CTP (S3EJulSpecial3) Buddhism as Philosophy, Not Religion

CTP (S3EJulSpecial3) Buddhism as Philosophy, Not Religion
Exploring more of the world of fascinating Guests, Health, Human Nature, Music / Movies, Mysterious, Politics, Social Issues, and much more  
G. Scott Graham joins us to explore how Buddhist philosophy and its ethical precepts can complement rather than contradict Christian values, breaking down misconceptions about Buddhism as strictly religious. We discuss how the Eight Precepts offer a framework for mindful living that can benefit people of all faiths, focusing on mental volition rather than rigid rules.
• Buddhism functions more as a philosophy than a religion in many contexts
• You can be a "Christian Buddhist" by adopting philosophical principles without religious worship
• Scott shares his journey working in corrections and discovering Buddhist meditation
• The Eight Precepts include abstaining from killing, stealing, lying, and intoxicants
• Mental volition and intent matter more than the action itself
• Buddhist ethics focus on reducing agitation and finding personal balance
• Practicing these principles can help address underlying insecurities
• Gray areas exist in all ethical frameworks, requiring personal discernment
• Buddhist practice encourages trying principles to see if they benefit you
• Understanding Buddhist philosophy doesn't make someone "less Christian"
Find G. Scott Graham's book "Living the Eight Precepts: How Ancient Buddhist Ethics Can Help People" anywhere books are sold or visit gscottgraham.com  

Chapters

• 0:38 Welcome to Constitutionalist Politics Podcast
• 1:06 Introduction to Buddhism as Philosophy
• 4:02 Scott's Journey Through Prison Work
• 6:21 Understanding Meditation and Buddhist Practice
• 8:26 The Eight Buddhist Precepts Explained
• 13:35 Mental Volition and Intent
• 18:01 Gray Areas and Personal Practice
• 23:13 Closing and Book Recommendation

Transcript

CTP S3EJulSpecial3 25m 00s before audio editing   
CTP S3EJulSpecial3 NOTES ( listen (Wed Jul 16 2025 and thereafter) at: 
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2210487/ )... 
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Exploring more of the world of fascinating Guests, Health, Human Nature, Music / Movies, Mysterious, Politics, Social Issues, and much more  
CTP (S3EJulSpecial3) Buddhism as Philosophy, Not Religion
Exploring more of the world of fascinating Guests, Health, Human Nature, Music / Movies, Mysterious, Politics, Social Issues, and much more  
G. Scott Graham joins us to explore how Buddhist philosophy and its ethical precepts can complement rather than contradict Christian values, breaking down misconceptions about Buddhism as strictly religious. We discuss how the Eight Precepts offer a framework for mindful living that can benefit people of all faiths, focusing on mental volition rather than rigid rules.
• Buddhism functions more as a philosophy than a religion in many contexts
• You can be a "Christian Buddhist" by adopting philosophical principles without religious worship
• Scott shares his journey working in corrections and discovering Buddhist meditation
• The Eight Precepts include abstaining from killing, stealing, lying, and intoxicants
• Mental volition and intent matter more than the action itself
• Buddhist ethics focus on reducing agitation and finding personal balance
• Practicing these principles can help address underlying insecurities
• Gray areas exist in all ethical frameworks, requiring personal discernment
• Buddhist practice encourages trying principles to see if they benefit you
• Understanding Buddhist philosophy doesn't make someone "less Christian"
Find G. Scott Graham's book "Living the Eight Precepts: How Ancient Buddhist Ethics Can Help People" anywhere books are sold or visit gscottgraham.com  
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(S3EJulSpecial3 Audio: 23m 351s Wed Jul 9 2025) 
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[ChristiTutionalist Politics podcast begin Show intro]

Welcome to ChristiTutionalist Politics podcast aka CTP in association with TheLibertyBeacon.com and I am your host Joseph M Lenard and that's L E N A R D   CTP is your no muss no fuss just me you And occasional guest type podcast as Graham Norton would say let's get on with the show 

[ChristiTutionalist Politics podcast - Segment 1] 


JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  We're not going to really talk Christian, we're not going to really talk politics. Well, maybe a little bit mixed in, but we're going to talk Buddhism. Now, now, now, don't freak out, don't jump to conclusions, don't tune out. I'm a Christian, I'm staying a Christian. That's not to say Buddhism as a philosophy does not have some wonderful things to discuss. And to do that, joining me today is G. Scott Graham. Should I call you G. or Scott?
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  You can call me Scott. Okay, yeah, so B.G. when they're like G. Wiz, what are you doing, but now Scott is fine.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Okay, yeah, welcome to the show and let's start with the proverbial first things first. Cue the hoo song. Who are you? Right? Where were you born? Where were you raised? How much time did you spend in prison? All those things.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Well, I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and I moved to Florida when my parents retired. They were born late in life, my mom used to say. And it's her surprise present. And I went to, I was, went to seven, went to 12 years of parochial education, Catholic education. I graduated from the University of South Florida, moved to New England to work for outward bound. And that's where at some point I started working for the Department of Corrections and a person in prison.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Oh, so you actually did spend time in prison, but as a guard.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Well, I was, I was actually as a therapist and really helping, you know, Vermont's got a very progressive approach to incarceration, which is, we all could get incarcerated at some point. We made some bad decisions. Let's make sure you're going to not make those bad decisions again. And so they work towards people getting their degrees, high school degrees or other degrees, getting sober, those types of things that have just keep them out of prison. And so I managed a program that really focused on those things for the entire state at one point. Which is, which is, which is a little delay here, which is, of course, very Christian.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  I am very much for prison as partial punishment, but let's try to reform them and make them good members of society set them up to succeed when they're out, not. Become habitual reoffenders and returning. Yes. Mm hmm.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Yes, exactly. And then somebody at one point convinced me I was, he was another therapist in the program that I worked in. He was trying to convince me to go to take a Vapassana course, which is a prison because you cut yourself off of society for 10 days. There's no talking. There's no reading. There's no writing. There's no music. You're in total silence for 10 days and spending most of those days with your eyes closed or in a little kind of meditation cell, which is kind of like a broom closet. And you only get a meal and a half a day and you're really focused on meditating for those 10 days. And I've been done enough of those that I have accrued 260 days of that type of prison under my belt. And I didn't want to go because I was like, this is some sort of cult. This is some sort of religious thing. And I discovered it's not. You mentioned it earlier when you said, you know, hold on, don't turn off the channel. We're going to talk about Buddhism. Buddhism's a philosophy. It's not so much of a religion. We think of it a religion as a religion out west. And there are some sects like Tibetan Buddhism has more of a religious spin. But Buddhism at its core is you could be a Christian Buddhist. There's no except these tenants. There's no beings to worship. There's no religious values to believe. It's not like that at all. You don't have to make it.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah, you don't have to make it such. You said some do actually worship the Buddha and others view it as a philosophy. And meditation is one of those very positive health benefit mental and physical wise things I had on Jeff Patterson. We talked meditation without the Buddhist connection. But of course automatically when one hears meditation, they think, oh, right?
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  It can be, but not really. I mean, in traditional Buddhism, you're not doing that. You're not doing that at all. There is no umm. There is no prayers. There is really just strong determination and focus of your mind. That's what it is. In fact, the meditation place that I have trained at a lot, you would go in there. There's nothing there. There's no Buddhas. There is nothing there that you would look at and say, oh, that's what it is. It looks like just a big public hall of empty space. That's it. Yeah.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Well, on the backtrack, why is she Scott Graham here? He's the author of living the eight precepts how ancient Buddhist ethics can help people. I am for those viewing behind the scenes video. You could see how about the book for those listening on audio or reading the transcript. Why aren't you watching the video? You just seen it.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Yeah, there we go. There we go. Yeah. So when you sit down and you take a meditation course, you agree to follow eight precepts for those 10 days that you're in prison. And their Buddhist precepts, traditional Buddhist follow five precepts. And then with your on a meditation course, you'll follow three or three more to bring it to eight. Monks follow hundreds of precepts and really they're geared towards right living. And so the book that I wrote takes those precepts and says, what does that look like in your regular life? Because the precepts are, let me go through the precepts. I'm going to put my glasses on here so I can actually, I don't want to just make a mistake.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And now I do that often when I'm talking about my books on other shows, I'll pick up a piece. I can't memorize this. I wrote this, but I don't have it memorized. Right.