Hello All! My name is Mark, I am from Oak Creek, Wisconsin. I grew up in a fundamentalist born again Christian household, that identified as Pentecostal. As I grew up, I began questioning the teachings of the church, which lead to a lot of ridicule and abuse.  As you can imagine, that pushed me further away from belief, and I began a crusade that I describe as, “Agressive Atheism”, in which I would go out of my way to find and argue with those of faith. (I am not proud of this).  Now that I have closed in on my thirties, I have discovered a great disdain and unhappiness in the lifes ..read more

Hi there,    It appears this is a pretty dead forum at this time, but I'll leave my mark here in case things pick up in the future!    I recently rekindled my own interest in a mindful path after discovering Noah Rahetta's podcast Secular Buddhism and it transformed my life in the span of a few hours at work while I listened. I'm almost 50, have been practicing a self-educated means of meditating (read: I've been doing it wrong) for 35 years and only now am seeing real progress in bringing a mindful state to my waking life. Meditation and focusing on the aspects of the Four ..read more

I am one of earnest follower of the most famous Zen monk concurrently an enthusiast called as Myokonin influenced by Pure Land in his late life, Ryokan who is also known for a wonderful Japanese short poem poet and calligrapher. I always sincerely respect him and want to become a gentle and approachable person like him. I still have a lot about Buddhism to learn, especially from daily actual life so I registered here to learn as much as possible from other people from now on ..read more

Su 05/29/2022   23:45 CST   Greetings.   As I recently scanned the site- as a prospective new member (now a member), I noticed and compared the following two sections, that the second had an incorrect/hurtful “term”:   A) About/Participation Guidelines and Community Standards, Community Standards item: 1, ... “sexual orientation” ➡️ acceptable term   B) About/Code of Conduct, section: Non-Exploiting, ...”sexual preference” ➡️ non-acceptable term   Hence, I respectfully ask that “sexual preference” be edited to reflect “sexual orientation.”   Thank you kindly ..read more

Su 05/29/2022   16:32 CST   I am delighted to join (05/25) the Secular Buddhism Association community- it seems a perfect fit ..read more

Just so there is no confusion, as a lifelong science person I publicly make the confession of the honest: sometimes my mind plays tricks on me. With regard to secular dharma I am an explainer. With no formal Buddhist training but with a strong science background, in 1981 I had my kensho realization. This was informally verified by a student of a Tibetan Lama in the late 1980’s and formally and belatedly by Shinzen Young in a personal interview at a one week Theravadin format retreat he taught at the Highlands retreat center in Colorado in 2013. When Stephen Batchelor mentioned in passing in hi ..read more

How does an ethical and secular buddhist manage the politics of the sangha? Circumvent the limitations set upon investigation and inquiry, in the pursuit of an ethical and informed dharma practice?  I am participating in upasika training in BC, Canada, but have been disappointed with the shame and aggression shown towards secular, open, spiritual dialogue that avoids the attachments and hindrances encountered in the sangha.  ..read more

Any advise on how to "read" the Lotus Sutra. The language is fine and good and to be honest this is the first Sutra I have read. I find that the flow is somewhat wordy (it's like reading a Tolkien novel ?). I do have the Middle Length Discourses that I will begin shortly but went into the Lotus Sutra as I had it as a PDF already.  ..read more

I have been meditating and studying Buddhism for about 13 years. I started taking an MBSR class as a subject in a brain imaging study ..read more

Although I have "read" around Buddhism for a while I have only been walking the path for a could of months. Finding it very rewarding already.  ..read more