Almost every culture, religion, ideology, or world-view holds| Vividness
The endangered Himalayan Red Panda or “Firefox.” Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons| Vividness
The concept of “yanas” is a major source of confusion about Buddhism for Westerners. We get them muddled up with sects, which are a completely different thing.| Vividness
“Modern Buddhist tantra” unites the two threads of this blog: modern Buddhism, and Buddhist tantra. But what would that even mean? And is it even possible?| Vividness
Buddhism is enormously complex and diverse. Understanding it in terms of “yanas” helps figure out which parts of it matter for you personally.| Vividness
Many Western Buddhists would consider the following ideas obviously true, and perhaps as defining Buddhism:| Vividness
Tibet’s “Dark Age,” more than a thousand years ago, may be acutely relevant to the future of Buddhism. History suggests an answer to the question “can Buddhism be successful when monks are scarce or absent?”| Vividness
We may be at a momentous turn in Buddhist history.| Vividness
Antonio Terrone recently completed a most interesting PhD thesis on the current status of the gö kar chang lo’i dé (gos dkar lcang lo’i sde—ngakpas) in Kham and Golok (eastern parts of the culturally-Tibetan region).| Vividness
Michael Roach and Christie McNally, before they blew up, were trying to make Buddhist tantra work in 21st century America. I think that is terribly important for Buddhism, and for America.| Vividness
Buddhist Tantra defines itself partly by comparison with “Sutrayana,” which means “all Buddhisms apart from Vajrayana.” This section presents a detailed comparison of these two. | Vividness
Vajrayana is a form of Buddhism whose unusual characteristics make it particularly appropriate for contemporary Western culture, society, and psychology.| Vividness
I want a God / That stays dead / Not plays dead| Vividness
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It would be an exaggeration to say that “Zen” was invented as a defense against American gunboats. It would not be completely wrong, however.| Vividness
I’ve tried to be circumspect about popping off in your blog, David, so as not to be ubiquitous. (And have hereby rectified a misconstrued ‘modesty’ about claiming to be an Aro apprentice). But what you say is so frequently incorrigibly inviting! And then when I begin to organize my thoughts, interesting information comes my way– like that bit from Wikipedia about ‘dämmerung’ referring to BOTH those ambiguous-light times of neither-day-nor-night. (Like ‘twilight language,’ ano...| vividness.live
Joseph Goldstein’s One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism is a manifesto of Consensus Buddhism.| Vividness
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This table compares, point by point, Sutrayana (traditional non-Tantric Buddhism) and Buddhist Tantra.| Vividness
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This page is unfinished. It may be a mere placeholder in the book outline. Or, the text below (if any) may be a summary, or a discussion of what the page will say, or a partial or rough draft.| Vividness
My last post contrasted Buddhist Tantra with “Sutrayana,” which is supposed to be a summary of non-Tantric Buddhism. In future posts, I’ll ask how accurately “Sutrayana” reflects actual Buddhisms such as Theravada and Zen.| Vividness
You are trapped in a horrific video game, crawling with bloodthirsty ghouls. There is no way out.| Vividness
“How do you know the Buddha was enlightened?” asked the ogress in “Eating an entire epistemologist.”| Vividness
Vipassana meditation is the most Buddhist thing in “Consensus Buddhism.” This post starts to ask how Buddhist vipassana is, by tracing its history.| Vividness
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There is one dimension to that you touch on but I think needs a little further elaboration: Lamas in the west were actually far more powerful than they ever were in Tibet, at least within the bubble of their own little organizations. In Tibet, even lamas with a lot of political power were subject to all sorts of constraints, checks and balances. Although many people might have regarded them as gods, there were always other Tibetans willing to torture and kill them if they crossed the wrong bo...| vividness.live
I find it quite interesting that you use so much the term “Consesus Buddhism”. I have never heard about it, and I also cannot find a definition of it, but you use it in a way that seems that readers should be familiar with it.| vividness.live
Coauthored by Charlie Awbery and David Chapman and cross-posted to our sites Vajrayana Now and Vividness. We wrote this page to support Guru vs. the Learning Relationship, the seventh and final discussion in Evolving Ground’s foundational series with the Stoa.| Vividness
By “ethics,” in quotes, I mean talk about ethics, rather than what people actually do. This page explains “ethics” as signaling: personal advertisement. We all display “ethicalness” as a strategy for looking like attractive mates and coworkers, by signaling class status, tribal loyalty, and superior personality traits.| Vividness
Meditation, usually beneficial, can have negative effects too—sometimes catastrophic ones.| Vividness
“The only way to teach is by example”.| vividness.live
I ain’t against gods and goddesses, in their place. But they’ve got to be the ones we make ourselves. Then we can take ’em to bits for the parts when we don’t need ’em anymore, see?| Vividness
“Not about techniques” is a somewhat unusual view.| Vividness
I quite enjoyed the podcast, keep up the good work!| vividness.live
Ken McLeod has an exceptional ability to explain Vajrayana Buddhism in plain English. Dzogchen, a branch of Vajrayana, is the most difficult part of Buddhism to understand. It is also, in my opinion, the most important.| Vividness
American Buddhist organizations and events rarely run smoothly. We take muddled ineffectuality for granted. Leaders don’t understand how to organize, and participants vigorously resist all systematic processes. Few are on board with principle that “if you say you are going to do something, you should do it.” (And if you are not going to do it, you need to tell someone about it and help clean up the mess.)| Vividness
Robert Kegan’s model of adult development has profoundly influenced my understanding of ethics, relationships, society, and thought. This page summarizes his theory.| Vividness
