Berkeley Zendo on Vipassana insight?

Linda Galijan is the Berkeley Zen Center’s first female abbot (Facebook)

"I never get lost because I don't know where I'm going" - Zen Master Ikkyū, 15th century.

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At the BZC altar (Nathan Dalton)

BERKELEY, California - Saturday, August 29, 2026: The Berkeley Zen Center's Abbess Linda (Shinchi Linda Galijan Rōshi) will set off for a monthlong vipassana (Buddhist four-dimensional insight as sati) retreat under her root teacher Gil Fronsdal.

Her other root teacher was BZC Founder Mel Weitsman, a direct transmitted disciple of Shunryū Suzuki, who also founded two affiliated temples, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and the San Francisco Zen Center). For the weekly Saturday Dharma talk, Abbot Linda as she is referred to, extolled the virtues of Theravada Insight Meditation, also known as vipassana, stating that while it is different than Zen's shikantaza, it is just the same. That is to say, they coordinate and aid one another to bring about the same realization (kenshō) or “clear seeing.” Vipassana literally means “special or clear seeing.”

Is satori “insight”? Not quite but not altogether different, both being a kind of iteration of wisdom (prajñā), clearly seeing into the true nature of experience -- directly perceiving what is ever-present but usually unseen: The Three Marks of Existence.

• BZC chooses first female abbot in 2026 (berkeleyside.org)
• RETREAT: 28-day (Aug. 30-Sept. 26) Insight Retreat for Experienced Practitioners with Gil Fronsdal assisted by Ines Freedman:  Silent mindfulness retreat for experienced yogis that includes alternating sitting and walking meditation, instruction, Dharma talks, work meditation, and practice discussion with teacher. insightretreatcenter.org

Prof. Jason Arday (anglicanmainstream.org)

These weekly Dharma talks, and we've attended a few now, generally amount to nothing, doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, but seeming very deep for their Taoist-style nothingness or pointlessness. It may just be that they land later, filled with wisdom and no rush to make any obvious point. Last Saturday (8/22/26), an elderly Zen abbess from Santa Cruz, a long-time professor at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC.edu), gave a wonderful talk about social suicide, literally. She discussed her intimate familiarity with plagiarism and academic scandals in the social sciences as brought up by the tragic case of an accused person-of-color at Cambridge University in England. Accusations by a right-wing troll led to an investigation of Black Prof. Jason Arday (RIP), who was humiliated by the accusation and chose to end his life in ignominy. This is tragic, our Zen speaker explained, because far worse is done by seasoned senior white professors who weather the storm, which usually comes to nothing, no retraction, no dismissal, no punishment. It seems to be the way of hubris and academic progress. She would know because she sat on many a committee to deal with such issues as well as being part of the peer-review process, which even when it turns up plagiarism by professors usually comes to naught.

• AUDIO: The questions Prof. Jason Arday's life and death raise for academia (Consider This/NPR)

Bodhisattva Dolly Parton passes away at 80

But this talk was different, better, more substantive, less fluffy white rice, more solid and gomashio-sprinkled tofu, as it were. Why?

The jokes keep coming, little nudges about this and that, never getting too heavy to "stink of Zen," but at the end of it was a reverie about the newest, latest to be recognized bodhisattva, The Dali Parton. Abbot Linda praised "Buddhist Rebecca Solnit." Who knew the feminist woman who can't pronounce "women"* was a Buddhist? News to us.

• In praise of Dolly Parton, 1946-2026, our Goddess of Kindness (meditationsinanemergency.com)

The enso in Zen is like a zero, circle

Everyone giggled and enthusiastically nodded along in recognition of the recently passed country music star, humanitarian, lover of humankind, and philanthropist. This is in accord with the local NPR affiliate in the Bay Area playing the first of a 9-part Radio Lab (by the great Jad Abumrad) series on Dolly: Creator of 'Dolly Parton's America' podcast discusses her life and legacy | KALW

• *How to correctly pronounce "women": /wih-minn/

What's so great about Buddhist insight?

What's the point of Buddhism, Dick Gere, insight? - Why not just worship His Holiness, Lisa?

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When one knows-and-sees, the heart lets go.

Then a longtime member of the sangha asked, "What do they do in vipassana meditation?" Abbot Linda perked up and outlined the fourfold setting up of mindfulness the historical Buddha talks about in the two Satipatthana Suttas, the greater and shorter "Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourses." One make the heart/mind serene by sitting and attending to the breath until it is concentrated [and absorbed or in a zen state called jhana if possible. Then one emerges and turns attention to other aspects of the body]. One then progresses, turning attention to feelings (the three categories of sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral). Thereafter, attention is placed on mind.

No, Bart, just sit! Don't you dare have a goal!

