damien Keown - http://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Ethics-Very-Short-Introduction/dp/019280457X Is “Buddhist ethics” Buddhist? by Amod Lele - http://loveofallwisdom.com/blog/2015/10/is-buddhist-ethics-buddhist/ ] Mindfulness is More Than Just Paying Attention (with Ron Purser) - http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2013/06/bg-288-mindfulness-is-more-than-just-paying-attention/ “Ethics” is advertising by David Chapman - https://meaningness.wordpress.com/2015/10/05/buddhist-ethics-is-advertising Consensus Buddhism and Mindful Mayo - http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2011/12/bg-239-consensus-buddhism-and-mindful-mayonnaise

Roland Griffiths is the lead investigator of the Psilocybin Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins and one of the United States’ leading psychopharmacologists. In the conclusion to his conversation with host Vincent Horn, Roland provides more details on the Hopkins Meditation Study, Vincent shares his personal story of psychedelic experimentation, and they discuss the risks and benefits of mixing meditation practice with the psilocybin experience. This is part two of a two part series. Listen to part one "BG 377: Meditating on Mushrooms". Episode Links: - Hopkins Meditation Study [http://hopkinsmeditation.com] - "The Trip Treatment" [ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment ] - Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D. [ http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/results/directory/profile/1311852/roland-griffiths ] - BG 377: Meditating on Mushrooms [ http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2015/12/bg-377-meditating-on-mushrooms/ ]

Roland Griffiths is the lead investigator of the Psilocybin Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins and one of the United States’ leading psychopharmacologists. In this episode Roland describes his research into the medicinal uses of psychedelics. He explains his history in the field, his current research around psychedelics and meditation, and he extends an invitation to the Buddhist Geeks audience to consider becoming a part of a meditation on psilocybin study at John Hopkins. This is part one of a two part series. Listen to part two "BG 377: Psilocybin: A Crash Course in Mindfulness". [ http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2016/01/bg-378-psilocybin-crash-course-mindfulness ] Episode Links: - Hopkins Meditation Study [http://hopkinsmeditation.com] - "The Trip Treatment" [ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment ] - Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D. [ http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/results/directory/profile/1311852/roland-griffiths ]

Caroline Contillo is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, & writer. In the conclusion to their conversation, Caroline and Vincent Horn examine the rewards and perils of storytelling in our daily lives. They share the concept of mindfulness as a Reality Tunnel and consider what happens when we forget that mindfulness is also part of a larger story that influences what reality is. This is part two of a two part series. Listen to part one "BG 375: The Story of Things as They Are". [ http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2015/12/bg-376-the-mindfulness-reality-tunnel ] links - Caroline Contillo on Twitter [https://twitter.com/spacecrone] - Space Crone [ http://spacecrone.com ]