🧡 If you find benefit in my videos, consider supporting the channel by joining us on Patreon and get fun extras like exclusive videos, ad-free audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: www.patreon.com/dougsseculardharma 🙂 📙 You can find my book here: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook
The thing I like about Buddhism is that even without having to believe in anything in particular, it offers hugely practical help in dealing with the difficulties we all must face. I hope you and your wife continue to grow in strength in the face of your own challenges 🙏
You know how I got Buddhism? I watched one of your videos years ago ~ This lead me to Jetsumna Tenzin Palmo. I had no idea what a Buddhist nun was and for whatever reason the RUclips algorithm recommended it to me and the rest is history. I took the precepts over zoom with her. She totally changed my life. And honestly, it’s all because of you.❤ she just celebrated her 81st birthday by the way❤
Same here. Doug's videos led me to more videos on Buddhism and Taoism just before and during the pandemic. I dove deeper into Taoism first, and then eventually I found many channels where I could listen to Dhamma talks by various monks and nuns across the world. Saved me ❤ I was always drawn to Buddhism as a child too, we did have the story of Siddhartha Gautama and King Ashoka as part of our primary school history syllabus but I'd never gone deeper until now, all thanks to RUclips!!
Thank you for sharing your story, Doug. Your channel helped me immensely and is the reason why I started to become interested in Buddhism. Greetings from Argentina!
My tips for beginner meditators: ● Do pre-meditation--avoiding anything that agitates your mind 1h prior to actual meditation (e.g. games, music, TV, etc.) ● Don't eat right before meditation, but don't start meditating if you're hungry. ● have a handkerchief and a bottle of water at hand. ● seek a quiet place with minimal stimuli ● use earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones if have them ● Wrap a blanket or mantle around yourself to protect you from insects ● invest in longer, 1h+ sessions if you can
Thanks for sharing your story. For me, it was exposure to Alan Watts lectures when I was in college that turned me into learning more about Buddhism. One of my professors let me borrow a huge CD set, and honestly it got me through some fairly difficult parts of my life at the time.
I started doing yoga in 1964 when I was 11. The next year I read Walpole Rahula's What the Buddha Taught. The year after that I tried not to join the church, it went badly, so I had to wait until I was majority age to be a Buddhist. At 21, I started learning liuhebafa, which has an exercise called 'wind-circle standing' which is meditation and for the next 45 years I switched back and forth. I learned Chinese and studied a lot of Daoism, and Daoism-Buddhism (one of the roots of Zen). I did formal sitting in Zen. But usually I prefer standing. 5 years ago I had an experience that began with having a 'perfect stand' -- keeping my mind on each and every breath for the whole 42 minutes. That lead to adding shaking to my practices and switching to what is currently a mixture of Tantra, Shamanism, and Buddhism. My current goto text is Vyaktabhavanugatatattvasiddhi (Realization Through Bodily Expressions), which is in Sanskrit and is by Sahajayogini Cinta.
I took a class in college where I was really exposed to the Buddhadharma. Thankfully the professor gave everyone the classical What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula, after reading his preface on how westerns should read the book, it was enough for me to have a breakthrough and changed my entire view point on life. Thank you for this video Doug it brought some inspiring feelings🙏
This channel has helped me imensely. One of the best maybe the best place to learn dharma on you tube, and the internet more broadly. Thank you Doug Smith 🙏.
You kind of remind me of my parents, who were agnostic when I was growing up. I tried meditating a few times as a kid but didn't have a teacher or social support and got distracted by other things. Had an intense and severely life-threatening illness as a teenager that was very traumatizing, but got introduced to yoga and reintroduced to meditation as a freshman in college and had some life-changing spiritual experiences shortly thereafter. I started practicing every day as soon as I had some teachings because it was so helpful for trauma. I had signed up for a month-long Tibetan Buddhist retreat a few weeks before I met Kali in a visionary experience and converted to Hinduism on summer vacation after freshman year. I ended up switching my major from philosophy (mostly western) to religious studies to study Hinduism and Buddhism. I've learned a lot from Mongolian Buddhists and Tibetan Buddhist in the Nyingma and Shangpa Kagyu lineages, and did my MA in Religious Studies and Sanskrit at Naropa University, though I've gotten a lot of flack from both Buddhists and Trika Shaivas for being different from what they consider normative. I like the Nath tradition best.
