Based largely on the work of religious historian Karen Armstrong
This series includes 30 episodes.
Introduction
1) Two ways of interpreting the life of the Buddha: the classical text based mythic narrative or the more historical, social and culturally based narrative. 2) The approach of Karen Armstrong. 3) The Buddha’s life as the classical narrative according to Ven. Piyadassi Thera. 4) The Buddha’s birth and early life. 5) The four visions of the Buddha. 6) The Buddha’s great compassion and its lesson for us in our daily lives. 7) Understanding compassion as the measure of self and other in our lives. 8) Defining what is sacred and profane within the context of morality and ethics.
1 April, 2023
Four Visions
1) The four visions of the young Buddha: sickness, aging, death, and the enlightened monk. 2) The thoughts of Siddartha as he departed his sleeping wife and child. 3) The sense of possible redemption from suffering in the celestial realms of antiquity and how it influenced the young Siddartha. 4) Gotama’s belief that redemption from suffering emanated not from the celestial realms but from the human realm. 5) How the culture dictated a more human centered spiritual path as opposed to a more theistically oriented spiritual path. 6) The oppressive presence of the law of Karma. 7) The inherent optimism of Gotama’s vision of enlightenment.
8 April, 2023
The Axial Age
1) The Buddha’s early life, the four visions and his decision to commit himself to the homeless life. 2) The Buddha’s true motivation for leaving his wife and child. 3) Understanding the Buddha’s life within the context of the Axial Age. 4) Characteristics of the Axial Age: the fall from grace in a time when men and Gods were as one. The struggle for resurrection and transcendence. 5) The causes of the Axial Age: the collapse of the great Bronze Age civilizations and the invasion of the nomadic Indo-European tribes of Central Asia. 6) The difference between pre-Axial religion and Axial Age religion. 7) The Buddha himself as an expression of the Axial ethos. 8) The role of Mara or our shadow self in hindering the path of the Buddha. 9) The significance of the Axial Age in rooting all the great religions of the world in one historical period and the common motivation and aspiration that drove their development and evolution. 10) The basis for understanding the common connection between all the great faith traditions of the world.
15 April, 2023
Life as a Young Monk
1) The early stages of the Buddha’s going forth: the life of a bhikkhu. 2) The prevalent issue of the time: escaping from the endless round of rebirths or samsara. The role of craving. 3) The life of monks in sanghas of the day. 4) The prevailing doctrines of Brahman/Atman in the Advaita tradition and Purusa/Praktri in the Samkhya tradition. 5) Gotama’s training under Alara Kalama in the Samkhya tradition. Seeing the true Self or purusa through the veil of ignorance, or praktri: the power of the intellect. 6) The difficulty of “realizing” Alara Kalama’s teaching and Gotama’s introduction to meditation. 7) The power of yoga or meditation in taming our unruly, constantly distracted minds. The power of our unconscious impulses. 8) The importance of the “death of the ego” to realize the sacred in all the great Axial traditions. 9) The aspirations of Gotama in achieving a sense of unity with purusa or ultimate reality.
22 April, 2023
Siddhartha’s First Teacher
1. Gotama’s meeting with his first teacher, Alara Kalama. 2. The generally prevalent Hindu teachings of the time: Advaita Vedanta and Samkhya Vedanta. 3. The similarity between Samkhya and the idea of pure awareness in Buddhism. 4. The problem of realizing Purisha purely through one’s intellect….the difficulty of controlling one’s mind and the necessity for an alternative means of consciousness. The dangers of egotism. 5. The universal desire of the Axial sages to return to our original connection to the sacred…the return to Eden, or in Buddhist terms, the return to our original nature. 6. The importance of yoga or meditation as a means of attaining pure awareness. Establishing the basic foundation of morality and ethics….the five precepts. 7. Learning to control his body through asana or the still, motionless meditation posture. 8. Learning to control his breathing to calm and still the mind. 9. Learning the fundamental concentration practice or ekaggata. 10. The relevance of the Buddha’s training to our current practice: the five precepts and the Eightfold Noble Path, the development of our posture and breathing, the purpose of quieting our discursive thinking process.
