Why the heck would anybody be Buddhist?

I spent one month studying Buddhism. It changed me.

(Nas Daily) Feb. 15, 2024: This is Month 1 of my six-month Spirituality Challenge. I went super deep into Buddhism. And I came out a changed man. Let me tell you the story. Thanks to @BuddhismInEnglish for sharing your wisdom. See you next month for a video about the world's oldest religion: [the Old Vedic religion adopted by] Hinduism [which was only organized as a "religion" by Adi Shankara in 725 CE]. Thanks for watching Nas Daily, bringing people together, which is why it creates content that does exactly that.

Two Aryan peoples, Iranians and Ireland-ians

Non-Jonesian Indology

WQ CORRECTIONS: The Buddha (born Prince Siddhartha Gautama) was born in Gandhara (modern-day Afghanistan a little west of Nepal along the same mountain range, the foothills of the Himalayas at a portion called the Hindu Kush), probably in the town of Bamiyan but moving between three seasonal capitals in an ancient place the texts called Kapilavastu, probably ancient Kabul and Mes Aynak, the site of the world's largest unexcavated Buddhist temple complex, which is thought to be at least one square mile in size. For political reasons and ethnoreligious tensions, the Buddha had to be relocated in history (not in physical reality) from Muslim Afghanistan and Indo-Pakistan east closer to India. Nepal was selected as that faraway place possibly because it might have been the site of the original Lumbini, though that likely was in or around Sistan-Baluchestan in the "Aryan" (Aryian = Iranian = Persian) land of Sakastan/Scythia that is now a land between Afghanistan and Iran. See Dr. Ranajit Pal from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and his maverick history book, Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander.

Why Buddhism?

Handbook of Buddhist Wisdom

Yeah, Doug, "Why Buddhism?" What's the point of the Dharma, the Buddha's Teaching, particularly if one takes a secular slant? Can't we just OBEY the God, bow to his son, thank his Holy Mother (or worship his former-wife Asherah), and be done with religion? Get the holidays, send in a check, and otherwise ignore it, Y'know, "God is dead" and all that.

(Doug's Dharma) March 25, 2024: Why Buddhism? 🧡 Doug discusses a couple of quick reasons why someone might want to consider adopting a Buddhist outlook and Buddhist practice in life. 

Find this material useful? Check out his Patreon page to get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: dougsseculardharma. 🧡 Or one can make donations through: paypal.me/dougsdharma 📙 Check out his book, A Handbook of Early Buddhist Wisdom, with a foreword by Wisdom Quarterly's own scholarly American teacher Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook ☸️ FREE mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org. 🎙Check out Doug's podcast with Jon Aaron, Diggin' the Dharma: digginthedharma.com

What language do they speak in Ireland? (lol)

✅ Videos mentioned:

• The Three Schools of Buddhism: Intro
• Two Arrows of Buddhism
• Buddhism Crash Course: Four Shortest Descriptions of Early Dharma

✅ Sutras mentioned:

• suttacentral.net/sn45.48/en/s...
• suttacentral.net/mn24/en/sujato

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Nas Company, Feb. 2024; Doug's Dharma, March 24, 2024; Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly