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

One month since Bikini (Atoll) Day

Just when the summer is getting started after a long, cold spring in Los Angeles, the LAUSD has started classes up again only a month after Independence Day! What gives? Now there's no more summer and no time for our summer school. It's time for Class 3 on The True Nature of Existence with American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi.

NATIONAL BIKINI DAY - July 5, 2025 - National Today

Who would wear floss and handkerchiefs?

Grab some sunscreen [or better yet, alkalinize the body so that it will not be susceptible to burning by acidic reaction to sunlight] — it’s National Bikini Day this July 5th. It’s the perfect opportunity to head to the beach. National Bikini Day celebrates the anniversary of the invention of the two-piece bathing suit. Owing to its risqué design, the bikini was slow to be adopted — but it gradually gained traction when film stars like Ava Gardner and Brigitte Bardot started to wear bikinis on public beaches and in their films. The garment was certainly one of the greatest inventions of all time and, due to the supposed "explosive" effect it had created, it was named after Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific where US warmongers and their suburban drones conducted nuclear testing in 1946. Get ready to celebrate this iconic summer look.

Ban the human body! What do you think this is, the Garden of Eden! God will smite you all!

What is the true nature of reality?

Buddhist Summer School: Ven. Bodhi (2)

The Fundamental Virtues, Part 2 with Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Why You Feel Born into the Wrong Life – A Buddhist Answer

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

• I need a free convertible: dreamgiveaway.com

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.

• Buddhist Summer School Committee ft. Bhikkhu Bodhi (The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, Talk 1: The Buddha), Wisdom Quarterly; Alice Cooper, "Schools Out for Summer"; Last Day of High School vs. College

Ven. Bodhi: Enlightenment for Laypeople

ONLINE: four days, from Friday evening, Aug. 30, through Monday, aftertoon, Sept. 2, 2024

American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi from New York is holding a retreat.

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What did the Buddha teach laypeople?

During the Buddha’s time, tens of thousands of people left the household life to take up the monastic life of wandering ascetics.

The Buddha also had hundreds of thousands of lay disciples who continued to live at home.

To guide these lay disciples, the Buddha offered a rich body of teachings to enable them to live the best life — a truly noble life — while fulfilling their household duties.

Venerable Bodhi, scholar-monk

Over four days, from Friday evening, Aug. 30, through Monday mid-afternoon, Sept. 2, Bhante (Bhikkhu Bodhi, the most prolific English translator of early Buddhist texts in the world) will lead a retreat focused on the Buddha’s teachings for laypeople.

The retreat will be based primarily on the Maha Mangala Sutta ("Great Blessings Discourse"), but Bhante will gather a vast number of [Pali canon] sutras and other texts that show how a lay disciple can walk the path to liberation while dwelling amid “the dust of the world.”

The sprawling grounds of BAUS, New York

The retreat will include:

• Dhamma talks,
• discussion periods, and
• five sessions of meditation each day.

It will also provide the opportunity for those who haven’t yet “gone for guidance” (sarana) to go for guidance to the Three Jewels, the first decisive step to formally becoming a follower of the Buddha-Dharma, the Path taught by the Buddha.

This retreat will be in hybrid mode, onsite and online. The teachings will be in English only. Those who wish to join in person can come to BAUS.org (Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, NY) and stay from Friday until Monday afternoon.

Attend live, over Zoom, or on YouTube

Those who cannot attend in person can practice at home, participating online over Zoom or YouTube.

The monastery can accept only 50 onsite practitioners. If one applies after the 50 spaces have been filled, one will be put on a waiting list and accepted if prior applicants drop out.

If not joining in person, please join from home via Zoom or YouTube. Register to participate onsite only if making a commitment to stay for all of it until Monday afternoon. If participating only part time, please join through the online channels.

• The Buddhist Association of the U.S. (BAUS)
• 美國佛教會
• 2020 Route 301
• Carmel, New York 10512
• contact@baus.org

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

1st Day of Summer: Summer Solstice (6/20)

What we call "Stonehenge" is really a reconstruction set up by cranes and heavy equipment.

Take that, Big Oil! You're ruining the environment, and this orange cornstarch proves it! (CND)

VIDEO: Environmental activists spray Stonehenge with orange corn powder | Coast to Coast

It's time for Buddhist Summer School 2024

It's finally the first day of summer, after wildfires, heat waves, earthquakes, volcanos in Hawaii and Mexico, and more political nonsense than one can comfortably fathom.

Unofficial summer began on Labor Day a few weeks ago. But the Sun (Sol, Surya) and Earth (Gaia, Bhumi) do not decide, and not even Moon (Luna, Soma, Chandra) has the final say.

It is Gregorian Calendar reading humans making our social constructs that decide, but somewhere high above in the arrangement of celestial bodies, we move from a wet spring to a grass-filled summer. There will be flames. The big first wildfire has ruined our Summer Solstice and Full Strawberry Moon Ceremony and postponed it indefinitely.

DisclosureFest.org

DisclosureFest.org (Disclosure Project Meetup) was all set to go off as a three-day festival this weekend. But the Post Fire in nearby Gorman forced it to be scrapped to avoid smoke and ash irritation, heat, and injury if it kicked up again, sparing tens of thousands of party people around the Castaic Lake Lagoon 40 minutes west of Downtown Los Angeles out by Magic Mountain.

Instead, there's a much smaller free vegan potluck party at Oh Happy Days Cosmic Cafe above Pasadena on Saturday, June 22, 2024 (meetup.com). Or enjoy the Summer Solstice at Kinship Yoga on Friday night, 6/21/24 in Highland Park (NELA) with Ryan and Stellar.