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Right. Well, I don't want to misquote though. So I'm just going to read all eight of the precepts so that you cannot think you can say, okay, you know, is this, what are you saying here? Are you saying that you have to believe in this God or that God? What, you know, so here's what they are. Number one, to abstain from killing any being. Number two, to abstain from stealing. Number three, to abstain from sexual misconduct. Number four, to abstain from telling lies. Number five, to abstain from all intoxicants, which can lead to carelessness. Number six, to abstain from eating after midday. Number seven, to abstain from sensual entertainment, and bodily decoration. And number eight, to abstain from using high or luxurious beds. Those are the eight precepts.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  A lot of that is more or less embodied in Christian scripture too, although I have to take issue with number one, they'll abstain from killing anyone Christianity. The commandment really in original Aramaic Hebrew, Latin and Greek is thou shalt not murder innocents. Because Exodus 22, too alone, speaks of someone a thief in the night, dealt with fatal blow. You are not guilty of murder. You have killed, but that's not murder. So I definitely adhere to try not to kill anybody, but there are times it is forgivable. Self-defense for one. Uh oh. We're having technical issues with Scott. Four piece of the while you're, you need you to start over because your internet froze, you froze up. We just got a frozen screen there for a minute. Respond again. Do you remember what you were going to say?
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  I do. I'm just giving you a break. So the big piece about this is your mental volition when you do something. All of Buddhism is really focused on your mindset. And they tell this story. They say someone goes and they go see a doctor. And that doctor is trying to save that person and he takes out a knife and sticks that knife in that person. And that person dies. Somebody else is trying to hurt somebody. Mean, it'll, it really bad, it'll will. And that person uses the same knife. Same place where they stick that knife in or the surgeon's sticking in, stuck it in. Both people die. There's a difference between that and that's mental volition.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Absolutely. Yeah. In Kent.
None:  Yes. Absolutely.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  So there's, there's, it's, it's not even so much of, of, of, yeah, I guess intent is it. It's like, what is your state of mind? Are you, are you full of anger? Are you full of compassion? Are you trying to be helpful? You know, what is, what is that piece? And it's, and it's not just focused on, uh, uh, people. You know, someone could be really angry at their dog and have really ill intent and shoot that dog. Because they don't like how that dog's behaving. And that main, that negative volition is just as bad as the volition of taking somebody else, shooting somebody. Because it's not specifically the person, like a person's more valuable than a dog or a dog's more valuable than a fish. It's the amount of agitation and anger that you're creating in your own life that's creating the problem. Yeah. And it's an important distinction. Yeah. All of these pieces.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  And I think actually your pause and almost desire to push back on my word use of the word intent is good too. Because indeed there's degrees. There's a difference between premeditated murder and negligent homicide where you may not have intended to kill, but you did. You're then guilty of a negligent homicide in certain cases where there was no ill intent, but the result was the same. So yeah, all those things factor.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Exactly. Exactly. The same thing goes with telling lies, right? If somebody's coming to your house and looking to hurt your kids and your kids are in the back room and they say, are your kids here? And you say, no, they're not. That's not is that a lie that your intent for that person is to protect them and care for them. But there's another piece that happens around lying that most people are incredibly sloppy with. We exaggerate. We're trying to look great with somebody else. We're kind of manipulating somebody else's perception. That type of when it comes back down to the intent and the and the volition of your mind, that kind of lying is really hurtful. It's really hurtful for you because you in order to commit that lie, think about how much agitation you have to create or what you're having to do in the background. In order to get to the point to do that. Yeah. It's like speaking ill of somebody, right? There are some people that speak ill of everybody. But most of the time in order to say, you know, who is this person and who is this, you know, they're this or they're that and we call them all kinds of names. Before that even happens, the person who has to say that has to generate like a lot of internal agitation, a lot of internal misery to be able to call that other person out. They're just a miserable person, right? Yeah. And that person really should have our passion because if you're happy and you're loving, you're not going around calling other people names and being mean spirited.
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah. You know, right? You mean hyperbole, right? In the intent that are you trying to puff yourself? I joke all the time. I'm not a hoarder. But I am a slop. I can be honest with myself and others about that. You say, oh, I'm not a hoarder and just leave it that and then apply. Let me. I always joke about the ugly. Look at all that garbage under the green screen there. You know, I am definitely a slop. And right. The wife now asked, do these jeans make me look fat? Oh, no, honey, right? Little white lies and the intent, as you said, is of keeping the peace. And, you know, they don't make you look fat. But obviously you put on a few pounds, right? No, we just don't need to go there to be. It's about being pleasant and nice and co-existent. Oh, you froze again. Okay, I am talking just to fill space because Scott has frozen again. I'm not sure if he's coming back. Oh, oh, now you're back. Okay, you froze again on me. Oh, oh, and he's frozen again. Oh, oh, oh, you froze again, but now you're back.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Now I'm not. I'm just I'm just my back. Yes. Yeah. No, so, so where were we? Where were we in this conversation?
