What is the Middle Way in Early Buddhism?

What is the Buddhist Middle Way? We’ll take a look at early Buddhism in particular, and some of the material found in suttas of the Pāli Canon. There we’ll see there are a few related approaches to this topic, some immediate and down-to-earth, others more conceptual and philosophical. Suttas mentioned: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11) Cūḷadukkhakkhanda…

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History of Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism: Power and Transgression

We’ll go over the history of tantric Buddhism, its origins as well as its differences from other forms of Buddhist belief and practice. Then we’ll give an overall characterization of what constitutes this somewhat transgressive form of Buddhism. It’s a huge topic so this video should only be seen as an intro! Suggested readings: Ronald…

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History of Mahāyāna Buddhism: Innovation and Perfection

We’ll take a quick overview of the history of Mahāyāna Buddhism, beginning with its earliest developments and how it separated from the rest of mainstream Buddhism. Then we’ll look at a few of its later developments that came to define the Mahāyāna approach. It’s a huge topic so this video only can provide an introduction!…

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Roots of Secular Buddhism: Thailand

Some of the roots of secular Buddhism go back to Thailand. We’ll look at two of the fascinating characters that were instrumental in modernizing elements of Thai belief and practice, even as some of that modernization remains controversial to this day.  Some source material: Peter Jackson 1986 PhD diss: “Buddhadasa and Doctrinal Modernisation in Contemporary…

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History of Theravada Buddhism: Very Old and Very New

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 the video should only be seen as…

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Three Schools of Buddhism Intro

We will look at the three major schools of Buddhism, in the sort of contemporary context YouTubers would be likely to encounter them. We’ll highlight some of the similarities and differences in their styles of belief and practice. This is intended only as a very rough introduction though since there is WAY too much to…

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What’s Wrong With Pleasure?

What’s wrong with pleasure? It often seems as though sensory pleasures are an unalloyed good, the sorts of things that we should aim to gain as much of during our lifetimes as possible. The Buddha had a somewhat different view of them however, which we will consider in this video. Book: Sven Beckert’s Empire of…

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Do We Need Attachment to be Kind?

Does kindness require emotional attachment and identification with one another? Several prominent ethical systems promote the idea that our altruistic tendencies are based on emotional closeness and familiarity. We’ll look at a few of those systems, as well as a Buddhist alternative. I hope you’ll stick around for the third section where we’ll get to…

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What is Nonattachment?

We’ll look at aspects of the Buddhist idea of nonattachment in this video, asking what it means and how we might go about practicing it. We will also look at the “near enemy” of nonattachment, something that should not be confused with it. Check out my Patreon page!  

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Don’t Buy This Book!

My good friend Justin Whitaker and I have a paper in the recently published Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics. I’ll discuss some aspects of our paper, how it relates to Buddhist ethics, and some other interesting points before getting to the meat of the matter: why you shouldn’t buy this book! Justin Whitaker’s blog (highly…

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