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Welcome all you new followers of the Imperfect Buddha Podcast. We have had a spike of late in people liking the page, so I thought it right to make you feel welcome here and to reiterate our project in just a few words. We also welcome feedback on past episodes, and guest and topic suggestions to cover. If you're new to our podcast, the writings at Post-Traditional Buddhism Blog, or the minimalist output here and on Twitter, you might be surprised by some of what we do and if... that surprise is of the unpleasant sort, or if you see gapping holes in our understanding, or are amazed at the brilliance of guests, you might be suitably inspired to make a contribution. Don't be shy in doing so at any of our sites.
The project of the podcast is to engage creatively and critically with the big issues of our time that concern the practising life, and not just Buddhism. This means we are focussed on the religious, philosophical, sociological, political and cultural themes that play out in a world of practice, a world usually defined as contemplative, spiritual, or meditative. A world that is full of ritual and ceremony, both secular and otherwise. A world that can amaze and frustrate in equal measure. We like that frustration and grapple with it throughout our podcasts, along with the hopes and dreams of practitioners.
We are also here to fill something of a void and create connections. The void has been the antipathy towards the intellectual life, the theoretical pursuits and questioning of those outside one's immediate site of interest, on the part of many folks who self-define as spiritual or religious, primarily, but not only, in the world of western Buddhisms. The intellectual life here is understood as integral to a practising life, rather than intellectualism, or circular theoretical elaborations. It's understood as the life of the mind, from learning to questioning, from creative reflection to critiquing beliefs and ideas, as integral to ongoing adult development beyond the dysfunctional self that inhabits the spiritual world; one shaped by neoliberalism, or some other -ism.
The connections we are making are between people and people, and ideas and ideas, always chipping away at comfortable assumptions, and received wisdom. The new season will seek to continue to cross boundaries between the academic world and that of the practitioner whilst encouraging the latter to engage with ideas beyond their competence to open new avenues of exploration and inquiry. We are secretly pushing for many small revolutions to take place in pursuit of the liberated life from the one to the many and the many to the one.
Note that the podcast is available at Soundcloud, the itunes store, and on Stitcher.
Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.
Are we all going down it too? Daniel Ingram returns to the podcast for a third and final conversation and what a rich one it was. I believe it is well worth your time. After reading some Trash Theory, Daniel accepted Glenn Wallis’s challenge to read his book and after exploring the infamous SNB heuristic, based on the work of the rascally Frenchman Francois Laruelle, he came in for round three. We go back to the heuristic that started off the Trash Theorising, touching on Dec...ision, Sufficiency, and the Great Feast of Knowledge, before exploring novel takes on refuge, philosophy and practice.
The first two recordings have solicited quite a lot of reaction from folks on Facebook and Twitter and at the Post-Traditional Buddhism blog. This includes Tom Wooldrige who has a new blog dedicated, it seems, to critiquing Daniel’s Pragmatic Dharma approach from a psychological perspective that has stimulated reaction too. Subsequently Evan Thompson has chimed in on Daniel’s views, as has David Chapman, and Glenn Wallis.
This is a sort of eruption and a sign of the feast taking place. I argue that we need more of these kinds of conversations. Let’s see what you think after hearing this final one in this series.
