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PODCAST

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast

The Imperfect Buddha podcast has been addressing anti-intellectualism and ideological capture in western Buddhism and spirituality more broadly since its inception. It provides a space for dynamic conversations designed to bring out what is so often hidden and so often despised by critics and intellectuals engaging with contemporary forms of practice. Matthew O’Connell hosts the Imperfect Buddha podcast and writes at The Imperfect Buddha site. Email: imperfectbuddha@outlook.com. Twitter:

religion & spirituality buddhism

All Episodes

69:42

Just Stare at the Damn Wall!

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2026/04/07

Welcome to the Imperfect Buddha Podcast on the New Books Network. Today, we’re stripping away the incense and serenity to look at the cold, hard wall of practice.We are joined by Mark Shinji Blacknell, author of Just Stare at the Damn Wall!. Mark isn't your typical "mindfulness guru"—he’s been a Marine, a bus driver, and an alcoholic, bringing a crude and down to Earth view of enlightenment to Zen. In this episode, we dig into the friction between Mark’s focus on simple biology and the Soto

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46:14

Dr. Michael Uebler on Reimaging Equanimity

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2025/12/13

Michael Uebel is a psychotherapist and researcher currently based in Austin, Texas. He is recognized as a pioneer in applying psychological insights to the historical intersections of social, personal, and imaginative phenomena. He is a Research Affiliate at the University of Texas at Austin and a psychotherapist in both the public sector and in private practice.Uebel has taught literature and critical theory at several universities, including the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, and

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70:43

Alexander Douglas, "Against Identity: The Wisdom of...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2025/07/29

In Against Identity, philosopher Alexander Douglas seeks an alternative wisdom. Searching the work of three thinkers – ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, Dutch Enlightenment thinker Benedict de Spinoza, and 20th Century French theorist René Girard – he explores how identity can be a spiritual violence that leads us away from truth.Through their worlds and radically different cultures, we discover how, at moments of historical rupture, our hunger for being grows: and yet, it is exactly these

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54:16

Speaking Philosophically: Communication at the Limits...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2025/06/08

Tom joins us to discuss his book Speaking Philosophically: Communication at the Limits of Discursive Reason (Bloomsbury, 2023). Western philosophy has often claimed for itself not just a distinct sphere of knowledge, but a distinct form of communication, set against ordinary speech. For some philosophers, authentic philosophizing demands a specific manner of speaking or writing, adoption of which enables one to gesture toward truths that propositional speech will never grasp. Drawing on a variety of

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88:47

Anne C. Klein on Becoming a Buddha & Being Human too

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2025/05/21

You’re human, but are you also a Buddha? If so, which one comes first? What does it mean to be human? What is a Buddha exactly? Is our humanity lost or superseded if we become a Buddha? Such questions might interest our more philosophical listeners.Being Human and a Buddha Too (Wisdom Publications, 2023) by today’s guest Anne Klein explores the 7-point mind training of Longchenpa, a 14th century Tibetan Scholar and Yogi from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Anne is professor of religion at

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72:01

Peter Sloterdijk Knows it All

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2025/03/22

Today’s guest is Dr Thomas Sutherland, author of the Bloomsbury title, Speaking Philosophically: Communication at the Limits of Discursive Reason (Bloombury, 2024), lecturer in digital media at the University of Southampton, and researcher into digital culture and the humanities, the history of philosophy and contemporary continental philosophy, and technologies of the self.We discuss three areas that concern the odd character that is Peter Sloterdijk; namely, spheres, the practising life and

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114:54

120 Non Buddhist Mysticism: Performing Irreducible...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2024/12/11

Glenn’s latest, Non Buddhist Mysticism: Performing Irreducible and Primitive Presence (Eyecorner Press, 2022), presents a radical reorientation to “spiritual” practice.Drawing from François Laruelle’s concept of future mysticism and the author’s own previous work on non-buddhism, Glenn Wallis galvanizes a materialist spirituality for the twenty-first century. Liberated from the punctilious gaze of the masters, delivered into the hands (and hearts) of the reader, this is a spirituality “born in the

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89:16

119 Alone in a World of Wounds with Zen Abbot Shodhin...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2024/08/29

Shodhin Geiman is Sensei & Abbot at Chicago Zen Center and recently retired Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University. He has written on aspects of the Dharma and on points of interface between Buddhist and Christian spirituality. His book, Alone in a World of Wounds: A Dharmic Response to the Ills of Sentient Beings (Cascade Books, 2022). Another, Obstacles to Stillness: Thoughts, Hindrances, and Self-Surrender in Evagrius and the Buddha (Fortress Press, 2023), came out in 2023. He is

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77:17

118 Nietzsche Now! With Glenn Wallis

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2024/06/18

Nietzsche Now! Now? Really, you might ask. Isn’t he dead already? The Great Immoralist on the vital issues of our time. Hmm, how is that you might ask. Find out in this conversation with Glenn Wallis, returning guest and author of Nietzsche Now! We discuss the role Nietzsche might play today in helping all of us exit the culture war bubble and start to think again. For regular listeners, don’t worry, we do touch on Buddhism too!The Press Release does much of the work in explaining the appeal of

