Skillful Means (10-Year Anniversary Episode)
Secular Buddhism
Noah Rasheta
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Secular Buddhism podcast by announcing a new AI-powered website, EightfoldPath.com, which serves as a modern application of the Buddhist concept of skillful means. Skillful means, or upaya, is the idea that teachings should adapt to meet individuals where they are, using whatever tools or methods are most effective for reducing suffering and cultivating wisdom. Throughout history, technologies like writing, the printing press, and the internet have served as skillful means for transmitting Buddhist teachings, and now artificial intelligence is the latest iteration. The new website features "Noah AI," a tool trained on all my past content, acting as a conversational thinking partner to make these ancient insights more accessible and interactive for modern learners, emphasizing that the technology is simply a vehicle for the teachings, not the teachings themselves. Learn more at eightfoldpath.com
- The podcast celebrates its 10-year anniversary, marking a decade of making Buddhist teachings accessible through modern technology.
- The concept of "skillful means" (upaya) is central, emphasizing the adaptation of teaching methods to individual needs and situations, a principle applied throughout Buddhist history with the advent of writing, printing, and digital media.
- A new AI-powered website, EightfoldPath.com, has been launched, featuring "Noah AI," a tool trained on all of Noah Rasheta's content to serve as a conversational thinking partner for exploring Buddhist teachings.
- The website offers free access to transcribed podcast episodes, courses, and the AI tool, with additional benefits for supporters, aiming to make wisdom and compassion more accessible.
- The shift to EightfoldPath.com signifies a broader scope beyond "secular Buddhism," focusing on the universal "Eightfold Path" as the core of the teachings, regardless of labels.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Secular Buddhism podcast. |
| 0:15.0 | This is Episode 214, a special 10-year anniversary episode. |
| 0:22.7 | I am your host, Noah Rusjeda. |
| 0:26.3 | And today I have some exciting news I want to share with you. |
| 0:31.8 | But before we begin, remember you don't need to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist. |
| 0:35.8 | You can use what you learn to simply be a better whatever you already are. |
| 0:39.5 | I want to start out by telling you about two passions that have shaped my life. The first is Buddhism, these teachings that have transformed |
| 0:46.2 | how I understand suffering, the nature of my own mind, how I relate to difficulty, and how I |
| 0:53.2 | navigate this complex experience of being human. |
| 0:57.1 | The second is technology. |
| 0:59.4 | Now, I know those two might seem like strange companions. |
| 1:03.4 | Buddhism often gets associated with simplicity, with retreating from the modern world, |
| 1:10.2 | with unplugging and disconnecting. |
| 1:13.6 | And technology, well, technology often gets blamed for making us more distracted, |
| 1:18.9 | more disconnected, more caught up in the very things Buddhist teachings are trying to free us |
| 1:25.1 | from. |
| 1:26.3 | But here's what I've come to understand. These two passions of mine, |
| 1:30.9 | they're not in opposition. I like to think of them as they are in conversation. And today I want |
| 1:38.0 | to share with you why that conversation matters, where it's leading and what it means for how we can all engage with |
| 1:46.0 | these teachings in new and powerful ways. Earlier this month, we celebrated Bodhi Day, the day |
| 1:53.6 | that we commemorate the Buddha's awakening under the Bodhi tree. And this month also happens to mark the 10-year anniversary of the |
| 2:02.9 | secular Buddhism podcast. So it feels like the perfect time to talk about how ancient wisdom |
... |
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