Shows / Buddhist Geeks
Episodes
Buddhist GeeksBuilding a Dharma Successor
Shinzen Young, professional meditation instructor and geek-extraordinaire, continues his discussion with us on the unique approach he has taken to combining…
Buddhist GeeksHollow Bones Zen
Jun Po Roshi, an American Zen Master in the Rinzai Zen tradition, joins us again this week to discuss the limitations of Japanese Zen as it enters contemporary…
Buddhist GeeksThe Zen Tree Fort in the Sky
Ken Wilber coined the terms “ascending” and “descending” to describe two possible orientations to spiritual practice. The ascending path has to do with…
Buddhist GeeksPsychotropics and NeuroLinguistic Zen
Jun Po Roshi, an American Zen Master in the Rinzai Zen tradition, joins us to discuss his fascinating history with psychotropic drugs, including a form of LSD…
Buddhist GeeksStuart Davis: Bodhisattva Rocker
This week we’re joined by prolific musician, artist, writer, & comic Stuart Davis. Davis, a long-time Zen practitioner, shares with us his background as a…
Buddhist GeeksThe Dhamma Brothers: Vipassana Meditation in Prison
We are joined this week by Jenny Phillips, Director and Producer of the newly released documentary, The Dhamma Brothers. The Dhamma Brothers gives an in-depth…
Buddhist GeeksThe Particularities of Awakening
The Geeks of the Round Table are back, continuing our discussion of Judy Lief’s article Glimpses of Awakening. We speculate on the language and culture…
Buddhist GeeksThe Buzz Lightyear Model of Enlightenment: To Infinity and Beyond
In this episode we bring back the Geeks of the Round Table segment. Joining us is one of our regulars Duff McDuffee, and a new geek to the lineup, Mike…
Buddhist GeeksHorizontal and Vertical Enlightenment
Philosopher and long-time Buddhist practitioner, Ken Wilber, continues his discussion of the meditative terrain and of his spiritual philosophy in general. He…
Buddhist GeeksThe Meditative Maps: Happy Mornings and Dark Nights
Philosopher and long-time Buddhist practitioner, Ken Wilber, shares with us a 10,000 foot view of the terrain of meditative experience. He describes several of…
Buddhist GeeksBuddhist Studies in the West
Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins, one of the most important figure in the development of Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the United States, joins us to discuss the importance…
Buddhist GeeksThe Practice Adventures of Dr. Jeffery Hopkins
Today we speak with Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins, Professor Emeritus of Tibetan & Buddhist Studies at University of Virgina. Dr. Hopkins is a prolific translator–with…
Buddhist GeeksThe Logistics of Being a Bodhisattva
Join us as we finish up our dialogue with Venerable Robina Courtin, the highly energetic Tibetan Nun, who some refer to as a “Dharma CEO”. In this episode she…
Buddhist GeeksVenerable Robina Courtin: Bodhisattva CEO
Join us this week as we converse with one of the most energetic and high-powered Nuns that we know, Venerable Robina Courtin. A long-time Nun in the Tibetan…
Buddhist GeeksTechnology Makes our Delusion More Functional
We’re joined again by CEO and Founder of Twine.com, and long-time Dzogchen practitioner, Nova Spivack. In this episode we discuss the short-comings of the…
Buddhist GeeksDoes the Web have Buddha Nature?
This week we are joined by CEO and Founder of Twine.com and long-time Dzogchen practitioner Nova Spivack. Nova has been a student of many of the world’s most…
Buddhist GeeksHow Did Descartes Die?
