- The Chain of Suffering: The Buddha’s Hardest Teaching
The doctrine of dependent origination is one of the Buddha’s most profound teachings. It’s also very hard to get a real grasp on. We’ll try to simplify the teaching by looking at a couple of suttas that may reveal an earlier stage in its…
- Decoding the Buddha's Most Puzzling Teaching
One way dependent origination begins is through the mutual conditioning of consciousness and name-and-form. What does this mean, and how is it supposed to work? We'll look at its traditional understanding first, using the early suttas as…
- Consciousness Does Not Arise Alone in Early Buddhism
We will look at consciousness in early Buddhism: how does it arise? Can it arise alone? We will consider these questions with reference to several texts from early Buddhism.
- A Hidden Assumption in Buddhist Abhidhamma? The Doctrine of Seriality
Is there a hidden assumption in the Buddhist abhidhamma understanding of the mind? I'll look at what I'll term the "doctrine of seriality", that the mind operates sequentially. What does this mean, and why might it be a problem?
- Buddhism: "If There Is No Self, What Is Reborn?"
"If there's no self, what is reborn?" It's confusing how to understand the traditional notion of rebirth in early Buddhism. In this video I'll look at both parts of the question: is there "no self" in Buddhism? What sort of "self" is…
- Mind and Body: What's the Difference?
What is the difference between mind and body? This is an age old problem in philosophy. We will begin by looking at the history of this relation in Western philosophy and theology, and then move into how they are conceived of in early…
- The Three Realms of Existence
What are the three realms of existence in early Buddhism? We'll begin by looking at the way early thinkers sometimes had odd ways of approaching the world. Then we'll turn to the early Buddhist account of the three realms themselves, and…
- What is Dependent Origination in Early Buddhism?
The Buddhist notion of dependent origination is a complicated and difficult subject. We'll look at its manifestation in the early teachings, in its canonical twelve-step formula as well as in formulations that are simpler. Then we'll…