Theravada

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.

How do you become a Buddha? You work at perfecting several different virtues or "pāramīs". I'll give a brief history of the practice and then go through a list of ten of them from the Theravāda tradition. Then we'll look at some…

There seem to have been differences between Theravāda belief and practice and that found in early Buddhism, however figuring this all out is a matter of some debate and controversy. Translator and scholar Bhikkhu Sujato has written an…

We'll look at the life of Bhikkhunī Khemā, whom the Buddha called his wisest female disciple, using a sutta about her, a poem she wrote, and later material from the Theravāda commentaries. These will help illustrate her incisive approach…

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…

Theravāda Buddhism can be seen both as very old and very new. We'll go over the ways Theravāda has roots in the earliest forms of Buddhism, as well as the way it may be a very recent form of religious identity. This is a huge topic and so…

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 first step along the Eightfold Path is Right View. We will see that Right View has three interrelated aspects, all of which are key to unlocking its secrets.

Philosophies and religions the world over have key texts outlining their founders' beliefs and aims. What are Buddhism's key texts?

The Buddha's early teachings on non-clinging to beliefs, views, and opinions are some of his deepest and most profound, as well as being a little tricky to understand. For those interested in a very detailed look at the Buddha on views,…

Are you interested in helping foster a wiser, kinder, less stress-filled world? Here you'll find short videos about how to do that, with material from early Buddhism, secularism, and related topics. There will be a mix of introductory…

Lots of folks ask me for recommendations of good books on early Buddhism. I have a bunch of good ones here. This is my fourth YouTube video, so it's a bit rougher than some of the later ones. Apologies and thanks for watching!