Harry and I are taking a little summer break which, sorry to say, means there’s no new episode this week. But don’t worry. We’ll be back the first Friday in September with more new episodes on Buddhism and the Dharma.

We also wanted to make sure all of our listeners know about a special event coming up in October. For the first time ever, the DharmaRealm is going to be recorded before a live audience. You’ll have a chance to ask us all your Buddhist questions in person without having to wait for the next episode.

The live event is scheduled for Friday, October 2nd and will be held here at the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley, California. So if you going to be in the area, mark your calendars and come on out.

You can find more information about the event on our website at DharmaRealm.com. Or you can become a fan on our Facebook page for more updates. And feel free to follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/djbuddha.

Thanks as always for listening and all your support. And we’ll see you in the fall.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17 — 1.8MB)

Once again, we take our inspiration from you, our listeners! One of our Facebook fans asks about the Seven Pure Land Masters, so we take up the cause with what may be the beginning a seven-part series. In this episode, we talk about Nagarjuna, a seminal figure whose twin concepts, emptiness (śunyata) and the two truths theory, are foundational for the development of Mahayana Buddhism. These conceptions of reality fit squarely within in the wisdom tradition of Buddhism more generally, and we can see a relationship between the ideas of the ultimate truth being beyond language and the inconceivable nature of Amida Buddha. Shinran writes in the Kyogyoshinsho that Nagarjuna was born to “crush the views of being and nonbeing,” which suggests that he was aware of Nagarjuna’s emptiness theories. And of course there is the ever important statement of Nagarjuna that the Pure Land Path is the “easy path” of practice. We talk about all of this and more in this week’s episode.

For some background, here’s a list of the Seven Pure Land Masters:
Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu ( India)
Tan-luan, Tao-cho, Shan-tao (China)
Genshin, Honen (Japan)

And a some of the works we discuss this week include:
Nagarjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
The Collected Works of Shinran

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:16 — 39.3MB)

A listener posed a two-part question via our Facebook page about why there aren’t monks in the Shin tradition and how one becomes a minister. We tackle this complicated issue by going back to the beginning with a quick overview of Buddhist monastic history from Sakyamuni Buddha through the rest of Asia. Things get a bit complicated in Japan, especially when Honen and Shinran seem to turn the categories of “monks” and “laypeople” on their heads. This brings us to the second part of the questions, how one actually becomes a Shin minister. So we talk a bit about tokudo, the actual ordination ceremony, and other rites and procedures. And we wrap it with a discussion about the role of ministers in contemporary Shin Buddhism.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:41 — 37.5MB)

Prompted by a listener who asked us to speculate on the next century of Buddhism in America, this time around we talk about some current trends and social issues that will no doubt have an influence on the direction of Buddhist sanghas. We start, oddly enough, in the past and consider the surprising twists and turns that Buddhism took through the 20th century as a result of immigration, war, and racial discrimination — all of which begs the question: what unforeseen historical events will shape Buddhist communities in the 21st century? There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that Buddhist communities are pretty heterogenous. Will that trend continue? Whereas Buddhists are a minority in this country, Buddhist ideas are pretty diffuse in popular culture. What impact will that have on traditional institutions as self-identified Buddhists stop feeling the need for “going to church”?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:25 — 38.3MB)

This time around we respond to a listener question about Shin practice, an issue we’ve tried to tackle before, and one that we’re likely to tackle again. Shin practice raises some complex, doctrinal issues. S we begin with a look at Shan Dao’s Five Practices which include, of course, reciting the name of Amida Buddha. But this issues is not as straightforward as one might expect; is it an exclusionary practice? Or is it alright to do other types of Buddhist practice? Or, as Shinran suggests, is it even possible to practice? Or are we not practicing at all except when we hear the Name being recited by the Buddhas? We meander through all these tricky issues before coming to, of all places, a translation of Shinran’s work by D.T. Suzuki and suggest that Shin practice is to live your life, and in that living reflect on your self, your actions, and your thoughts.

