What is Secular Buddhism?

Secular Buddhism is an approach that seeks to bring the wisdom of Buddhist teachings into contemporary life. It's a way of engaging with Buddhism that doesn't require adherence to religious belief, ceremony or hierarchy, while still honoring the depth and richness of Buddhist tradition.

As a community, we are individual Buddhist lay practitioners (ie. not monks) with varying interests and beliefs that come together with the desire to explore the Buddha's teachings, Buddhadhamma, generally with a modern bias, which is expressed through our private practice and participation in gatherings, discussions, activities and retreats.

Our bias comes from typical attitudes in the modern world:

• Pragmatism: we should learn and do what helps us act as better people, not merely reflect on it.

• Consequentialism: the ethical validity of an action is ultimately determined by its consequences.

• Skepticism: we need to have a good reason to believe something, otherwise we doubt.

• Agnosticism: we can't comment on things beyond our collective ability to know with certainty.

• Naturalism: only (uncontroversial and modern) natural laws operate in the universe.

As Buddhists, we hold that the Buddha himself aligned with most of these attitudes, despite being embedded in his culture of 5th century BCE Kosala, and that the modern teachings we receive from traditional Buddhist communities are taught with compassion from sound knowledge that the Dhamma, and if pursued diligently, can improve life for us individually and collectively.

We differ from traditional Buddhist communities in that we do not have an ordained leadership or teaching hierarchy aside from some committed volunteers performing administrative roles. Because of this, decisions are made democratically with a view to fulfill a Buddhist ethics that emphasizes inclusion, equality and participation. Another difference is that we don't have any formal ceremony or meditation practice; we generally like to meditate on schedule and have a chat over some tea, sometimes with a qualified teacher or scholar who can give a talk about pursuing the Dhamma in our daily lives. Otherwise, we study teachings or apply our practice in our daily lives and communities through civic engagement and activism.

Where we differ from other modernist Buddhist schools and projects like the mindfulness movement, is that we adhere to a moderate skepticism. We are directly critical and engaged with the inherited Buddhist teachings, commentaries, popular interpretations and scientific examination through our modern understanding; that is, while we do not categorically reject apologetic analyses (the systematic practice of defending religious doctrines from critics), we make room for a critical analysis of Buddhadhamma in our practice, and we believe this as a necessary principle of inquiry to adopt the wisdom of the Buddha. 

In summary, this is secular Buddhism, a messy attempt by ordinary people in a secular world to make sense of an ancient Indian religion.

You're welcome to come along.