Time/momentariness

How can we know who's really enlightened? It's not a simple question. We'll take a look at various early suttas that show even back in the Buddha's day it was not considered at all straightforward, but rather required a lot of time and…

Time is fundamental to lived experience, but it's also something we don't give much thought to. The Buddha had a complicated approach to time, both cosmological and practical. We will consider his views about past, present, and future,…

Was the Buddha serious all the time? Or did he sometimes use humor and satire to teach lessons? We'll consider the Buddha's attitude towards laughter as well as his use of humor and satire in teaching and debating. Then we'll consider…

The Buddha identified three ways we cling to a sense of identity over time. We'll look at all three in the light of one early commentarial interpretation linking each one to a different mental defilement. Then we'll consider how we can…

What is Buddhist karma and how does it work? It's most useful to view karma as a natural law of cause and effect, showing how our intentions shape our experiences. I'll demystify some common misconceptions of Buddhist karma, provide some…

One of the most well-known images of the Buddha shows him touching the earth at the time of his enlightenment. Yet no mention is made of such a gesture in the early texts. Where, when, and why did it arise?

We may have heard discussion of "mind moments" in Buddhism and how things last for only a moment and then are replaced. Did such ideas originate from the Buddha? We will look at their history, and what the Buddha had to say about time and…

I'll outline three lessons learned from the fire, worldly wise things that helped out in a time of need, as well as two practices that I've found useful. I'll also consider a couple of key early Buddhist suttas.

Did the Buddha ever suggest there was a way to find a real sort of self? We'll look to the Poṭṭhapāda Sutta for an answer to this question. There we will see an interesting dialogue where the Buddha delves into a discussion of personal…

Much of Buddhist meditation practice involves a focus on the present moment. We'll look at the history behind such ideas with help from one recent paper by Anālayo that takes a look at mindfulness practices in early Buddhism. Then we'll…

A comment I get from time to time is that the name of this channel should be "Doug's Dhamma". This opens up an interesting discussion about some of the earliest languages of Buddhism and how their use reflects upon modern-day issues of…

In this video we'll look at the origins of the Buddhist doctrine of "two truths" in the Upaniṣads and certain of the suttas of early Buddhism. While the Buddha never actually discussed a concept of "two truths" per se, he did elaborate a…

Are we the same over time? We'll discuss the Buddha's answer to this question through various false leads that he rejects. We'll also look at the question of karma and the origin of suffering, and how it all relates to traditional notions…

Why did Buddhism decline and eventually disappear in India, the land where it all began? We will look at the reasons and how they are different from the usual stories we are told. In particular we will look at factors internal to Buddhism…

How does Buddhist practice work? We will consider the Buddhist focus on dukkha or suffering/unsatisfactoriness, and how our spending time with it can paradoxically help us bring it to an end.

Karma is partly about the results of our actions. We'll discuss that in this video, using the example of my recent skin surgery. We'll also look at the question of our own persistence through time: are we the same person now who did the…

Bad habits: we all have them. What does early Buddhism have to say about bad habits, and how we can deal with them? We'll look into some of the roots of bad habits and skillful methods to decrease their intensity over time.

Rebirth has been a Buddhist view for centuries. We'll discuss its origins in ancient Indian thought as well as its commonalities with ideas in the West. We'll also discuss its relation to ideas of time, and how those changed in the West.…

Many of us spend our time learning about Buddhism. That's great but there is another way to approach it: by doing. We'll look at some of the key differences between these approaches and why it's good to know about both of them.

The unconscious plays a key role in recent theories of psychology. Does it have any counterpart in Buddhism? Well ... sort of. We will look at the suttas of early Buddhism in particular, at one way we may be able to recover some ideas…

We'll look at one way that was proposed for understanding what of our selves continues from moment to moment. Then we'll see what the Buddha had to say about that: how past, future, and present relate to the self.

We'll look at the development of lovingkindness meditation practice beginning with its roots in early Buddhism and then at a couple of later practice techniques. We'll consider how the practices differ, and how they developed over time,…

We'll take a look at the history of women in Buddhism, focusing mainly on the period of the Buddha and his immediate followers. Then we'll spend a little time looking at later developments, before finishing up with the fascinating story…

Many of us will be familiar with the legend of the four sights that Siddhattha Gotama encountered on leaving his father's palace for the first time at age twenty nine. We'll look at that legend, its sources, and consider what might have…

The Buddha recommended five reflections for regular contemplation by all. We will go through those five and then spend time with some larger considerations on the role of karma.

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.…

We usually think of the Buddha as having a full head of hair, but it may not always have been so. Today we'll look at some of the history of Buddhist iconography, and take some lessons about how viewpoints can change over time.

Let's consider karma. We’ll go over three problems with the Buddhist notion of karma. Then we’ll discuss how the Buddha defined the term, and how his usage was innovative and different in its time. We'll see that there is a way to recover…

Thanksgiving is a good time to reflect on the great number of people for whom we should be grateful. This includes not only the folks close to us, or who we know well, but also includes those whom we may never lay eyes on. So many people…

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…

The present moment, the "now" is often made the focus of our intention and practice, for many very good reasons. In this video we will turn to some of the more philosophical aspects of the present moment, in order to investigate certain…

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?