Buddhism Plain and Simple was the real break through work for me. Growing up around Christianity I was familiar with "The Message" which was rewording the Bible into a modern way of speaking. This process of converting the old language to new was going on through the 1990s. Right in the middle of that Buddhism Plain and Simple did an excellent job of explaining the basics to a beginner. I realize now that my next door neighbors were likely Buddhist but when I was around them as a kid I didn't realize there were non missionary religions where the adherents were not trying to convert you to their religion. I wish a lot of the Buddha's wisdom rubbed off on me in those early years. Not only works like that previous mentioned but also the what I started reading by Thick Nhat Han over this last year. His teachings on the interbeing and become an inter-are with you who you were as a child have been an important backbone to my writings of childhood lately.
I joined the Air Force in 1981. Of course never having had traveled but to a couple states, the first place they sent me was Korea. One day I went hiking by myself with my camera on some near by mountains. As I was walking I saw a small temple with just one monk sweeping the grounds. There was a about 25 ft tall Buddha with a raised earthen area around it. I sat down next to the Buddha and the monk just kept on sweeping and never even looking at me. I looked up at the statue and was impressed at how beautiful it was. As I looked over the body I got down near the feet and then I was shocked. Around the four sides of the base of the statue were Swastikas! Looking at the serene face of the Buddha and then seeing what I only knew from history class about Nazi's put my mind into a very perplexed stare. As soon as I got back to the base I went the library and checked out every book I could find about Buddhism. After a short bit of reasearch I became a Buddhist and have been ever since. Little did I know that the Swastika had a long history as a symbol of Impermanence in Buddhism and is very common in Korea, Japan, and China.
Ah yes, the western mysticism to buddhism pipeline. My path went through western alchemy and magic until I had a crush on a girl with a "dharma bum" tattoo, which led me to the book, which in turn led me to the lankavatara sutra.
Thank you for sharing your story, Doug! I appreciate that you find your "way" after many years of study, and to me is an important fact: I'm always saying to myself "You're late in life, you must find your way now" and these kinds of things, but your story taught me that it's never to late! Thanks!
I used to watch Kung Fu and Monkey on TV as a kid which was an introduction to Buddhism. Some very profound parables in those shows. Fortunately with the Internet now there is a wealth of resources including this Channel on Buddhism. Some of my favourites are Mindah Lee Kumar, Shinzen, Adyashanti and Hardcore Zen.
I really appreciate your videos and hearing about your personal path. You and Dr. Wright, were my introduction to serious Buddhist ideas. I was an engineering student at UW-Madison in the late 70's. Glad to know you are a fellow Badger. It was there I took an elective course on a "A History of Science and Theology," which was offered from the College of Engineering in those days. That course probably had a bigger effect on me than all my other engineering courses.
How funny, I also credit Gödel, Escher, Bach with my discovery of Buddhism. I also made it about 3/4 through and never finished 😅 it was certainly instrumental in introducing me to the concept of non-duality, that consciousness exists on a spectrum of recursion, and human consciousness is simply a complicated pattern of self-referential loops. I actually found Hofstadter's other book "I Am a Strange Loop" to be far more digestible. It expounds on his basic premise in a less technical, less dense way. I would highly recommend it as a starting point for anyone interested in his writings
Thanks for this video Doug, really interesting. My wife has also been through a few years of terrible chronic pain, so that part was very relatable. We do practice some meditation these days and that helps. Best wishes to you both.
I came here searching for an entry point to buddhism. And a lot of what you say at the start(I haven't gotten to the middle of the video yet) really resonates with me. I am curious about the world, quantum mechanics was a mystery to me as a kid and it made me pursue physics. Now I am deep into my QFT studies. I was relieved to hear that you recognized that there is nothing connecting QM and buddhism because I am very tired of people abusing science they do not understand. Makes me want to hear more of what you have to say. I am not here to find god, I am not here to find religion. As an outsider, it feels like buddhism has lots of great insights into the human mind which are accurate on a qualitative level. And I seek these insights to achieve greater harmony and peace within me
Excellent video! Thanks Doug. I'm deciding between doing a phd in either philosophy or Buddhist studies, leaning towards philosophy this is very helpful.
This is crazy to hear because I’m 19 and have followed a very similar journey with introduction and childhood to these ideas and quantum mechanics pseudoscience kind of ideas. I’m pursuing physics in undergrad and have long since realized these conceptions were largely unfounded and pseudoscientific but it is fascinating how many share this journey
Finishing the rest of the video my position on the faith based aspects of Buddhism are very similar and with a scientific leaning mind (hence studying physics and math) I find the secular Buddhism movement much more approachable and applicable. I also share many of these views as a result of being raised in and leaving the Christian faith (and being scrutinized for it sadly). I’ve also taken some philosophy courses at my college and hope to take a Buddhism centric one in future years and find a community to share thoughts and practices with as a grow older.
Very cool, yes I think a lot of folks get intrigued by the more "esoteric" aspects of Buddhism (among other belief systems). Question is whether when you jettison the more speculative and unproven material much remains. I think with Buddhism the core remains.
