Progress

Doug asks when Buddhist training is supposed to end, and how anyone would know. Working from the simile of the raft and the Buddha's refusal to appoint a successor — telling the sangha instead to be islands unto themselves — he traces…

We live in a world that strives for progress. What does early Buddhism have to say about it? We'll consider two views of progress, how the Buddhist path aligns with them, and what it might really mean to "progress" along the Path.

How do you know whether you are enlightened? On the one hand, grasping for attainments can block our progress along the Path. But on the other hand, many of us have a legitimate curiosity about what enlightenment might be like. The early…

When we think of Buddhist practice, we usually don't think of joy, and yet joy is central to the path. We will consider ways in which practice can be used to cultivate joy, both in formal meditation and in daily life. We will also…

What did the Buddha have to say about doubt? We'll look at the ways it can be a hindrance to our progress along the path, as well as a stepping stone to advancement. We'll consider ways that doubt can be overcome, and look at two key…

I've failed. Many times. I'll look at some of those failures, and how we can work with failure in our lives. Failure can be frustrating and painful, but it can also be a help to us.

The five lower fetters are five ways our habits of mind keep us bound to suffering. We will look at each of them and their characteristics, as well as certain characteristics of the first three fetters that makes them more basic than the…

Ordinarily it's said that there were four states of jhāna in early Buddhist meditation. But not always! Apart from considering some later understandings of the term that include eight, nine, or even more jhānas, we'll look at one early…

If you're not studying under a teacher, how can you best get an idea of your progress along the Buddhist path? Recently Ven. Pomnyun Sunim did a video over at Buddhistdoor Global where he outlined some approaches we could take to this…

We'll look at three early Buddhist similes used to express the gradual nature of progress along the path. These highlight how we should use patience as part of our approach to meditation and life.

Doubt in early Buddhism is something we need to overcome in order to make progress along the path. I'll look at doubt in this video, and provide three different strategies we can use that can help with them.

The Buddha discussed five tendencies of mind that hinder our progress in meditation and indeed that can get in the way of our living a happy life. They may metaphorically be understood as the "armies of Māra". We'll discuss each of those…

Complacency can be a problem in our personal lives, and a disaster on a national or even a global scale. Where does complacency come from? We will look to one of its roots, following a path laid down in the teachings of early Buddhism. We…

Is Buddhist practice consistent with having personal ambitions and passions? We'll look into that question in this video.

Do you need a guru or teacher to make progress along the Buddhist path? We'll look first at how the Buddha suggested his disciples should investigate their teacher with an eye to deciding if it was worth studying under them. Then we'll…

In early Buddhism we find four stages through which we progress in our journey to awakening. We will discuss each of the four and look at one recent scholarly history that may uncover how these stages developed. We will then consider how…

What is spiritual materialism and how can it get in the way of our progress along the path? Spiritual materialism is a concept that originates from the Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa. We'll look at three different aspects of it, and…

It is critical to our progress along the path that we make lucid judgments about skillful and unskillful thoughts and behaviors. At the same time though we are often enjoined to pursue a kind of non-judgmental awareness. How are these…