"Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

Quinn S-P, modified 4 Years ago at 3/27/20 4:00 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/27/20 4:00 PM

"Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

Posts: 4 Join Date: 3/27/20 Recent Posts
Hello, 
My name is Quinn, and I am a dedicated meditation practitioner and college student in Virginia. I am currently working on a research project on the “pragmatic dharma” movement. I have already learned a lot about pragmatic dharma, and I have practiced a lot of meditation, but now I want to investigate this topic from an academic perspective. I think that this project will be useful because it will make it possible for me to more effectively teach others about pragmatic dharma. I am planning on re-reading and analyzing several pragmatic dharma meditation books, including Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa, and The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young. Since this is an academic research project, I am also interested in learning about the criticisms/ critiques of the pragmatic dharma movement. I found this article on Aloha Dharma https://alohadharma.com/2015/11/03/what-is-pragmatic-dharma/, but I was unable to follow the link to Kornfield’s critique. 
Questions 
  • Does anyone have any feedback/ advice for me as I pursue this research project? 
  • Does anyone have any suggestions about additional books to read? 
  • Does anyone have any information about criticisms/critiques of the pragmatic dharma movement? I am especially interested in learning more about the following criticism (quoted from the Aloha Dharma article mentioned above): “He also pointed out that the idea that people could attain enlightenment in lay life, a key idea in pragmatic circles, is something that does not make a lot of sense to him and that the experiences and insights a person has in lay life are not the same, not as “transformative,” as what occurs in a more rigorous monastic setting like the Mahasi centers in Burma.”
  • Can anyone access the Kornfield article? Like I said, I was unable to follow the link.

Thank you for your time. I greatly appreciate any advice that you are willing to provide. 
Thanks, Quinn
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Siavash ', modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 4:41 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 3:37 AM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Hi,
I checked the page that you have linked to, and it refers to the episode 371 of Buddhist Geeks that is an interview with Jack Kornfield titled The Progress Of Insight. This is the link to that episode, that you can find and listen on different websites too (I haven't listened to it yet):


https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-progress-of-insight/id211752923?i=1000353144943

G
ood luck!
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Siavash ', modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 5:13 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 5:13 AM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

Posts: 1679 Join Date: 5/5/19 Recent Posts
Siavash:
Hi,
I checked the page that you have linked to, and it refers to the episode 371 of Buddhist Geeks that is an interview with Jack Kornfield titled The Progress Of Insight. This is the link to that episode, that you can find and listen on different websites too (I haven't listened to it yet):


https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-progress-of-insight/id211752923?i=1000353144943

G
ood luck!


This interview has been published in 2015, and from the interview, it's not clear if Jack has read MCTB or not, but in one of his talks a few years later, I guess in 2018, he says that he is reading MCTB. And since Daniel has shared before in a post here that Jack and his wife have agreed to maybe contribute to his research project, so he (Jack) may have different opinions currently about Daniel and Pragmatic Dharma.
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Ben V, modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 6:51 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 6:51 AM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

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For additional books, if you can find it you could read Kenneth Folk's draft of a book he had begun to write a few years ago titled 'Contemplative Fitnes'. You would get some historical material as to the origin of the movement. 
Quinn S-P, modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 3:28 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 3:28 PM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

Posts: 4 Join Date: 3/27/20 Recent Posts
Siavash, 

Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it. 

I will check out the episode of the Buddhist Geeks podcast. Thanks for the info about the (potential) change in Kornfield's perspective. I will keep that in mind. 

Have a good one. 

Quinn
Quinn S-P, modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 3:29 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 3:29 PM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

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Ben, 

Thanks you for your response. I will definitely check out Folk's book. 

Thanks! 
Quinn
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Noah D, modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 3:46 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 3:46 PM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

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Here is an incomplete list of prag dharm (& regular dharm) resources I have gathered - http://noahsmonthlyupdate.blogspot.com/2017/12/links.html


Kenneth's book is linked in there - it's hard to find otherwise.
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Brandon Dayton, modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 4:00 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 4:00 PM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

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@Ben V -- Just looking up Folk's book now. A shame he never finished it. I'm loving what I'm finding in there.
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Pepe ·, modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 7:36 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 4:03 PM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

Posts: 713 Join Date: 9/26/18 Recent Posts
As for Shinzen Young, The Science of Enlightenement has more of an inspirational tone, while Five Ways to Know Yourself (PDF) is his manual.

Regarding Daniel Ingram, you should probably read also his over 3000 posts here, that's 12 years of history. 

Check a compilation of Shargrol's best posts here in DhO, a meditation coach with a Psychology flavor. No book yet. 

Also, there's a lot of pointers in the Wiki page of DhO that might help you.

David Chapman's blogs are an interesting source on contemporary Buddhism in the West.

Good luck!
 
 
Z , modified 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 6:10 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/28/20 6:05 PM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

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The one book I haven't seen mentioned yet is Bill Hamilton's Saints & Psychopaths, which is a sort of granddaddy of much of the so-called Pragmatic Dharma out there. Also second Kenneth Folk's book and the shargrol posts compilation.  
ahtrahddis, modified 3 Years ago at 9/30/20 7:09 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/29/20 5:03 AM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

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Zachary:
The one book I haven't seen mentioned yet is Bill Hamilton's Saints & Psychopaths, which is a sort of granddaddy of much of the so-called Pragmatic Dharma out there. Also second Kenneth Folk's book and the shargrol posts compilation.  


Nice suggestions! Just to help with some links:


Bill Hamilton's book --> https://github.com/eudoxos/saints

Kenneth Folk's "work in progress" book --> https://github.com/eudoxos/cfitness

Ron Crouch's (Kenneth Folk's student) unofficial text collection from his website --> https://github.com/atrahhdis/alohadharma

A really nice pragmatic text by DavidM --> https://github.com/ahtrahddis/medinra
Quinn S-P, modified 3 Years ago at 3/31/20 3:16 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 3/31/20 3:16 PM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

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Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to this thread! I have started to look into these books and resources, and I can tell that they will be useful as I work on my research project. 

Thanks!
Quinn
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Dream Walker, modified 3 Years ago at 4/1/20 7:01 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 4/1/20 7:01 AM

RE: "Pragmatic dharma" study curriculum

Posts: 1657 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
Academic? 
Research for what? Teaching?
Well, look to the wayback machine for old links. 
Looking for criticisms? It goes both ways, old standards and newish stuff, depending upon where you are in the world, one persons old is anothers new.
Have fun! Lots to explore!
~D

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