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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Bangkok’s Biennale Art Festival

I had thought of the lack of material culture in Buddhism, compared with other religions, as a 'lack'. Buddhist music, dance and visual art, what there is of it, is pretty meager. But now I see it as an opportunity, a wide open space to create whatever we want, contemporary, radical art, even the avant …

Rational Individual vs. Cosmic Connection

Here's a fragment of a Reddit discussion at r/buddhism: The European Enlightenment produced the Rational Individual, which was definitely an improvement over the instinctual, irrational, tribal, and magical (including magical beliefs in God) European. But it's only one stage of human development, and an early one at that. It's just post-adolescence, the first stage of …

Buddhism: Perfect or Imperfect?

Definitely Listen to Matt's interview with Richard K. Payne, one of the Buddhist scholars that I admire most. https://soundcloud.com/post-traditional-buddhism/48-ibp-richard-k-payne-critical-reflections-on-western-buddhism And this is my response to the interview Perfect, True Buddhism is not: Modernist Post-Modernist Romanticized Westernized Perennial New Agey a Cult a Guru Scam Exploitative Indifferent Hierarchal Self-serving Secular Religious Scientistic Meditation Not Meditation Scriptural …

Bhikkhu Bodhi: The Two Vehicles

I found this teaching by Bhikkhu Bodhi on the Two Vehicles to be very interesting. He begins with the idea that the enlightenment of the Buddha wasn't just a personal private experience, but the beginning of a new era in human history that has been unfolding continuously since that event. The Buddha's enlightenment ushered in …

Chi Factory: the Mantra Recordings

Listening to spiritual jazz and improvised music has become my evening meditation on many nights. I encourage you to check out the vast library of contemplative sounds at The Slow Music Movement. You could also check out my Tumblr music blog, The Soul Yogi and listen along with me. https://thesoulyogi.tumblr.com My latest meditation: the Mantra …

Best Buddhist Album of 2018

"Masana Temples": Best 'Buddhist' Album of 2018. Psychedelic Fuzz-Jazz Fusion with dueling guitars, sung in Japanese. In my attempts to find bands that ‘sound like’ Khruangbin, I came across this ingenious crew from Japan, Kikagaku Moyo (’geometric patterns’). Prepare to have your minds blown. The dual guitarists are sooooo good. Great arrangements; they know how …

Brahmajala Sutta: Past and Future States

Oh what the heck, here's my take on the Brahmajala Sutta and the '62 beliefs'. I'm using the synopsis provided by Wikipedia, chosen for brevity. I'll go through each section and make comments on each section, as well as my overall sense of the text. My comment is in italics. In the second part, the …