Join us this week as we speak with Dr. Peter Grossenbacher, director of the Consciousness Laboratory at Naropa University, about the difference between Eastern…
Buddhist GeeksThe Consciousness Labratory
Join us this week as we speak with Dr. Peter Grossenbacher, director of the Consciousness Laboratory at Naropa University, about his research on meditation and…
Buddhist GeeksDream Practices: Comparing Dream Yoga and Lucid Dreaming
B. Alan Wallace joins to us to compare and contrast two fantastic dream practices. One comes from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, going all the way back to…
Buddhist GeeksThe Yogas of Dream and Sleep
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, an esteemed teacher in the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet, joins us again to continue describing the importance of dream yoga as part…
Buddhist GeeksSleep as a Spiritual Journey
“Look to your experience in dreams to know how you will fare in death. Look to your experience of sleep to discover whether or not you are truly awake.” –…
Buddhist GeeksThe Inevitable Tension: Going Deep vs. Spreading Wide
Melvin McLeod, Editor-in-Chief of the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines, concludes his conversation with us, this time discussing the inevitable…
Buddhist GeeksPeering Under the Hood of Buddhist Media
“Buddhism offers the most profound critique or criticism of life imaginable in it’s analysis of the role of ego, and of the nature of samsara, as well as in…
Buddhist GeeksExistential Threats and Risks: We Can't Escape Impermanence!
“At any moment the Yellowstone caldera could blow up, wipe out %99 of the life on the surface of the planet, and probably all humans, and in our last minutes…
Buddhist GeeksCyborg Buddhas & Techno-Utopian Pure Lands!
With radical advances in science in technology would it be possible for us to turn our world into a so-called, “Buddha Realm” or would it be more likely that…
Buddhist GeeksTranshumanism and the Authentic Self
“The longer our lives, the more we’ll have a chance to see that there’s no self living them.” – James Hughes What is Transhumanism and how is it related to…
Buddhist GeeksRebirth and Suffering: How Important Are They?
“I do not believe in an after life, although I am bringing a change of underwear.” – Woody Allen The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche joins us again, this time to…
Buddhist GeeksThe Best Preparation for Dying Well is Living Well
The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is the only Rinpoche we know who owns and uses a Blackberry! Rinpoche shares with us the different ways that he has adopted modern…
Buddhist GeeksAnalytical Meditation: Going Beyond Coffee Table Dharma
The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, one of the foremost teachers in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism, joins us to discuss his efforts in creating a…
Buddhist GeeksZen Masters: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves
Long-time American Zen practitioner Stuart Lachs has spent some 40 years practicing Zen. First with Suzuki Roshi at the Tassajara Monastery in California and…
Buddhist GeeksThe Darker Side of Zen: Institutions Defining Reality
"What the teacher really offers the student is literally living proof that all this talk and the seemingly impossible goals [of Zen] can be realized in this…
Buddhist GeeksMind Like Space
Our conversation with Susan Piver continues this week as we wrap our discussion on the relationship between meditation and writing. We also also explore the…
Buddhist GeeksSusan Piver: The Fearless Writer
When Susan Piver’s book, The Hard Questions, hit the top of the NY Times Bestsellers list (and stayed there) she decided that she needed to deepen her practice…
Buddhist GeeksEvery Generation Creates the Dharma Anew
The Round Table Geeks continue their exploration of Whitney Joiner’s article, “Dive-bar Dharma”. In a flurry of paradox, perspectives, humor, and exploration…
Buddhist GeeksFinding the Future in the Past
Hokai Sobol and John Peacock continue their discussion about how the Buddha and Buddhism are described in the earliest Buddhist writings. By getting more…
Buddhist GeeksThe Stories We Tell Ourselves
Buddhist scholar and Chaplain Danny Fisher, joins us to explore various stories, or narratives, that run through the Buddhist world. There are a variety of…
Buddhist GeeksRedesigning Zen
We’re joined this week by Soto Zen teacher Zenkai Taiun Elliston. Along with the being the abbot of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center, Taiun is also a long-time…
Buddhist GeeksOptimizing Awareness in Organizations
