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PODCAST

Dharma Roads

In this podcast, Buddhist chaplain, Zen practitioner and artist, John Danvers, explores the wisdom and meditation methods of Zen, Buddhism and other sceptical philosophers, writers and poets - seeking ways of dealing with the many problems and questions that arise in our daily lives. The talks are often short, and include poems, stories and music. John has practiced Zen meditation (zazen) for over sixty years.

religion & spirituality buddhism

All Episodes

31:36

Episode 38 - Mutability, time & presence

Dharma Roads ·

2025/09/27

Send us a text The brevity of life and the nature of time are topics that humans have puzzled over for at least two thousand years – and probably for as long as our species has walked the earth. In this episode I want to offer a few thoughts on these matters and on the mysterious phenomenon we refer to as ‘the present moment.’ What I have to say is rooted in my experience of zazen, Zen meditation, and in my study of Buddhist thought and other philosophical traditions. The practice of zazen is...

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35:38

Episode 37 - Dialogue, religion & the arts

Dharma Roads ·

2025/07/09

Send us a text In this extended episode I suggest a few avenues of exploration concerning the arts as agencies of dialogue and how the arts can offer a model for how inter-religious dialogue might be developed and maintained. I offer some examples of the ways in which artworks and approaches to artmaking and appreciation can be considered as modes of conversation and as vehicles for sharing religious insights and experiences. I also introduce Edmund Burke’s ideas about the ‘sublime’ and sugge...

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32:39

Episode 36 - David Hume & Isaiah Berlin

Dharma Roads ·

2025/05/01

Send us a text In this extended episode, I talk about the ideas and insights of two thinkers, David Hume who lived in the eighteenth century, and Isaiah Berlin, who died in 1997. They both offer us interesting thoughts about human nature, what we mean by ‘the self’ and how to enshrine multiple personal freedoms and rights within a vibrant society. Both writers argue for tolerance and benign scepticism. I also suggest some connections between their ideas and those of Gotama Buddha.

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18:38

Episode 35 - Learning, awakening & empowerment

Dharma Roads ·

2025/04/30

Send us a text In this episode I explore some of the issues surrounding educational methods and processes in contemporary Buddhism and suggest changes in perspective and practice that can lead to a more empowering experience for students (and teachers). It seems to me that in the development of secular approaches to Buddhist practice there is much to be learnt from the creative, transformative and egalitarian modes of learning employed within the education of artists. My comments about art ed...

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25:46

Episode 35 - Learning, awakening & empowerment

Dharma Roads ·

2025/03/12

Send us a text In this episode I explore some of the issues surrounding educational methods and processes in contemporary Buddhism, and suggest changes in perspective and practice that can lead to a more empowering experience for students (and teachers). It seems to me that in the development of secular approaches to Buddhist practice there is much to be learnt from the creative, transformative and egalitarian modes of learning employed within the education of artists. My comments about art e...

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31:06

Episode 34 - Kenneth Rexroth: his life and poetry

Dharma Roads ·

2025/01/17

Send us a textIn this episode I talk about the American poet, essayist and translator, Kenneth Rexroth. Like Gary Snyder, who I will speak about in a future episode, Rexroth explores the natural world – both literally, as a hiker through the American landscape, and in his poetry and other writings. Rexroth belongs to the generation immediately prior to Snyder though they did know each other well in the 1950s. I will touch on various strands of his work and point out a few parallels with Buddh...

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38:11

Episode 33 - Mindful meditation & creativity

Dharma Roads ·

2024/12/13

Send us a textIn this episode, somewhat longer than usual, I explore some of the relationships between mindful meditation and creativity – what we might call ‘creative awareness.’ I begin by examining what we mean by creativity and go on to suggest that there is a close affinity between paying attention and the development of a creative engagement with the world. I argue that letting-go and unlearning, and the making of connections, are important aspects of both mindful meditation and creativ...

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42:04

Episode 32 - Mindful Solidarity - an interview with...