Some helpful resources for this episode include our past reflections on Shin practice which can be found here:
Podcast episode on practice

As well as the Collected Works of Shinran which are available online here:
Collected Works of Shinran

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:52 — 37.6MB)

This episode was inspired by a listener’s question about the relevance of a “Dharma Punx” model to Jodo Shinshu. We start off talking about how Shin Buddhism and the BCA in particular can be seen as “family Buddhism,” a double-edge sword in that it’s great for families but can be a little off-putting for folks without pre-existing family ties. But this raises the question of what is practice in Jodo Shinshu in the first place? This gets us into everything from the traditional dojo and myokonin stories to contemporary youth groups and bowling. (That’s right. We’re going Dharma Bowling.) All of this may or may not answer our listener’s question directly, but it started a great conversation about the ways that American Shin Buddhism is in transition and makes us think about new and alternative models to engage people in the Dharma.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:16 — 32.4MB)

One of the issues that came up for us in our post-modern conversations was the idea that here in the post-modern world, we’re all free to choose whatever religion we want, to choose whatever we want to believe or practice — which raises the specter of heresy! In this episode, we talk about Buddhist heresy which may be understood simply as “wrong views,” or more appropriately a reflection of the myriad of different ways to approach and interpret the Buddha Dharma. (So heresy really all depends on who you ask!) Our conversation comes back around to Jodo Shinshu and Pure Land Buddhism, a topic rife with different views and interpretations and charges of “divergent views” and heresy. We end by focusing on an important text in the Shin tradition, the Tannisho, a short, pithy but deep and complex work.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:51 — 35.3MB)

It’s been a year since Harry and I started our podcast! But, this episode isn’t really about that — I just thought I’d acknowledge the milestone and take this opportunity to say thank you to all our listeners and fans.

In this episode, we continue our discussion of postmodern Shinshu and Buddhism more or less where we left off in historical Japan. Specifically, we talk about how during the Tokugawa period, the government forbade different Buddhist schools from having debate or dialogue. That isn’t the case today in the United States where the diversity of different Buddhist schools, traditions, and viewpoints almost forces us to come to face-to-face with Buddhists who think or act or practice in different ways from our own. This diversity can be a positive challenge, or it can lead to a type of fundamentalism that effects Buddhists as much as any other religious tradition. We explore these ideas, as well as relativism, ethics, and the many mata-narratives within Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:47 — 34.1MB)

Somewhat related to our last episode on the one thing that unites all Buddhist schools, this week Harry and Scott talk about a post-modern Shin Buddhism. To really talk about post-modernity, of course, we needed to dwell a bit on modernity and how its use of meta-narratives helped explain the world. But the meta-narratives also ranked and valued different cultures (and since they were the ones doing the ranking, the Europeans usually came out on top). This is what post-modernity reacts to by deconstructing narratives, opening up the possibility of multiple and relative truths. Despite how unsettling that can be, we suggest it’s not such a bad thing to be critical of our inherited narratives, especially in Buddhism. Before running out of time, we touch on the multiple narratives within the Mahayana as well as inter-sectarian debate and dialogue within contemporary Buddhism.

This is part one of a two parter, so don’t forget to check back on the March 20th for the conclusion. (And our one-year anniversary!)

And as always, please feel free to send us questions either through the site or our Facebook page.

In this episode, Scott quotes from Religion and Globalization by John Esposito, Darrell Fasching, and Todd Lewis.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:56 — 35.4MB)

Prompted by another listener question, we start off clearing up some issues about the “no self” or “anatman” doctrine in Buddhism. Does it mean “no soul”? Short answer, yes with an if; long answer, no with a but. In short, there is a world of difference between the question of a soul in a Christian worldview and anatman in an Indian religious worldview. Moving on from “no self,” we tackle the question of whether or not there’s one thing that unites different Buddhist traditions. Is it “the Buddha”? Or “karma”? Or some other basic tenet or practice that unifies all the various strands of Buddhism? We tackle it head on! By asking if there should be something that unites all Buddhisms? Or should we, to borrow a phrase, celebrate our diversity?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:16 — 31.2MB)