- Am I Enlightened? What Early Buddhism Says
How do you know whether you are enlightened? On the one hand, grasping for attainments can block our progress along the Path. But on the other hand, many of us have a legitimate curiosity about what enlightenment might be like. The early…
- Playfulness on the Path: The Buddha and Humor
Was the Buddha serious all the time? Or did he sometimes use humor and satire to teach lessons? We'll consider the Buddha's attitude towards laughter as well as his use of humor and satire in teaching and debating. Then we'll consider…
- Do Buddhists Believe in God?
Buddhism's views about god and gods are paradoxical. On the one hand, all traditional forms of Buddhism accept the existence of deities. On the other hand, Buddhism is fundamentally an atheistic religion. We'll consider this paradox with…
- Practicing Buddhist Right Livelihood: Surprisingly Beneficial
What is Right Livelihood in Buddhism? We'll consider the five traditional "wrong livelihoods", and then turn to other manifestations of wrong livelihood mentioned in the early texts. That will help us understand what Right Livelihood…
- Is there a "Buddhist Bible"? Key Buddhist Texts
Is there a "Buddhist Bible"? We'll consider some key Buddhist texts, by analogy with the Old and New Testaments. What are they, and how do they relate to one another? NB: This is not intended to be an exhaustive list — I only barely…
- What Is Buddhist Nirvana?
What does nirvana mean in Buddhism? We'll look at some descriptions of it before turning to different views on its ontological status. Then we'll consider some later developments in ideas about nirvana. ** Note: the Pāli term "appatiṭṭha"…
- The Philosopher "Genius" and the Buddha
Derek Parfit was one of the greatest philosophers of recent decades, and yet most people have never heard of him. His remarkable views on personal identity explicitly followed those of the Buddha. I'll look at Parfit's life as well as…
- Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge
How do we come to know anything, by the lights of early Buddhist dharma? We will look at this key philosophical problem, illuminated by words from one key sutta, and a more recent, deep work of 20th century commentarial analysis.
- The Buddha on "Magic"
The Buddha had a nuanced view on magic and the supernatural. We'll look at one crucial aspect of that view, corresponding to what we might term "conversion magic" or magical means used to convince and convert. Recorded before our house…
- Is Deep Meditative Absorption (Jhana) Necessary for Enlightenment?
Do we need to have achieved the jhānas -- four deep states of meditative absorption -- in order to become enlightened? We'll look at some early texts for clues as to what the Buddha might have thought about this complex and controversial…
- Two Kinds of Buddhist Interdependence: Dependent Origination and Indra's Net
Interdependence is one of the hallmarks of Buddhist dharma. We will look at how ideas of interdependence changed, and how ideas about dependent origination changed to those more in line with the later metaphor of Indra's net. We will also…
- The Buddha's Competitors: Unearthing the Dharma
In the early texts the Buddha speaks of six main teachers of his day with whom he disagrees. We will look at those six, and their ideas as presented in the early canonical material. We'll also take a look at a seventh major competitor to…
- The Buddha and Free Will
What might the Buddha have thought about free will? To answer that question we'll look at the history of the concept in Western philosophy, and then consider how it applies to early Buddhism. We will find that the Buddha would have…