- 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.
- The Problem(s) of Consciousness
What is consciousness? I'll begin by looking at it from an early Buddhist perspective and then turn to work by contemporary philosophers like David Chalmers and Frank Jackson. In particular, I'll consider what Chalmers calls the "easy"…
- Key Buddhist Dharma: the Six Sense Bases
What are the six sense bases of Buddhism and why are they important? We'll look at both of those questions in this video, investigating how the sense bases relate to such things as consciousness, dependent origination, and indeed the…
- Consciousness and the Self: One Early Buddhist Monk's Famous Mistake
Are you your consciousness? We'll look for an answer to this question by considering the famous mistake of Sāti the Fisherman's Son, an early Buddhist monk who was famously corrected by the Buddha. We'll also consider where Sāti might…
- Seven Factors of Awakening: Ordinary or Altered Consciousness?
What are the seven Factors of Awakening in early Buddhism? We will look at their importance to the path, and grapple with a couple of different ways they can be understood.