Dharma Roads ·

2024/11/22

Send us a textIn this special episode I interview, Mike Slott, about his new book titled, Mindful Solidarity: A Secular Buddhist Democratic Socialist Dialogue. Mike is the founder of the Secular Buddhist Network – an organisation that has done a lot of work advocating for a secular approach to Buddhist ideas and practices, and in helping to link together secular Buddhist individuals and groups from around the world. In his book Mike argues for a dialogue between secular Buddhists and dem...

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35:10

Episode 31 - Daoism (Taoism)

Dharma Roads ·

2024/11/12

Send us a textIn this extended episode I explore some of the main ideas and beliefs of Daoism (also known as Taoism) - highlighting aspects of Daoist philosophy that have a particular connection to the development of Zen. I also describe the way in which Daoism is complemented by Confucian ideas in the history of Chinese culture. It seems to me that there are many things we can learn from the ways in which Daoists think about change, uncertainty, the natural world and finding harmony within a...

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34:34

Episode 30 - John Dewey

Dharma Roads ·

2024/10/14

In this extended episode I share some thoughts on a strand of philosophy known as ‘pragmatism’ as realized in the work of one of its key exponents, John Dewey – who was born in 1859 and died in 1952 at the ripe old age of ninety-three. Here and there I will point out parallels between Dewey’s ideas and the ideas and practices of other Buddhist and non-Buddhist thinkers I have mentioned in earlier talks. Over Dewey’s long life he had a profound influence on American philosophy and on the devel...

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23:34

Episode 29 - Climate action & eco-grief

Dharma Roads ·

2024/09/19

In this episode I share some more thoughts on global warming, climate action and eco-grief. This is a revised and extended version of Episode 3. I argue that we need to face up to the global challenge we face, however difficult this may be, and to do what we can, individually and collectively, to address issues raised by climate change and its causes. I also suggest some actions we can take to combat, or at least lessen, the increase in global warming and to transform potential despair into a...

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27:24

Episode 28 - Soren Kierkegaard

Dharma Roads ·

2024/08/18

In Episode 21 I talked about existentialism and mentioned that while Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and other existentialist thinkers were agnostics or atheists, there were a number of influential Christian philosophers who developed forms of existential thinking. The earliest of these was the Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), who lived in Copenhagen for most of his life. In this episode I share a few thoughts about Kierkegaard's ideas and life. Please keep in mind that ...

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30:50

Episode 27 - 'Suchness,' Zen & window cleaning

Dharma Roads ·

2024/07/20

In this extended episode, I am going to talk about the notion of tathata, or ‘suchness,’ and relate this to the Zen practice of ‘bare attention.’ I will also say something about what is known as kensho in Japanese Zen – often translated as, ‘seeing into the nature of things.’ I will end by tracing a connection between these practices and the concept of Gelassenheit as used by the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. I hope to show how this bundle of ideas and practices can have a practical a...

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28:32

Episode 26 - Cultivating mindful ethics

Dharma Roads ·

2024/07/19

In this episode, I return to the question discussed in Episode 22, that is, what kind of ethical values may be necessary to the development of a just and peaceful society – describing in more detail what I have called ‘mindful ethics.’ In a sense what I say here is repeating what I had to say in Episode 7, though with some significant changes. In particular, I provide a slightly different way of articulating, and thinking about, the ‘Eightfold Path’ – one of the key features of most accounts ...

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32:02

Episode 25 - Michel de Montaigne & Samuel Beckett

Dharma Roads ·

2024/05/24

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 o...

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23:10

Episode 24 - Transmission, transformation and secular...

Dharma Roads ·

2024/04/24

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23:43

Episode 23 - Interwoven nature

Dharma Roads ·

2024/03/25

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22:37

Episode 22 - Mindful ethics, capitalism & sustainability

Dharma Roads ·

2024/03/12

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31:23

Episode 21 - Existentialism - another Dharma Road

Dharma Roads ·

2023/12/06

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24:38

Episode 20 - Transience, clinging & non-attachment

Dharma Roads ·

2023/11/10

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39 results

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