We’re joined this week by Rich Fernandez, who serves as the Head of Learning and Organization Development at eBay. Rich has a long history with meditation and…
Buddhist GeeksYoung Buddhist Vignettes
This week we have an intimate conversation with two young Buddhist practitioners. The first vignette is with Sophie McLaren, who practices in the Shambhala…
Buddhist GeeksThe Way of Everyday Life
We’re joined this week by mother, author, and Zen teacher Karen Maezen Miller. Maezen speaks directly to the need to see through the dualisms that we create in…
Buddhist GeeksSecrets of Meditation
We conclude our discussion with spiritual teacher Sally Kempton—who has her spiritual roots in the Hindu tantra tradition of Kashmir Shaivism—this time…
Buddhist GeeksThe Tantric Cousins
This week we speak with spiritual teacher Sally Kempton. Sally was a student of the influential Hindu guru Swami Muktananda and taught in his lineage for many…
Buddhist GeeksCarving Out a Life of Meaning
We’re joined this week Krista Tippett, host of the award-winning radio show “Being.” Krista begins the discussion by sharing how she went from being the chief…
Buddhist GeeksGaming as a Spiritual Practice
Leading game designer Jane McGonigal joins guest host Rohan Gunatillake to explore the relationship between games and well-being, and see what clues they might…
Buddhist GeeksVirtual Vajrayana
Senior Shambhala teacher David Nichtern joins us to geek out about some of the potential consequences of our rapidly developing technologies on the Vajrayana…
Buddhist GeeksEntrepreneur as Bodhisattva
This week guest host Rohan Gunatillake of 21awake.com interviews spiritual entrepreneur Nick Jankel. They explore the notion of “enlightened entrepreneurship,”…
Buddhist GeeksTurning the Microphone Around
For this 200th anniversary edition, the microphone is turned around on the regular host, Vincent Horn. Our guest host for this week’s episode is the UK-based…
Buddhist GeeksThe Buddha’s Enlightenment Solved His Problem
We’re joined this week by Insight Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, to talk about her latest book, “Real Happiness” and also about meditation as an emerging…
Buddhist GeeksThe Wise Use of Technology
Many Buddhist figures have things to say about wise engagement with technology, but many of these same figures are not technologists themselves, and so have a…
Buddhist GeeksThe Technium
We’re joined this week by celebrated technologist and co-founder of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly. Kevin shares how he went from a back-to-the-lander hippie in…
Buddhist GeeksRebel Buddha
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche—a dynamic and engaging Gen X Tibetan Lama who has spent half of his life living in the West—joins us to explore several key points…
Buddhist GeeksLive the Questions
We’re joined this week by Buddhist teacher Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel to explore some of the topics from her most recent book, The Power of an Open Question…
Buddhist GeeksThe Lazy Path to Enlightenment
We’re joined this week by author, teacher, and Tibetologist Glenn Mullin. During our conversation with Glenn we focus primarily on a system of teachings in the…
Buddhist GeeksMaking Joy Our Default
Insight meditation teacher James Baraz joins us to explore the many facets of joy, happiness, and well-being. We begin by finding out how joy became an…
Buddhist GeeksLiving as a River
Bodhipaksa is a teacher from the Triratna Buddhist Community, formerly the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. He joins us this week to explore the Buddhist…
Buddhist GeeksLiving in Buddha Standard Time
We speak with Lama Surya Das this week about what it takes to integrate spiritual understanding into our lives as 21st century citizens. He explores the…
Buddhist GeeksThe Tao of Twitter
When it comes to leveraging the technologies of our time, Lama Surya Das is one of the most active American Buddhists around. He blogs, tweets, skypes, hosts…
Buddhist GeeksIntimacy through Practice
We’re joined this week by Flamenco guitarist and Zen practitioner Ottmar Liebert. Ottmar shares the story of how he broke with his childhood religion of…
Buddhist GeeksNon-Meditation and the Nature of Thought
“You need not make efforts to create non-conceptuality. You need not regard thoughts as a fault. And so that your practice does not succumb to famine, from the…
Buddhist GeeksA Different Way of Approaching Meditation
We’re joined again by meditation teacher Jason Siff to conclude our exploration of the fundamental ideas and practices behind his unique approach of Unlearning…