Super Dharma Bros: Recent Episodes
Super Dharma Bros
Conversations, explorations, and accounts of Buddhism in the West--and at large--from the perspective of Millenial Buddhists. Featuring: Kevin Walker, a practicing Theravadan Buddhist who has studied in that tradition since 2006. He does not attend a monastery, but specializes in discussing Buddhism with Lyft drivers. Chris Accardo, a post-modern Buddhist in the Gelugpa sect, has practiced Buddhism since childhood while doing absolutely nothing to formalize it. He attends Namgyal Monastery, where he is a volunteer handyman and drinks lots of free tea.
The concept of a lack of a permeant Self is both one of Buddhism's most unique, but often most misunderstood, features. In this episode Kevin and Chris break down how the Self is talked about in our modern era, what exactly No-Self means, and why making friends with not having a Self ultimately is foundational to most Buddhist practices...even if you have to come back to it a few times.
We'll be taking a break for a bit to come up with new episodes and conversations to have. Is there something you want to hear? Let us know with this survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZSW6RVV?fbclid=IwAR0-NBDJV3fJ2JP4ecbbSosss_q-4x7vpvExiR1N3TIM5hrZT8EBaLwfQ3Y
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=super+dharma+bros
Kevin and Chris are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism as practitioners. We're happily Dharma-friends for all, but are in no way qualified teachers, guides, or remotely good role models.
Every philosophy, religion, or viewpoint has some assumptions, some facts that form the base of everything else to follow. While the Four Noble Truths are the baseline philosophy, the Three Marks of Existence form the foundational, simplest breakdown of how we think the world--and we--work. Chris and Kevin explore (almost all of the) Three Marks of Existence: (1) All things are impermeant and change, (2) Our connection to those things, if not reflected on properly, leads us to dukkha, (3) All things have no ever-lasting, true "self." That last one is a hard pill to swallow, so we'll tackle it in the next episode, but in this episode you'll get to learn about the essence of the Buddhist outlook on the world.
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=super+dharma+bros
Kevin and Chris are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism as practitioners. We're happily Dharma-friends for all, but are in no way qualified teachers, guides, or remotely good role models.
Super Dharma Bro Kevin goes solo and explains how reflection can be practiced in our everyday lives as well as in a Buddhist practice. He gives some suggestions on how to approach reflective practices and answers the "so what?!" question with the help of Super Dharma Bro Chris's comments in the notes.
Link to The Buddha and His Disciples: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/bud-disciples.pdf
Twitter: @SuperDharmaBros
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
E-mail: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
In this episode Kevin and Chris discuss their weirdest questions they’ve gotten on Buddhism (including a thankfully hypothetical conjoined twin who is part murderer, part saint), and more importantly the Buddhist concept of metta, or “loving-kindness.” An unbiased, universal love for all, Kevin and Chris discuss how their traditions define metta, and how they use meditation to cultivate it better. After all, what the world needs now is love...sweet love.
Citations:
https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/BeyondAllDirections/Section0007.html?fbclid=IwAR1Q6u6Z52JH3dLZyGlqsHE-1ly_X0jzRbTja8kbO9TlEcjfatXHpNtiSOk
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.08.piya.html?fbclid=IwAR270j9bWsaH4sMYhNgvUaM8oRA-oSUNUDbJYx0PjbM-ytQZ-0UJLh3YiaI
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
Kevin and Chris are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism as practitioners. We're happily Dharma-friends for all, but are in no way qualified teachers, guides, or remotely good role models.
What place do Buddhists have in politics? I (Chris), have some thoughts.
While some might think we shouldn't get involved, maybe that shouldn't be the case. While politics is admittedly a bit of a quagmire--power, division, and hatred being common pitfalls--in this episode I breaks down why maybe a lot of our modern aversion to politics as spiritual practitioners might just be an extension of "toxic positivity" and bypassing. Entirely my own interpretation, but I goes so far as to argue that the Buddha himself was not just a "spiritual" teacher, but also viewed matters of economics and public policy as an important step towards the happiness of all. While there might not be "Wheel Turning Monarchs" (Kings dedicated to spreading and preserving the Dharma), maybe it's time for us to get off the cushion and be Wheel Turning Voters.
This episode is something I felt deeply convicted to do, and while I'm doing it under the Super Dharma Bros channel, feel free to direct any complaints, arguments, and hate mail to me directly.
Episode Citations:
DN 5: Kutadanta Sutta; I 134-136
Chenrezig's Story: https://www.lionsroar.com/who-is-avalokiteshvara/
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
Kevin and Chris are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism as practitioners. We're happily Dharma-friends for all, but are in no way qualified teachers, guides, or remotely good role models.
What do Jake Gyllenhaal, Uma Thurman, Jennifer Aniston, and Chris Accardo have in common besides being voted the most attractive people in America? Meditation!
Okay...so what is meditation in the Buddhist world?
