Nagarjuna: Nāgārjuna (from Sanskrit Nāga + Arjuna, Chinese Lóngshù 龍樹, Tibetan Klu sgrub); circa 150 – c. 250 CE) was a philosopher and Mahāyāna Buddhist monk from South India. He is considered the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school [2, 3]. He is widely considered to be the most important Buddhist philosopher after the Buddha himself [4, 3]. Indeed, at least in Tibetan Buddhism, he is called the "second Buddha" [5]. He was a well-known defender of the new Mahāyāna movement. His treatises (śāstras) are the foundational texts of a school of Buddhist philosophy known as the teaching of emptiness (Śūnyatā-vāda) or Middle Way School of Madhyamaka...
Four-Day Hybrid Retreat with Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi (online or in-person)
Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS, Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, Upstate NY
PRACTICING THE DHAMMA: From Bondage to Liberation
a Four-Day Hybrid Retreat with Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
Beginning Sept. 4th and running through Sept. 7th a retreat will study the groups of mental factors that hold us in bondage to samsara, the cycle of repetitive birth and death, and the opposing factors that lead to liberation.
This retreat is based on the Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, Chapter II, Sections 4–8, and Chapter VII, Sections 3–14 and 24–40.
The retreat includes Dhamma talks, discussion periods, and five sessions of meditation each day. It also provides the opportunity for those who haven’t yet “gone for guidance” (ti-sarana) to go for guidance to the Three Jewels, the first decisive step to formally becoming a follower of the Buddha-Dharma.
This retreat is conducted in hybrid mode, meaning it is both onsite in New York and online worldwide. Those who cannot attend in person can practice at home, participating online over Zoom or YouTube.
Those who wish to join in-person can come to BAUS/Chuang Yen Monastery and stay from Friday evening until Monday afternoon.
The monastery can accept only 50 onsite practitioners. If someone applies after the 50 spaces have been filled, that person will be put on a waiting list and accepted if prior applicants drop out.
Remember, anyone who can’t join in person can join from home via Zoom or YouTube.
REGISTER to participate in person only if committed to coming to Chuang Yen Monastery and staying all the way through Monday afternoon. If participating only part time, please join online.
A more detailed schedule will be posted later, but reserve these dates now. To register, go HERE.
Order a copy of the Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma (either electronic edition or hardcopy) from Pariyatti Press HERE.
CLASS INFO: Wednesdays 7:00–8:00 pm (EDT) with Bhikkhu Bodhi
Our Theravada JuBu teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi
Dear Dharma Students,
please join us tonight (May 6, 2026) at 7:00 pm for a meditation session over Zoom by clicking here.
Each Wednesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi leads a meditation session over Zoom. The session consists of a 15-minute vandana (chanting Pali verses of homage) followed by a 45-minute guided meditation.
All are welcome to join. The texts for recitation are attached separately. Please see class page on website (BAUS.org/en) for chanting text. Miss it? Don't worry. This is a recurring meeting from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm (EDT, New York time), Wednesdays.
More activities at Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS) for May 2026
Dates: Saturdays, May 2, 9, and 23. Time: 6:30 am to 8:30 am (PT) - 9:30 am to 11:30 am (ET) On Saturdays, Bhikkhu Bodhi leads a full morning program of meditation and sutra study.
May 2nd and 9th is a "hybrid" program in-person and online. The May 23rd class online only this month. The online class can be accessed through Zoom. Please note: To participate in this class, one must register with BAUS ahead of time: Sign up for class with Bhikkhu Bodhi
The Sanctuary Within with Ven. Youmin
Instructor: Ven. Youmin Date: May 10th, time: 10:00 am-11:30 am and 1:30-3:00 pm. Place: Woo Ju Memorial Library. Lead by Ven. Youmin, we will explore the ancient mechanics of the mind through the art of breath, deconstruct the filters of our perception, and gain a definitive framework for stress management. This is more than a lecture, it is a mental operating system upgrade. THE SANCTUARY WITHIN with Ven. Youmin 4/19 & 5/10
VESAK 2026: "Buddhist Christmas" in New York: the Buddha’s Birthday Celebration
Date: Sunday, May 17, 2026, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Place: The Great Buddha Hall at Chuang Yen Monastery. All are invited to celebrate Vesak, commemorating the birth of the historical Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni). We will recite the Sutra on the Merit of Bathing the Baby Buddha and make a Grand Meal Offering to all the Buddhas. BAUS invites everyone to sponsor the lighting of a blessing lamp or other blessing or memorial services.
Group Meditation over Zoom, Wednesdays, 7:00 pm-8:00 pm. Platform: Zoom. Every Wednesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Bhikkhu Bodhi leads online group meditation. The session consists of a 15-minute vandana (chanting verses of homage), followed by a 45-minute guided meditation, either on loving-kindness or on mindfulness of breathing.