Fascinating journey! I too started from analytical philosophy, and slowly and unfortunately went down the reactionary atheist pipeline, Buddhism marked a point in my journey when I started to view not the world in terms of contrasts and more as unities. I’ve know opened to fields like Dialectics, which along with Buddhist principles, plays well with the field of my expertise, AI.
Wonderful! I'm no AI expert but we did deal with it a bit when I was in grad school doing philosophy of mind. I did a short series on Buddhism and AI: ruclips.net/p/PL0akoU_OszRgY_O5tt-3mRipYsKWFREtt
@@DougsDharma I’m aware of these, and enjoyed watching them too! If anything, the Turing Test is in a sense just an exposition of the form-lessness of the phantasma of Self. Similarly, the concept of ‘autonomy’ plays a similar spectral role in Control Theory (also known as cybernetics). Thank you for your good work!
Your mention of attempts to tie together quantum mechanics and Buddhism reminds me of similar attempts to tie quantum physics and magick/spellcraft when I was Pagan. Also struck me as unsupported, based on wishful thinking. Thank you for sharing your story and the efforts you put into your videos
Greek mythology and norse mythology what got me started on buddhism talk about possibility of reincarnation and nirvana having past live and future trying to get out of samsara sound intersting
I also get interested in many things and it gets hard to sustain my attention on just one thing. As for me I was born into a Buddhist family but I didn't had much interest in Buddhism. But as I had gotten older and began to understand it more through books and other forms of media, I stopped being a Nominal Buddhist and embraced it more. Note: I get mistaken to be a Tibetan but to set it clear, I am a Bhutanese
Thank you for sharing your background. Our hobbies and interests are very similar and I also live in New York (up state). I have been doing some journaling in part to discover who I am. Your videos are helpful. I think we also might share a personally type, INFJ. Who knows. Anyway thank you for the great content.
im a srilankan buddhist . buddhism in srilanka in mainstream media have gotten political . on the otherhand ,this is breath of fresh air.btw buddhist temples in my local areas haven't got politcial at all
Your formative years sound very much like mine. I'm sure we would have been friends growing up. Like you, I attended U.W., but in the Buddhist Studies/South Asia Dept. The earliest book dealing with Buddhism I can recall reading is "Halfway Through The Door" by Alan Arkin.
U make me think about I got in to it. Growing up in an atheism orientated family I got across the four truths when I was ten or eleven. I must have been suffering a lot because I felt them to be fundamentally true at once. Well, it was so with at least with the first, second ,and third one. Now, quite a couple of decades have passed imho to be fourth is my kōan. namu namu & thanx a lot! ☘️☘️🍀🌸🍀☘️☘️
Hey Doug, thank you for another video . Have you ever made a video on Ashoka the Buddhist ling after the Kalinga war? That might be cool. You don't have to, but it's another idea if you're not sure. 😊
Thanks for the great video Doug! It's really interesting to hear your journey, I was also raised in a secular household and similarly was super interested in myths (mostly greek when I was younger). I had a question, seeing as you have your doctorate in Philosophy, have you ever considered doing a video about Schopenhauer and how he contributed to a Western understanding of Buddhism?
Buddhism has been a constant source of peace and a rich path for spiritual and intelectual exploration. Your videos have been useful in this exploration. I'm grateful for that. Nevertheless, I can't help thinking sometimes that, in a way, the message is that the existence of individual lives is a sort system error that we have to try to correct until we dissolve and ceased to exist as individuals. It's kind of sad to think that the whole point of our existence is to fix a system error. I would like to know your thoughts about this.
Thank you for sharing. Starting with the early sutras is a good idea. Did you do or ever think of covering Christian mystics and their paradoxical language? It would be interesting to look at Zen paradoxes (koans) and compare them to e.g. Christian mystics. Another thought that feels natural especially in regard to this video is how you can understand suffering in Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism. ❤❤❤
@@DougsDharma Sr Meg Funk OSB (friend of Dali Lama) series Thoughts Matter, Tools Matter, etc ( Matters Series on Amazon) on the Desert Tradition. Very accessible👍🏻
I just got curious about who buddhists worship because I don't hear about them in the whole 'my religion is the true religion' conflict which drove me away from Christianity, Islam, Judaism & Hinduism. So I spent all weekend researching it and I liked most of what I found in comparison to the other religions. Not a fan of the restrictions on speech though. No idle chatter or harsh speech aka never speak up because you could upset someone. Of course it's super easy to follow those restrictions but they make me feel dead inside. Also people get offended when I don't have much to say.
Right speech is more complicated than that; for example the Buddha advocated for saying painful truths when they were necessary. I will be doing a video on right speech soon, along with the other aspects of the Eightfold Path.
