What is the True Nature of Existence?

Talk 3. The True Nature of Existence | Bhikkhu Bodhi (The Buddha's Teaching: As It is, 1981)

The Buddha-Dhamma (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Nobody explained existence this clearly — except the Buddha himself

Ego (Buddhism podcast) Buddhism Explained 🌿 Why are we here? [Can we go now? Can we hang out a little longer?] What is the meaning of existence? These timeless questions have haunted humanity for millennia.

And more than 2,500 years ago, one man offered the clearest, most transformative answer ever given — the Buddha. In this compelling exploration of the Buddha’s life and mission, we retrace his journey from hedonistic royal comfort to shamanic spiritual awakening, his fearless renunciation of power and pleasure in pursuit of a deeper truth, and his discovery of the Middle Way — a path of profound insight, mental clarity, and ethical freedom.

Through stories like Kisagotami, the grieving mother, and Angulimala, the feared mass murderer turned monk, we witness how the Buddha’s wisdom was not just a philosophy, but a living force of compassion and transformation.

Who was "the Buddha"?

Bhikkhu Bodhi introduces The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is (Lecture 1)

🔍 This video reveals:

• – Why the Buddha rejected metaphysical speculation and instead focused on the practical problem of suffering
• – How his teaching remains universally relevant in a world flooded with confusion, anxiety, and distraction
• – What makes the Dhamma radically empowering: no savior to worship, no doctrine to blindly follow — just insight, mindfulness, and ethical responsibility

🙏 Whether a long-time Buddhist practitioner or simply searching for clarity in a chaotic world, this teaching offers a timeless mirror to see self — and life — more clearly.

💬 "Come and see for yourself," the Buddha said. This may be the most direct, most human explanation of existence ever shared.

📌 Remember to like, comment, and subscribe if this message resonates in the heart.

The Buddha and His Dhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhi anthology

Buddhism originated with an Indian Scythian prince known as [Prince Siddhartha Gautama or Siddhattha Gotama, later called "the Enlightened One" or] the Buddha, who taught in [the frontier] Northeast [of future] India [Scythia, Saka, Shakya Land, Central Asia, ancient Gandhara, next to proto-India at a time when there was not yet an "India" but there had already been a Maha Bharat] in the fifth century BCE.

Two centuries later, with the support of the Buddhist Emperor Asoka [who created "India" by uniting disparate kingdoms on the subcontinent or Jambudvipa/Roseapple Land], Buddhism spread over the greater part of India and from there traveled the full breadth of the Asian continent.

In several tidal waves of missionary zeal, it rose up from its Indian homeland and inundated other regions, offering the peoples among whom it took root a solid foundation of faith [saddha, verifiable confidence] and wisdom upon which to build their lives and a source of inspiration towards which to direct their hopes.

At different points in history Buddhism has commanded followings in countries as diverse geographically, ethnically, and culturally as Afghanistan [Kapilavastu/Kapilavatthu, Kabul, Bamiyan, and Mes Aynak] and Japan, Siberia and Cambodia, Korea and Sri Lanka; yet, all have looked towards the same Indian sage as their master. More

• Ego (Buddhism Podcast), July 8, 2025; Bhikkhu Bodhi, As It Is, Tape 1; Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2006, BPS.lk, Wheel 433, The Buddha and His Dhamma, Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), Nov. 30, 2013; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

True Nature of Reality (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Four Elements Meditation

Venerable sir, what is the true nature of existence? American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi (Chaung Yen Monastery, Carmel, Upstate New York, BAUS.org) explains from a set of ten lectures called The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, which he recorded while residing at the Washington DC Buddhist Vihara.

• The Buddha’s Teaching As It Is @ The Open Buddhist University
• Material particles in kalapas (atoms) in Buddhism
• Bhikkhu Bodhi; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Practice: What is "mindfulness"?

High quality, handmade Himalayan craftsmanshp of gold-faced Buddha - Etsy

What is that? - I don't know. I just let it be.

The Buddha talked about mindfulness (watchfulness, wakefulness, vigilance, diligence, sati) as a human capacity. It is being aware of the present in a dispassionate, nonreactive, unentangled way.

How do we become entangled? We follow automatic habits (going through life on "automatic pilot" rather than actually living).

• Western Theravada Buddhist monk Ven. Dr. Analayo has looked deeply into the definition of sati: "Mindfulness in Early Buddhism" (Journal of Buddhist Studies)

Love me. I'm cold and all alone and need a hug.