Temple of Enlightenment (TOE)
3070 Albany Cresent Bronx, NY 10463
TOE Meditation Class and Dharma Talk with Ven. Subodha
Instructor: Ven. Subodha, Sundays, 10:00 am to 11:30 am on Zoom and in person at TOE on Tuesdays from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Location: Temple of Enlightenment Meditation Program. In person only at the Temple of Enlightenment in the Bronx.
Born Jeffrey Block (Dec. 10, 1944), now known as Bhikkhu Bodhi [a], is an American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk, a major inspiration for Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal, educated in California, ordained in Sri Lanka, and now teaching in New York and New Jersey.
Long ago at BPS, Bhikkhu Bodhi authorized our Dharma editor to promote his mail order Buddhist course called The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, a ten-cassette set he recorded in the basement of the Washington Buddhist Vihara with glossary and notes. To reach a wider audience, we took it online with millions of views, our dhamma-dana.
Block was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1944 to Jewish parents. He grew up in Borough Park, where he attended elementary school P.S. 160 [4] and graduated from New Utrecht High School [5]. He then worked as a door-to-door salesman selling paintbrushes [6].
In 1966, he obtained a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College, where he first encountered Buddhism in books at the bookstore [6]. In 1972, he obtained a doctoral degree (PhD) in philosophy from Claremont Graduate University [7, 8] in Southern California before deciding to move to Asia to ordain as a monk. More
Please join us tonight at 7:00 pm Wednesday (June 4th) for a meditation session over Zoom by clicking HERE.
Each Wednesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Bhikkhu Bodhi leads a meditation session on Zoom.
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.
Students of the Dharma, tomorrow (Saturday, May 17th, 2025) instead of Bhikkhu Bodhi's regular class on the AN, the venerable American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk will be giving an online lecture on the Abhidhamma ("Higher Doctrine") through another Buddhist organization, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's Tergar:
All regular students are welcome to join this program, which will run from 10:00 am to 11:30 am (ET).
Find more details and a registration form here: Tergar Events
Note two options on the registration form: (A) If no translation from English to another language is needed, register to view the lecture through YouTube. (B) If translation into another language is needed, register to view the lecture through Zoom.
With metta,
BAUS via Wisdom Quarterly
"Many, fearful of annihilation [extinction] at death, construct belief systems that ascribe to their individual selves, their souls, the prospect of eternal life. A few yearn for a path to liberation but do not know where to find one. It was precisely to offer such a path that the Buddha has appeared in our midst."
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
Details
Ven. Buddhaghosa, the great Buddhist scholar-monk, compiling Theravada Abhidhamma texts
Seeking a deeper understanding of your own mind — a map to greater well-being? Join us for a special online webinar with Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, a renowned Buddhist scholar and teacher of Buddhist philosophy, as he unravels the profound wisdom of the Abhidharma.
Often referred to as “Buddhist psychology,” the Abhidhamma [the “Dhamma in Ultimate Terms" or “Higher Doctrine”] offers a detailed map of consciousness, illuminating the intricate workings of our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions.
In this event, Bhikkhu Bodhi will guide us through the “topography” of consciousness and core principles of the Abhidharma, exploring how this ancient system of analysis can provide valuable insights into the causes of suffering and the path to innate well-being.
By systematically exploring the inner landscape of mind, we can clarify which mental states lead to suffering, which cultivate happiness and well-being at present and in the future, and which ultimately lead to full inner freedom (enlightenment, awakening, bodhi).
This is a unique opportunity to learn from a renowned master teacher and deepen your understanding of these essential teachings.
Why attend?
Wow, so my emotions actually make sense.
Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is a respected Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator renowned for his clear and insightful teachings on Abhidharma, the system of Buddhist psychology. Bhikkhu Bodhi's teachings emphasize the importance of understanding the mind by systematically guiding us to recognize confusion and discover the reality that leads to profound self-understanding and lasting well-being.
What will we learn?
But consciousness is too big to understand! - Successful meditators understand it.
. In this program, participants will get an overview of the Abhidharma's teachings and learn the classifications of consciousness how to cultivate beneficial mental states
What is included in this program?
Included in this LIVE teaching by Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is a presentation followed by a Q&A session, during which participants may ask what pertinent questions they like.
Cost?
This webinar is free of charge, so no payment is required.
Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American-born Buddhist monk from New York City. After completing his PhD in philosophy at Claremont in Los Angeles. He then traveled to Theravada Buddhist Sri Lanka, where he received full ordination in 1973, under the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Mahanayaka Thera. From 1984 to 2002, he served as editor for the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, where he lived for ten years with the senior German Buddhist monk Ven. Nyanaponika Mahathera at the Forest Hermitage. He currently lives and teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS.org) in Carmel, New York. More
Bodhi ("enlightenment"), what does it actually mean? with scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi
Isn't the homelife harder than the left-home life?
(Daniel Aitken) Watch the full episode at dharmachats.com.
