Podcast Episodes

Chris and John interview longtime lay Vajrayana practitioner David Lewis about Vajrayana Buddhism. Topics include an historical overview of how Vajrayana Buddhism spread to Tibet, the main traditions that developed there, the spread of Vajrayana Buddhism outside of the Tibetan cultural sphere since the Chinese communist invasion of Tibet, and the clash in worldviews between traditional Vajrayana Buddhism and modern Western scientific materialism.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Chris and John present a history of the self-styled "Western Vipassana Movement." They discuss its origins in Burmese, Thai, and Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism; its transmission to Western monastic and lay practitioners in Asia; its establishment in the U.S. via IMS, Spirit Rock, and its secular spinoffs such as MBSR; and its codependent origination with the field of interpersonal neurobiology in the United States.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Chris and John discuss the final eight of the sixteen exercises of mindfulness of breathing. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Chris and John talk about how the links of dependent origination describe the sixteen exercises of mindfulness of breathing via the four jhanas and mindfulness of impermanence.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Chris and John discuss Bezos shooting himself up into space while the planet burns.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Lopon Dorje Khandro (Dr. Lourdes Arguelles), John, Franz Manfredi from Long Beach Meditation, and Chris Johnson from the Engaged Buddhist Alliance discuss the movie "Planet of The Humans." Executive produced by Michael Moore and directed by Jeff Gibbs, the film argues that green technology and capitalism will not save the planet. Only a radical change in human behavior will work. The film argues that in order to change human behavior humans must be able to face their own mortality. But the film doesn't say how to do that and it assumes that the worldview of scientific materialism should be the starting point. We discuss how a transcendent Buddhist worldview and practice could offer a middle way between dogmatic religion and dogmatic materialism.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE&ab_channel=MichaelMoore https://www.drikungkc.org/lopon-dorje-khandro https://www.longbeachmeditation.org/teachers-list/2019/8/3/franz-manfredi https://engagedbuddhistalliance.org/staff-volunteer/  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John talks about the different Pluto groups and how socialist millennials (people with Pluto in Scorpio) could attain power through Daoist alchemical yoga.  Boomers = Pluto in Leo Obama's group = Pluto in Virgo Younger Gen X group = Pluto in Libra AOC's group = Pluto in Scorpio Zoomers = Pluto in Sagittarius  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

ABCC 2020 Plenary Talk July 26th Speaker: Stephanie Mines Topic: Sacred Activism Respondents: Lourdes Arguelles, Alane Daugherty, John Freese Links: http://www.tara-approach.org/ https://www.cccearth.org/ http://www.mindandheartlab.com http://www.mindandheartlab.com/dr-daugherty.html --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Speaker: Erin Smith Topic: Tarot, divination in general, and Buddhist practice Panelists: John Freese, Elaine Dove, Lourdes Arguelles, Jing Jing Zhu Links: https://vardo-tarot.myshopify.com/ https://dovehealingarts.org/ https://downwiththedharma.org/bio/john-freese/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Round table discussion on the intersection of addiction recovery, Buddhist practice, and addiction counseling.  Panel facilitator: Tom Moritz.  Panelists: Erin Smith, Corey Swartsel, Caroline Netschert, and Eduardo Farias.  Links: https://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/ http://engagedbuddhistalliance.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Talk: Rev. Dr. Frank Rogers on the practice of spiritual direction from a Christian Perspective. Frank is a theology professor in the spiritual formation department at the Claremont School of Theology.   https://cst.edu/academics/faculty/frank-rogers-jr/ First Respondent: Bhante Sumitta Thero on traditional Buddhist spiritual direction from the perspective of the Pali Canon in Sri Lanka and Lankarama Temple in Los Angeles. Bhante has developed spiritual care programs at the temple for community level care, group level care, and individual level care. Bhante is a PhD candidate at UWest focused on historical critical research of the Pali Tipitaka and Sri Lankan commentaries. His sangha has temples in California, Sri Lanka, and India.  http://dhammausa.org/ Second Respondent: Venerable Bhikkshuni Hong on congregational spiritual care and counseling from a Buddhist chaplaincy and Buddhist a Buddhist informed psychotherapy perspective.  Venerable Hong did her MDiv and MA Psych. at University of the West and is about to start a clinical pastoral education unit. She serves a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Arizona as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin Third Respondent: Chris Johnson M.Div. and PhD student at UWest focused on early Buddhism talks about his experience as a volunteer Buddhist chaplain for people in prisons. He provides spiritual direction to some of the people that come to him to learn about Buddhism and meditation practice. He also teaches classes on Buddhism to undergrads as a religious studies professor that makes use of contemplative pedagogy.     http://engagedbuddhistalliance.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Bhante Sumita discusses how Buddhism can respond to suffering on a societal level based on questions from the audience. Bhante Sumitta is a Bhikkhu (fully ordained monk) in the Theravada tradition of Sri Lanka. He is a senior monk and director of programming at the Lankarama Buddhist temple in Los Angeles. He is also the founder of Dhamma USA, a "community organization of dedicated volunteers engaged in spiritual coaching and community welfare activities" that is active in the U.S., Sri Lanka, and India. Links:  http://dhammausa.org/index.php/about-us/message-from-our-founder https://www.facebook.com/LankaramaUSA/?rf=100864816625545 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Round table discussion with: Meiver De La Cruz, Brother Fulfillment, Jo-Ann Rosen, Melanie Gin, and John Freese The main topic is collective body-centered approaches to healing trauma using Community Resiliency Model (CRM), mindfulness practice, and dance. Trauma and its healing are understood as both personal/intrasubjective and collective/intersubjective. As a social manifestation of the historical human dimension trauma is understood from a decolonial perspective as the process of extractivism in which white supremacists have inflicted genocidal settler colonialism and slavery all over the Earth.  --from John Freese Links:  Meiver De La Cruz https://www.scrippscollege.edu/academics/faculty/profile/meiver-de-la-cruz Brother Fulfillment https://www.dharmapathways.org/ Melanie Gin https://makeen.ps/ Jo-Ann Rosen https://www.sugarplumsangha.org/ John Freese https://downwiththedharma.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