Our most pronounced habit is to crave and cling, to feed our greed and lust for pleasurable experiences. For example, rather than simply observing a beautiful thing, we want (and often do) reach for it, grasp it, hold onto it. This is attachment and clinging. When it fails to satisfy us, displeases, and disappoints, it becomes unlovable, unliked. And we fall into our second habit. Imagine a cute white lab mouse (or baby piglet) sniffling and looking for cuddles. We love it until we don't.

I've had with you, you dirty fat pig! Bacon!

We have the habit of experiencing fear, revulsion, annoyance, disliking unpleasant things and experiences. For example, rather than simply observing an ugly thing, we want (and often do) push it away, grab it and throw it away, resist it, beat it, destroy it (or, fearing it, we ourselves run away). Imagine a dirty rat, greasy and growling with shifty eyes.

Our most fundamental habit, which makes these other two or three (greed, hatred, and fear, fear being a kind of hate or "aversion"), is delusion, confusion, ignorance. It is not knowing, not understanding, not seeing things as they really are. One could say our whole experience is really a hallucination -- in the sense that we are rarely if ever looking at what's actually there, rarely being "mindful."

If we were being mindful, everything would be alright, acceptable, and we wouldn't abandon ourselves or the experience of the present moment.

Could we experience a pleasant sight, sound, scent, savor, (bodily) sensation, or simulation (mental thing) and simply let it be, radically accept it, not get entangled, involved, attached, not grasp or cling?

Mindful when walking, sitting, doing, viewing

If we could, that would be mindfulness.

Could we experience an unpleasant thing (internal or external) and simply let it be, radically accept it, allow it, not get entangled (by the habit of hate or fear), involved, not resist or run away, not deny or attempt to fix or destroy it? If we could, that would be mindfulness, seeing it just as it is and allowing it, letting it be whatever it is or wants to be without "fixing" it or making it be otherwise.

(This would mean fixing ourselves to be at ease with experience rather than trying to fix experience. If we could do this, then we would really be on our way to seeing things as they really are rather than constantly imagining them to be some way or other from our expectations, past experiences, fears, anticipations, neuroses, phobias, vulnerabilities...).

Could we experience a neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant thing (external or internal) and simply let it be without being bored, trying to escape the discomfort or confusion, without trying to figure it out and be one way or another, without trying to replace it with a pleasant and "interesting" thing? If we could, that would be mindfulness -- simply seeing what really is (right here, right now) without projections, distortions, expectations, preferences, just simply letting it (this moment) be whatever it is. That is mindfulness.

So the silly and downright foolish definition or idea that "mindfulness is walking in nature with awareness" becomes clear. We are never walking in nature, not mindfully. We are usually enjoying the change of scenery, the natural beauty, the slower pace, the fresh air, the uncluttered vistas, the everything-pleasant, hating the bugs and mosquitoes, weather and inconveniences, and missing most of the scenery because we're not really paying attention to what's there just noticing what we notice and daydreaming the rest of the time. Rather than ever being "here" right now, we instead constantly abandon ourselves, leave ourselves in the lurch of unpleasant experience, run these wheels of habit and automaticity, fail to engage with the real or the now or the present moment.

We dream of the past, imagine the future, and abandon the present. The first makes us depressed. The second makes us anxious. And the third makes us unhappy because, well, there's an interesting saying that takes some getting use to:

"There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way." If we were happy by being present, everything would be happiness. If we only allow ourselves to be happy when everything is pleasant, boy, we're in for a bumpy ride in life. If we insist we be unhappy when meeting the unpleasant, we have a lot of suffering coming our way (because a lot of, maybe most, experience is going to be unpleasant or boring). That will be the painful, the dukkha (the imperfect, off-kilter, off-center) causing us a bumpy ride.

How now if instead of habitually reacting all the time, judging, jumping to conclusions, thinking we know, being sure we know, we were to look with fresh eyes? "Beginner's mind," a famous attribute of Zen in particular and mindful meditation in general, is far better than the boredom, restlessness, annoyance, confusion, and insanity called "monkey mind."

The Buddha always has a little smirk or gentle smile.

