Buddhism and the New Age Movement 

Loving the guitar intros.

Great vid. I saw the Out On A Limb film in the 1980s. and I loved it. Shirleys work lead me, to Wayne Dyer, Then Dan Millman's books. Eventually I read Entering The Stream and started my Buddhist journey. Like David Carradine once wrote, "Everything furthurs". Seems like the spiritual path never ends. Namaste Brad

Not sure if I’d consider the Theosophists all that intellectual considering many of their pseudo-scientific theories about race, and belief in lizard men (which is where the conspiracy theory about reptilians comes from), and the Ascended Masters. The Theosophists were also into siddhis, though they called them “initiations.”

I love your bass solos, Brad!

Hi Thrillseekers, my zazen improved a lot after I started using a candle to guide my gaze.

I have an old friend who recently started getting 'into Buddhism'. I mentioned that I'd recently received the precepts and was studying Buddhism. His response was that sorry, he wasn't into fear based religion. I dropped the subject after that.

The Light of Asia wasn't a translation but an original poem by Edwin Arnold

Your bass is sick as hell man

I really appreciate all of Ziggy's insightful and astute contributions to the topic at hand. It's funny that you mentioned the Theosophical Society in this video. I'd been meaning to ask you about Jiddu Krishnamurti -- specifically, if and how you're able to reconcile his writings with your practice of Zen. I'd never read him until recently, having read Think on These Things and, now, The First and Last Freedom within the past few weeks. Certainly there are aspects of Buddhism that I suspect he would not support, i.e., the importance of the teacher, a codified discipline or system of beliefs, etc. However, much of what he writes I find dovetails very well with Zen. In fact, just to give a couple of examples, when he writes about how it's impossible to genuinely alter a personality trait, such as greed, through effort, but rather that it is the understanding of greed that leads to transformation, it reminded me how you've said that having a goal in zazen is ineffectual because the mind that sets the goal is a product of all the conditioning and thoughts and hangups and such that you bring to zazen. Likewise, when he speaks of meditation, he mentions the importance of not trying to control the experience, as in cultivating compassion, for example, but to pay attention without preference to everything that arises, and that seems to sit well (no pun intended) with shikantaza. My reading may be completely off, but given that you've written and spoken here about having read Krishnamurti in the past, I wondered how his writing informed your practice. Thank you, Brad!

Fun! I’m only like 3 years younger than you are - and was REALLY into New Age stuff - you forgot Shakti Gawain! 🤣 Seriously, it helped me through some rough times in the 80’s.

Funky bass riff, I enjoy the acoustic bass as well, as I am percussionist. I've heard alot of teachers and people like Carl Jung talk about the superficial aspect of meditation and spirituality, and how it can lead to a sort of ego inflation. Also remember reading a psychological article not to long ago stating how meditation can lead to narcissism without proper guidance. It seems like we have to have some understanding of these philosophies from which these practices derive. Or they could lead us into trouble. But in this day of information, I think that can be difficult. So Brad once again I thank you for your content. Also what do you think about Siddhartha Gautama being yogi before he became the Buddha? Would it be appropriate to call Zen the yoga of balance?

Not to ask for the quiet part out loud... but was the name of the buddhist prosperity gospel trend soka gakkai?

These talks are insightful and entertaining. I agree with your observations, the new age people are interesting and entertaining, but too caught up in the self, and fluffing up their ego.

A lot of the ideas in the New Age are from Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism, so they are not really familiar to those of us who get the typical western introduction to Buddhism through Zen or Theravada. Soka Gakkai is a watered-down Nichiren Buddhism, which is still practiced in the traditional way by the Nichiren Shu school. While Nichiren himself was ordained a monk in the Tendai school, Nichiren Buddhism is largely philosophically descended from Shingon Buddhism, which is the Japanese Vajrayana school. Shingon shares a common origin with Tibetan Buddhism (also Vajrayana) in early first millennium AD India. In Vajrayana, different from Theravada and most Mahayana, there is an emphasis on the idea that defilements themselves can be the seeds of awakening, different from the traditional Buddhist idea that they must be cut off. Nichiren Buddhism shares this. In this vein, chanting for worldly things is not decried even by the traditional Nichiren-shu.

Roller coaster.. of love! The Ohio Players, great stuff. Listened to Funkadelic the other day. I love funk music. However, I’m not as forgiving to theosophists and New Age followers. What I thought was funny was that some people I talked with always thought they were someone cool in their past life. I would reply, “I cleaned stables during the 9th century and died of The Plague.”

Wow! You got more guitars than Prince!!!...🤣🤣

Talks about differences in opinions on deepest topics there are. Inserts "that's what she said" joke. Respect +

“Read some actual Dogen-“ That’s what she said.

ROLLER COASTER OF LOVE!!!! SAY WHAT?

Those are legit little noise boxes.

Roller coaster 🎢…… of love.

OK, "What Is Hip?" next?

Only here for the guitar now...

A friend of mine said New Age adds, Buddhist practice removes.

I put some amp troubleshooting advice in the comments of your last. Worth mentioning is that there are plenty of actual Buddhist and Hindu (and indeed Christian and Muslim) followers whose adherence to their faith is pretty superficial, as well.

Hmmmm….”Soka Gakkai….” Maybe we need a Talk on “Buddhism and Money”…?

If you remember Shirley MacLaine,

Who else caught the Spinal Tap reference?

Sick baseline

brad, your competence at basic life skills is "distressing" do you even know how to use a screwdriver ? hint: what's inside closed boxes with remain a mystery until they are opened this applies to amps, dogen, shirely maclaine and the krishnamurtis

The New Age movement is dumbed down, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism with some western Occult/Pagan/Celtic/Norse mythology thrown in for good measure but, is essentially for shallow Americans in particular and westerners in general. It's riddled with spiritual cliches and really does lead to "Spiritual Materialism" "Everything is a form of Mind", sold objects, circumstances, even our loved ones etc... is an ancient Buddhist teaching. So, the law of attraction is within the Buddha's original teachings, it just that the Buddha thought that the life of a monk, was the only superior circumstance from which to attain enlightenment. Not so, but it does allow for far longer periods of concentrated practice.

Surprised there was no mention of the cult around ken Wilber

I think this is a good take on the topic.

I'll be interested in your talk on theosophy. Rudolph Steiner is someone you might look into.

If you remember Shirley MacLaine, your lookin pretty good for you age. The Buddhism is doing you a lot of 👍 good.😉

"Love rollacoastah! Of looove... Say what?!" Great single! And the Ohio Players' album covers? 'Nuff said. Being a recovered New Age junkie (yep, that monkey was on my back and let it ruh-huh-hiiide!), I can relate to this discussion. The New Age was really just mystical concepts dumbed down into self help books and other merch to unload onto a more than willing, magically wishing public. Making some folks a lot of money. Although I could never really get into "The Power of Now." But I left all that a while back. It's human nature, I suppose, to want magic and superstition to be real. I know I *still* do. But also accept life for its inherently magical nature--just as it is. Good topic. Thanks! 🧘🧘‍♂️🧘‍♀️

BRAD, who did you “just talk to” at the Theosophical Society? Are you doing their Thursday Night Lecture coming up? **Thrill Seekers, stay tuned…!**

There's nothing 'New' about the New Age Movement.

"My mom got really into Shirley MacLaine and I was into Buddhism..." Except...if you strip Buddhism of its profound core principles you might as well stick with Shirley, or any number of other shallow new age nitwits.