In this Dharma Chat, renowned American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk and translator of the Pali canon Bhikkhu Bodhi (one of Wisdom Quarterly's root-teachers through his scholarship, BPS.lk editorship, and one-on-one communications, the New Jersey born/California-trained Jewish-Buddhist Dr. Jeffrey Block, Ph.D., Claremont, who still teaches us and leads us in meditation every Wednesday eveninglive from Chaung Yen Monastery in Carmel to our base in Los Angeles) sheds light on the meaning of his own monastic Buddhist name, "Bodhi." Join him as he unveils the multifaceted nature of the word bodhi(awakening to the ultimate truth and thereby realizing complete liberation as nirvana).
Bhikkhu Bodhi, if the Buddha means "the Enlightened One," what does buddha mean?
Expectations impede attainment of enlightenment
Enlightened (bodhi-fied persons) are not called buddhas because that term is reserved for two very rare and special types of awakened individuals, the private (nonteaching self-awakened) and public (supremely self-awakened teaching) buddhas. Other "noble ones" are noble disciples (enlightened students), whose experience of enlightenment is the same as the buddhas with the difference that buddhas have other additional knowledges and powers like the dasa-balas or "Ten Powers of a Tathagata") which distinguish a supreme (samma-sam-bodhi) teacher from his successful students who have awakened to the same ultimate truths by pursuing the path he has pointed out. It may sound like a technical difference between these three kinds of individuals, "Enlightened Ones," as it were but it is key to comprehending how extraordinarily rare a supreme-enlightened-teaching buddha is, how rare and extraordinary pacceka-buddhas (nonteaching buddhas with the same knowledge but not the capacity to teach), and how relatively less rare (but still extraordinarily rare) disciple-arahants ("enlightened beings") are.
What does "Buddha" mean? An article by Bhikkhu Bodhi may change some minds
(Doug's Dharma) Let's take a look at a recent article by American scholar-monk and Pali canon translator Bhikkhu Bodhi on the meaning of Buddha and his related realization.
Some contemporary scholars have argued that bodhi ("enlightenment") should be translated as "awakening" and the historical Buddha should therefore be understood to mean "the Awakened One."
Bhikkhu Bodhi prefers a different option, and we'll see why.
00:00 Intro to the dispute
05:17 1. English definitions of the terms
07:48 2. Looking at Pāli language usage
08:56 3. Early metaphors and similes
14:08 A hidden irony or contradiction [by analogy bodhi is spoken of as enlightenment or awakening, whereas
NOTE: A recent article by Western Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Anālayo calls Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of this term into question. Doug Smith has done a follow up video discussing that response here:
Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark — amzn.to/3yGFLgy
☸️ FREE MINI-COURSE at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org.
🧡 Find this material useful? Check out Doug's Dharma's Patreon and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: dougsseculardharma
The session consists of a 15-minute vandana (chanting verses of homage), followed by a 45-minute guided meditation. All are welcome to join. For the texts recited, see class page on web: chanting text.
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The Buddha has good news for everyone pursuing a home-life or a left-home life (Ven. Bodhi).
Four-day hybrid retreat with Ven. American Bhikkhu Bodhi
During the Buddha’s time, thousands of people left the household life to take up the lifestyle of monastics (monks and nuns), but the Buddha also had hundreds of thousands of ordinary householder disciples who continued to live and practice at home.
To guide these lay disciples, the Buddha offered a rich body of teachings that would enable them to live the best life — a truly noble life — while fulfilling their household duties.
Over four days, Bhante (Bhikkhu Bodhi) lead a retreat focused on the Buddha’s teachings for laypeople. The retreat was based primarily on the Maha Mangala Sutta, the "Great Blessings Discourse," but Bhante gathered a vast number of discourses (suttas) and other texts that show how a lay disciple can walk the path to liberation while dwelling amid “the dust of the world.”
What about fans of Guanyin? Welcome to BAUS
The retreat included Dhamma talks, discussion periods, and five sessions of meditation each day. It also provided the opportunity for those who haven’t yet “gone for guidance” (sarana) to go for guidance (aka refuge) to the Three Jewels, the first decisive step to formally becoming a practitioner of the Buddha-dharma (the Buddha's Teachings).
The retreat was in hybrid mode, onsite and online. The teachings were given in English only. Those who wished to join in person could visit Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS or the Buddhist Association of the United States) and attend the retreat live. Those unable to attend in person practiced at home, participating online over Zoom or YouTube.
The monastery was able to accept only 50 onsite practitioners. If applying after the 50 spaces have been filled, there was a waiting list and accepted if prior applicants drop out. If not joining in person, attend from home via Zoom or YouTube. Register to participate onsite only if a firm commitment to stay for the duration of the retreat can be made. If participating only part time, please join through the online channels.
There is no charge for the course.
Donations for the monastery are always welcome.
Chaung Yen Monastery (BAUS), 2020, Route 301, Carmel, New York, 10512 (845) 225-1819 · (845) 228-4283
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