29 April, 2023
The Introductory Disciplines
1). Gotama’s meeting with his first teacher Alara Kalama. 2). The introductory disciplines: The Five Precepts, the meditation posture, the control of the breath. 3). The teaching of one pointed concentration. The tendency to not see realittyas it is but through the lens of our subjective thoughts. 4). How medittion brings about a change of consciousness. 5). The jhanic meditation practices: the mundane and supra-mundane jhanas. 6). Why the Buddha could not accept his meditation experience as revealing the Absolute or Nibbana. 7). Buddha goes to Uddaka Ramaputta his second teacher to learn to attain the highest level of jhanic attainment, but is again disappointed. 8). The Buddha turns to asceticism to find Nibbana but only finds more suffering. 9). A testament to Gotama’s character in his radical sense of honesty, integrity, and persistence in his search for awakening.
6 May, 2023
Vision Under the Rose Apple Tree
1). The four chapters in the life of the Buddha: His early life, his period of training, the period of attaining enlightenment, and the period of his ministry. 2). The difference between the historical and scriptural versions of the Buddha’s life ane their importance in describing his enlightenment process. 3). The vision of Gotama as a child under the Rose Apple tree. 4). What happens to the brain during meditation. 5). The Buddha’s memory of his childhood experience and how it changed his attitude toward happiness and pleasure and the nature of Nibbana as something inherent in all of us….The Middle Way. 6). Gotama’s search for the means to cultivate meditative bliss…avoiding all mental states that impede enlightenment. 7). Cultivating the opposites of the five prohibitions: killing, lying, stealing, taking intoxicants, and sexual misconduct. 8). The cultivation of skillful action as the basis for the Noble Eightfold Path. 9). The taking of nutriment and leaving the ascetic life. 10). The Buddha’s questioning of the teachings of Vedanta and Samkhya of his time. The rejection of theism. 11). The ways in which Gotama developed what we know today as Mindfulness. His deepening understanding of the nature of suffering. 12). The pervasive nature of desire, craving, and hatred. 13). Understanding the Dharma in the context of Darwinian Natural Selection.
13 May, 2023
Crucial Insights that Laid the Basis for the Teachings
1). The four chapters or phases of the Budda’s life: a. his early life, b. his training, c. his going out on his own and achieving enlightenment, and d. his eventual ministry. 2). Gotama’s preparation in meditation and asceticism before setting out on his own path. 3). The importance of the third phase in setting the foundations for his eventual teachings. 4). Identifying the crucial insights in Gotama’s development that laid the basis for his later teachings. 5). The first insight: the liberation from suffering comes from one’s self and not through an external spiritual authority: the difference between theistic and non-theistic approaches to spirituality. The secular humanism of Buddhism. 6). The essential unity of purpose of all religions, both theistic and non-theistic: greed and the overcoming of the ego. 7). The rejection of hedonism and asceticism and the discovery of the “Middle Way.” 8). The development of mindfulness, 9). The significance and importance of mindfulness in freeing ourselves from suffering.
54 Minutes
Crucial Insights Part 2
1. The seven insights of the Buddha that formed the basis of his teachings. 2. The fourth insight: How suffering runs through every aspect of our lives. 3. The fifth insight: the prevalence of greed and egotism as the central cause of suffering; 4. The sixth insight: the pervasive nature of impermanence; 5. The seventh insight: the importance of skillful actions or the practice of the Brahmaviharas.
54 Minutes
Journey to Bodh Gaya and Enlightenment
1). The four phases in the life of the Buddha; 2). The six major insights of the Buddha; 3). Using medittion to cultivate the skillful mindstates or the Brahmaviharas; 4). Gotama’s journey to Bodh Gaya where he attained his final enlightenment. 5). the Buddha’s realization of the Four Noble Truths; 6). the importance of the Noble Eightfold Path; 7). The Buddha’s statement on the intrinsic nature of reality as revealed in the fabric of the cosmos. 8). The nature of awakening as the realization of our re-connection with the fabric of nature and all sentient life on earth.
