Exclusive Works
Here you will find links to the content on the site which is difficult to find elsewhere: either because it went offline, it was edited, or because it’s a file that was previously circulating offline. They are collected here in the hope that it will be useful to other collectors. You can download a zip archive containing many of these files here.
Works by Type
Articles
Ananda, Upali and Devadatta act out a theoretical quarrel about Buddhist attitudes to law
By the ariya, the cessation of sakkaya is seen as happiness. This is the reverse of the outlook of the entire world!
Only a man could dream of Heaven as a place where he can lie about all day, surrounded by beautiful women
Featured in the course, " Nibbāna: The Goal of Buddhist Practice"
The Buddha’s bad karma refers to ten problematic incidents that happened in the life of the historical Buddha. […] The texts related to the bad karma of the Buddha can be divided into two groups: those texts accepting the bad karma and those rejecting the whole matter.
… the redefinition of arahantship cannot be looked upon as successful. The relaxed criteria would have enabled many monks of lesser attainment, as well as status-seeking monks, to proclaim themselves arahants. […] In its devalued form it simply could not satisfy the spiritual aspiration of those who sought the ultimate goal.
The letter sent to the royal court at Kandy on behalf of the king of Siam, and published [here], includes some information of considerable interest for the study of the history of Pali texts. For a shipment, which comprised no less than 97 books no longer extant on the island and therefore asked for in a second document accompanying this letter, is said to have been dispatched together with the letter.
Given the fact that the praiseworthy qualities of the Buddha are the main theme of the Mahāsakuludāyi-sutta and its parallel, it is not surprising if the tendency to elevate the Buddha’s status would to some degree also have influenced the reciters responsible for transmitting the discourse. A comparison of the two versions in fact reveals several instances where this tendency is at work
There is a tribe of people known as the Ethno-graphic Filmmakers who believe they are invisible. They enter a room where a feast is being celebrated, or the sick cured, or the dead mourned, and, though weighted down with odd machines entangled with wires, imagine they are unnoticed.
A guided reading of a small section of the Abhidhamma related to how different Indian schools explained time and a hypothesis about how they may have debated the topic amongst themselves.
… the most truthful way of regarding illness — and the healthiest way of being ill — is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking
… so many warriors perished on the battlefield. The response of the arahants is truly astounding.
Featured in the course, " Imagery in the Early Buddhist Texts"
Featured in the course, " Nibbāna: The Goal of Buddhist Practice"
… there may have been Bhikkhunīs in existence before the request for ordination by Mahāpajāpatī
Three sūtras in the SA which deal with emptiness especially attracted the attention of the author of the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa
…recognize that this view is not scientific discovery: it is ideology.
… what was the religious environment that encouraged the spread of the new technology of printing in late seventh century China?
Featured in the course, " The Buddha"
Featured in the course, " Nibbāna: The Goal of Buddhist Practice"
Featured in the course, " The Buddha"
Featured in the course, " The Aṅguttara Nikāya"
Audio/Video
Textual fundamentalism requires texts.
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
Many people have this paradigm of seeing it all as natural, but…
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
A word for the centrality of medicine in the spread and practice of Buddhism.
An excerpt from an interview on Chinese Pure Land making the point that while we tend to think of Mahayana Devotionalism as a separate sect, historically it was seen rather as an optional practice available to all Buddhists.
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
A short introduction to the Dhammapada, from Gil Fronsdal’s 2008 translation, read by the author.
Featured in the course, " Buddhist Ethics"
Featured in the course, " The Buddha's Words"
Featured in the course, " An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy"
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
An engaging lecture at Spirit Rock on using text critical methods and personal practice to narrow in on an understanding of early Buddhist meditation practices.
On holding ontologies loosely more as communication tools than as arbiters of reality.
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
Featured in the course, " The Majjhima Nikāya"
The text jumps inside me to help me out.
…
So, when you’re studying Buddhism, what are you studying?
I know the answer. I’m studying me.
I’m studying me.
Featured in the course, " An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy"
Don’t try to be someone else
Essays
We, moderns but especially Americans, have a fundamental misunderstanding of cognitive development: we assume that higher-level functioning is always desired and so disparage and neglect fundamental cognitive skills.
Featured in the course, " Buddhist Ethics"
What impresses me most about that encounter is how unimpressive it was.
Featured in the course, " Nibbāna: The Goal of Buddhist Practice"
Within the framework of experience, there is no quantum enigma; the boxed cat, being outside of one’s experiential frame of reference, doesn’t exist. Once I observe the cat, then it exists
An intriguing (re)definition of religion, science, and culture.