Dharma Roads

Episode 45 - Intermingling minds: a Venetian rendezvous

Send us Fan Mail In this extended episode I take an exploratory wander through a number of themes and associations – all of which are somehow connected to the image of V

Episode 44 - In beauty I walk: beauty, appreciation and wabi-sabi

Send us Fan Mail This episode is in two parts. In Part One I explore some ideas about beauty, both those that define beauty as an ideal or transcendent quality, and thos

Episode 43 - Zen teacher Dogen

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,

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, za

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 ass

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 Buddh

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 mid

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 sp

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 i

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 di

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 a

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,

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 ‘creativ

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

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

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

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

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 agnosti

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

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 an