Spirituality

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…

Do all systems of spiritual practice lead to the same place? Are they all essentially identical? This is a view that's come to be known as "perennial philosophy" or "universalism". I'll consider what the Buddha had to say about such…

Which mental faculties are most important for our development along the path? We will look at the so-called "five spiritual faculties": what they are, what our attitude should be towards them, and to whom they may apply.

During the last thirty years there has been a significant rise in the non-religious in the US. We'll look at a recent YouTube video from the channel Religion for Breakfast that engaged with "atheist churches" or communities devoted to…

Wow, it's hard to believe a year has already passed since publishing my first video on YouTube! In the interim we've had a busy time going through some of the dharma of early Buddhism, with a focus on contemporary practice and experience.…

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…

Spiritual bypassing is a condition we can all fall into from time to time, even those of us who do not see ourselves on a "spiritual" path. What is the condition and how can we strive to avoid it?