The problem is this. The antidote is instant. It is called mindfulness (sati) because in mindfulness there is no greed, hatred/fear, or delusion. There is just this, just this moment, whatever is in it. And it's okay. It's fine because we let it be. We allow it. We accept it. We radically accept and embrace it because it is and for no better reason. Now it may change. (It will change). But for the moment, this moment, whatever this moment, we LET (allow) IT (whatever) BE (is). Allow whatever is. And smile. It feels nice, and it doesn't need a reason.

Now, the Buddha in talking about sati did not leave it at that. In fact, it's hard to ever find a definition of sati. That should be clear and well understood, implicitly one supposes, because all of the emphasis is what to be mindful of. That the Buddha called catu satipatthana, the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness to be exact or the Four Foundations of Mindfulness to be conventional.

Sure, mindfulness is best. One can never be too mind. It is good for all things, to just let them be and observe them calmly, dispassionately, objectively, unentangled. As a path to enlightenment, the Buddha spelled out FOUR things of which to be mindful, which are categories:

1. body
2. feeling
3. mind
4. mind-objects.

Buddhas teach mindfulness.

We will not be able to be mindful of any of them very well until we establish the habit of mindfulness, which runs against the stream of our other four habits (liking the beautiful, disliking the ugly, fearing the ugly, or being bored or confused by the neutral). Watch. Stay. Be here now. Don't abandon yourself or the present experience.

The Dharma (Teaching) of what it means to practice systematic mindfulness of those four foundations (which is the practice of vipassana, "insight meditation," "practicing to see things as they really are") is taught often enough at Buddhist retreats.

For now, just be mindful of all that is (right now), which is an ever-changing stream of things, always interesting if one investigates dispassionately.

There is much to see and much to learn, but not if we come at it with expectations and like we already know. A little beginner's mind goes a long way as does noble silence, not explaining, categorizing, conceptualizing, imagining, measuring, figuring, minding, or verbalizing. Just let it (this moment) be.

• Dhr. Seven; edited by Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen Bradford, Wisdom Quarterly

Dharma Buddhist Meditation (meetup.com)

Buddhist Summer School: The Buddha (1)

Summer School Lesson 1: The Buddha

Bhikkhu Bodhi explains the Dhamma in English

Who is the Buddha in Buddhism? Budh is the ancient Sanskrit/Pali root for "awake," so Wisdom Quarterly Dharma Editors Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson translate the Buddha-Dharma as "Awakenism."

"The Awakened One" (the Buddha) and this Teaching (the Dharma) are all about enlightenment (bodhi) and the end of suffering ("nirvana'ing," nirvana as a verb).

A great intro to Pali canon sutras

When we stand, we're standing. When we sit, we're sitting. When we nirvana, we are nirvana-ing, which is unlike anything in samsara (the round of rebirth and suffering) so there's nothing to compare it to. It is the supreme, the utmost awakening that has gone and is going beyond the beyond.

This begins to become clear with our American scholar-monk Sri Lankan Theravada teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi explains "Buddhism." Tape 1, The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is.

"The Dharma Bum" U Dhammaloka in Burma

Born Jeffrey Block, a New York Jewish philosophy student in California, who earned his doctoral degree at Claremont then traveled to Asia in the footsteps of Venerable U Dhammaloka (formerly Laurence Carroll, Larry O'Rourke, William Colvin), the Irishman who came to California then became the first Westerner ever to ordain as a Theravada Buddhist monk).

Alan Watts [gets] in his own way.

Listening to Alan Watts and surrounded by a burgeoning hippie movement, Dr. Block became a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk), taking the name Venerable Bodhi in Sri Lanka, where the great German Jewish Buddhist scholars were busy translating ancient Buddhist texts from Pali (a colloquial form of Sanskrit also called Magadhi, which is what the Buddha spoke as he taught in Magadha) into modern English.

• What's so great about British Californian Alan Watts? Wiki answers: Unabashed, Watts was not averse to acknowledging his own "irreducible rascality," referring to himself in his autobiography In My Own Way as "a sedentary and contemplative character, an intellectual, a Brahmin, a mystic, and also somewhat of a disreputable epicurean who has three wives, seven children, and five grandchildren" [45].

 

Soshin Maura O'Halloran, Irish bodhisattva

Why California? It is on the western edge of the American Empire, suffused with Asian influences, so it often serves as a springboard to the wisdom of the East. Like Led Zeppelin, lots of adventurous types on a spiritual quest are "Going to California" then on to Kashmir and beyond. Alan Watts found his way from farther east than Bhikkhu Bodhi and all the way to Zen Buddhist Japan, not unlike the Irish bodhisattva Soshin Maura O'Halloran, who went from Boston to Tokyo to practice the Dharma.