56 Minutes
Revelation of the Four Noble Truths
1). The four chapters in the life of the Buddha; 2). Gotama travels to Bodh Gaya for his final effort at enlightenment; 3). The Buddha’s revelation of the Four Noble Truths; 4). The Noble Eightfold Path as the method to attain Nibbana; 5). The difference between religion and spirituality; 6). Finding transcendance within our conventional lives; 7). Discovering the Four Noble Truths as emergent within ourselves. 8). Seeing the truth within the context of a deep samadhic state; 9). Two notions of self eradication during the Buddha’s time and the idea of the middle way or balance between conventional and absolute reality; 10). Finding peace and tranquillity in the midst of suffering. 11). Realizing and actualizing our connectedness to the fabric of the Cosmos.
10 June, 2023
50 Minutes
Mara and Psychological Struggle
1) Gotama’s final attempt at awakening under the Bodhi Tree; 2) Understanding the historical vs. scriptual presentations of his chronology; 3) The internal psychological struggle of Gotama in the search for enlightenment; 4) The significance of the Buddha taking his place under the Bodhi tree, finding the Axis Mundi; 5) The appearance of Mara before Gotama;
6) The three visions of the Buddha; 7) Mara’s challenge to the Buddha; 8) The meaning of enlightenment in terms of our integration into the fabric of nature through the surrender of our self-centered ego;
9) The crucial decision to teach or to remain in seclusion; 10) The next steps in the Buddha’s dispensation; 11) Understanding the sense of moral engagement implicit in the attainment of Nibbana.
Buddha’s Enlightenment
1) The difference between the historical approach of Karen Armstrong and the more scholarly academic approach to the life of the Buddha; 2) The four chapters of the life of the Buddha; 3) Presentation of the scriptural version of the enlightenment of the Buddha; 4) The story of the minstel’s lute and Gotama’s awakening to the middle way; 5) Gotama sits under the Bodhi tree and begins his meditation; 6) Gotama’s attainment of the four jhanic states; 7) The first insight: the knowledge of past lives; 8) The second insight; knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of things; 9) The third insight: knowlege of the destruction of the taints, kilesas, suffering, the origin of suffering and the way to the end of suffering; the Four Noble Truths; 10) The appearance of Mara to challenge Gotama’s enlightenment; 11) The first insight: the middle way; 12) Revelation of the first watch: the concept of samsara; 13) Revelation of the second watch: how being pass away and arise due to their actions in life: the process of karma; 14) Revelation of the third watch: the seeing of suffering and the Four Noble Truths; 15) How the Buddha came to see the truth of suffering through his meditation; 16) Mara’s challenge to the Buddha and the development of mindfulness; 17) The Buddha demonstrates our connection to the earth and to the flow of nature.
1 July 2023
63 Minutes
Buddha’s Decision to Teach
1) The difference between the academic approach to the Buddha’s life and the historical approach of Karen Armstrong; 2) The four phases of the Buddha’s life; 3) The Buddha’s decision to teach; 4) The Buddha’s first attempt to teach; 5) The Buddha’s meeting with the five bikkhus; 6) The difference between direct knowledge and belief or faith; 7) The Four Noble Truths; 8) The teaching of Dependent Origination.
8 July 2023
Buddha’s Rejection of Beliefs, Creeds, or Gods
1) The Buddha’s first attempt to teach; 2) The Buddha meets his former companions at the Deer Part at Isipatana; 3) The Buddha’s rejection of an external belief, creed, or God; 4) The importance of personal experience in achieving Nibbana; 5) The importance of personal accountability for the consequences of our actions; 6) Not holding on or clinging to concepts or beliefs; 7) How we get trapped in our egos; 8) Learning to see ourselves within the larger web of life; 9) The relevance of the Buddha’s teaching in today’s world.
9 September, 2023
37 Minutes
Four Great Teachings
1) The four great teachings of the Buddha: The Middle Way, The Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, and Non-self; 2) The essential teaching of Dependent Origination: the process of transmigration, how suffering arises, the role of karma, and how we create our personal realities; 3) The twelve steps of dependent origination; 4) The fundamental role of ignorance in perpetrating the chain of suffering; 5) the meaning of Sankhara or “karmic formation”; 6) the undoing of suffering through wisdom; 7) the power of karmic formations in our life; 8) the seven stages of spiritual development of Josha Bach; 9) Seeing the relationship between karma and spiritual awakening.