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Well, I challenged precept one, but ultimately we do agree. It's a matter of semantics and nuance and gray areas. Everything isn't always necessarily black and white. There are gray areas.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Yes. That is true. And so I went ahead and in the book, one of the things I push around this is what are those gray areas? You need to decide what what that precept means to you. Right? What does it mean to follow that precept? That they are not even killing any bugs. They were asked like we had. So that they are not accidentally even inhaling bugs. They're very, very specific about that. like we had in the world, so that they're not accidentally even inhaling bugs. They're very, very specific about that approach to life. And so you have to figure out what that means for you and how you're going to integrate that in your own life. Yeah, because it's not necessarily black and white like you might see in some Christian writings where it says, this is it. This is exactly explicitly what it says, or then you trace it back and you say, okay, it's not a rule book. It's an intent. It's a focus. That's why it says to abstain from killing versus thou shalt not kill. Okay, yeah. It's not a rule piece. It is a piece that is about your choice and the direction that
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  you're going in and you want to go in in your life. Yeah, and that's why I make the clarification, though it's not thou shalt not kill, it's thou shalt not murder innocence. There, you know, the whole Bible in full context, there may be that rule, but there is other context that there can sometimes be exceptions to a rule, that gray area thing and a an aspiration to be the best we can be. But we're all human frail, flawed, and indeed fall short. And like you said, yeah, but the only way to not even accidentally say something you might not mean because subconsciously again, do these genes make me look fat response, right? Oh, no, honey, right? Your nature is to sometimes, oh, what a pleasant day. Why? I don't think it's pleasant, but to be nice, I'm going to say, yeah, what a great day. It's just part of being conversationally, silently nice humans. The only way to avoid any lie, white lie, or otherwise, as you said, is to sew your mouth shut.
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Right, right. That, that a core piece about that, that, that people hear over and over again, around these pieces is to put these things in practice in your own life. And you, you hear over and over again in Buddhist writings, the Buddha said it, other, other teachers say it all the time, do not follow these paths blindly, put these in place as a practice and see if it benefits you. If it benefits you, then continue to practice that. If it doesn't benefit you, then throw it out. Most times you sit down and say, okay, count, how can I be better? Like, let's just take a line, right? Somebody might be an over-exaggerator. And they find that, that, that is really driven by their own fear and insecurities. They're thinking about it. I mean, these things don't happen in a vacuum. Someone doesn't over exaggerate, someone doesn't have hubris, someone doesn't lie about things that it, when they have it all together. These things start because you don't have it all together. And so if you start practicing these pieces and then you find, wow, I'm, I'm not as agitated anymore because I've gotten, I've had to deal with those things that are fueling those behaviors. I have more balance than, well, why wouldn't you want to continue doing it?
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Again, like I said at the top, hope people didn't tune out. How does anyone have a problem with any of this? Right? I mean, seriously, oh, it got to say I'm worried about our connection issues. It keeps, you keep freezing and going in and out. So I'm going to cut us a little shorter than I would otherwise do. And indeed urge the value in people skidding your living the eight precepts book. Do you have a personal or professional website people can go to?
G. SCOTT GRAHAM:  Yes, they can just go to gscottgram.com. They can just Google gscottgram. And that should bring them right to all my books information about me output. I'll even have this podcast
JOSEPH M LENARD (HOST):  listed there. Great. Sounds great. Absolutely. That's wonderful. Again, I'm sorry to cut it short, but I normally keep my shows to only 30 minutes. But with the connection issues, I think we've got out the main points we need to. And again, I just I urge people again, don't get hung up on the Buddhism thing by gscottgrams, living the eight precepts studying that, understanding that a green song with some of that doesn't somehow make you less of a Christian. Well said. Well said, Joseph. All right. Thank you again, gscottgram. And I, of course, purposely keep repeating it to try to get it to stick in people's craw. Take care. God bless. Have a good one. Thank you for having tuned in for Christatucionalist Politics Show. If you haven't already, please check out my primary international available book Terror Stripes, coming soon to a city near you available anywhere books are sold. If you have locally run bookstores still near you, they can order it for you. And let me remind over time, the fancy high production items will come. But for now, for starters, it's just you as a very appreciated listener by me, all subjects, no flow, just straight to key discussion points, a show that looks at a variety of topics, mostly politics, through a Christian US Constitution science lens. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Take care.

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Thank you for having tuned into ChristiTutionalist Politics show. Please be sure to check out more about today's discussion at TheLibertyBeacon.com where my articles drop every Saturday in addition to seeing the corresponding TheLibertyBeacon.com piece referenced in the episode of ChristiTutionalist podcast see to the show transcript on podcast platforms that provide access to it like buzzsprout at tinyurl.com/ChristiTutionalist for additional bonus material therein the transcript. Thank you. Take care. God bless


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