Buddhism

S1 E8 Graham Oppy on Atheism and Agnosticism

Are you a theist, an atheist, an agnostic, or an innocent?

S1 E6 Donald Lopez on A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet

Dispelling the Darkness book coverIn 1712 Italian Jesuit priest Ippolito Desideri set off an dangerous mission to Tibet, his goal to win souls to Roman Catholic Christianity. But his plan was not to merely preach the gospel, or to combine preaching and charitable works. He would learn Tibetan, familiarize himself with Tibetan paganism, and seek to persuade them to convert through a series of rational arguments, put forth in a learned treatise in the style of Tibetan Buddhism.


What happened when he got there? In this episode Dr. Donald S. Lopez Jr. discuss his recent book, co-authored with Dr. Thupten Jinpa, Dispelling the Darkness: A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet. In this book they not only tell Desideri’s major-motion-picture-worthy story, but they also translate some of his writings. Dr. Lopez discusses both the stories and some of the central ideas of Desideri’s works. Boldly, Desideri tries to refute the central Buddhist doctrines of rebirth and of emptiness.


S1 E1: David McMahon on Buddhist Modernism

Before recent times, most Buddhists, and even most Buddhist monks, did not meditate. Yet today, many consider sitting meditation to be the essence of Buddhist practice. How does the Buddhism one encounters in the religious marketplace today differ from what was taught by its ancient Indian founder?

The Making of Buddhist ModernismAccording to Dr. David McMahan, author of The Making of Buddhist Modernism, both Asian and Western Buddhists have significantly adapted its teachings in modern times, incorporating several themes from modern Western cultures, including Transcendentalism, Scientific Rationalism, Perennialism, and Romanticism.

In this wide-ranging discussion we discuss Dr. McMahan’s evolving understanding of and experience of Buddhism, the different sorts of Buddhist sutras, how competition with Christianity has shaped Buddhist modernism, the appeal of spirituality without a personal god, Buddhism as both spiritual and scientific, rebirth, samsara, mindfulness meditation, the Buddha as “just a man,” worship of the Buddha and other beings, the issue of whether or not these new ideas constitute authentic Buddhism, the political implications of Buddhist modernism, and the future of Buddhism in the U.S.

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S1 E5 – Andrei Buckareff on Alternative Concepts of God

Dr. Andrei Buckareff and some of his co-authors are convinced that in recent times philosophers of religion have been too traditional, focusing too much of their attention on an understanding of God as a perfect creator of the cosmos who is distinct from that cosmos, someone who created it out of nothing.

To remedy this many of them propose that God just is the cosmos (pantheism) or that God is like a soul and the cosmos is God’s body (panentheism).

As it’s philosophy, though, intellectual diversity is on display; other authors criticize such views, or explore alternatives within or outside of traditional theistic theologies.

In this wide-ranging interview, we hear about this ongoing research project, some of these alternative concepts of God (i.e. the unique, ultimate reality), and what motivates such explorations.