Posts by Doug Smith
Guardians of the World
Two emotional states play a key ethical role in early Buddhism. We’ll look at these states that the Buddha called “the guardians of the world”, and discuss how awareness of them can help our practice and our life. Check out my new Patreon page!
Read MoreConsidering Karma
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 a useful sense of the term, so we can understand it in…
Read MoreThe Dalai Lama’s Secular Turn
Is the Dalai Lama a secular Buddhist? In two of his recent books he has outlined a universal, secular ethical program grounded in basic human values that are shared by believers and nonbelievers alike. We will take a look at these two books and discuss some of their conclusions and implications. Check out my new…
Read MoreWhy Be Generous?
Why be generous? The first subject the Buddha would typically discuss with lay audiences was generosity. We will look at the Buddha’s outward and inward advice: to whom one should give, and what reasons one should have for giving. Suttas mentioned in this video: The Archery Sutta (SN 3.24) Giving (AN 8.31) Giving (AN 7.52)…
Read MoreNeistat and Einstein on the Good Life
YouTuber Casey Neistat and physicist Albert Einstein had contrasting ideas of what might constitute the good life. We’ll look at both of them and compare them with some ideas from Aristotle and early Buddhism. To find the section of Casey’s video cited above, see HERE. For a nice discussion of Einstein’s approach to happiness, this…
Read MoreBuddhists of Other Religions
Can you be a Buddhist and a Christian, a Jew, or member of some other religion? We will take a look at that question and investigate how such cross-fertilization works with a secular approach to Buddhist belief and practice.
Read MoreThe Buddha's Surprising Advice to Converts
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 world. Suttas mentioned: Upāli Sutta (MN 56.16-17) Sīha Sutta (AN 8.12) (Dāna)…
Read MoreOne Way the Dharma Can Bite Us
If we misuse the dharma it can come back to bite us: this is the upshot of one famous sutta. We will look at this sutta and consider some of its implications for our approach to the Buddha’s teachings both online and in person. Suttas discussed in this video: Alagaddūpama Sutta Kālāma Sutta (Kesaputtiya)
Read MoreWhat Did the Buddha Say About Prayer?
Many contemporary Buddhists make prayer part of their practice. We will look at the early texts to see what the Buddha seems to have thought about such activities. Ken McLeod’s article on Buddhist prayer in Tricycle magazine (may be paywalled): “Where the Thinking Stops“. Suttas mentioned: Aṅguttara Nikāya 5.43 Saṃyutta Nikāya 42.6
Read MoreQuit Comparing Yourself!
It’s said that all comparisons are invidious. Early Buddhism understands personal comparisons as varieties of conceit, of which there are three basic types. We’ll look at those types in this video and consider why they are unskillful.
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