Continuing on in our meandering diversion from a conversation about the Shinshu Seven Masters, this episode starts right where we left off last time in a conversation about the promises and pitfalls of “one Buddhism” or a universal religion. The underlying issue here has to do with problems of difference or “otherness,” something that we somehow manage to relate both to post-colonial theory and Mahayana philosophy. (No. Really.) In post-colonial theory we find the urge to both deify and demonize the other (which has particular implications for Buddhism’s transmission to the West); and in Mahayana we find a tension in the perennial debate between the complete otherness of nirvana from samsara versus the form-is-emptiness stance of the simultaneity of nirvana and samsara. And believe it or not, all of this actually brings us back to Genshin — one of the Seven Masters of Shin Buddhism! But don’t worry, we don’t linger there too long; we’re still pretty caught up on Cthulhu and Aliens.

Speaking on Aliens, don’t forget to check out our website for more information on our upcoming live recording in April.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:19 — 26.7MB)

Join us at the Jodo Shinshu Center on Saturday, April 10 for a live recording of the DharmaRealm podcast. Doors open at 1 p.m.

Following a short musical performance, we’ll be discussing, among other things, Buddhist cosmology and imagined worlds. How are Buddhist ideas of rebirth, Pure Lands, and other worlds relevant to our everyday practice? And how can other imagined worlds in pop-culture help us understand Buddhism? You can get a sneak-peek of this topic in our March 19th episode on Buddhism and science fiction.

The show starts at noon and is free and open to the public. Our public shows always include plenty of time for discussion, so come with your questions and we’ll do our best to address them.

You can send your questions to us here by clicking the “Have a question link” on the right-hand side of this page. Or submit questions via our Twitter feed or Facebook page.

Some time ago, a listener asked us to talk about the Seven Masters and we dutifully responded with an episode on Nagarjuna. We thought we might take a stab at the other Masters, but this post quickly veers off topic — but the diversion is well worth a listen! The conversation begins with a discussion of how the various Shin Seven Masters are common to a lot of other Buddhist schools suggesting a common denominator or point of contact for intra-Buddhist dialogue. But we acknowledge that each school interprets these great Buddhist teachers in its own way thus highlighting the differences. This leads to a conversation about language and the tendency among some to reduce the whole of the Buddhist tradition down to an easy essentialism and the dangers (as well as potential benefits) of this type of behavior. Be sure to listen to part two in a couple of weeks for the continuation of this conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:46 — 30.7MB)

Inspired by a conversation amongst fans on our Facebook page, we take up the issue of vows in Buddhism. Obviously, we need to start with how vows are understood specifically in the Mahayana context, especially Bodhisattva vows. But these aren’t the only types of vows in Buddhism, and we discuss different types of vows. Some are almost future tense (things we’re promising to do) whereas other are definitely past-tense — especially the vows that Dharmakara Bodhisattva made before he became Amitabha Buddha. These vows set up a karmic mechanism by which all sentient beings are able to enter the bodhisattva path and attain Buddhahood. So, where is the vow? It’s the question we try and tackle in this first episode of 2010.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:27 — 36.0MB)

In the final episode of our first live broadcast, we tackle more audience questions. To get things started, we field a question about the BCA’s official position on same-sex marriage (a big shout out to Rev. Briones’ officiating at the wedding of George Takei and Brad Altman!). This bounces us around some questions regarding BCA’s political opinions more generally which is hard to pin down with such a large, internally diverse organization. And from there we segue into a conversation about how we got interested in Buddhism and the religious backgrounds we were raised in. Not surprisingly, this takes us back to the earlier question about basic Buddhism the value basic Buddhism can have when you’re just starting out on the Buddhist path.

We’d like to thank everyone who helped up pull off our first live show. And you can be sure that there will be more live events in the new year!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:34 — 24.7MB)

In part of three of the live show series, our first question has to do with Shin Buddhism’s stance on aborted fetuses. Scott cleverly ducks the question but Harry provides some interesting insight into the Japanese ritual of mizuko kuyo (water baby ceremony) and the efficacy of ritual in Shin Buddhist context. Our second question is the ever-popular, if you had shinjin, would you know? Or, more specifically, given our deluded state as foolish beings, is it even possible to attain shinjin in this life. We both say yes (doctrinally, it has to be possible!), but provide some nuance to what shinjin is all about in the first place — a process, a relational state between the self and Amida’s compassion, like being in love — and we round it off with a good discussion of Shin Buddhism being a Buddhism of failure.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:10 — 27.7MB)

In the second installment of our Live Show, we start off talking about the distinctiveness of Shin Buddhism and its difference and similarities to other types of Buddhism. This somehow sets us off on a series of rants against, among other things, The Golden Chain and universalistic Buddhism. (Our apologies to Golden Chain or One Dharma fans out there!) These rants serve a purpose, though, and that is to challenge us to wrestle with difficult questions; it’s this wrestling that allows for spiritual growth, after all. And after these rants, we got our first audience question, a question about stereotypes we come up against as Buddhists. This, of course, sets us off on a couple of new rants about, among other things, Shin Buddhism being not “real” Buddhism and inter-sectarian name calling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:57 — 29.7MB)

On Friday October 2, we did our first recording before a live studio audience. Setting up in the Kodo of the Jodo Shinshu Center, Harry and I did a little live mixing of our theme music before launching into a regular podcast, this one inspired by a listener question. The question? What’s the Pure Land? No easy task, of course, and our answers — even before a live audience — had our usual meandering quality, touching on such issues as where is the Pure Land, when are we born there, and most importantly, what’s the point of being born in the Pure Land? (Hint: it’s to do Buddha-work here in this world.) This episode’s catch phrase was that the Pure Land has a certain reality which forces us to question our practice and our path.

The live recording went on for a good couple of hours, so we’ll have more episodes from this one event. And this was certainly not the last time we’ll be recording before a live audience. So be sure to check the website or our Facebook page for updates.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:37 — 29.4MB)

A listener writes in with an extremely interesting question: if Jodo Shinshu claims that when you go to the Pure Land you come back to this world as a bodhisattva, where are all these bodhisattvas?! This begs a lot of questions and raises a lot of issues about Jodo Shinshu Buddhism with the most obvious being, what is a bodhisattva? We can think of them as “Buddhas in training,” real sentient beings doing specific actions; but we can also think of them as “cosmic” or semi-spiritial beings, maybe working behind the scenes. But Harry points out that according to Shinran, birth in the Pure Land leads not to bodhisattva-hood — but to fully enlightened Buddhahood! That, of course, begs the question of, well, where are all the Buddhas? So we do our best to talk about how we can understand these teachings and put them into practice in our everyday lives in both spiritual and practical terms.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:38 — 28.2MB)

The DharmaRealm Podcast: Live!
At the Jodo Shinshu Center
Friday October 2, 2009 at 5 p.m.

Harry and I are going to be recording the DharmaRealm podcast before a live “studio audience.” If you’re going to be in Berkeley on October 2, please join us at the Jodo Shinshu Center.

The event will start with a live performance of Harry’s music followed by a short discussion between Harry and Scott on an as-yet undetermined topic. We’ll turn the mic over the audience for questions after that, so come prepared with your burning Buddhist questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

The Jodo Shinshu Center is located at
2140 Durant Avenue in Berkeley
at the corner of Durant and Oxford. There is (limited) free parking, but the best way to get there is via BART; the Downtown Berkeley station is just four blocks to the north.

We do all our recording in the JSC’s Kodo which is just up the stairs in the main entrance.

Get there early to check out the BCA Bookstore, the largest Buddhist bookstore in northern California. They’ve not only got a great collection of books but also plenty of altar accoutrement as well as gifts, music and more.