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (As It Is); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhist Summer School w/ Bhikkhu Bodhi (2)

This is Part 2 of our Buddhist Summer School with American scholar monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, from his recorded series As It Is. See Part 1. The topic today is the outline or summary of the Teaching (Dharma) famously known as the Four Noble Truths (Four Ennobling Truths).

• AUDIO: Buddhist Summer School: Bhikkhu Bodhi (Part 1)

The (united) Buddhist flag

What is the Dhamma (the Buddha's Dharma or "Doctrine")? It is the Teaching of the Buddha relating to liberation (moksha), freedom from suffering (dukkha), awakening from illusion (maya), and enlightenment in a benighted universe of ignorance. There are stages to this awakening. And there are many related teachings concerning enlightenment/awakening (bodhi).

The whole of the Buddha-Dharma may be summarized in four densely packed statements called the Four Noble Truths. Noble means "enlightened," so it is more useful to call them the Four Ennobling Truths, as direct realization of them leads to awakening.

1. There is disappointment.

   

   American Bhikkhu Bodhi

2. There is a cause of this.
3. There is an end to this.
4. There is a path leading to the end of disappointment.

When one awakens from ignorance, what one knows for certain is the deep meaning of these four statements. The first is very troubling to us as "ordinary, uninstructed worldlings." Who can say that all things are ultimately disappointing, unfulfilling, or "suffering"? What does this mean? What about pleasure, of which there are many kinds?

There is suffering, okay. That makes sense. We can feel that even in our own comfortable lives. We have no idea how far it goes, so it's nice to know that there's a reason or cause of all this disappointment or dukkha.

Hooray, there's an end to it at some point. When we know the cause, we can stem it and arrive at the cessation of ALL suffering. How?

There is a path leading to the cessation of all suffering, and it is called the Ennobling (Noble) Eightfold Path. Each of its factors are explained with the Four Ennobling Truths. (Enlightenment is said to depend on the cultivation of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment or bodhi-pakkhiyā-dhammā). There is much to unpack. And Bhikkhu Bodhi lays out the basics.

Buddhist Sunday Service: Alan Watts (KPFK)

Roy of Hollywood Tuckman, Something's Happening, Pacifica L.A. (KPFK.org), Wisdom Quarterly

"Not What Should Be, Not What Might Be, But What Is" by Alan Watts

(Look Within) Alan Watts fits right in with YouTube Myth & Religion Part 1 | Motivational Speeches. For more inspirational lectures and motivational speeches on YouTube, let's begin with Myth & Religion Part 1: "Not What Should Be, Not What Might Be, But What Is."

Every Sunday morning at 8:00, Roy Tuckman presents a segment of Something's Happening (his midnight show, weeknights on Pacifica Los Angeles at kpfk.org). This half hour of Alan Watts provides a short Sunday service of sorts for a Buddhist and Eastern twist, following a long Black Christian service with gospel singing and celebrating.

• Hear past episodes at archive.kpfk.org

Let's open our eye, our third eye, and look within with Alan Watts (playlist). Who's Alan Watts? Born on Jan. 6, 1915, he passed on Nov. 16, 1973. He was a British writer and lecturer on Buddhism who interpreted and popularized Eastern philosophy, particularly Zen and Hinduism and Taoism, for a Western audience. See more at en.wikipedia.org

Bhikkhu Bodhi: Noble Eightfold Path (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (recorded at the Washington Buddhist Vihara, D.C.); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

(Dhamma: Genuine Teachings of the Buddha and His Noble Disciples) "The Noble Eightfold Path," Tape 7 by Bhikkhu Bodhi (American scholar-monk Jeffrey Block) from the "As It Is" series.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is the most famous American Buddhist monk in the world. He is the English translator of the major original Buddhist texts. His six-day, non-residential meditation retreat in Los Angeles looks at Buddhism through the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Retreatants return home to rest each night. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from the preeminent Theravada teacher of our time. APPLY. Lankarama Buddhist Institute. More

Bhikkhu Bodhi: What is NIRVANA? (audio)

American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, Talk 6; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly



The Sphere

Bhkkhu Bodhi

The Buddha in The Udana ("Verses of Uplift or Inspired Utterances") says of nirvana that it is an ayatana ("realm or sphere"):

"There is a realm where there is neither earth, water, heat, nor air [Four Elements], neither the sphere of infinite space, the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception [the Four Immaterial Planes corresponding to the Four Immaterial Meditative Absorptions]. There is neither this world nor any other world, neither sun nor moon. This I call neither arising nor passing away, neither standing still nor being born nor dying. There is neither foothold there, nor development, nor any basis. This is the end of [all] suffering."

