- The Knowledge That Can't Be Overpowered — Socrates & the Buddha
Doug takes up Socrates' claim that genuine knowledge cannot be "overpowered" by desire or emotion, and reads it alongside early Buddhism's treatment of the same problem. Distinguishing knowing about what is good for us from the kind of…
- Why Our Deepest Certainties Can Be Completely Wrong
Doug examines whether there is any reliable way to know when we are right, tracing how confident certainty has misled even history's greatest thinkers, and asking whether Buddhist meditative insight offers a better standard. Drawing on…
- Science Doesn’t Care What You Believe (And Neither Does the Dharma)
How do we avoid fooling ourselves? We’ll consider some similarities between the methodology of the sciences and the Buddha’s understanding of dharma and its practice.
- Avoiding the Trap of the 'Intelligent Fool' in Buddhism
The Buddha gave us a way to know about the world, but knowledge can become a trap without wisdom. How do we avoid becoming intelligent fools?
- What is Buddhist Enlightenment?
What is Buddhist enlightenment or awakening? I'll look at three early suttas for indications of different pictures of the knowledge and results gained through enlightenment. Then I'll turn to how the picture of such knowledge and results…
- 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.
- Buddhism and the AI "Alignment Problem"
Can Buddhist dharma help align AI values with our own? I'll explain how Buddhism provides a model of ethical wisdom training, and why knowledge of it might be helpful to AI researchers.
- Humility and Skepticism in Buddhist Practice: Problems with the Cankī Sutta
What is the goal of Buddhist practice? Does it have to do with knowing certain things directly? We'll look at the Cankī Sutta's advice for gaining direct knowledge and some problems with it. Then we'll consider some possible remedies,…
- Spiritual Humility in Early Buddhism: Lessons from the Cankī Sutta
One early Buddhist sutta recounts a discussion the Buddha had with a young brahmin. The Buddha raises a number of important points about how we come to believe we have knowledge, particularly of spiritual matters. We will look at that…
- Asking Questions of Buddhism
Buddhist practice is all about learning how we cling to things, views, and ideas. In this video I want to ask a number of questions for you to contemplate, about some of the heart of Buddhist belief and practice. What if it isn't so?…
- Faith vs. Knowing in Early Buddhism
What's the relation between believing something based on faith, and having knowledge of something, in early Buddhism? We'll consider the role of faith vs. that of knowledge, looking at several early suttas.
- Becoming More Objective: Ideas and Practices from Early Buddhism
Is there a practice we can use to become more objective? We'll consider several ways from early Buddhism that we mistake how the world is, and then turn to practices we can use to overcome our subjective errors.
- "Only This Is True": a Phrase the Buddha Questioned
When does certainty become a problem? Is it always a problem? We'll look at what the Buddha had to say about some people who expressed certainty and the extent to which the Buddha himself did so.
- The Kālāma Sutta: the Buddha's Charter of Free Inquiry
The Buddha's discourse to the Kālāmas outlines a charter of free inquiry. It strikes us today as expressing a very modern approach to the world. We'll look at how that is, and its down-to-earth take on ethics and knowledge.
- Knowledge and Wisdom: What's the Deal?
What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Should our aim be to pursue one or the other? We'll look at these questions in this video, and also discuss the role of contemporary skepticism and science.