miscellany

see also After Buddhism :: Stephen Batchelor :: Yale University Press, 2015 / view on Google Books*

… a secular dharma which promotes human flourishing and a culture of awakening needs to be democratic, compassionate and grounded in our everyday life. A secular dharma is both radical in its reconstruction of Buddhism while respectful and appreciative of traditional perspectives and practices.

The ten theses:

#1 - A secular Buddhist is one who is committed to the practice of the dharma for the sake of this world alone.

#2 - The practice of the dharma consists of four tasks: to embrace suffering, let go of reactivity, behold the ceasing of reactivity, and cultivate an integrated way of life.

#3 - All human beings, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, nationality and religion can practice these four tasks. Each person, in each moment, has the potential to be more awake, responsive and free.

#4 - The practice of the dharma is as much concerned with how one speaks, acts and works in the public realm as with how one performs spiritual exercises in private.

#5 - The dharma serves the needs of people at specific times and places. Each form the dharma assumes is a transient human creation, contingent upon the historical, cultural, social and economic conditions that generated it.

#6 - The practitioner honors the dharma teachings that have been passed down through different traditions while seeking to enact them creatively in ways appropriate to the world as it is now.

#7 - The community of practitioners is formed of autonomous persons, who mutually support each other in the cultivation of their paths. In this network of like-minded individuals, members respects the equality of all members while honoring the specific knowledge and expertise each person brings.

#8 - A practitioner is committed to an ethics of care, founded on empathy, compassion and love for all creatures who have evolved on this earth.

#9 - Practitioners seek to understand and diminish the structural violence of societies and institutions as well as the roots of violence that are present in themselves.

#10 - A practitioner of the dharma aspires to nurture a culture of awakening that finds its inspiration in Buddhist and non-Buddhist, religious and secular sources alike.

☛ block quote copied as is from this post on the Secular Buddhist Network (SBN)*

also see on an earlier site a page of posts tagged dharma* … and search this site for dharma (!*)

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“he taught a way of life” / Salzberg, Goenka, Buddha (!?)
/ with a focus on “dukkha and the end of dukkha” (!?)*

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6. The practitioner honors the dharma … in ways appropriate to the world as it is now. / the present*

nothing isn’t dukkha: nothing is perfect, ideal,
complete, beyond change, beyond dependence …

dukkha is reality, and a reaction to it may arise:
to want reality to be other than it is or seems to be

to let go of this reaction lets it cease, revealing
a way of life that treats dukkha with equanimity

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nothing isn’t dukkha / everything is dukkha

you can experience dukkha with equanimity / Zoketsu Norman Fischer (!?)
/ see also the next post, en on: one being – and maybe revisit the present*

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☛ please copy-paste and email any or all of this line and what follows to people you think may thank you

secular dharma: inspired by “Buddhist and non-Buddhist, religious and secular sources alike” and intended for all aspiring to nurture a culture of awakening from the dream of selfhood

“All our ideas of morality and obligation, blame and praise are based on this dream and serve only to strengthen the illusion of its reality.” (!g) / Jacob Needleman on the dream of selfhood (!?)

secular dharma: inspired by “Buddhist and non-Buddhist, religious and secular sources alike” and intended for all aspiring to nurture a culture of awakening (!?)*

thank you for helping “to nurture a culture of awakening” (!?)*

may all be well and do no harm*