Like California, Arizona is in the Southwest US

Anything's better than staying in Arizona, the Land of Sun and Sand. the summer gods are not happy so they're scorching the land. Get out, unless you're at ASU. In that case, alkalinize with a mostly raw, green, fresh diet to avoid burning. Acidity gives way to quick sun damage.

Summer Solstice Party — (kinshipyoga.com)

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

Buddhist Summer School w/ Bhikkhu Bodhi (3)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BAUS); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly BUDDHIST SUMMER SCHOOL

Bhikkhu Bodhi: Introduction to Buddhism, As It Is (3): The True Nature of Existence

(AudioBuddha) The series lecturer is American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk Ven. Bodhi, who now resides and teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery (baus.org) in Carmel, Upstate New York. Recorded in the Washington Buddhist Vihara in 1981. Source: Dharma Seed, Sept. 3, 2021.

These audio recordings, books, and videos are for educational purposes only. Public domain. For enquiries or copyright issues, please contact audiobuddho@gmail.com.

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 Summer School w/ Bhikkhu Bodhi (1)

The great translator: scholar-monk Ven. Bodhi

Nina and I were talking about the Dharma, her vipassana practice (or what she thought was insight), having convinced herself that no one is enlightened, no one would ever talk about it if they were, and what is enlightenment (bodhi) anyway? So much sincerity with so much uncertainty, doubt, and confusion about BASIC Buddhist Teachings was frustrating. How is anyone to learn the essentials without confounding later teachings, innovations, and confabulations (mixing the historical Buddha's Dharma with yoga, Taoism, Zen, Hinduism, Sufism, and the fake Buddha quotes that abound on the internet). The Dharma is not just whatever we want it to be, our interpolations, our Western logic, our New Age movement... So let's get back to basics. It's summer, and we're returning to American Theravada scholar-monk, the most prolific and faithful translator of Buddhist sutras and other texts, Bhikkhu Bodhi.

As It Is: Buddhism Series

Bhikkhu Bodhi: Introduction to Buddhism Series: 01. The Buddha | Lectures. (AudioBuddha) Aug. 17, 2021. Bhikkhu Bodhi: Introduction to Buddhism | Lecture Series Lecturer: Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. Place: Washington Buddhist Vihara. Date: 1981. Source: Dharma Seed.

Reference book for first lecture

• Fundamentals of Buddhism by Peter Santina

In the fall of 1979, while living at the Washington Buddhist Vihara, American monk Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi gave a series of lectures on the fundamental teachings of Early Buddhism. Bhante G (Ven. Gunaratana, now abbot of Bhavana Society in West Virginia), at the time the president of the Buddhist Vihara Society, suggested he record the lectures so that the vihara (monastery, hermitage) could distribute them as a set of cassette tapes.

In the summer of 1981, Bhikkhu Bodhi recorded his ten lectures in the basement of the Washington Buddhist Vihara, using an ordinary, nonprofessional recorder. An enthusiastic lay supporter had the master copies reproduced in large quantities for expanded distribution. [Wisdom Quarterly asked Bhikkhu Bodhi in Sri Lanka bout the possibility of distributing those original tapes widely and received his blessings to do so freely.]

They have continued to be distributed on tape and as CDs for over 25 years and are now considered “public domain” for any entity to copy and distribute freely. [Wisdom Quarterly came into excellent cleaned up versions put on CD by Chaung Yen Monastery (BAUS.org) was living and teaching, having returned from Sri Lanka, where he served as editor of the Buddhist Public Society (BPS.lk).]

INTRODUCTION TO LECTURER

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi (born Jeffrey Block on December 10, 1944), from New York, who received his Ph.D. at Claremont College in California, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka, and currently teaching in the Upstate New York and New Jersey areas.

He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Bhikkhu Bodhi is founder of the charitable organization Buddhist Global Relief, which funds projects to fight hunger and to empower women across the world.

[AudioBuddha] audiobuddha.org Support AudioBuddha: paypal.com/paypalme/Audio... #BhikkhuBodhi #IntroductionBuddhism #TheBuddha #BuddhasTeaching

These audio, book, and/or video items are for educational purposes only and are not intended to violate any copyrighted material. For enquiries or copyright issues, please contact audiobuddho@gmail.com.

Unofficial Summer Begins! (video)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Janis Joplin 1969; Friends; Key of Awesome; Ven. Soma Thera

"Summer" can be any way we paint it in our mind like Jan Matson (fineartamerica.com).

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Teresa may be Asian but dreams of being blond.

Summertime and the living's not that hard. Rachel's on the telephone with Ross's card. All people in trance will agree, we're two apartments locked down like a girl's penitentiary.

Summertime, unofficially, it's Memorial Day weekend when we remember the dead in memory. Not the Vets; they've got their own day. But the Dead, like the ones from the 60s.

Sexy as a dead, sunburned bird

It was the summer of '69, and Lana wasn't even a glint in her father's eye. We had the plague, like the last one. No one was flirting, no one was hitting the springs. He was afraid of her, and she was afraid of him. And I thought, "What a great time for asubha meditation!"

Bodies are gross, but only when we look very closely and mindfully (attentively but dispassionately, watching while letting go). Otherwise, we get sucked into the illusion of beauty, attractiveness, longevity, and matter's ability to fulfill or satisfy. Things, like bodies, disappoint. That is the first sign of wisdom in the Four Ennobling Truths.