- The Rebuild is (Mostly) Done!
It's been almost a year now since our house fire, but the saga is coming to a close. I'm back in my office now making new videos! In this video I'll discuss a bit about what's happened, as well as making some recommendations in case you…
- The Early History of the Bodhisattva Ideal
How did the ideal of the Bodhisattva develop in Buddhism? We'll sketch out the history using a couple of recent scholarly papers as guides. We'll see that "Bodhisattva" meant something quite different in early Buddhism than it eventually…
- What does "Buddha" Mean: A Live Controversy! Anālayo's Response
There is a controversy over the meaning of "Buddha": two of the leading monastic scholars and translators don't agree. A few weeks ago I posted a video on Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi's idea that "enlightenment" translates "bodhi" and "the…
- Past and Future Buddhas
Were there Buddhas before Gotama? Will there be Buddhas in the future? We'll look at what the early texts say about past and future Buddhas, and see why the evidence there is historically questionable in various ways. We will also see how…
- Life: Accept It or Escape From It?
Is our task to learn to accept the world as it is, or rather to escape from it somehow? We will look at ways that both approaches are found in Buddhism, and how they can be reconciled.