This is the second talk and panel discussion of the ABCC 2020 Conference. Speaker: Lama Justin Vonbujdoss  Topic: Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy and Abolition Panelists: Stephanie Barnes, Nathan Michon, Kyira Korrigan Facilitator: Lama Justin Links:  https://justinvonbujdoss.com/   https://www.bhumisparsha.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

This is the first talk and panel discussion of the Association of Buddhist Care and Counseling conference (July 25-27) 2020. Speaker: Lourdes Argeulles  Title: "Migration, Fear, and Compassion-Focused Practices" Panelists: Harriet Wrye, Stephanie Mines, Elaine Dove, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde Facilitator: John Freese Links: Lourdes Arguelles https://www.cgu.edu/people/maria-de-lourdes-arguelles/ https://www.drikungkc.org/lopon-dorje-khandro Harriet Wrye https://www.ipa.world/IPA/en/Societies/societies_focus/los_angeles.aspx https://www.amazon.com/Pulling-Up-Stakes-Stepping-Freedom/dp/0983925526 Stephanie Mines http://www.tara-approach.org/ https://www.cccearth.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQOAxT8llto" (TED Talk on Guidance) https://youtu.be/D2RxzSTusKc (Stephanie Mines on Unprecedented Leadership) Elaine Dove https://dovehealingarts.org/ Pamela Ayo Yetunde https://www.unitedseminary.edu/academics/faculty/pamela-ayo-yetunde/ Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)  https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100165976-12898971?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.springer.com%2Fgp%2Fbook%2F9783030425593%3FcountryChanged%3Dtrue Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom (Shambhala, 2020) https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/pamela-ayo-yetunde.html --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John interviews Dr. Stephanie Mines about her work in healing shock and trauma. Topics include somatic attunement, Buddhist practice, the energy medicine of Jin Shin Jyutsu, and the groundswell of Earth consciousness in response to global warming. Dr. Mines is the founder of the TARA Approach to heal shock and trauma and is the vision holder of Climate Change and Consciousness.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Guest host and UWest psychology student Farah Shaikh interviews people from Kranti about the importance of practicing the fourth precept of mindful speech and deep listening. Kranti is a nonprofit organization that empowers girls from Mumbai's red-light areas to become agents of social change and happiness. https://www.kranti-india.org/ https://feminisminindia.com/2017/12/06/interview-robin-founder-kranti/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

