Calling All Nerds

Dharma Nerds aims to be a hub for intellectual and creative exploration of dharma themes in Buddhism and related Engaged Contemplative traditions. I welcome submission of your articles, photos, film and other visual art, poetry, creative writing and sound explorations. I love articles on modern and post-modern dharma scholarship, but also heterodox and counter-cultural explorations …

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Calling It Quits

Update: I've decided that I have to forge my own spiritual path. I have been deeply influenced by Buddhism, and generally its been a very good influence. But I've been moving toward forging my own path for several years already. I practice Engaged Buddhist Naturalism, and there is no group or institution that teaches Engaged …

Staying Connected

Today I led a discussion with Trash Community on ‘Ditching the Raft’ (MN 22), i.e. letting go of Buddhist dharma when we no longer need it, especially when modern science does a better job of explaining things than ancient Buddhists texts do. Evolution, modern psychology, quantum field theory, social science, ecology and systems theory all …

Jati, Rebirth and the Caste System

I've been reading that the word 'Jati', which is what is used in the Pali scriptures to mean 'birth' is wrongly translated as 'rebirth'. As Thanissaro explains, there is no word for 'rebirth' in the Pali scriptures. It's just 'Jati', 'birth' and that's it. According to Nanavira Thera, the actual Pali word for ‘rebirth’ is …

Ambedkar and the Navayana

I’ve decided that I could tolerate calling myself an Ambedkar Buddhist, following his Navayana. I've read Ambedkar's The Buddha and His Dhamma, but it's really hard to pin down exactly what Ambedkar believed and taught about Buddhism. The best summary I have found so far is the Wikipedia entry for 'Navayana.' It's even harder to …

Bourgeault: the Non-Dual Jesus

I read most of Cynthia Bourgeault's Wisdom Jesus, which is her contemplation on Jesus as a teacher of non-duality in a theistic context. If ??? comes to mind from that statement, it should, because it's nearly impossible to be nondualist and theist at the same time, unless you say that 'everything is god.' Anyway, I digress. …

Ditching the Raft 3: Midstream

Hello, just thought I'd give you a heads up that I'm going to be changing things a bit around here. Dharma Nerds might go dark for a while. I may merge what I've been covering in Dharma Nerds into Engage! going forward. It's easier to handle one blog instead of two. I will continue to …

Play as Practice

The Messy Fritata. What I’m about to serve up to you will be a messy fritata of chopped up thoughts and passages that perhaps won’t make much sense, but I sure hope it tastes good. I’d like to propose ‘play’ as a form of practice. Most Buddhist practice is serious to the point of morose, …