Thank you Doug, this was great. I still have a question, though, albeit one you touched on in the video. Why Early Buddhism instead of Zen? I've only been learning about Buddhism for a mere 5 years, but it seems like the things you have to set aside in early Buddhism, like multiple-lives reincarnation, are already done away with in Zen. So from my rather ignorant standpoint, Zen would seem to be a better "starting place" for secular Buddhism than early Buddhism. But maybe I'm still in the "Zen Buddhism is cool Buddhism" mindset of a beginner? Thank you for your channel and wisdom!
Zen can be a good place to start for sure. However be aware that not all Zen practitioners dismiss rebirth; many take it seriously. Also Zen is very much a religion in terms of ritual, hierarchy, devotion, lineage, and so on. Another issue is that Zen is not the best place to start if your interest is in understanding the dharma. Understanding isn't the point in Zen, and often teachers won't really be interested in that aspect of belief. All that said, I do love Zen practice and aesthetics.
You mentioned not finding connection between quantum physics and Buddhist thought having dabbled in looking at it. Are you referring to the dialogue between Krishnamurti and David Boehm?
What made you leave academic philosophy Doug? I'm curious to hear your perspective because I am a current undergraduate student in philosophy and am debating whether or not to go to grad school and pursue my studies in eastern philosophy or not
Several things, I was getting kind of bored of the same nitpicking arguments, and also the job market is really terrible. You have to be really devoted to teaching to put up with it, and I never loved teaching and trying to motivate students.
@@Lalalala22537 According to the internet you are wrong. The earliest surviving works of Buddhist art in India date back to the 1st century BCE. Mathura art Katra stele, Ajanta Caves etc. all depict the Buddha sitting in padmāsana.
Just out of curiosity, you mentioned early in the video that you got into meditation. Without mentioning what type of meditation. I would also be interested in how you view meditation, what is its usefulness. I ask because I meet so many people that view meditation as an end. Where it is actually the beginning. Meditation is simply a way to practice different skills that you then apply in life. It is a form of wisdom. Learn something useful and apply what you have learned in your life on an ongoing basis.
I'm surprised you didn't mention CARL JUNG, BERTRAND RUSSELL, ALAN WATTS, or JOSEPH CAMPBELLS "THE POWER OF MYTH", yea? My meditation started with martial arts, clear the fear, yea? "EVERY WISH FULFILLED" ET.............................
Sometimes I wonder if I haven't given Buddhism an unfair amount of my time. Maybe I should look more into other things. My relationship with Buddhism is very complicated, but I guess that's okay... you know... with there not being a self and all.
I think it's useful to study with the buddhist tradition rather than Americanized secular buddhism if you want to reach such goals as peace, emptiness, happiness.
🧡 If you find benefit in my videos, consider supporting the channel by joining us on Patreon and get fun extras like exclusive videos, ad-free audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: www.patreon.com/dougsseculardharma 🙂
📙 You can find my book here: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook
The thing I like about Buddhism is that even without having to believe in anything in particular, it offers hugely practical help in dealing with the difficulties we all must face. I hope you and your wife continue to grow in strength in the face of your own challenges 🙏
Yes this is one of the best aspects of Buddhism.
@fireatwill8143 🙏. Yes. Beliefs add too much confusion
You know how I got Buddhism? I watched one of your videos years ago ~ This lead me to Jetsumna Tenzin Palmo. I had no idea what a Buddhist nun was and for whatever reason the RUclips algorithm recommended it to me and the rest is history. I took the precepts over zoom with her. She totally changed my life. And honestly, it’s all because of you.❤ she just celebrated her 81st birthday by the way❤
Oh hey cool!
Same here. Doug's videos led me to more videos on Buddhism and Taoism just before and during the pandemic. I dove deeper into Taoism first, and then eventually I found many channels where I could listen to Dhamma talks by various monks and nuns across the world. Saved me ❤
I was always drawn to Buddhism as a child too, we did have the story of Siddhartha Gautama and King Ashoka as part of our primary school history syllabus but I'd never gone deeper until now, all thanks to RUclips!!
@@FlamingSwordOfWisdom108 she's an amazing teacher
Thank you for sharing your story, Doug. Your channel helped me immensely and is the reason why I started to become interested in Buddhism. Greetings from Argentina!
🙏
My tips for beginner meditators:
● Do pre-meditation--avoiding anything that agitates your mind 1h prior to actual meditation (e.g. games, music, TV, etc.)
● Don't eat right before meditation, but don't start meditating if you're hungry.
● have a handkerchief and a bottle of water at hand.
