- Cultivating Confidence in Buddhist Practice
How can we cultivate confidence or faith in Buddhist practice? This is a question a viewer recently asked me. I'll look at an early sutta where Sāriputta has some helpful suggestions.
- The Buddha on Investigating Our Teachers: Should Only Enlightened People Teach Dharma?
The Buddha believed that teachers should not be followed on faith, but rather that they required investigation. I'll look at one key sutta where the Buddha outlines such an investigation, and discuss how it can be overinterpreted. What…
- 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.
- Buddhist Faith
What does "faith" mean in Buddhism, and how important is it? Should Buddhism be termed a "faith tradition"? We'll look at those questions in this video, beginning with the question of what faith means in Western traditions, and then…
- Devotion in Early Buddhism
Many people pursue a devotional Buddhist practice. We will look at what the Buddha had to say about devotion, both in a general sense and with respect to himself.