{"id":915,"date":"2021-12-02T04:46:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=915"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:11:19","slug":"a-buddhism-critic-goes-on-a-silent-buddhist-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=915","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;A Buddhism Critic Goes on a Silent Buddhist Retreat&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An interesting article, whether or not you are a Buddhist. Takes about ten minutes to read.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/getpocket.com\/explore\/item\/a-buddhism-critic-goes-on-a-silent-buddhist-retreat?utm_source=pocket-newtab\">Something weird happens to a skeptical science writer during a week of meditation, chanting, and sky gazing.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">I\u2019ve been hard on Buddhism over the years (see for example my <a data-highlightable=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.scientificamerican.com\/cross-check\/can-buddhism-save-us\/\">critique of the bestseller <em>Why Buddhism Is True<\/em><\/a>). But I like to think I\u2019m open-minded. So, in 2018, I put my skepticism to the test by going on a weeklong silent Buddhist retreat, which my pro-Buddhism friends Lisa and Bob argued was my moral obligation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The retreat rocked me. I\u2019m still trying to make sense of it, but I\u2019m going to take a stab at describing it, if only for my own sake. As I told Julie, a teacher who advised me not to write during the retreat, I\u2019m not sure what happens to me until I write about it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">&#0160;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An interesting article, whether or not you are a Buddhist. Takes about ten minutes to read. Something weird happens to a skeptical science writer during a week of meditation, chanting, and sky gazing. I\u2019ve been hard on Buddhism over the years (see for example my critique of the bestseller Why Buddhism Is True). But I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4933,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions\/4933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}