The Truth
"That which the ignorant take to be truth, that the noble ones, the Aryans [= the enlightened], know to be false.

"That which the Aryans know to be true, that the ignorant regard as false. That which is of an imperishable nature, that is nirvana, and that is the truth known by the Aryans."

THE MEANING OF THIS IS: That which the ignorant take to be truth, to be real, is a "self," an ego entity. And this the Aryans know to be false -- since through their insight they have realized that all phenomena are without a self, that they're all insubstantial [impersonal, selfless = anatta].

And that which the noble ones know to be truth, that is nirvana, and this the ignorant take to be false, an imaginary thing or a vain notion. But the noble ones, the Aryans, have seen nirvana. They've known through direct experience that it is real, the one ultimate reality that's imperishable.

The Permanent
In another sutra the Buddha says, "That which has a perishable nature, that is false. But that which is of a imperishable nature, namely nirvana, that is truth."

And then he says in the same sutra that, "This the supreme noble truth, nirvana, which is of an imperishable nature."

The Unborn

"[Meditators], there is an unborn, an unoriginated, an uncreated, an unconditioned. If there were not this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned, there would be no escape* possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned.

"However, since there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned, therefore, escape is possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned."

• *Escape to Reality (Wheel 45, Buddhist Publication Society)

Revealed: What "NIRVANA" is (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (Jeffrey Block), As It Is: Talk 6; Dhr. Seven, Eliza Darcey, Wisdom Quarterly

Rebirth and Karma Explained (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BAUS.org); Ananda (Mass Meditation Initiative), Wisdom Quarterly

"KARMA: It's everywhere you're going to be" (Karma means action, deed, volition).

What is the True Nature of Existence? (audio)

Ven. Bodhi; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Urban Dharma

A buddha is a supremely enlightened teacher like the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.

   

Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ph.D.

American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi once created a ten-part audio course on Buddhism called "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is" while living in Washington Buddhist Vihara in DC.

It was 1981 and Bhante G (then president of the Buddhist Vihara Society) suggested that young Bhikkhu Bodhi record lectures so the temple could distribute them as a set.

Traveling to Kandy, Sri Lanka -- where Bhikkhu Bodhi was living as editor of the Buddhist Publication Society -- to get permission to more widely publish these teachings. Bhikkhu Bodhi gladly gave it so long as it was not-for-profit but instead a gift of Dharma. The lectures are now in the "public domain," which means anyone may copy and help distribute them.

They make the most sense when listened to in the sequence Bhikkhu Bodhi recorded and listed them as they build on one another. These are MP3 files (free download) thanks to the great work of Los Angeles' Ven. Kusala at urbandharma.com).

Our noble meditation teacher Kalyani recommends they be placed on an MP3 player and listened to throughout the day. The simple merit of giving the gift of Dharma becomes supramundane when one listens and gains insight into the Buddha's message. Special thank you Bhikkhu Bodhi for decades of remarkable English scholarship bringing the Teachings to life.

AS IT IS (audio files)

1. The Buddha - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19 MB
   
2. The Four Noble Truths - MP3 - 1:21 min - 18.6 MB
3. The True Nature of Existence - MP3 - 1:18 min - 18 MB
4. Dependent Origination - MP3 - 1:15 min - 17.2 MB
5. Rebirth and Karma - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19.1 MB
6. Nirvana - MP3 - 1:16 min - 17.5 MB
7. The Noble Eightfold Path - MP3 - 1:19 min - 18.1 MB
8. Meditation - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19 MB
9. Social Teachings of the Buddha - MP3 - 1:17 min - 17.7 MB
10. The Sangha - MP3 - 1:18 min - 17.9 MB

