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Meditation is not religion-only. If anything, religions hijacked it and branded it as "spiritual", " connecting with God" or some other nonsense. Sam Harris is

Meditation is not religion-only. If anything, religions hijacked it and branded it as "spiritual", " connecting with God" or some other nonsense. Sam Harris is big in meditation, and he is as secular as it gets. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/how-to-meditate http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/how-to-meditate

mbrock 11y ago
I'm not sure what you mean by "secular as it gets." Sure, he writes books denouncing organized religion... at least the ones he dislikes... so did U.G. Krishnamurti. He makes the claim that the meditation techniques of Theravada Buddhism can be taught in a secular way, and he probably has a point. He recommends books by Buddhist teachers, since he believes that Buddhism is a kind of scientific spirituality... and Buddhist retreat centers, since those places are the only "serious" places where meditation is taught. He attributes his capacity as a spiritual teacher to the long Buddhist retreats he did in India and Nepal. Some of his insight also came through psychedelic drugs. He also recommends books by Terence McKenna and Rick Strassman. He's an interesting and well-spoken guy, but I wouldn't exactly call him an icon of secular reason. If Noam Chomsky ever records a guided meditation, though... that would be interesting.
- imaginenore 11y ago
  Buddhism is not even a religion under most dictionary definitions. There are no gods in buddhism.
  - mbrock 11y ago
    That's kind of... factually incorrect. As far as I know, all Buddhist traditions recognize gods and demons. They also recognize the Buddha as a "teacher of gods and men." It is absolutely a religion -- or possibly a few different religions. Since sometime in the late 1800s there have been pretty strong movements of what's often called "Buddhist modernism." A scholar of Buddhism named David McMahan wrote a good overview called "The Making of Buddhist Modernism" explaining the historical forces that shaped this development. It's also related to movements sometimes called "Protestant Buddhism." The Buddhist movements in the West have mostly been strongly influenced by such modernization. And there is a kind of spectrum of religiosity in the way Buddhism is practiced in these contexts. The secular mindfulness movement is an offshoot of a highly secularized form of Buddhism mostly transmitted from Burma via a group of American meditators. And so on! I mean, it's a complex topic, and the contemporary notion that you propose is definitely an oversimplification.

mbrock 11y ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "secular as it gets." Sure, he writes books denouncing organized religion... at least the ones he dislikes... so did U.G. Krishnamurti. He makes the claim that the meditation techniques of Theravada Buddhism can be taught in a secular way, and he probably has a point. He recommends books by Buddhist teachers, since he believes that Buddhism is a kind of scientific spirituality... and Buddhist retreat centers, since those places are the only "serious" places where meditation is taught. He attributes his capacity as a spiritual teacher to the long Buddhist retreats he did in India and Nepal. Some of his insight also came through psychedelic drugs. He also recommends books by Terence McKenna and Rick Strassman. He's an interesting and well-spoken guy, but I wouldn't exactly call him an icon of secular reason. If Noam Chomsky ever records a guided meditation, though... that would be interesting.

imaginenore 11y ago
Buddhism is not even a religion under most dictionary definitions. There are no gods in buddhism.
- mbrock 11y ago
  That's kind of... factually incorrect. As far as I know, all Buddhist traditions recognize gods and demons. They also recognize the Buddha as a "teacher of gods and men." It is absolutely a religion -- or possibly a few different religions. Since sometime in the late 1800s there have been pretty strong movements of what's often called "Buddhist modernism." A scholar of Buddhism named David McMahan wrote a good overview called "The Making of Buddhist Modernism" explaining the historical forces that shaped this development. It's also related to movements sometimes called "Protestant Buddhism." The Buddhist movements in the West have mostly been strongly influenced by such modernization. And there is a kind of spectrum of religiosity in the way Buddhism is practiced in these contexts. The secular mindfulness movement is an offshoot of a highly secularized form of Buddhism mostly transmitted from Burma via a group of American meditators. And so on! I mean, it's a complex topic, and the contemporary notion that you propose is definitely an oversimplification.