Finally, one gives one-pointed attention to dhammas or mental phenomena usually categorized in Buddhist lists like the Five Hindrances and Four Ennobling Truths. [This is generally the way vipassana is understood, cultivating liberating insight by clearly seeing these four categories of "things." For in seeing them clearly, it is very difficult to identify and remain attached to the wrong views of self, satisfaction, and permanence. One instead sees things as they truly are -- hurtling towards destruction, unable to ever satisfy or fulfil, and utterly impersonal. In seeing this, the heart/mind lets go, stops clinging and grasping at ephemeral phenomena, and arrives at release, sometimes glimpsing the awe-inspiring freedom of nirvana. That's satori, that's kensho, that the first stage of enlightenment the Buddha called stream-entry.]

Sitting with Gil Fronsdal

How to see? Stillness and silence

This September 2026 vipassana retreat offers an experienced Zen and Insight (Vipassana) meditators a period of intensive residential practice guided by Gil Fronsdal. The teaching and practice orientation will be “Shikantaza Through the Support of Insight,” Shikantaza or “just sitting” being the core Soto Zen practice. The schedule will include mindfulness in complete noble silence with morning, afternoon, and evening formal sitting (zazen); formal ōryōki mindfulness meals (taking the least amount of food); work periods; and daily meditation instructions and nightly Dharma talks. There will also be formal and informal meetings with teachers. Participants commit to stay on for the duration (except by arrangement or emergencies). The retreat includes a 30-day sesshin (接心, lit. means “gathering heart/mind” but is usually translated as “Silent Zen Retreat Intensive”).

• “Gil Fronsdal” – Insight Meditation Center
• “To a mind that is still, the entire universe surrenders”
• Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu (369–286 BCE) — “Still water reflects truth.” Calm reveals clarity. Turbulence distorts perception. Stillness mirrors reality. Quiet minds understand deeply. Peace stabilizes wisdom.
• Insight Meditation Retreat: A Path to… | Spirit Rock Meditation Center
• Zen Buddhism symbols 35,963 high res stock photos
• Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Can we go back to original Buddhism?

Finally, "Buddhism" makes verifiable sense!

THERAVADA Buddhism: Is this what the historical Buddha (Prince Siddhattha Gotama, "the Sage of the Sakas," the Shakyas, the Indo-Scythians) really taught? The Three Baskets (Ti-pitaka) of Suttas, Vinaya, and Abhidhamma (Discourses, Discipline, and Higher Doctrine). The Buddha did not speak Sanskrit, the exclusive liturgical language of Brahmin priests, but rather Magadhi (colloquial Pali, the lingua franca) and Prakrit. He certainly knew and understood Sanskrit, having been expert in it in past lives, a knower of the Three Vedas. The Pali canon is a collection of canonical texts preserved in the ancient Pali language the Buddha likely spoke.

• (Buddha's Wisdom)

Eating in Bali, Indonesia for big bucks

Why do monks and nuns chant in Pali?

The only reason Mahayana uses Sanskrit is because Brahmin (Brahminical Vedic Hindus) used it to whitewash Mahayana Buddhism into a kind of comprehensible form of Hinduism. The goal of Theravada, the "Teaching of the direct Elder enlightened disciples of the historical Buddha," is enlightenment here and now as soon as possible, whereas the goal of Mahayana is enlightenment never, only after an inexhaustible supply of living beings first attain it. When will that be? It will never be, alleviating the need for any Mahayana Buddhist to actually practice and bring what the Buddha taught about in one's own life. Imagining themselves supremely awakened buddhas of the future, there's never a need to do it now, the only time we actually ever have.

• What the Buddha Taught: revised and expanded edition with texts from suttas and the Dhammapada (Ven. Walpola Rahula, Paul Demieville)

Zen Buddhism came much later

(Tao Temple) We can't understand Zen until we understand this first

Complete map of mind: Abhidhamma

Unravelling...Mind & Body Through Abhidhamma

It's not Abby DOOM UH, as the lovely AI video narrator misspeaks, but rather Abby DAH MAH.

A guide through the dense analysis of reality

(Buddha's Wisdom) The Theravada Abhidhamma ("Higher Doctrine" or "Dharma in Ultimate Terms") explained | Buddhism's map of every thought (citta, "mind moment")

The Theravāda Abhidhamma tradition, also known as the Abhidhamma Method, refers to a scholastic systematization of Theravāda Buddhism's understanding of the Buddha's "Higher" (abhi-) "Teachings" (Dhamma).

They are the same Teachings, of course, but presented in ultimate rather than conventional terms.