Kevin and Chris give an overview of the function meditation plays relative to the Buddhist path, and discuss the fine balance between grace, gentleness, and commitment we need to form a gradual meditation practice. While meditation isn't always easy--and may not always be the best immediate path--it has its place, but that place is just one part of the complete Buddhist path.
We also discuss celebrity Buddhists...there's weirdly a lot of them.
Things cited in this episode:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/PathofPurification2011.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1wIm3Q9-SBohD-qVqqgFPq515T4uxX763lmT7LD5drs7NtVxTRT-PT4AQ
https://goldenbuddha.org/2020/10/09/this-sunday-buddhist-teachings-and-guided-meditation-with-ajahn-barry-subhaddo/?fbclid=IwAR0d6pb6SOBehKuEhSp-nsKukaaaroHmWrI5neLrvkjZYEQmAGD2_43B2Gc
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
Kevin and Chris are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism as practitioners. We're happily Dharma-friends for all, but are in no way qualified teachers, guides, or remotely good role models.
How do we reconcile cultural idealizations of undying love with religious understandings of non-attachment and impermanence? In this episode Chris discusses how relationships can help grow our Buddhist practice, and how our Buddhist practice can make for healthy relationships. Our romantic love can be a good baseline for creating a growing, deep universal compassion; our understanding of emptiness and not becoming attached to narratives can help us see our partner, our relationship, and ourselves for what they truly are, and love them as they truly are.
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=super+dharma+bros
Kevin and Chris are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism as practitioners. We're happily Dharma-friends for all, but are in no way qualified teachers, guides, or remotely good role models.
Alright, things kinda went off the rails in this episode.
Buddhists are sometimes thought to be easy-going, happy, pacifist, "Don't-Think-Just-Be, Maaaaaaan," vegetarians who solve every problem with meditation...and are often anything but. Kevin and Chris discuss common misconceptions in Buddhism, which often might have a grain of truth but miss the real application. They also play a game to see how well they really know each other, and Kevin loses both the game and his dignity and has to sing Carly Rae Jepsen's hit "Call Me Maybe." See kids, this is why you shouldn't gamble.
If there's one episode of Super Dharma Bros to listen to...this isn't it.
Citations:
"Are you a deva?": https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.036.than.html
Free inquiry: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an03/an03.065.soma.html
Kesi sutta: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.111.than.html
"Call Me Maybe" by the Great Luminated Dakini, Carly Rae Jepsen. Version Kevin used (We do not own it hence the provided link):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG520Uw8lUA
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Facebook: Super Dharma Bros
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=super+dharma+bros
Kevin and Chris are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism as practitioners. We're happily Dharma-friends for all, but are in no way qualified teachers, guides, or remotely good role models.
Kevin goes solo and explores the qualities we should look for in a friend from a Buddhist perspective. What qualities should we look for if we want to become a monk (Kevin's retirement plan)? How about in our everyday lives?
Suttas: SN 45.2: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn45/sn45.002.than.html AN 7.37: Bodhi's The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha pg. 1022 AN 7.36: Bodhi's The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha pg. 1021 AN 8.54: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an08/an08.054.than.html DN 31: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.nara.html Follow us on Twitter: @SuperDharmaBros or https://twitter.com/SuperDharmaBros Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SuperDharmaB... Look for us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1aDfRY0... Or Email us: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Of all the world religions, Buddhism is one of the few that isn't sure if it's actually a religion or not. Kevin and Chris talk about what religion is and isn't, why many Buddhists don't identify it as a religion, and what we gain and lose by calling it a religion or not.
Kevin and I are not Buddhist teachers, and don't claim to be. This podcast is a way to discuss perspectives and experiences of our practice and relationship with Buddhism.
Citations:
AN 2: iv 6; 166
Find to us however is best for you!
Twitter: @superdharmabros
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=super+dharma+bros
**Chris Accardo discusses sex and sexuality in Buddhism, and how Western Buddhists navigate coming from traditions emphasizing celibacy with our own understandings of how sex can not only be a healthy part of our lives, but yet another dimension for our practice. Our practice around sex moves away from forbidding specific sexual actions to understanding egoic narratives we construct around our sexuality. The concern isn’t removing or controlling our sexuality, but truly seeing it as it is so we can recognize it as a part of us...but like everything else, understanding that it’s just one piece of who we are.
Relevant articles or media:
https://www.lionsroar.com/rethinking-buddhism-and-sex-2/ “Revisiting the Traditional Views of Buddhism” by José Ignacio Cabezón**
https://youtu.be/bshPCXTR5Ls - Venerable Thubten Chodron, informal Q&A on SexFollow us on Twitter:
@SuperDharmaBros or https://twitter.com/SuperDharmaBros..