Joanna Paulino, a UWest student from John's class on Buddhist social ethics, talks about her interview with Jason Thomas. Jason is a former gang member and incarcerated person who now mentors youth to help them stay out of gangs and free from addiction to drugs. Joanna talks about Jason's story using the teachings on the five precepts and an understanding of trauma.   --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John interviews longtime socialist and labor organizer Dr. Mike Slott about Marxism, his career in the labor movement, his interest in secular Buddhism, his involvement with the Secular Buddhist Network, and his Marxist Buddhist analysis of the obstacles we face in creating a more just and mindful society.  Mike has been teaching as a Part-Time Lecturer in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University since 2001. In addition to Introduction to Labor Studies, Mike has taught Collective Bargaining, American Unions and Politics, and the History of Labor and Work in the United States. Mike received a Master's in Labor and Industrial Relations and a Doctorate in the Social and Philosophical Foundation of Education at Rutgers. Mike has been an active participant in the labor movement for over 40 years. He has had experience in many areas of union activity, including negotiating contracts, presenting union grievances at arbitration hearings, organizing new members, and coordinating union educational programs. A long-time political and labor movement activist, Mike continues to explore the intersection between secular Buddhism and socially engaged Buddhism. He is a member and practice leader at New York Insight (NYI) in the USA and principal editor of the Secular Buddhist Network and its monthly newsletter,  ‘Reimagining Community’. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John interviews Tim about dialogue-based mindfulness, psychotherapy, and peer counseling.  Tim Desmond is a psychotherapist, author, Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Antioch University New England, and student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Co-founder of Morning Sun Mindfulness Center, he lives in Alstead, NH, and teaches mindfulness and self-compassion practices audiences around the world. His publications include Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy (W.W.Norton, 2015), The Self-Compassion Skills Workbook (W.W.Norton, 2017), and How to Stay Human in a Fucked Up World (HarperOne, 2019). https://timdesmond.net/ https://peercollectivementalhealth.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John talks with Reverend Dr. Nathan Jishin Michon about his research on the burgeoning field of Buddhist chaplaincy in Japan. Rev. Dr. Michon is a Shingon priest. He did his dissertation at the Graduate Theological University in Berkeley CA. His research involved reading the works of, interviewing, and observing Buddhist chaplains in Japan responding to the unprecedented suffering caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John and fellow UWest MDiv alumni Reverend Alan Cossitt discuss the idea of Buddhist socialism from an early Buddhist perspective. Alan is a healthcare chaplain in Oregon who lives on a houseboat with his two dogs. His practice is based on the early Buddhist teachings on becoming. Book Mentioned: The Paradox of Becoming by Thanissaro Bhikkhu of Wat Metta in Valley Center CA. Ajhan Geoff is an eminent scholar monk in the Thai Forest Tradition.  https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/paradoxofbecoming.pdf --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John talks Buddhist practical theology with Reverend Dr. Monica Sanford. Monica shares her experience as a university chaplain, her research on how Buddhist chaplains do "theological reflection," and what she envisions the Association of Buddhist Care and Counseling could look like.   Monica and John both did their M.Div. at University of the West in LA. Monica earned her PhD in Practical Theology at The Claremont School of Theology. John is a PhD candidate in that program. Rev. Dr. Monica is the Assistant Director of Spiritual and Religious Life at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition to her chaplaincy work she is working on a textbook for Buddhist care and counseling and is a co-researcher on a Buddhist Ministry Working Group project to map out who are active Buddhist chaplains.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John talks about the history of practical theology and Protestant theological infrastructure as a model that Buddhists could draw from to expand Buddhist theological education and training beyond chaplaincy into Buddhist care and counseling. Link to paper John refers to in his talk. https://www.academia.edu/42204772/Practical_Theology_Qualifying_Exam_By_John_Freese_for_Dr._Kathleen_Greider --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

UWest student Farah Shaikh interviews UWest students, alumni, and faculty that teach Buddhist philosophy and meditation in California State prisons via The Engaged Buddhist Alliance. The EBA is a nonprofit founded by Dr. Lewis Lancaster, John Freese, Venerable De Hong, and Margaret Meloni. The EBA teaches to over 200 students in over 8 state prisons in Southern California. Sequence of Interviews Chris Johnson: PhD Student David from Homeboy Industries Venerable Doctor De Hong: EBA founder and leader Tom Moritz PhD: Adjunct Faculty Venerable Sumitta: PhD Candidate --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message

John gives a Dharma talk on The Four Noble Truths from an early Buddhist perspective and from the perspective of Daoist internal alchemy. Link to the notes and bibliography: https://johnfreese.wordpress.com/2019/11/17/down-with-the-dharma-podcast-episode-5-the-four-noble-truths/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/downwiththedharma/message