Alone in a World of Wounds with Zen Abbot Shodhin Geiman

New Books in Buddhist Studies

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 currently working on a book exploring the intrepid fearlessness of bodhisattvic aspiration.

In this conversation we explore his views on Dharma and Activism and Engaged Buddhism as developed in his critical take on both, Alone in a World of Wounds.

We discuss;

1. His two books on practice.

2. The concepts of deliverance of mind and non-adherence in the practicing life.

3. The unfashionable practices of patience and forbearance and why they matter.

4. Why mixing Buddhism and activism is not all it is cracked up to be.

5. The inherent problems with trying to serve two masters and the impact this has on dharma practice.

6. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizekis critique of the New left and activism and the call to stop and think before acting.

7. How the desire to fix the world runs in tandem with the desire to fix ourselves and how both are so deeply rooted in American Buddhism.

8. Kant and sublime objects.

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