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dharmabros2020@gmail.com
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Super Dharma Bros
Kevin and Chris explain what the Five Precepts (abstaining from killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, and intoxication) are, how they are applicable to our lives, and how they are not as straightforward as they may seem. Notable references: “Going for Refuge and Taking the Precepts” by Bhikkhu Bodhi “The Healing Power of the Precepts” by Thanissaro Bhikkhu Sin, Sex, Zen by Brad Warner Relevant podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR...
Follow us on Twitter: @SuperDharmaBros or https://twitter.com/SuperDharmaBros
Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SuperDharmaB
... Look for us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1aDfRY0
... Or Email us: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Kevin goes solo and explains how wholesome and unwholesome are used as alternative terms for "right" and "wrong" and "good" and "evil." He goes into the definitions of the three unwholesome roots of greed, hatred, and delusion as well as the three wholesome roots of non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion.
Useful suttas: SN 42.3: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn42/sn42.003.than.html SN 3.23: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn03/sn03.023.than.html AN 3.34: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN3_34.html MN 9: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.009.ntbb.html MN 140: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.140.than.html Other helpful works: Good, Evil, and Beyond Bhikkhu P.A. Payutto translated by Bruce Evans http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/good_evil_beyond.pdf The Roots of Good and Evil Venerable Nyanaponika Thera http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/roots_goodevil.pdf
Follow us on Twitter: @SuperDharmaBros or https://twitter.com/SuperDharmaBros Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SuperDharmaB... Look for us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1aDfRY0... Or Email us: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Kevin and Chris examine the Noble Eightfold Path and provide suggestions on how we can practice the path without becoming a monk. Kevin gives us a rundown on the Path itself, and Chris speculates that, in the modern world, the Path serves as a framework of questions rather than a series of edicts. Mindfulness, sex, weed, and Kevin's bad poetry, all in one really long episode.
Follow us on Twitter: @SuperDharmaBros or https://twitter.com/SuperDharmaBros
Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SuperDharmaB
... Look for us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1aDfRY0
... Or Email us: dharmabros2020@gmail.com Suttas and sources: AN 5.177: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/...
MN 141: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/...
Ajahn Sumedho Four Noble Truths: http://www.buddhanet.net/4noble.htm
Bhikkhu Bodhi The Noble Eightfold Path: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/nob...
Chris discusses the questions and crises Americans face that lead them to become Buddhist--and why the Buddhism that came to America was asking some of the same questions. History, experience, and the status quo all get questioned here.
Sources, and more research:
Ann Gleig's "American Dharma"
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300215809/american-dharma
Nadia Bolz-Weber [check out her work for good stories on why people leave their faith]
https://nadiabolzweber.com/
Follow us on Twitter:
@SuperDharmaBros or https://twitter.com/SuperDharmaBros
Like our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/SuperDharmaB
Look for us on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/1aDfRY0
Or Email us:
dharmabros2020@gmail.com
"Everything pretty much sucks, but you can do something about it." [The Kevin Walker Sutta]
Kevin and Chris discuss (most of) the Four Noble Truths, the core teaching of Buddhism that lays out the human condition realistically, but also promises us freedom from cycles of craving...but it takes some work. We talk about problems around translating the word "dukkha," often translated as "suffering"--the chronic state of human pain, desire, boredom, ennui, or suffering--but also the beauty of sitting with our experience of suffering.
Suttas and Speakers referenced:
SN 56.11: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/...
SN 56.35: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/...
MN 141: https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/...
Sharon Salzberg talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmJIv...
Follow us on Twitter:
@SuperDharmaBros or https://twitter.com/SuperDharmaBros
Like our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/SuperDharmaB
Look for us on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/1aDfRY0
Or Email us:
dharmabros2020@gmail.com
A discussion on faith in Western Buddhism. Faith exists in all forms of Buddhism--even the secular, non-religious versions--but what is that faith in? We talk about faith in and beyond Enlightenment (with a capital E), and how faith in Buddhism is incremental, persistent, and expansive while being reliant on doubt and questioning.
Texts and Citations:
Miya Folick (In response to a Question on how Buddhism impacts her): “I remember taking this philosophy class in college and the teacher asked if we believe in the idea of pure good, or if people only do good for selfish reasons, and I was maybe one of only two people that believed in pure good! You do your best because that’s what you’re supposed to do. “ (https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/meet-miya-folick-a-reasonable-singer-songwriter-with-an-unreasonably-amazing-voice/**)
Pali Texts:** (SN 25.3), (AN 5.34), (SN 42.8), (SN 48.54), (Snp 1.10), (AN 10.92)
Questions, comments, concerns, existential crises? Let us know!
Email: dharmabros2020@gmail.com
Twitter: Superdharmabros
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Kevin and Chris introduce themselves, and talk about why they're doing this podcast channel.
The idea is to not to be teachers, but to be peer voices in Buddhist practice; to ask and wonder about what Buddhism looks like for each of us here in the West, and to figure out where to go from here. "What we bring to the table will be imperfect, ugly, and half formed...but it will be in our language and in our voice, it will be in our experience."