● seek a quiet place with minimal stimuli
● use earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones if have them
● Wrap a blanket or mantle around yourself to protect you from insects
● invest in longer, 1h+ sessions if you can
@@gao1812 imho i could never have started if i did so. but i guess i know what you mean
Thanks for sharing your story. For me, it was exposure to Alan Watts lectures when I was in college that turned me into learning more about Buddhism. One of my professors let me borrow a huge CD set, and honestly it got me through some fairly difficult parts of my life at the time.
I started doing yoga in 1964 when I was 11. The next year I read Walpole Rahula's What the Buddha Taught. The year after that I tried not to join the church, it went badly, so I had to wait until I was majority age to be a Buddhist. At 21, I started learning liuhebafa, which has an exercise called 'wind-circle standing' which is meditation and for the next 45 years I switched back and forth. I learned Chinese and studied a lot of Daoism, and Daoism-Buddhism (one of the roots of Zen). I did formal sitting in Zen. But usually I prefer standing.
5 years ago I had an experience that began with having a 'perfect stand' -- keeping my mind on each and every breath for the whole 42 minutes. That lead to adding shaking to my practices and switching to what is currently a mixture of Tantra, Shamanism, and Buddhism. My current goto text is Vyaktabhavanugatatattvasiddhi (Realization Through Bodily Expressions), which is in Sanskrit and is by Sahajayogini Cinta.
Interesting, thanks!
I took a class in college where I was really exposed to the Buddhadharma. Thankfully the professor gave everyone the classical What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula, after reading his preface on how westerns should read the book, it was enough for me to have a breakthrough and changed my entire view point on life. Thank you for this video Doug it brought some inspiring feelings🙏
Great!
This channel has helped me imensely. One of the best maybe the best place to learn dharma on you tube, and the internet more broadly. Thank you Doug Smith 🙏.
Glad you enjoy it!
You kind of remind me of my parents, who were agnostic when I was growing up. I tried meditating a few times as a kid but didn't have a teacher or social support and got distracted by other things. Had an intense and severely life-threatening illness as a teenager that was very traumatizing, but got introduced to yoga and reintroduced to meditation as a freshman in college and had some life-changing spiritual experiences shortly thereafter. I started practicing every day as soon as I had some teachings because it was so helpful for trauma. I had signed up for a month-long Tibetan Buddhist retreat a few weeks before I met Kali in a visionary experience and converted to Hinduism on summer vacation after freshman year. I ended up switching my major from philosophy (mostly western) to religious studies to study Hinduism and Buddhism. I've learned a lot from Mongolian Buddhists and Tibetan Buddhist in the Nyingma and Shangpa Kagyu lineages, and did my MA in Religious Studies and Sanskrit at Naropa University, though I've gotten a lot of flack from both Buddhists and Trika Shaivas for being different from what they consider normative. I like the Nath tradition best.
Interesting! Yes each of us has to find our own path. Glad you found something that works for you.
Buddhism Plain and Simple was the real break through work for me. Growing up around Christianity I was familiar with "The Message" which was rewording the Bible into a modern way of speaking. This process of converting the old language to new was going on through the 1990s. Right in the middle of that Buddhism Plain and Simple did an excellent job of explaining the basics to a beginner.
I realize now that my next door neighbors were likely Buddhist but when I was around them as a kid I didn't realize there were non missionary religions where the adherents were not trying to convert you to their religion. I wish a lot of the Buddha's wisdom rubbed off on me in those early years. Not only works like that previous mentioned but also the what I started reading by Thick Nhat Han over this last year. His teachings on the interbeing and become an inter-are with you who you were as a child have been an important backbone to my writings of childhood lately.
Great, thanks!
MY deepest sympathies for your struggles with pain with your spouse, your story was very relatable.
🙏
Thanks Doug as always terrific
Greatly appreciate your sharing of your Buddhist journey. Thank you. 🙏
Thank you for sharing your experiences and background. I've often wondered.
My pleasure!
May dad dubbed Carl Sagan's voice from Cosmos on tape, and used to listen to them in car growing up, he was great and he was enlightened in many ways.
The Man
Neat!
THX for honesty that you are a human too and happy to know another Dundgeons&Dragons soul mate. 😉 Not disappointed at all!
Awsome some Doug lore. I think this will help others on the path.
I joined the Air Force in 1981. Of course never having had traveled but to a couple states, the first place they sent me was Korea. One day I went hiking by myself with my camera on some near by mountains. As I was walking I saw a small temple with just one monk sweeping the grounds. There was a about 25 ft tall Buddha with a raised earthen area around it. I sat down next to the Buddha and the monk just kept on sweeping and never even looking at me. I looked up at the statue and was impressed at how beautiful it was. As I looked over the body I got down near the feet and then I was shocked. Around the four sides of the base of the statue were Swastikas! Looking at the serene face of the Buddha and then seeing what I only knew from history class about Nazi's put my mind into a very perplexed stare. As soon as I got back to the base I went the library and checked out every book I could find about Buddhism. After a short bit of reasearch I became a Buddhist and have been ever since. Little did I know that the Swastika had a long history as a symbol of Impermanence in Buddhism and is very common in Korea, Japan, and China.
