Secular Buddhist Network

Welcome to our May 2026 newsletter.

This month we feature articles by Alan Bodnar and Carmel Shalev, as well as a book review by Tom Cummings.  We also highlight next week’s SBN Sunday morning meditation group, at which Linda Modaro will be a guest teacher.

As a secular dharma practitioner in Israel, Carmel Shalev reflects on h...

Test Post by Test Author

Test Post by Test Author

Test Post by Test Author

Test Post by Test Author

Test Post by Test Author

The post Test Post by Test Author appeared first on

How often, upon meeting a fellow Buddhist meditator for the first time, do you find yourself exchanging autobiographical accounts of how each of you first discovered the practice? If your experience is anything like mine, the answer will be “very often,” if not “practically all the time!” And very often, in my experience, the story I hear from my new-found acquaintance descri...

Human beings have waged war since the beginnings of recorded history, and here we are in yet another round of armed conflict. Forty days of missile and rocket fire all over the country. Night after night of sleep interrupted by alarms that send me and my neighbors downstairs and upstairs, to and from the shelter in the building’s basement. Until there comes a precarious cease...

Civilizations have long relied on metaphors to explain what it means to be human. One of the oldest, dating back to the time of the Buddha, is that we are the rational rider positioned on top of an emotional elephant.

As the rider, we hold the reins and make decisions, but the elephant can get hungry or scared at any time, overpowering us to do what it wants. The el...