REVIEW
Wisdom Quarterly

1. The series begins by introducing what a buddha is and who the Buddha was.
2. Then it moves on to the core teachings, Buddhism encapsulated in the Four Ennobling Truths. ("Noble" means enlightened).
3. Reality is explained in Lecture 3.
4. Then the means of gaining liberating-insight by mindful contemplation of the 12 links of causality called Dependent Origination to explain how the present suffering is rooted in the past.
5. This leads to a discussion of rebirth and karma, essential links that reveal the true nature of disappointment (suffering or dukkha) central to the Buddha's teaching on how to bring about the end of suffering in the very life.
6. Nirvana (called nibbana in Pali) is the complete cessation of suffering. It is NOT nothingness, emptiness, or the void. It is far subtler than we will ever imagine.
7. It is brought about by cultivating the supramundane Noble Eightfold Path  of paths-and-fruits, magga-and-phala.
8. This path is one of meditation (actual practice) more than intellectual study and detached learning.
9. But self-cultivation in Buddhism also includes a sensitivity to the social dimension that critics of the ancient Theravada ("Teaching of the Buddhist Elders") school often cite as self-serving, wrongly assuming that the Buddha neglected society when in fact so much of his teachings are concerned with the betterment of a world that does not for the most part meditate.
10. Those who dedicate their lives to meditating, to preserving the Dharma, and to teaching are the Sangha, the Monastic Order. As Americans and Socially Engaged Buddhists, we tend to dismiss the Order of Nuns and Monks (and countless temporarily-ordained practitioners) as an anachronism even as they continue to be a vibrant part of Buddhism.

More from Bhikkhu Bodhi: Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (BAUS.org)

Buddhist Summer School: Lesson 10 (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BM/BAUS); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhist hall, Thrangu Monastery, Richmond, BC, Canada (nathanbauman.com)

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Wisdom Quarterly's Buddhist Summer School started Monday, June 20, 2016. It is open to all and taught by our principal teacher, American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi. Place a note in the comments section.
  

How can I learn Buddhism in one summer?

American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi is the famous translator of many Buddhist sutra collections into English.

He created a series of ten recordings on the fundamentals of what the Buddha taught. Those audio lessons are linked below.
  

The series, "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is," can also be streamed online HERE (free).
  

TEN AUDIO LECTURES

1. The Buddha
2. The Four Noble Truths
3. The True Nature of Existence
4. Dependent Origination
5. Rebirth and Karma
6. Nirvana
7. The Noble Eightfold Path
8. Meditation
9. Social Teachings of the Buddha
10. The Sangha

Lesson 10: The Sangha [Monastic Community]

"The Buddha's Teaching As It Is" by Bhikkhu Bodhi (BodhiMonastery.org)

Buddhist Summer School: Lesson 9 (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BM/BAUS); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

.

Wisdom Quarterly's Buddhist Summer School started Monday, June 20, 2016. It is open to all and taught by our principal teacher, American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi. Place a note in the comments section.
  

How can I learn Buddhism in one summer?

American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi is the famous translator of many Buddhist sutra collections into English.

He created a series of ten recordings on the fundamentals of what the Buddha taught. Those audio lessons are linked below.
  

The series, "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is," can also be streamed online HERE (free).
  

TEN AUDIO LECTURES

1. The Buddha
2. The Four Noble Truths
3. The True Nature of Existence
4. Dependent Origination
5. Rebirth and Karma
6. Nirvana
7. The Noble Eightfold Path
8. Meditation
9. Social Teachings of the Buddha
10. The Sangha

Lesson 9: Social Teachings of the Buddha

"The Buddha's Teaching As It Is" by Bhikkhu Bodhi (BodhiMonastery.org)

Buddhist Summer School: Lesson 8 (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BM/BAUS); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

.

Wisdom Quarterly's Buddhist Summer School started Monday, June 20, 2016. It is open to all and taught by our principal teacher, American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi. Place a note in the comments section.
  

How can I learn Buddhism in one summer?

American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi is the famous translator of many Buddhist sutra collections into English.

He created a series of ten recordings on the fundamentals of what the Buddha taught. Those audio lessons are linked below.
  

The series, "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is," can also be streamed online HERE (free).
  

TEN AUDIO LECTURES

1. The Buddha
2. The Four Noble Truths
3. The True Nature of Existence
4. Dependent Origination
5. Rebirth and Karma
6. Nirvana
7. The Noble Eightfold Path
8. Meditation
9. The Social Teachings of Buddha
10. The Sangha

Lesson 8: Meditation

"The Buddha's Teaching As It Is" by Bhikkhu Bodhi (BodhiMonastery.org)