Yes, the symbol also comes from India: "svastika" in Sanksrit just means "well being," so it's an auspicious symbol.
Thanks for sharing your origin story Doug!
Ah yes, the western mysticism to buddhism pipeline. My path went through western alchemy and magic until I had a crush on a girl with a "dharma bum" tattoo, which led me to the book, which in turn led me to the lankavatara sutra.
I am happy to hear a longer version of this. Thank you for sharing your story and practice 🙏🙏🙏
🙏🙏
Thanks for sharing your personal story, Doug.
Thank you for sharing your story, Doug! I appreciate that you find your "way" after many years of study, and to me is an important fact: I'm always saying to myself "You're late in life, you must find your way now" and these kinds of things, but your story taught me that it's never to late!
Thanks!
Well said!
Tnx for sharing Doug 🙏🧡
I used to watch Kung Fu and Monkey on TV as a kid which was an introduction to Buddhism. Some very profound parables in those shows. Fortunately with the Internet now there is a wealth of resources including this Channel on Buddhism. Some of my favourites are Mindah Lee Kumar, Shinzen, Adyashanti and Hardcore Zen.
I really appreciate your videos and hearing about your personal path. You and Dr. Wright, were my introduction to serious Buddhist ideas. I was an engineering student at UW-Madison in the late 70's. Glad to know you are a fellow Badger. It was there I took an elective course on a "A History of Science and Theology," which was offered from the College of Engineering in those days. That course probably had a bigger effect on me than all my other engineering courses.
Oh cool, yes I had a great time at Madison. Wonderful place!
How funny, I also credit Gödel, Escher, Bach with my discovery of Buddhism. I also made it about 3/4 through and never finished 😅 it was certainly instrumental in introducing me to the concept of non-duality, that consciousness exists on a spectrum of recursion, and human consciousness is simply a complicated pattern of self-referential loops.
I actually found Hofstadter's other book "I Am a Strange Loop" to be far more digestible. It expounds on his basic premise in a less technical, less dense way. I would highly recommend it as a starting point for anyone interested in his writings
Interesting, thanks. That's a book that's also on my long list of things to read eventually ... ! 😄
Thank you very much !
You had an awakening moment 😊
This was very helpful, thank you!
Thanks for this video Doug, really interesting. My wife has also been through a few years of terrible chronic pain, so that part was very relatable. We do practice some meditation these days and that helps. Best wishes to you both.
Best to you and your wife. Yes, it can be a slog. A good pain doctor can help, but often only so much.
Thank you for sharing. Very cool.
Thank you for your videos Doug, fascinating story 🙏
My pleasure!
I came here searching for an entry point to buddhism. And a lot of what you say at the start(I haven't gotten to the middle of the video yet) really resonates with me.
I am curious about the world, quantum mechanics was a mystery to me as a kid and it made me pursue physics. Now I am deep into my QFT studies. I was relieved to hear that you recognized that there is nothing connecting QM and buddhism because I am very tired of people abusing science they do not understand. Makes me want to hear more of what you have to say.
I am not here to find god, I am not here to find religion. As an outsider, it feels like buddhism has lots of great insights into the human mind which are accurate on a qualitative level. And I seek these insights to achieve greater harmony and peace within me
Great, glad to hear!
Exactly like mine! Kidding, we all have such a unique path...
Excellent video! Thanks Doug. I'm deciding between doing a phd in either philosophy or Buddhist studies, leaning towards philosophy this is very helpful.
This is crazy to hear because I’m 19 and have followed a very similar journey with introduction and childhood to these ideas and quantum mechanics pseudoscience kind of ideas. I’m pursuing physics in undergrad and have long since realized these conceptions were largely unfounded and pseudoscientific but it is fascinating how many share this journey
Finishing the rest of the video my position on the faith based aspects of Buddhism are very similar and with a scientific leaning mind (hence studying physics and math) I find the secular Buddhism movement much more approachable and applicable. I also share many of these views as a result of being raised in and leaving the Christian faith (and being scrutinized for it sadly). I’ve also taken some philosophy courses at my college and hope to take a Buddhism centric one in future years and find a community to share thoughts and practices with as a grow older.
Damn, same here
Very cool, yes I think a lot of folks get intrigued by the more "esoteric" aspects of Buddhism (among other belief systems). Question is whether when you jettison the more speculative and unproven material much remains. I think with Buddhism the core remains.
