Tag: Buddha

Listen to the Suttas! – Audio Recordings of English Translations of the Pali Canon Suttas

Jennifer Hawkins | June 4, 2018 | 2 Comments

Listen to the Suttas! Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtTMiZHe8419vKGsORMb1ow/videos Example Video: The Sammaditthi Sutta (The Discourse on Right View, MN 9) For those who have difficulty with written text (or Pali), there are few quality, widely-available audio recordings of English language translations of the Pali Canon Suttas. Our own Community Director, Jennifer Hawkins, who developed […]

Intro to Buddhist Art

Doug Smith | February 22, 2018 | 0 Comments

What are some of the hallmarks of Buddhist art, and how has it developed over the years? These are big questions that we will only begin to tackle in this video. We’ll look at Buddhist art with an emphasis on its origins, and finally ask the question whether anything really qualifies as Buddhist art at […]

Who Cares What the Buddha Thought?

Doug Smith | February 19, 2018 | 0 Comments

It’s a good question. We’ll consider some of the reasons why someone with a secular outlook should care what the Buddha thought, as well as other aspects of this question. Check out my new Patreon page!

Was the Buddha Bald?

Doug Smith | February 15, 2018 | 0 Comments

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. Some suttas mentioned in this video: The Marks of a Great Man […]

Gautama Buddha: Man or God?

Stephen Schettini | November 12, 2011 | 5 Comments

Vishvapani Blomfield’s Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One is one of a new breed of Buddha biographies. For centuries there was really only one. Ashvaghosha’s epic poem Buddhacarita (Acts of the Buddha), written some three hundred years after the Buddha’s death, paints the Buddha myth familiar to generations of Buddhists. A […]

The Secular Buddha (Stephen Batchelor)

Dana | October 17, 2011 | 1 Comment

An introduction to and overview of the concept of secular Buddhism. From Dharmaseed.org

No One to be Reborn

Dana | June 25, 2011 | 27 Comments

Critical thinking, skepticism, and experimentation are not only important in science, but our everyday lives. This is also true in Buddhism, and especially secular Buddhism. In fact, the Buddha was well known for saying, and I’m paraphrasing here: Don’t just believe what I say. Look for yourself.

When we first began practice with meditation, and mindfulness in our daily lives, many of the teachings prove themselves to be true. It becomes starkly apparent, for instance, that we cling to pleasure and we have aversion to pain. Our reactions to such clinging often cause a great deal of internal suffering. Mindfulness goes on to reveal much more than just clinging, but also how we create and recreate a feeling of self.