- 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…
- How to Stop Overthinking (An Ancient Buddhist Fix)
How can we escape being caught in our own stories? We'll look at the Buddha's diagnosis of how such stories get spun, then turn to various practices we can use to introduce space, ease, and so quiet down our inner storyteller.
- Obsessions, Compulsions: Mental Proliferation in Buddhism
What does early Buddhism have to tell us about our everyday obsessions and compulsions? We'll look at the centrality of such syndromes in Buddhist dharma, particularly around the idea of "papañca" or "mental proliferation". Note that I…
- Seeing What Isn't There: Four Kinds of Buddhist Misperception
The Buddha discusses four ways that perception can mislead us. We'll begin by considering how perception works in Buddhism then turn to these four ways it can mislead. Finally we'll turn to four ways perception can get things right, and…
- 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.
- The "Underlying Tendencies" of Our Minds: Early Buddhist Understanding of Unskillfulness
On an early Buddhist understanding, our minds are beset by certain "underlying tendencies" that produce in us unskillful thought and behavior. We will look at those tendencies through their most well-known list and also look at a couple…
- Three Practices to Minimize Conflict: an Early Buddhist Perspective
According to the teachings of early Buddhism, one of the main sources of conflict is our attachment to views and opinions. We will look at three practices that can help us relax around our views and hence live a wiser, kinder, and calmer…
- The Buddha on Disagreement: His "Conflict-free" Teaching
Conflict often stems from our disagreements with others. Early Buddhism contains material that can help us deal with such conflicts. Indeed, the Buddha claimed to teach in a way that avoided conflict altogether. We will look at how this…
- Learning from Others (That You Don't Agree With)
Learning from others in a wise way involves a delicate balance between having a skeptical, critical eye and being charitable and open-minded. We'll discuss that balance in this video, and make use of a story involving the Thai meditation…
- Escaping the Thought Trap
It sometimes seems we are trapped by our thoughts. We will look at how the Buddha considered thoughts, both in their general character, and also how he saw obsessive rumination arising and proliferating in the mind.
- The Unconscious in Early Buddhism?
The unconscious plays a key role in recent theories of psychology. Does it have any counterpart in Buddhism? Well ... sort of. We will look at the suttas of early Buddhism in particular, at one way we may be able to recover some ideas…