09/30/2023
48 Minutes
The Revolutionary Aspect of the Buddha’s Teachings
1) The four essential teachings of the Buddha; 2) How the Buddha’s concept of anatta contradicted the prevailing spiritual views of the time…the revolutionary aspect of the Buddha’s teaching; 3) the teaching of the five aggregates: the prciess nature of existence and the absence of any fixed, immutable essence that can be called a self; 4) the ethical implications of the doctrine of anatta; 5) how knowledge of anatta frees one from suffering and opens the heart to compassion and love; 6) the advantages of a non-theistic vs theistic system of morality and ethics in terms of a non-egoistic form of behavior.
7 October, 2023
46 Minutes
Heart Sutra and Quantum Physics
1) Reflections on the emerging war in Israel. 2) The importance of the teaching of anatta or non-self in terms of its moral and ethical implications. 3) The five aggregates of clinging; 4) The original sutta on non-self; 5) Non-self as determined by the law of Karma; 6) The story of King Milinda ane the chariot;
7) The Heart Sutra and the meaning of emptiness; 8) The relationship between the Heart Sutra and quantum physics; 9) Josha Bach on how our conditioning creates our reality; 10) The three factors of non-self: Evolution, Composition, and Interconnectedness; 11) The moral and ethical implications of the teaching of anatta.
14 October, 2023
67 Minutes
The Early Ministry
1) Summary of the Buddha’s life after the attainment of enlightenment; 2) The four great teachings of the Buddha to the five ascetics: The Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, and Non-self, or Anatta; 3) The Buddha’s first converts, Yasa and his father; 4) the value of a more historical presentation of the life of the Buddha; 5) How the Buddha was characterized during his ministry; 6) The nature of the sangha in the early years; 7). The Buddha’s meeting with 30 young men chasing a courtesan; 8) the Buddha’s visit with the Hindu ascetics at Uruvela; 9) the value of the Buddha’s teaching in this modern world of so much suffering.
4 November, 2023
The Mind of a Buddha
1) Review of earlier chapters of the Buddha’s life; 2) The fact that not much is known about the personal life of the Buddha; 3) So, what is it like to be a Buddha? 4) Understanding the characteristics of an arahant; 5) Arahants are free from defilements, greed, hatred, and delusion; 6) Perfect wisdom, perfect compassion, perfect morality; 7) Minds that a unshakeable, calm, peaceful, and content; 8) Arahants are always mindful and compassionate; 9) The examples of Sariputtra, Mogallana, and Rahula; 10) Seeing the world as a mirror of our own minds as a way of understanding how our karma creates our personal reality; 11) Ways in which our minds can distort our perception of reality; 12) Changing our reality means changing our minds; 13) An arahant as one who is in the world but not of the world: the symbol of the lotus.
11 November, 2023
42 Minutes
The Fire Sermon
1) The Buddha’s actions after having attained enlightenment up to the formation of his sangha with his first 60 disciples; 2) The Buddha’s encounter with the Vedic monks at Uruvela; 3) His performance of psychic powers to the Brahmin yogis; 4) The Buddha preaches the Fire Sermon; 5) The actual sutra rendition of the Fire Sermon; 6) How we mistake pleasant feelings as the source of happiness in our lives; 7) the difference between desire as clinging and craving and desire as a positive motivation; 8) the global implications of our incessant individual pursuit of pleasure; 9) Learning how to find contentment in our lives.
18 November, 2023
38 Minutes
Buddha’s Early Disciples
1) The early ministry of the Buddha; 2) The Buddha comes to Magadha and meets King Bimbisara; 3) The Buddha meets Sariputra and Mogallana, his two greatest disciples, for the first time; 4) The effect that Sariputra and Mogallana had on the development of Theravadin and Mahayana Buddhism. 5) The Buddha’s visit to his father in Kapilavattu; 6) The characteristics of the personalities of the Buddha and his disciples.
25 November, 2023
The Contributions of the Disciples
1) The Buddha’s ministry up until the time he goes to Kapilavattu to meey his father Suddhodana; 2) His first meetings with Sariputra and Mogallana who were to become his two chief disciples; Ananda, who was to become his personal assistant; and Devadatta, who was to become his mortal enemy; 3) The story of Sariputra; 4) The story of Mogallana; 5) The impact of Sariputra and Mogallana on the historic development of Buddhism; 6) The story of Devadatta; 7) The implications of their lives for Buddhism today.
