- The Karmic Gym: Why Kindness to AI Matters (Even if it Can’t Feel)
If AI might or might not be sentient, how should we treat it? In this companion video to "AI and the Vagueness of Sentience," I propose "strategic compassion": treating AI systems with kindness and moral consideration regardless of…
- How Karma Works (Even if You Don't Believe in Rebirth)
Karma can be understood as a this-life, psychological process. It can also be understood as deeply involved in the process of rebirth into other lifetimes. We'll consider both ways of approaching karma, and what the Buddha had to say…
- Free Will Worth Wanting: the Buddha's Radical Answer
The free will dilemma: are we mere puppets of our past conditioning? Or are we somehow magically able to rise above all causes to act with pure spontaneity? The Buddha rejected both these alternatives, and provided us with a third answer:…
- Can a Small Intention Change Your Life? Buddhist Karma as Cause and Effect
What is Buddhist karma and how does it work? It's most useful to view karma as a natural law of cause and effect, showing how our intentions shape our experiences. I'll demystify some common misconceptions of Buddhist karma, provide some…
- Collective or Group Karma in Early Buddhism?
What is collective or group karma, and is it found in early Buddhism? We'll consider those questions, whether we might be able to make sense of the concept from a Buddhist perspective, and when and how the concept might prove useful in…
- Early Buddhist Ethics
Early Buddhism was an ethical system first and foremost. But what was it? What ethical system did the Buddha propose? We will look at the ethics of early Buddhism with a focus on his advice to a general lay audience as well as the role of…
- How Does Perception Work in Buddhism?
How does perception work in Buddhism? We'll look at why it's important and how it functions, as well as how it produces dukkha or suffering. I'll also suggest how we can integrate perceptions into our practice.
- Four Kinds of Karma
The Buddha talks of four kinds of karma. I'll go through each of them and what the Buddha says about each. We'll see that the fourth and final one is quite strange and surprising, and may hold a key to how we can understand our practice…
- Is Everything Karma in Early Buddhism?
Is everything we experience due to our karma? I'll look at what the Buddha had to say in several early texts to find out his thoughts.
- How Karma Works: Sincerity and Reciprocity
We'll take a look at how karma can be made sense of as a real phenomenon in nature and in human society through notions such as sincerity and reciprocity. We'll also look at how some ideas from evolutionary biology demonstrate how karmic…
- The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions
For the Buddha good intentions play a key role in the ethical value of our actions. But isn't the road to hell paved with good intentions? We'll look at the Buddha's ethical system and some concerns about the role of intentions.
- Ethical Dilemmas in Early Buddhism?
We'll look at ethical dilemmas and their role in western systems of ethics, then turn to Buddhism and ask whether such dilemmas play any role at all. Then we'll turn to some classic dilemmas and ask how they might be treated in an early…
- Considering Karma
Let's consider karma. We’ll go over three problems with the Buddhist notion of karma. Then we’ll discuss how the Buddha defined the term, and how his usage was innovative and different in its time. We'll see that there is a way to recover…