Dharma Roads

Jan 17 2025 34 ep. 24 mins 4
Dharma Roads Podcast artwork

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 almost sixty years.

  Religion & Spirituality  Arts
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Episode 34 - Kenneth Rexroth: his life and poetry

Jan 17 2025 31 mins  
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

Episode 33 - Mindful meditation & creativity

Dec 13 2024 38 mins  
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

Episode 32 - Mindful Solidarity - an interview with Mike Slott

Nov 22 2024 42 mins  
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 individu

Episode 31 - Daoism (Taoism)

Nov 12 2024 35 mins  
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 lea

Episode 30 - John Dewey

Oct 14 2024 34 mins  
Send us a textIn 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

Episode 29 - Climate action & eco-grief

Sep 19 2024 23 mins  
Send us a textIn 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 s

Episode 28 - Soren Kierkegaard

Aug 18 2024 27 mins  
Send us a textIn 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 Copenh

Episode 27 - 'Suchness,' Zen & window cleaning

Jul 19 2024 30 mins  
Send us a textIn 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 G

Episode 26 - Cultivating mindful ethics

Jul 19 2024 28 mins  
Send us a textIn 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 p

Episode 25 - Michel de Montaigne & Samuel Beckett

May 24 2024 32 mins  
Send us a textIn 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 an