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59:00

117 Building the Future Buddha: A Discussion with...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2024/03/31

Jundo Cohen is a Zen Buddhist teacher and founder of Treeleaf Zendo, a digital Zen community with members in over 50 countries. He writes on the intersection of Buddhism, ethics, science, and the future of the planet. He resides in Tsukuba, Japan’s “Science City”. He is the author of The Zen Master’s Dance: A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe (Wisdom, 2020), and is co-host of The Zen of Everything podcast.In this episode I speak to Jundo about his new book, Building the

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87:29

116 Making Sense of Yogacara with William Waldron

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2024/03/23

Professor William Waldron teaches courses on the South Asian religious traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, Tibetan religion and history, comparative psychologies and philosophies of mind, and theory and method in the study of religion at Middlebury College. His publications focus on the Yogacara school of Indian Buddhism and its dialogue with modern thought. He is the author of Making Sense of Mind Only: Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters (Wisdom Publications, 2023).In this conversation, we look at

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78:27

115 Christian Coseru on Perceiving Reality

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2024/01/08

What does it mean to perceive and just how capable are we of perceiving reality? This is a core question in the work of Christian Coseru, who is today’s guest. He is the Lightsey Humanities chair and Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston. Christian works in the fields of philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Indian and Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with Western philosophy and cognitive science.He is the author of Perceiving Reality:

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72:48

114 David McMahan on Rethinking Meditation

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/12/04

If anything, the Imperfect Buddha Podcast has been a rallying cry for the disruption of the myths that abound in the world of Buddhism and meditation. David L. McMahan professor of religion at Franklin and Marshall College, has been something of a crusader himself, writing a much needed correction to many of the myths in western adoption of Buddhism in his seminal text, The Makings of Buddhist Modernism. In our second interview with David, we discuss his newest book, Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist

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134:43

113 A.I. and Practice with Stuart Baldwin

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/11/10

The technological revolution we are facing today is artificial intelligence. At least this is what we are told. Those doing the telling include tech experts such as Elon Musk, linguist Noam Chomsky, as well as philosophers, politicians and intellectuals of all stripes. What are to make of all this and how are we to manage a world experiencing such rapid change as practitioners? We explore the role of A.I. and its place in a line of societal change that has serious consequences for all of us. We

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51:55

112 Wake up! (Part 3) An Antidote to Stupidity in...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/11/02

Wake up! Antidote to stupidity in three parts. This is part 3. What follows is a three-part series on waking up to non-buddhism as an antidote to stupidity. This is an ambitious project designed to look at a curriculum of items that might be useful to contemporary Buddhist practitioners in order to wake up from some of the traps that have been diagnosed by non-buddhism over the last few years. It constitutes a kind of educational possibility. Combining reflection on key topics and contemplative

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28:29

111 Wake up! (Part 2) An Antidote to Stupidity in...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/10/26

Wake up! Antidote to stupidity in three parts. This is part 2. What follows is a three-part series on waking up to non-buddhism as an antidote to stupidity. This is an ambitious project designed to look at a curriculum of items that might be useful to contemporary Buddhist practitioners in order to wake up from some of the traps that have been diagnosed by non-buddhism over the last few years. It constitutes a kind of educational possibility. Combining reflection on key topics and contemplative

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26:56

110 Wake up! (Part 1) An Antidote to Stupidity in...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/10/19

Wake up! Antidote to stupidity in three parts. This is part 1. What follows is a three-part series on waking up to non-buddhism as an antidote to stupidity. This is an ambitious project designed to look at a curriculum of items that might be useful to contemporary Buddhist practitioners in order to wake up from some of the traps that have been diagnosed by non-buddhism over the last few years. It constitutes a kind of educational possibility. Combining reflection on key topics and contemplative

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63:00

109 Meditating Three Minutes a Day: A Conversation...

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/08/22

After a month or two of absence, the podcast returns for a new season, beginning with an unexpectedly wide ranging conversation with Dr. Richard Dixey. Richard holds a Ph.D. from London University, an M.A. with distinction in the history and philosophy of science from London University, and a B.A. Hons from Oxford. He has been a student of Buddhism since 1972 and has travelled extensively in the Himalayas, India and South East Asia. He is currently an advisor to the Khyentse Foundation, runs

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53:26

108 Curtis White on Buddhism and Transcendence

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/05/29

Acclaimed cultural critic Curtis White examines current fissures in Western Buddhism and argues against the growth of scientific and corporate dharma, particularly in the Secular Buddhist movement. Most of his career has been spent writing experimental fiction, but he turned to writing books of social criticism, the latest of which is Transcendent, Art and Dharma in a Time of Collapse (Melville House, 2023) Dogen: “Enlightenment is the intimacy of all things.” In this conversation we look

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76:11

107 Simon Cox on the Subtle Body

The Imperfect Buddha Podcast ·

2023/05/18

What links Vajrayana Buddhism and Vajrayogini to Alistair Crowley and the neo-Platonists? A topic of speculation, desire and imagination, the Subtle Body, also known as the energy body, is an odd phenomena with deep roots in Taoism, Hinduism and Buddhism, but many are unaware that it has a rich history in European thought too. Simon Cox traces its roots in his recent work entitled The Subtle Body: A Geneology (Oxford UP, 2021). In our conversation we tackle multiple themes. Is it real or merely

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126 results

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