2 December,2023
The Sangha
1) The early career of the Buddha; 2) The Buddha’s meeting with Anathapindika the rich merchant from Savatti; 3) The development of “aramas” or parks to house the Buddha’s sangha in the cities of Rajagaha, Kapilavattu, and Savatti; 4) The origination of the tradition of the vassa or rains rereats; 5) The beginnings of a Buddhist communal life; 6) Learning to become more fully ourselves while becoming more compassionate, loving, and kind: the basis of the new monastic order.
9 December, 2023
Practice for Monks vs. the Laity
1) The evolving carreer of the Buddha, the establishment of the new Buddhist sangha order; 2) The difference between the esoteric and the exoteric in the evolving Buddhist sangha; 3) The difference in teaching and practice for monks and the laity; 4) The question of birth and re-birth; 5) The cultivation of the Immeasurables or the Brahmaviharas: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; 6) The difference between the meditation on the Brahmaviharas and Vipassana; 7) The implications of the teaching for lay people today.
16 December, 2023
50 Minutes
Women in the Sangha
1) The beginnings of the Buddha’s ministry and the establishment of the monastic order; 2) The question of women in the Buddhist sangha; 3) The visit by Pahapati Gotami, the Buddha’s aunt, to join the sangha and Ananda’s entrieaties to the Buddha; 4) The Buddha’s eventual consent and the 8 rules for the bhikkhunis; 5) The Buddha’s misgivings about women in the sangha; 6) The position of women in Buddhism today; 7) The issue of sexual desire and attachment for men and women; 8) Bringing mindfulness to our most basic sexual desires so as not to cause suffering for ourselves and others; 9) The moral context within which the sexual act is performed: Love; 10) Coming to terms with our most basic unconscious drives: our biological imperative.
23 December, 2023
30 Minutes
What it Means to be Enlightened
1) Review of the early establishment of the Buddhist monastic order; 2) the organization of the early Buddhist sangha; 3) the creation of the “patimokkha” or the common confession of faith; 4) the developing recognition and acceptance of the Buddhist order; 5) the natture of the Buddha’s personality; 6) understanding the personality of the Buddha by understanding the characteristics of arahants; 7) the world as a mirror of our own minds: the effect of karmic conditioning; 8) changing our relationship to our karma; 9) what it means to be enlightened.
30 December, 2023
Schism in the Sangha
1) The Buddha begins to approach the later years of his life; 2) His relationship to King Pasenedhi; 3) The suffering of old age; 4) The rising schism in the Sangha, led by Devadatta, the Buddha’s brother-in-law; 5) The modern counterpart to the violence, egotism and suffering of the Buddha’s time; 6) The relevance of the Buddha’s message in this modern age of suffering. 7) Finding the relevance of the Buddha”s message within our own lifetimes. 8) What is the spiritual life within the Buddhist context?
January 13, 2024
Be An Island Unto Yourself
1) The conditions of discord in society and within the Buddhist sangha in the Buddha’s later years; 2) The Buddha’s discouragement at the violence and conflict of the times; 3) The Buddha’s health begins to decline; 4) The question of succession arises; 5) The news of the deaths of Sariputra and Mogallana; 6) The Buddha teaches: be an island unto yourself; 7) The Buddha’s hint to Ananda of his possible immortality; 8) The Buddha consciously abandons the will to live; 9) The Buddha meets Cunda, the goldsmith and ingests his last meal; 10) The Buddha’s teaching of: be an island unto one’s self vs the idea that no man is an island. 11) The Buddha’s own sense of disappointment and despair at the social conditions of his time.
January 20, 2024
Parinibbana–the Final End of Suffering
1) The conditions surrounding the life of the Buddha in his last days; 2) What is meaning of parinibbana? 3) The Buddha’s last days as he approached Kusinara; 4) Ananda’s grief at the lost of his master; 5) The Buddha’s reasons for dying in Kusinara; 6) The Buddha’s final parinibbana ; 7) So what is parinibbana? What is that that runs through all things? The evolution of life on this planet. 8) The presence of evil on this planet. The anonymity of evil. 9) Understanding evil in the face of the truth of the Dharma.
January 27, 2024