@@DougsDharma Agreed
Fascinating journey!
I too started from analytical philosophy, and slowly and unfortunately went down the reactionary atheist pipeline, Buddhism marked a point in my journey when I started to view not the world in terms of contrasts and more as unities. I’ve know opened to fields like Dialectics, which along with Buddhist principles, plays well with the field of my expertise, AI.
Wonderful! I'm no AI expert but we did deal with it a bit when I was in grad school doing philosophy of mind. I did a short series on Buddhism and AI: ruclips.net/p/PL0akoU_OszRgY_O5tt-3mRipYsKWFREtt
@@DougsDharma I’m aware of these, and enjoyed watching them too! If anything, the Turing Test is in a sense just an exposition of the form-lessness of the phantasma of Self.
Similarly, the concept of ‘autonomy’ plays a similar spectral role in Control Theory (also known as cybernetics).
Thank you for your good work!
Your mention of attempts to tie together quantum mechanics and Buddhism reminds me of similar attempts to tie quantum physics and magick/spellcraft when I was Pagan. Also struck me as unsupported, based on wishful thinking. Thank you for sharing your story and the efforts you put into your videos
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Greek mythology and norse mythology what got me started on buddhism talk about possibility of reincarnation and nirvana having past live and future trying to get out of samsara sound intersting
Yes mythology is very interesting!
I also get interested in many things and it gets hard to sustain my attention on just one thing. As for me I was born into a Buddhist family but I didn't had much interest in Buddhism. But as I had gotten older and began to understand it more through books and other forms of media, I stopped being a Nominal Buddhist and embraced it more. Note: I get mistaken to be a Tibetan but to set it clear, I am a Bhutanese
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Thank you for sharing your background. Our hobbies and interests are very similar and I also live in New York (up state). I have been doing some journaling in part to discover who I am. Your videos are helpful. I think we also might share a personally type, INFJ. Who knows. Anyway thank you for the great content.
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rest in present awareness be still close eyes listen to your breathing.
im a srilankan buddhist . buddhism in srilanka in mainstream media have gotten political . on the otherhand ,this is breath of fresh air.btw buddhist temples in my local areas haven't got politcial at all
Your formative years sound very much like mine. I'm sure we would have been friends growing up. Like you, I attended U.W., but in the Buddhist Studies/South Asia Dept. The earliest book dealing with Buddhism I can recall reading is "Halfway Through The Door" by Alan Arkin.
Yes I did my minor in the S. Asian Studies dept. ... 😊
U make me think about I got in to it. Growing up in an atheism orientated family I got across the four truths when I was ten or eleven. I must have been suffering a lot because I felt them to be fundamentally true at once. Well, it was so with at least with the first, second ,and third one. Now, quite a couple of decades have passed imho to be fourth is my kōan. namu namu & thanx a lot!
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I also was first introduced to zen and koans by reading GEB, great book!
Oh nice!
Hey Doug, thank you for another video . Have you ever made a video on Ashoka the Buddhist ling after the Kalinga war? That might be cool. You don't have to, but it's another idea if you're not sure. 😊
Yes I did a video on Asoka awhile back: King Asoka: Buddhism's Great Political Modernist
ruclips.net/video/V4894Ug8Y3c/видео.html
Thanks for the great video Doug! It's really interesting to hear your journey, I was also raised in a secular household and similarly was super interested in myths (mostly greek when I was younger). I had a question, seeing as you have your doctorate in Philosophy, have you ever considered doing a video about Schopenhauer and how he contributed to a Western understanding of Buddhism?
My training was in the analytic tradition, so Schopenhauer was never someone we read or studied.
@@DougsDharma Ah understood! Well thanks for the response anyway 😀
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Buddhism has been a constant source of peace and a rich path for spiritual and intelectual exploration. Your videos have been useful in this exploration. I'm grateful for that.
Nevertheless, I can't help thinking sometimes that, in a way, the message is that the existence of individual lives is a sort system error that we have to try to correct until we dissolve and ceased to exist as individuals. It's kind of sad to think that the whole point of our existence is to fix a system error. I would like to know your thoughts about this.
Well it’s not about making us dissolve. We’re already dissolved. It’s about making us see the way things are.
Thank you for sharing. Starting with the early sutras is a good idea. Did you do or ever think of covering Christian mystics and their paradoxical language? It would be interesting to look at Zen paradoxes (koans) and compare them to e.g. Christian mystics. Another thought that feels natural especially in regard to this video is how you can understand suffering in Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism. ❤❤❤
There is certainly a lot of comparative work to be done between these religions. I know some folks have started.
@@DougsDharma Sr Meg Funk OSB (friend of Dali Lama) series Thoughts Matter, Tools Matter, etc ( Matters Series on Amazon) on the Desert Tradition. Very accessible👍🏻
Inspiring! Star Wars and Star Trek fan too! I entered Buddhism through the back door. Aka psychedelic visions. 😎🙏🏻 Anyone else enter this door?
I just got curious about who buddhists worship because I don't hear about them in the whole 'my religion is the true religion' conflict which drove me away from Christianity, Islam, Judaism & Hinduism. So I spent all weekend researching it and I liked most of what I found in comparison to the other religions.
Not a fan of the restrictions on speech though. No idle chatter or harsh speech aka never speak up because you could upset someone. Of course it's super easy to follow those restrictions but they make me feel dead inside. Also people get offended when I don't have much to say.
Right speech is more complicated than that; for example the Buddha advocated for saying painful truths when they were necessary. I will be doing a video on right speech soon, along with the other aspects of the Eightfold Path.
Thank you Doug, this was great. I still have a question, though, albeit one you touched on in the video. Why Early Buddhism instead of Zen? I've only been learning about Buddhism for a mere 5 years, but it seems like the things you have to set aside in early Buddhism, like multiple-lives reincarnation, are already done away with in Zen. So from my rather ignorant standpoint, Zen would seem to be a better "starting place" for secular Buddhism than early Buddhism. But maybe I'm still in the "Zen Buddhism is cool Buddhism" mindset of a beginner? Thank you for your channel and wisdom!
Zen can be a good place to start for sure. However be aware that not all Zen practitioners dismiss rebirth; many take it seriously. Also Zen is very much a religion in terms of ritual, hierarchy, devotion, lineage, and so on. Another issue is that Zen is not the best place to start if your interest is in understanding the dharma. Understanding isn't the point in Zen, and often teachers won't really be interested in that aspect of belief. All that said, I do love Zen practice and aesthetics.
@@DougsDharma Thanks Doug!
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I like Doug
You mentioned not finding connection between quantum physics and Buddhist thought having dabbled in looking at it. Are you referring to the dialogue between Krishnamurti and David Boehm?
I wasn't thinking of that in specific though I imagine that would have been in the background.
@@DougsDharma when I’ve read or listened to their discussions parts do resonate with me.
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What is your Myers Briggs type? If you happen to know it
No clue.
by habit
What made you leave academic philosophy Doug? I'm curious to hear your perspective because I am a current undergraduate student in philosophy and am debating whether or not to go to grad school and pursue my studies in eastern philosophy or not
Several things, I was getting kind of bored of the same nitpicking arguments, and also the job market is really terrible. You have to be really devoted to teaching to put up with it, and I never loved teaching and trying to motivate students.
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Hi . Do we find yoga in early Buddhism?
@@Lalalala22537 google "Yogachara"
The Buddha literally sits in padmāsana...
@@saralamuni if I am not wrong, those are later depictions
There is no Yoga in Buddhism. However in the Vinaya, Indian medicinal practises were born.
@@Lalalala22537 According to the internet you are wrong. The earliest surviving works of Buddhist art in India date back to the 1st century BCE. Mathura art Katra stele, Ajanta Caves etc. all depict the Buddha sitting in padmāsana.
Just out of curiosity, you mentioned early in the video that you got into meditation. Without mentioning what type of meditation.
I would also be interested in how you view meditation, what is its usefulness.
I ask because I meet so many people that view meditation as an end. Where it is actually the beginning. Meditation is simply a way to practice different skills that you then apply in life.
It is a form of wisdom. Learn something useful and apply what you have learned in your life on an ongoing basis.
Breath meditation is where I started, somewhere between Zen and mindfulness of breathing.
I'm surprised you didn't mention CARL JUNG, BERTRAND RUSSELL, ALAN WATTS, or JOSEPH CAMPBELLS "THE POWER OF MYTH", yea? My meditation started with martial arts, clear the fear, yea? "EVERY WISH FULFILLED" ET.............................
Oh sure I could have said much more ... Loved Campbell's Power of Myth on TV back in the day ...
Your very similar to me
Sometimes I wonder if I haven't given Buddhism an unfair amount of my time. Maybe I should look more into other things. My relationship with Buddhism is very complicated, but I guess that's okay... you know... with there not being a self and all.
old habits die hard
@@saralamuni With a vengeance
Thank you for this interesting insight into your personal evolution. Many things sound very familar to me... 😄
Best wishes to you and your spouse! 🐱🙏
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Wait - are you me? I’m confused now 😆. Born in late 1970, and I suspect you’re about my age. Too many similarities…
I think it's useful to study with the buddhist tradition rather than Americanized secular buddhism if you want to reach such goals as peace, emptiness, happiness.