Sangha/community

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…

What did the Buddha have to say about entertainment? Is it ever skillful for us? We'll consider the difference between monastic and lay lifestyles, and how the Buddha saw entertainment as part of an ordinary life. Then we'll consider ways…

In early Buddhism there were various understandings of "refuge". Most well known is that of the Three Jewels: Buddha, dharma, and sangha. But there were others as well. We will take a look at them, and consider how they interrelate.

Is it possible for a layperson to reach the highest attainment in early Buddhism? The focus of early Buddhist practice was monastic. However as we will see, there is also fascinating early evidence that laypeople could aspire to very high…

On the one hand the Buddha recommended the sangha as a vital place of practice, one of the three jewels. On the other hand, at the end of his life the Buddha recommended we take refuge in ourselves and the dharma, and in nothing else. Can…

Scholar Bhikkhu Anālayo's book on ancient Buddhist women in India was released a few months ago. I'll review it and then turn to five important and illustrative stories that Anālayo tells, including one that is of particular relevance…

"All dharmas are not self" is perhaps the deepest wisdom in Buddhism. How should we understand it? We'll look at both a traditional interpretation and a new understanding based on the suttas by monastic scholar Bhikkhu Sujato.

Affection can be dangerous, this is some of the surprising and even shocking advice the Buddha gives in the early suttas. I'll look at what the Buddha said about some of affection's problematic role in lay and monastic life, as well as…

Is mindfulness universally wholesome, or not? I'll look at two different viewpoints, one from the Theravāda abhidhamma, and another from a recent monastic scholar.

Did you know the Buddha may have quit the sangha? I'll look at one early sutta and discuss what happened, and why it seems as though the Buddha was on the verge of permanent retirement. I'll also consider a couple of other interesting…

What did the early Buddhists have to say about appreciating nature? It's a bit of a conundrum. We'll look at what a couple of venerable monks had to say about the beauty of the natural world. Then we'll turn to the Buddha's views on such…

One of the highlights of the early Buddhist teachings is their relative openness to investigation and inquiry. This is a point made in a recent paper by scholar and monastic Bhikkhu Sujato. I'll discuss the point with reference to a few…

What does Buddhism "mean"? I'll describe five aspects of what it means to me, with the help of one 1950's paper by a Burmese monastic scholar, and hope you'll let us know what Buddhism means to you as well in the comments!

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…

We'll look at Citta the Householder. Who was he and what were some interesting events in his life as recounted in the early suttas? We'll see how it was that even laypeople could be accomplished teachers of the dharma during the Buddha's…

Who was Anāthapiṇḍika/Anāthapiṇḍada? We'll look at his importance to the development of the early sangha, some of the topics that the Buddha discussed with him in various discourses, and the important dharma talk given him by Sāriputta on…

Apart from being the Buddha's close attendant, Ananda has the reputation of being everyone's favorite early monastic. We'll consider why that might be the case by looking at his life and the controversy that eventually clouded it.

In the past few decades a controversy has arisen over the restarting of nuns' orders in two schools of Buddhism. We will discuss the controversy as it relates to the Theravāda school, and note in passing that a similar controversy exists…

Yes, strange though it may seem, the Buddha did have something to say about running a small business. We'll see four beneficial qualities that help one in this endeavor, and how the Buddha compares them to similar qualities of the…

The Buddha's chief disciple was a man named Sāriputta. We'll look at his life and influence in this video. First we will look at where his main motivation seems to have lain, by looking in detail at how he encountered the Buddha dharma…

Many of us will be familiar with the three refuges or three jewels of Buddha, dharma, and sangha. But how do they interrelate? We will look at a number of early suttas that indicate the Buddha's approach to them, and that suggest the…

I get many questions on my videos about how to become a Buddhist. So here are my thoughts on that! We'll talk a bit about what happens when you turn up at a Buddhist center, what they expect of you, the difference between being a Buddhist…

The simile of the chariot is one of the most famous in all of Buddhism. We'll look at the deep history of the chariot in the cultures of ancient Eurasia and its importance generally to the area. Then we'll turn to how the chariot was used…

Many contemporary discussions of Buddhist dharma blend aspects from varying traditions. We'll consider the extent to which that's a problem, and also the extent to which being too exclusivist can also present its own problems.

This Q&A episode will tackle a few viewers' questions including one about celibacy in monastic Buddhist practice. We'll also consider questions about a regular exercise routine and how Buddhism might help with mild depression.

Nowadays traditional Buddhism involves taking the so-called "three refuges": refuge in the Buddha, dharma, and sangha. How many refuges were there in the Buddha's day? We'll look at the early accounts where the Buddha recommended we have…

Some of the Buddha's dictates over clothing and food became controversial in the early history of the saṅgha. Indeed, aspects of them are still controversial today. We'll discuss those controversies in this video in their historical…

Many of us are perfectionists of one kind or another, and perfectionism has its benefits. It also has its darker side, which we will consider in today's video: both in a sociopolitical sense and in a personal sense. We will finish up by…

When folks converted from competing religions or philosophies to the Buddha's dhamma, he had a couple of pieces of advice that might surprise some of us. We will look at that advice and some lessons we can take away from them for today's…

Recent events, particularly those involving the Rohingya in Burma and the role of nuns in Theravāda Buddhism, raise the question as to what constitutes Buddhist fundamentalism, and whether and how it might be different from its Western…

The Buddha gave three key examples of actions we should avoid, but nuances remain depending on our status as layperson or monastic, as well as our understanding of some of the more in-depth teachings about the self. Music in this video:…

Today I'll discuss some experiences with a teacher of mine who was in a couple of cults, plus an example of weird Buddhism that provides a bit of a lesson.