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.

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.

In this episode I talk about the relationship between body, mind and world from the perspective of someone who has been practicing zazen, a form of mindful meditation, since 1965. Zazen is a very simple practice but not always easy. It consists of sitting quietly, paying attention to whatever arises in my embodied mind and in the world immediately around me – without comment or judgment - expanding awareness outwards from my breath to encompass all that happens while I’m sitting - simply being awake and open to the everchanging stream of phenomena that constitutes who I am from moment to moment. I notice how everything changes and passes away. Thoughts and perceptions, feelings and moods endlessly shifting and transforming with each breath I take.

In this episode I suggest that the current neo-liberal forms of capitalism are unsustainable insofar as they are damaging to our planet and its life-supporting atmosphere, and as they generate, in the human realm, divisive and deeply inequitable social structures. I argue that we need to develop more beneficial modes of living, working and doing business, grounded in what I think of as mindful ethics – an ethics of compassion, clear-sightedness and sustainability.

We each have to find, or maybe construct, a dharma road upon which we can walk in peace with care and attention – cultivating wellbeing and living a good life. The many forms of Buddhism offer possible dharma roads but there are also other routes that may be just as beneficial. The diversity of world religions and philosophies are testament to the variety of paths that have been, and are being, taken by dharma travellers. In this episode I am going to explore some of the ideas and beliefs espoused by existentialist thinkers – ideas that have proved helpful to many people over the past century and a half. As I proceed, I will mention in passing a few parallels with the ideas and the beliefs of Buddhist thinkers and practitioners. I hope other similarities and differences will become apparent to you as we go along.

In this episode I share some thoughts about impermanence, clinging and the value of non-attachment. I also reflect on what it means to be here – the miraculous nature of being alive and conscious. I go on to say something about interdependence and the ways in which mindful meditation can help us to appreciate our daily lives and to learn how to let go rather than to hang on.

In this episode I trace some parallels between Buddhist and ecological views of the world. We live in a universe of interwoven and interactive processes and energies – a universe in which things are actually events, with no fixed essences or identities. Everything is in flux, merging and mingling in changing patterns of dynamic kinship. We are relational beings in a relational universe. It is these characteristics of connectedness, intercommunication and change that form the focus of this episode.

In this episode I explore the relationship between poetry and paying attention – the ways in which poets are mindful - noticing things that often get missed in the merry-go-round of life. In the act of making poems, poets practice a kind of mindful attention – taking notice of what is happening in, and around, themselves in a clear-sighted yet caring and compassionate way. One of the primary purposes of poetry is to celebrate and share these acts of acute attentiveness as concisely and memorably as possible. This aspect of poetry has an affinity with the practice of zazen or mindful meditation. I begin by discussing the stated aims of a few poets and then go on to offer some examples of poems that evoke the process of paying attention with care and precision.