New introductory videos
A new 10 minute introductory video to Middle Way Philosophy has been posted on YouTube and on this page. There is also a follow-up introduction to Scepticism on this page.
Monthly Archives: January 2016
The MWS podcast 87: Stephen Batchelor on ‘After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age
The Buddhist scholar and author Stephen Batchelor talks to Susan Averbach about his new book After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age. He begins by explaining why it’s important for him to legitimize his teaching with early sources. After giving an overview of the book they then move on to discussing whether the Middle Way can or should be promoted beyond the Buddhist tradition. Finally Stephen outlines a new initiative he has become involved in, The Bodhi College , an ethical and philosophical framework for those practising meditation and the Dharma in today’s world by drawing on the early teachings of the Buddha before they became codified into the doctrines of the different Buddhist traditions.
Here’s also an article Susan Averbach has written about the podcast on her blog
MWS Podcast 87: Stephen Batchelor as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_87_Stephen_Batchelor
Poetry 95: Faust: First part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it never
Rises from the soul, and sways
The heart of every single hearer,
With deepest power, in simple ways.
You’ll sit forever, gluing things together,
Cooking up a stew from other’s scraps,
Blowing on a miserable fire,
Made from your heap of dying ash.
Let apes and children praise your art,
If their admiration’s to your taste,
But you’ll never speak from heart to heart,
Unless it rises up from your heart’s space.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons