The Imperfect Buddha Podcast

After the creative wonders of the Critical Turn #1, we have the magical appearance of Daniel Ingram in two conversations covering a great deal of ground. Our first conversation covers a wide range of topics from practice to waking up, from generation-X to cynicism. The second covers a series of posts from the Speculative non-Buddhism site called Trash Theory. We discuss the SNB briefly and then tackle some weird and wonderful postulates those boys have been playing with of late. That second episode will be released within the next 24 hours. Both episodes feature the same introduction and will be released in the same week. This is because folks will likely get more out of one episode than the other; though I shall post them in the order we recorded them. The second episode is also incomplete and Daniel and I will be recording its follow up this coming Thursday (20th June, 2019), which means you have the opportunity to chip in with your own comments, complaints or curiosities, though you’ll obviously have to be quick. It’s possible that we will also tackle some of Ken Wilber’s work in that episode and Daniel’s take on it, so if you have any insights into why Wilber was full of it, or specific points that underline problems with Ken’s work more generally, let me have them, as I have only a superficial reading of his work and never felt motivated to read beyond a general introduction to his ideas, which seem pretty simplistic, though potentially useful. Music is supplied by Kali Phoenix & Hundred Strong.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Critical turn #1 On a deep dark night in a deep dark wood, something strange happened over at the Imperfect Buddha podcast. Was it a moment of folly? Was it a moment of genuine madness? It remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure is that a critical turn took place and in good company too. For in that deep dark wood there was a gathering and a fire and those who turned up were Samuel Beckett, Peter Sloterdjik, Francois Laruelle, and Evelyn Underhill. Animal presences could also be heard amongst the trees and in the undergrowth, whilst the fire crackled away providing the warmth that would stimulate a rather atypical exploration of recent themes to appear on the podcast. This is the first of perhaps many critical turns, or, if it is deemed a forest fire like disaster by listeners and critics, it may be consumed as a one-off event, just like a Tibetan sand painting. As I have been saying for several episodes now, the creative and the critical are great bedfellows and this is my expression of a meeting between the two. There are strange sound effects, music, disembodied voices and narration. For the more practically minded, what I do is lay out a number of principles for guiding a sort of critical engagement with Buddhism, Buddhist materials, and practice materials more broadly beyond spirituality. I also reflect on the topic of mysticism which came up in my conversation with Ken and Hokai. This is in fact the intention for future critical turns, to pick up on and addressed issues left over from conversations with guests, identify unanswered questions, and make links to broader issues covered in the life time of the podcast. This may also produce interesting material to explore with future guests. It is an experiment, so it may or may not work. Feedback will hopefully be worthwhile and indicate the direction that further critical turns take. Prepare yourselves, expect the unexpected, and try not to take it all too seriously. Comments, complaints, suggestions, corrections, pledges of large sums of money, can all be made at the usual places. Enjoy the show! Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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?"Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Berkeley. 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.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“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. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices