In this podcast, Buddhist chaplain, Zen practitioner and artist, John Danvers, explores the wisdom and meditation methods of Zen, Buddhism and other sceptical philosophers, writers and poets - seeking ways of dealing with the many problems and questions that arise in our daily lives. The talks are often short, and include poems, stories and music. John has practiced Zen meditation (zazen) for over sixty years.
Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk about the very influential Japanese Zen teacher, Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), and also say a little about an earlier Chinese teacher, Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157) whom Dogen respected and quoted many times. I describe some of the key ideas of Dogen’s teacher, Rujing (1163–1228), as they are a major influence on Dogen’s approach to Zen meditation. I also discuss their important contributions to the development of Zen Buddhism and say why I think their teachings are still of relevance today. Once more, apologies for my Chinese and Japanese mis-pronunciation!
Episode 42 - Zazen & just being here
Send us Fan Mail In this episode I share some thoughts about what I have learnt from zazen practice and how it has come to be so central to my life. In my experience, zazen (Zen meditation) is a very creative, expansive and revitalising activity. The mind seems to open naturally to fresh understandings and shifts of perspective - as if windows and doors open, allowing the cool breeze of thoughts, feelings and sensations to flow unhindered.
Episode 41 - Charles Reznikoff: poet as witness
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode I talk about the American poet, Charles Reznikoff, and about the two movements or trends in modern poetry with which he was associated - ‘imagism’ and ‘objectivism’ – and which help us to understand something of Reznikoff’s beliefs and approach as a poet. Please note : one of the poems quoted in the talk is titled, Holocaust , and contains disturbing verbatim accounts from the Nuremberg Military Tribunal of atrocities committed during the Second World War.
Episode 40 - The arts of awakening & selfing
Send us Fan Mail In this episode I explore ideas about nirvana, awakening and what we mean by ‘the self,’ as described in the Buddhist traditions founded by Gotama Buddha - whom scholars reckon may have lived around 400 BCE. I suggest that awakening and ourselves are processes, rather than fixed states or things, and that we can cultivate them through mindful awareness or Zen meditation. Rather than being accessible only to a few people endowed with special powers, awakening is an art we can all learn and benefit from. I hope you will find it to be of interest, and maybe helpful, as you navigate along your own Dharma road.
Episode 39 - Gary Snyder: his life & poetry
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode I talk about another American poet, essayist and environmental activist, Gary Snyder. You might like to take a break in the middle! As I mentioned in Episode 34 both Snyder and Kenneth Rexroth explore the natural world in their work – literally, as hikers through the American landscape, and in their poetry and other writings. Snyder, who is now in his nineties, spent a lot of time with Rexroth in the 1950s and for a while Rexroth was something of a mentor to the younger poet.
Episode 38 - Mutability, time & presence
Send us Fan Mail The brevity of life and the nature of time are topics that humans have puzzled over for at least two thousand years – and probably for as long as our species has walked the earth. In this episode I want to offer a few thoughts on these matters and on the mysterious phenomenon we refer to as ‘the present moment.’ What I have to say is rooted in my experience of zazen, Zen meditation, and in my study of Buddhist thought and other philosophical traditions. The practice of zazen is the practice of bare attention – just being here, being present.
Episode 37 - Dialogue, religion & the arts
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode I suggest a few avenues of exploration concerning the arts as agencies of dialogue and how the arts can offer a model for how inter-religious dialogue might be developed and maintained. I offer some examples of the ways in which artworks and approaches to artmaking and appreciation can be considered as modes of conversation and as vehicles for sharing religious insights and experiences. I also introduce Edmund Burke’s ideas about the ‘sublime’ and suggest how feelings of awe and wonder can be shared experiences within arts and religious contexts. I hope you will find the episode to be interesting and, perhaps, useful.
Episode 36 - David Hume & Isaiah Berlin
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode, I talk about the ideas and insights of two thinkers, David Hume who lived in the eighteenth century, and Isaiah Berlin, who died in 1997. They both offer us interesting thoughts about human nature, what we mean by ‘the self’ and how to enshrine multiple personal freedoms and rights within a vibrant society. Both writers argue for tolerance and benign scepticism. I also suggest some connections between their ideas and those of Gotama Buddha.
Episode 35 - Learning, awakening & empowerment
Send us Fan Mail In this episode I explore some of the issues surrounding educational methods and processes in contemporary Buddhism and suggest changes in perspective and practice that can lead to a more empowering experience for students (and teachers). It seems to me that in the development of secular approaches to Buddhist practice there is much to be learnt from the creative, transformative and egalitarian modes of learning employed within the education of artists. My comments about art education are based on my own experience as an artist and educator working in art schools and universities in the UK. This talk relates particularly to points I made in Episode 33 on creativity and mindful meditation.
Episode 34 - Kenneth Rexroth: his life and poetry
Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk about the American poet, essayist and translator, Kenneth Rexroth. Like Gary Snyder, who I will speak about in a future episode, Rexroth explores the natural world – both literally, as a hiker through the American landscape, and in his poetry and other writings. Rexroth belongs to the generation immediately prior to Snyder though they did know each other well in the 1950s. I will touch on various strands of his work and point out a few parallels with Buddhist ideas and practices. While Snyder is probably more widely known today, and more influential, I want to begin with Rexroth whose work I am particularly fond of and who had quite an influence on his younger west coast American colleagues. In particular, I want to draw out the ways in which Rexroth celebrated the act of paying attention as a way of revealing the beauty of being alive, and the practice of making poems as a revelation of what one might call the sacred or divine dimensions of nature and life.
Episode 33 - Mindful meditation & creativity
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, somewhat longer than usual, I explore some of the relationships between mindful meditation and creativity – what we might call ‘creative awareness.’ I begin by examining what we mean by creativity and go on to suggest that there is a close affinity between paying attention and the development of a creative engagement with the world. I argue that letting-go and unlearning, and the making of connections, are important aspects of both mindful meditation and creativity. Taking up Jane Hirshfield’s thoughts about the role of concentration in the composing of poetry, I suggest that mindful meditation involves the development of concentration and that this can be helpful in developing a creative practice. I go on to make reference to John Cage’s ideas about living the creative life and briefly discuss drawing as a mindful discipline. I end with a salutary note about creativity and ethics. Towards the end of the episode, I employ an exploratory, open, poetic form of words - in harmony, I hope, with the overall theme. Please see the transcript for spelling of names and for references.
Episode 32 - Mindful Solidarity - an interview with Mike Slott
Send us Fan Mail In this special episode I interview, Mike Slott, about his new book titled, Mindful Solidarity: A Secular Buddhist Democratic Socialist Dialogue . Mike is the founder of the Secular Buddhist Network – an organisation that has done a lot of work advocating for a secular approach to Buddhist ideas and practices, and in helping to link together secular Buddhist individuals and groups from around the world. In his book Mike argues for a dialogue between secular Buddhists and democratic socialists – two communities often seen as far apart – showing how, working together, both groups offer a critique of contemporary economics and politics, and show ways to develop and maximise human flourishing. The book is jargon-free, thought-provoking and helpful to anyone trying to navigate a way through the complex and challenging conditions of contemporary life. In the transcript notes, rather than a full transcript, I have included a brief note about secular Buddhism and notes about, and links to, books, organisations and terms referred to by Mike. I hope you will enjoy this episode and find it to be useful.
Episode 31 - Daoism (Taoism)
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode I explore some of the main ideas and beliefs of Daoism (also known as Taoism) - highlighting aspects of Daoist philosophy that have a particular connection to the development of Zen. I also describe the way in which Daoism is complemented by Confucian ideas in the history of Chinese culture. It seems to me that there are many things we can learn from the ways in which Daoists think about change, uncertainty, the natural world and finding harmony within apparently opposing viewpoints and forces. Forgive my pronunciation of Chinese terms – I am not a Chinese speaker. To avoid confusion please refer to the transcript of this episode.
Episode 30 - John Dewey
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode I share some thoughts on a strand of philosophy known as ‘pragmatism’ as realized in the work of one of its key exponents, John Dewey – who was born in 1859 and died in 1952 at the ripe old age of ninety-three. Here and there I will point out parallels between Dewey’s ideas and the ideas and practices of other Buddhist and non-Buddhist thinkers I have mentioned in earlier talks. Over Dewey’s long life he had a profound influence on American philosophy and on the development of psychology, politics and education within the United States and eventually in many democratic states around the world.
Episode 29 - Climate action & eco-grief
Send us Fan Mail In this episode I share some more thoughts on global warming, climate action and eco-grief. This is a revised and extended version of Episode 3 . I argue that we need to face up to the global challenge we face, however difficult this may be, and to do what we can, individually and collectively, to address issues raised by climate change and its causes. I also suggest some actions we can take to combat, or at least lessen, the increase in global warming and to transform potential despair into a more hopeful outlook.
Episode 28 - Soren Kierkegaard
Send us Fan Mail In Episode 21 I talked about existentialism and mentioned that while Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and other existentialist thinkers were agnostics or atheists, there were a number of influential Christian philosophers who developed forms of existential thinking. The earliest of these was the Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), who lived in Copenhagen for most of his life. In this episode I share a few thoughts about Kierkegaard's ideas and life. Please keep in mind that what follows is my personal view of just a few strands of Kierkegaard’s many-stranded thought. I hope you will find it to be interesting and useful - if it is, I encourage you to read some of Kierkegaard's many writings.
Episode 27 - 'Suchness,' Zen & window cleaning
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode, I am going to talk about the notion of tathata , or ‘suchness,’ and relate this to the Zen practice of ‘bare attention.’ I will also say something about what is known as kensho in Japanese Zen – often translated as, ‘seeing into the nature of things.’ I will end by tracing a connection between these practices and the concept of Gelassenheit as used by the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. I hope to show how this bundle of ideas and practices can have a practical application in helping us, and all beings, to live well.
Episode 26 - Cultivating mindful ethics
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I return to the question discussed in Episode 22, that is, what kind of ethical values may be necessary to the development of a just and peaceful society – describing in more detail what I have called ‘mindful ethics.’ In a sense what I say here is repeating what I had to say in Episode 7, though with some significant changes. In particular, I provide a slightly different way of articulating, and thinking about, the ‘Eightfold Path’ – one of the key features of most accounts of the Buddha’s teaching. As in Episode 7 I suggest that it may be helpful to consider this as being a guide to developing eight skills, though in this episode I have changed the way in which I describe them.
Episode 25 - Michel de Montaigne & Samuel Beckett
Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode, I explore some of the ideas and values that inform and animate the work of the sixteenth-century French thinker, Michel de Montaigne, and the twentieth-century writer and playwright, Samuel Beckett. I suggest that in the work of both of these figures we find echoes of the ideas and values of earlier sceptics – particularly Pyrrho of Elis and Sextus Empiricus. If you haven’t already done so, it may be as well to listen to Episode 17 of this podcast before you embark on this episode – as I explore some of the key ideas of this branch of scepticism in Episode 17.
Episode 24 - Transmission, transformation and secular Zen
Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk about my many years of Zen meditation practice and relate my experience to the development of a sceptical, secular Zen that is rooted in contemporary western culture – with an emphasis on empirical investigation, naturalism rather than supernaturalism, and minimal ritual. I relate this development to the twin functions of teaching and learning - that is, transmission and transformation – as first suggested by the Brazilian philosopher of education, Paolo Freire. I suggest that it is possible to develop a secular twenty-first century approach to Zen that is not bound by the hierarchical power structures of earlier forms of Zen.
