The Imperfect Buddha Podcast

Welcome back to the Imperfect Buddha Podcast. After our lively discussion of theory and practice, we embark on a new series of interviews for all you Imperfect Buddhas. Our first for 2018 features Evan Thompson, professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia, well known for his books “Waking, Being, and Dreaming: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy”, “The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience”, co-authored with the late Francisco Varela, “Mind in Life: biology, phenomenology and the sciences of mind” as well as “Self, No Self?: perspectives from analytical, phenomenological and Indian traditions”. Evan was invited onto the podcast due to his 2016 closing address to the ISCS and what appeared as a critical turn from Evan in the form of a critique of the fetishisation of mindfulness and its co-option for neo-liberal ends. Evan also argued for an embodied view of consciousness in his talk and critiqued the idea, popular in neuroscience work on meditators, that technology such as FMRI can give us a full or accurate picture of mind and an adequate picture of the significance of meditation and other contemplative practices. In his writing, Evan explores cognitive science, phenomenology, the philosophy of mind, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with Western philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Evan has additionally been involved with the Mind and Life institution and its dialogues between scientists and the Dalai Lama. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year folks! Stuart finally makes his return to the Imperfect Buddha podcast in an in-depth discussion of the role theory and practice might play in a post-traditional engagement with Buddhism. This topic was inspired by a recent series of posts on exactly this topic over at the Post-Traditional Buddhism blog. Our discussion goes critical as Stuart and I take our usual meander down the rabbit hole of taboos, and biting critique of the dysfunctional face of contemporary Western Buddhism. This may just be our most controversial, critical issue yet! So, start 2018 with a bang and listen in. Music by Bristol band Scalping.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I spoke to Ken McLeod, in person, in Croatia and we discussed a variety of topics, including; Vajrayana Buddhism, issues of language and his appreciation for Wittgenstein, direct experience V the conceptual mind, challenges for advanced practitioners, his ongoing relationship with practice, and more. Ken McLeod is a senior Western translator, author, and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He received traditional training mainly in the Shangpa Kagyu lineage through a long association with his principal teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, whom he met in 1970. McLeod resides in Northern California, where he founded Unfettered Mind. He has currently withdrawn from teaching, and no longer conducts classes, workshops, meditation retreats, individual practice consultations, or teacher training. Music by Gravenhurst.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here it is folks, the latest episode of the Imperfect Buddha Podcast and the last in our series on post-traditional Buddhism. It is also the final part of our series with Hokai Sobol. In this interview, Hokai tackles listeners question, well, at least some of them. We had over 18 to get through and although Hokai inadvertently covered some of them whilst answering others, we didn’t get through them all. I think listeners will find something of real value in Hokai’s answers and thoughts as we cover a wide terrain. Some of the questions covered include; 1. Has Hokai played around with any word instead of mystic/mystical? 2. What are the axioms that underlie the mystical approach as you define it? Or, what are the assumptions that drive the mystical approach as you’ve defined it? 3. Can someone pursue all three approaches at the same time? What are some of the possible adverse consequences of doing so? 4. Are religious and therapeutic approaches necessary starting points for a mystical path? 5. Do either of you see a role for community on the mystical path? 6. What are Hokai's views - if any - about the transmission of mystical practice? 7. Can mystical ways of practice ever be divorced from religious systems/symbolism/language? I suspect not, but I'd be interested to hear. 8. Does Hokai have any general advice for mystical practice in the midst of 'normal' life? 9. Where does this approach take us? Is there an end? A goal? 10. Can maps be a tool for people to understand their minds? 11. Is the open discussion of progress on the path helpful? Is it hurtful? Should it be discussed publicly, or left between student and teacher? If it's hurtful, can you please explain why you believe it to be so? Theme tune for the episode is from The Naturals.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hokai Sobol joins us for an in-person chat in Trieste. Our conversation was a second attempt at a podcast episode and this time it all worked out and there was enough content to span two episodes. Before lunch, we discussed Buddhism in the West and approaches to it. You can find out more about that in episode 11.3. After lunch we tackled the topic of mysticism and practice and that's what you will hear in this episode. Hokai is welcoming questions and queries from listeners for a follow-up episode. So, if you have thoughts, questions or doubts after listening to either episode, please leave a comment or question below or on the Imperfect Buddha Twitter feed so that Hokai and I can discuss them. So who is he? Hokai is a practitioner, pathfinder and mentor. Besides guiding a local Buddhist group gathered in the Mandala Society of Croatia, he works with a number of individual practitioners around the globe whom he meets regularly over Skype for mentoring. Hokai proposes that deep practice can be pursued in the midst of one's life, as long as it is clearly distinguished from religious activities and therapeutic transactions. Both Stuart and I have benefited greatly from Hokai's approach to mentoring and exploring Buddhism as a pathway. Music is provided by Ossia, again from the Young Echo collective. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hokai Sobol joins us for an in-person chat in Trieste. Our conversation was a second attempt at a podcast episode and this time it all worked out and there was enough content to span two episodes. Before lunch, we discussed Buddhism in the West. After lunch we tackled the topic of mysticism and practice, which you can find out more about in part two. Hokai is welcoming questions and queries from listeners for a follow-up episode. So, if you have thoughts, questions or doubts after listening to either episode, please leave a comment or question below or on the Imperfect Buddha Twitter feed so that Hokai and I can discuss them. So who is he? Hokai is a practitioner, pathfinder and mentor. Besides guiding a local Buddhist group gathered in the Mandala Society of Croatia, he works with a number of individual practitioners around the globe whom he meets regularly over Skype for mentoring. Hokai proposes that deep practice can be pursued in the midst of one's life, as long as it is clearly distinguished from religious activities and therapeutic transactions. Both Stuart and I have benefited greatly from Hokai's approach to mentoring and exploring Buddhism as a pathway. Music is provided by Vessel from the Young Echo collective. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh what fun we had...in putting this episode together, which is actually our twentieth! This episode takes forward our exploration of post-traditional approaches to Buddhism but we begin with a discussion that touches on a variety of topics including Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, archetypes, political correctness, and more. We then move onto the discussion and exploration of post-traditional Buddhism, drawing on the original ideas of Hokai Sobol, and tying together all of the themes into a wonderful unitary whole...of sorts. This episode represents change, not only for the content of our discussion, which is more serious than usual, but also for a number of sound bites which bring Sam, Jordan and Slavoj Zizek into the conversation. We hope you enjoy these and that they don’t upset the flow of the conversation which goes deeper down the rabbit hole than usual. Let us know what you think. Who knows? Perhaps a revolution is brewing. Music supplied by Taos Humm and RSD from Bristol, UK. Matthew O'Connell a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode starts off our exploration of post-traditional Buddhism, or better, post-traditional approaches to Buddhism. This might just be a major feature of the future of Buddhism in the West, if Buddhism actually manages to survive the rest of the century here as a powerful source for personal and social change. David Chapman may not think so, but who knows? If Buddhism was to benefit from a sufficient degree of cultural innovation, there's no reason why it shouldn't find itself once again providing meaningful responses to some of our wider concerns. After a short preamble and our usual silliness, we get into a serious discussion of the power and appropriateness of post-traditional approaches to Buddhism, even touching on how traditional Buddhists might explore such an approach themselves. Stuart gets in yet another dig at Shambhala...but if you are a good ol' Shambhalian, do try to avoid taking it all too seriously. We also include our end of year awards for 2016. A strictly tongue in cheek affair, it will give you the chance to hear all about the big Buddhist winners from last year with categories including; Buddhist scandal of the year, best book, best website and best German.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the imperfect Buddha podcast, we finally get round to speaking to David Chapman. For those familiar with David’s work, there is so much that could have been discussed as he writes on all manner of fascinating topics ranging from Buddhism to philosophy, psychology to Vajrayana, artificial intelligence and more. Our interests converged on the topic of maturation outside of religious and spiritual discourse with David’s recent exploration of adult development and maturation just the sort of topic that we like to explore here on the podcast. David has built on the work of Robert Keagan, an important living psychologist, in exploring adult development and maturation through five key stages. David focuses on three of them, aligning the final stage with Buddhism, in particular Dzogchen. An understanding of these stages has important consequences for Buddhists, especially considering the potential conflict between self-development, maturation and concepts such as no self, impermanence and so on. We cover additional topics such as the present and future of Buddhism in the West, the current state of university campuses in the Anglo-American world, the problem with SJW’s and post-modern theory, nihilism and determinism, practices that may shift people onwards through the last three levels of maturation and more. Enjoy! Sponsor The imperfect Buddha podcast is sponsored by O’Connell Coaching. If any of the topics in the podcast are personally relevant and/or problematic, or if you wish to explore life after Buddhism and are looking for support and guidance in personal development, an exploration of spiritual practice and transformative practices within a coaching context, follow the link to find out more here. The imperfect Buddha podcast supports up-and-coming musicians in Bristol groups. Oliver Wilde, a Bristol musician on the Howling Owl label, provides this episode’s music. Do have a listen and if you like what you hear, support the artist at the band camp site.Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, writer, critic, Buddhist scholar and Philadelphia punk legend punk Glen Wallis returns to the Imperfect Buddha podcast for the second part of our discussion on non-Buddhism and its consequences. We go deep into an issue at the heart of contemporary western Buddhism: the seemingly irresolvable division between immanence and transcendence, which in lay man's terms is the distinction between spirituality as escape or as embodiedness. You may not know how deep these two go down the rabbit hole of modern spirituality and how they sit right at the dysfunctional heart of Buddhism. Applying constructive critique, we look at how Buddhists and teachers avoid the consequences of thinking them through to the very end and how that lack of insight leads to all manner of escapism and confusion. This is an episode full of much of what Buddhists admire; compassion, wisdom, insight, perception, generosity. For those who don’t know Glenn, they will find the voice of a rare intelligence and generosity. We additionally explore death as cessation, peak states and problems surrounding the way we think about them, materialism V idealism, collective and personal freedom, and the social ramifications of it all. We also explore the construction of new ways of thinking about Buddhism’s greatest gifts of insight and potential methods for liberating Buddhism from itself and in so doing Buddhist practitioners that they may come to Buddhism with fresh eyes and greater imaginative capacity. I consider this the most valuable interview undertaken by the podcast so far and a must for advanced Buddhists, Buddhist teachers and those with a rich understanding of this religion, spiritual path and philosophy. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be a cynic, grab a stool and come on in. There has never before been a conversation quite like it in the history of western Buddhism. Episode music by Bristol (UK) based post-punk band Idles. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices