the DharmaRealm
The DharmaRealm is an occasional podcast conversation between Harry Gyokyo Bridge, resident minister of the Buddhist Church of Oakland, and Scott Mitchell, Dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, about Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, Buddhism in the modern world, pop-culture, music, sci-fi and how all those things are related.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dharmarealm
Twitter: http://twitter.com/theDharmaRealm
- Update frequency
- every 21 days
- Average duration
- 27 minutes
- Episodes
- 99
- Years Active
- 2008 - 2020
Listener question: where are all the bodhisattvas?
A listener writes in with an extremely interesting question: if Jodo Shinshu claims that when you go to the Pure Land you come back to this world as a bodhisattva, where are all these bodhisattvas?! …
Justice
Our first show of the fall season (recorded earlier this summer) was inspired by a bumper sticker of all things: if you want peace, work for justice. Harry and Scott take up the question of what is j…
summer break and news
Harry and I are taking a little summer break which, sorry to say, means there’s no new episode this week. But don’t worry. We’ll be back the first Friday in September with more new episodes on Buddhi…
Seven Masters (part one): Nagarjuna
Once again, we take our inspiration from you, our listeners! One of our Facebook fans asks about the Seven Pure Land Masters, so we take up the cause with what may be the beginning a seven-part serie…
Listener question: ordination
A listener posed a two-part question via our Facebook page about why there aren’t monks in the Shin tradition and how one becomes a minister. We tackle this complicated issue by going back to the beg…
Listener question: the future
Prompted by a listener who asked us to speculate on the next century of Buddhism in America, this time around we talk about some current trends and social issues that will no doubt have an influence …
Listener question: Shin Buddhist practice
This time around we respond to a listener question about Shin practice, an issue we’ve tried to tackle before, and one that we’re likely to tackle again. Shin practice raises some complex, doctrinal …
Listener questions: alternative approaches
This episode was inspired by a listener’s question about the relevance of a “Dharma Punx” model to Jodo Shinshu. We start off talking about how Shin Buddhism and the BCA in particular can be seen as …
Heresy
One of the issues that came up for us in our post-modern conversations was the idea that here in the post-modern world, we’re all free to choose whatever religion we want, to choose whatever we want …
Post-modern Shinshu: part two
It’s been a year since Harry and I started our podcast! But, this episode isn’t really about that — I just thought I’d acknowledge the milestone and take this opportunity to say thank you to all our …
Post-modern Shinshu: part one
Somewhat related to our last episode on the one thing that unites all Buddhist schools, this week Harry and Scott talk about a post-modern Shin Buddhism. To really talk about post-modernity, of cours…
Listener questions: no-self and universal Buddhism
Prompted by another listener question, we start off clearing up some issues about the “no self” or “anatman” doctrine in Buddhism. Does it mean “no soul”? Short answer, yes with an if; long answer, n…
Listener questions: about us
And we’re back! After a long winter’s break, the DharmaRealm podcast launches its second year “on the air,” so to speak.
Prompted by a listener question about why Buddhism “works” for us, we talk abo…
Reincarnation: part two
In our second conversation about reincarnation, we start off discussing the how the current Dalai Lama’s position is predicated on the belief that he is the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama a…
Reincarnation: part one
In the first of two episodes on the endlessly entertaining topic of reincarnation, we start off talking about whether reincarnation really is even a part of Buddhism (we say yes!) and pop-cultural id…
Listener questions: practice
In our first “listener response” episode, we tackle the question of how to practice Shin Buddhism (or any kind of Buddhism) if you don’t live near a community. Our take on the issue begins, appropria…
No self
In this month’s first episode, we decided to take on the difficult Buddhist concept of “no self” or anatman. It can be a frightening prospect to give up the idea that any of us have a permanent self,…
Suffering: part two
We return to the topic of suffering and start off with the many nuanced meanings of the term. We get into some deep Abhidharma stuff and talk about how all dharmas are marked with impermanence and ea…
Suffering: part one
We’re back! And we’re talking about suffering! We start with the problem of translation — duhkha as suffering, unrest, un- or dis-satisfactoriness, and so forth. Basically, something’s not quite righ…