Pragmatic Buddhism
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Welcome to Pragmatic Buddhism, a podcast offering down-to-earth Dharma talks, mindful reflections, and unscripted conversations for curious minds. We explore the intersection of ancient insight and modern life, weaving together Buddhist teachings, psychology, neuroscience, and lived experience.
Whether you're new to meditation or a longtime practitioner, this podcast invites you into a path of authentic awareness, compassionate acceptance, and wise action without dogma, jargon, or perfectionism.
Whether you're new to meditation or a longtime practitioner, this podcast invites you into a path of authentic awareness, compassionate acceptance, and wise action without dogma, jargon, or perfectionism.
31 Episodes
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What’s actually pragmatic about Pragmatic Buddhism?In this talk, Danielle and the St Louis sangha explore the ways that spiritual practice doesn’t have to be about adopting rigid beliefs or signing on to metaphysics. It can be about learning skills. Testing what helps. And building a way of living that holds up in real life.
The word “karma” gets used everywhere from social media to pop culture but what does it actually mean in Buddhist practice? In this talk, Joe and the Columbus sangha unpack karma as a teaching about intentional action and the patterns that follow from it. Rather than framing life as predetermined, this perspective highlights how each moment contains the seeds of future experience. When we understand karma clearly, we see both the weight of our habits and the possibility of change. This episode invites listeners to consider karma not as fate, but as a path toward responsibility and liberation.
Dharma practice isn’t always calm or pleasant. In this episode, Danielle and the St Louis sangha look at how learning to sit with discomfort can deepen awareness, patience, and care for ourselves.
What if meditation wasn’t about clearing your mind, but opening to your life just as it is? In this episode, Glenn from the Columbus sangha introduces zazen as a gentle practice of open awareness, free from pressure to fix or achieve anything.
What do we do when life feels hard or overwhelming? In this episode, Danielle and the St Louis sangha explore how Buddhist practice helps us pause, notice, and choose how we respond.
In this talk, Joe from the Columbus sangha explores what we mean when we talk about “meaning” — and how Buddhism invites us to relate to meaning without turning it into something fixed or absolute.
What if life’s difficulties weren’t obstacles to practice, but the practice itself? With the St Louis sangha, Danielle explores Lojong slogans as cognitive and embodied tools for transforming reactivity, cultivating awareness, and engaging the world with greater clarity and care.
In this Dharma talk from Curtis from the Columbus sangha explores sympathetic joy, the practice of rejoicing in the happiness and success of others. Rather than denying envy or comparison, Curtis looks at how awareness and practice can help us loosen those habits and rediscover joy as something shared, not scarce.
Buddhist practice isn’t meant to happen in isolation. In this conversation, Danielle invites the St. Louis Sangha to reflect on what it means to find refuge in one another — to learn, practice, and grow in community. Through personal stories and shared insight, the talk reveals how Sangha helps us see beyond our delusions, sustain our practice, and remember that none of us awakens alone.
What if happiness isn’t found in getting what we want, but in loosening our grip on craving, aversion, and delusion? In this year-end discussion, the Danielle and the St Louis sangha reflect on the past year’s choices, identifying which actions led to genuine joy and which deepened suffering. Together, they explore how awareness and boundaries can help shape a wiser year ahead.
We often move through life thinking we know what we’re seeing—our surroundings, other people, even ourselves. Joe from the Columbus sangha explores how this habit limits perception, connection, and compassion. Drawing from the Heart Sutra and Zen practice, he shows how “not knowing” can become a doorway to presence and wonder.
Who are you, really? In this Dharma talk, Danielle unpacks the Buddha’s teaching of the Five Aggregates, showing how our sense of “self” is built from changing parts: body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. With warmth and humor, she reminds us that sometimes the thoughts we take so seriously are just… thoughts.
In this episode of Pragmatic Buddhism, Curtis from the Columbus sangha gives his first dharma talk exploring Loving-Kindness (Metta). Not as a feeling we wait for, but as a practice we cultivate. Through reflection and meditation, we learn how to extend compassion to ourselves, to those we love, and even to those we find difficult, creating ripples of peace that reach far beyond our own hearts.
When the Buddha told the Kalamas not to believe something just because it’s written, taught, or widely accepted, he was teaching more than skepticism — he was teaching discernment. In this episode, Danielle from the St Louis sangha unpacks how the Kalama Sutta invites us to question wisely, test truth through experience, and embody a mindful confidence rooted in understanding, not belief.
Every moment is a gate to awakening but most of us rush past it. In this talk, Glenn from the Columbus sangha considers how a single moment of presence can reveal the nature of awareness itself. Through simplicity and attention, we rediscover what it means to truly be here.
How do you know if a teaching is true? Try it and see if it works. In this episode, Danielle introduces pragmatism, the philosophy that shapes Pragmatic Buddhism. With the St Louis sangha, we explore how to test Buddhist ideas through lived experience, why daily rituals matter, and how even brushing your teeth can become a practice in presence.
Like jazz, the Dharma is an art of listening, responding, and letting go. In this episode of Pragmatic Buddhism, Joe from the Columbus sangha reflects on what Buddhist practice shares with musical improvisation: trust, awareness, and the courage to meet each moment as it unfolds.
Why do things happen the way they do? In this talk by Josh from the St Louis sangha, we explore causality, one of Buddhism’s most essential insights. Everything is connected: our suffering, our joy, our choices, and their outcomes. By seeing how cause and effect weave through our lives, we can act more skillfully and respond to the world with clarity and care.
Why is it so hard to show ourselves the same compassion we freely offer others? In this talk, Glenn from the Columbus sangha reflects on the “mirror of rigorous self-honesty” and how it can open the door to self-compassion. Drawing on Suzuki Roshi’s phrase, “Everything is perfect, and it could always get better,” Glenn reflects on how to see ourselves clearly, accept the present moment fully, and embody the Pragmatic Buddhist ethic of awareness, acceptance, and action.
Why do we suffer even when we’re doing everything “right”? In this conversation, Danielle and the St. Louis sangha reflect on craving, aversion, and delusion — and why they keep us stuck in cycles of dissatisfaction. From the middle way to Buddhism’s love of lists, we explore how practice helps us feel more content by accepting life as it is.
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