Summer begins: Buddhist Summer School

How many summers are there? There's cultural summer (starting on Memorial Day), meteorological summer (as the weather changes), seasonal (astronomical) summer (the real thing beginning with the summer solstice, June 21, 2025), and Indian summer (that lingering often very hot period after fall equinox). When school lets out for summer vacation, that's summer. The Los Angeles Unified School District just let out, so summer has begun...at least in Southern California, where it's kind of always summer.

Youth is wasted on the young who do not appreciate it until it's too late

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Buddhist Summer School (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, 1: The Buddha

1. "The Buddha" taught by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Humble Dr. Bhante Bodhi, Maha Thera, Ph.D.

佛陀教育法音宣流集 The Buddha’s Teaching: As It Is. It was 1981 at the Washington Buddhist Vihara in DC when American Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi finished recording ten talks explaining Buddhist basics published in March 2008. The original set of recordings came with additional material, including a glossary of terms that no longer seems to accompany the distributed CDs.

He began conceiving of a set of talks in the fall of 1979 as a WBV resident, composing lectures on the fundamental teachings of what the Buddha taught as recorded in the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism.

Bhante Gunaratana, at the time the president of the Buddhist Vihara Society, suggested he record the lectures so that the monastery could distribute them as a set of ten cassette tapes, saving Ven. Bodhi from a wave of invitations to speak to his fellow Americans interested in understanding the teachings of the historical Buddha Gautama also known as Siddhartha and Shakyamuni.

Meditate LIVE with Bhikkhu Bodhi Wednesdays

It was the summer of 1981 in the monastery's basement when Ven. Bodhi recorded them using an ordinary, nonprofessional recording device. An enthusiastic lay supporter had the master copies reproduced in large quantities for distribution.

They have continued to be distributed on tape and as CDs for over a quarter century. Decades ago, a set arrived at the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara when the future Dharma editor of Wisdom Quarterly first heard them, crisp, in modern English, covering deep topics with excellent breadth and depth, not getting too consumed by the details except when it became necessary to clear up misconceptions about the Buddhist meaning of nirvana (moksha, vimutti, complete liberation). Meeting Bhikkhu Bodhi at the offices of the Buddhist Publication Society (bps.lk) in Kandy, Sri Lanka, he granted permission that we distribute these talks and we have ever since.

O, Buddha, what's the best gift? - Dhamma-dana

He was sure that it was not necessary as these talks were further refined and incorporated into his books and the explanatory notes of his many translations of the ancient Buddhist texts of the Pali language canon, but we assured him that these original talks were still very valuable to a basic understanding.

They are now considered “public domain” for anyone to copy and distribute freely as a gift of Dharma or Dhamma-dana (not for profit). The one condition is that they must not be sold. The tapes are now on CDs containing the original ten lectures, available freely at BAUS.org, Buddhist Association of the United States, Chaung Yen Monastery, Carmel, Upstate New York.

It is recommended that they be listened to as recorded in the original sequence.

ABOUT: Bhikkhu Bodhi (born Jeffrey Block is born on Dec. 10, 1944) is a Jewish American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka under Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Maha Thera. he now resides at Chaung Yen Monastery, Carmel, and still visits his former monastery, Bodhi Vihara (not named after him) in New Jersey. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and edited and authored many publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. He is the founder of Buddhist Global Relief a charity that funds projects to fight hunger and to empower women across the world.

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