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  The Abhidhamma in Practice

  For example, in the sutras (discourses), rebirth might be mentioned and sound like reincarnation -- a person passing away from here and reappearing according to karma (past deeds) on another plane of existence, such as heaven or the animal world. However, the Abhidhamma explains in exacting detail how this happens, how there is no "self" (soul, atta), how an impersonal process of Dependent Origination rolls on in samsara bringing about results (phala, vipaka) in accordance with will actions (intentional deeds), and how all of this is impermanent, unsatisfactory/incapable of fulfilling, and utterly impersonal in spite of it seeming otherwise to the senses.

These teachings are traditionally believed to have been taught by the Buddha, though modern scholars date the texts of this collection, the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, to the 3rd century BCE [2, 3].

The Theravāda school traditionally sees itself as the vibhajja-vāda ("the teaching of analysis"), which reflects the analytical (vibhajjati) dissection method used by the Buddha and Early Buddhists to investigate the nature of the person and other phenomena [4].

Who studies this? - The Burmese

According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, a modern American Theravāda scholar-monk and prodigious translator, the Abhidhamma is "simultaneously a philosophy, a psychology and an ethics, all integrated into the framework of a program for liberation" [5].

There are different textual layers of Abhidhamma literature. The earliest Abhidhamma works are found in the Pali canon. Then there are exegetical commentarial works that were composed in Sri Lanka in the 5th century. There are also later sub-commentarial works composed in later historical periods. More

The Abhidhamma explained | Buddhism's map of every thought

(Buddha's Wisdom) Aug. 23, 2026: 🧠 WHAT HAPPENS IN OUR MINDS BEFORE WE EVEN KNOW IT? The Theravada Abhidhamma is Buddhism’s most detailed analysis of consciousness, karma, perception, and the moment-to-moment workings of the mind.

Let's explore how Theravāda Buddhism breaks experience down into citta, cetasika, bhavaṅga, javana, and the famous 17-moment cognitive process...while also asking a difficult historical question: Did the Buddha actually teach the Abhidhamma in the form we know today? Some say he never taught it at all.

🔍 DISCOVER:

• How the Abhidhamma breaks a single sensory event into a sequence of distinct mental moments
• Why one Buddhist tradition holds that this teaching was given to his biological mother in one of the many heavens, to an assembly of celestial devas from various worlds and planes, with no human present to hear it
• What the Buddha meant when he defined kamma (karma) as "intention" (cetana) and why that definition changes everything downstream of it
• Why javana, the seven “running” moments, plays such an important role in karma and moral action
• Why the Sautrāntikas rejected the [Mahayana] Abhidharma treatises, and what the existence of a second, rival collection tells us about where this material came from
• How a thousand-year-old analysis of repetition and disposition arrived at something we would now call habit

📿 The Abhidhamma is difficult because it refuses to stop at the story we tell ourselve about our choices. It asks what was happening before the story began.

🙏 Enjoy deep, historically-grounded explorations of Buddhism like this one, subscribe to Buddha’s Wisdom. It goes this deep every week. After watching, say in the comments: Where do you catch yourself arriving late to your own mind?

📱 Join community: Instagram: buddhaswizdom. Facebook: buddhaswizdom. X: x.com/BuddhasWizdom. Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5ndnBU5... TikTok: buddhas.wisdom. ☕ Support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom paypal.me/buddhaswisdom

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:

• 00:00 What Happens Before You Know It?
• 00:55 The Abhidhamma
• 02:23 You Are Always Late
• 04:56 Why Count The Mind?
• 09:57 How A Perception Is Built
• 13:26 Seven Times, Underneath
• 17:49 What Actually Continues
• 22:56 Did The Buddha Teach It?
• 26:49 The Map Has a Direction
• 30:29 Too Small to Remember

#Abhidhamma #Buddhism #palicanon  #Theravada #BuddhistPhilosophy #Kamma #Consciousness #Karma #Meditation #Mindfulness #Buddha #Dharma #Citta

📖 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:

• (Affiliate Links) Primary texts Abhidhamma Piṭaka, the third collection of the Pāli canon https://amzn.to/4zDLzH2
• Paṭṭhāna, the seventh and largest canonical Abhidhamma book, on the 24 conditional relations https://amzn.to/4c8xuHn
• Kathāvatthu, the canonical record of doctrinal disputes, traditionally associated with Moggaliputta Tissa https://amzn.to/3Ub7mWh
• Nibbedhika Sutta (AN 6.63), where intention is defined as kamma
• Anupada Sutta (MN 111), where Sāriputta takes his meditative states apart factor by factor https://amzn.to/4zRCpXF
• Commentarial and later works Atthasālinī, Buddhaghosa's commentary, which preserves the Tāvatiṃsa (Heaven of the Thirty-Three) account Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha, the compact manual that became the standard first textbook across the Theravāda world

Modern scholarship and reference works:

• Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed. — A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma https://amzn.to/46mykwI
• Y. Karunadasa — The Theravāda Abhidhamma: Its Inquiry into the Nature of Conditioned Reality https://amzn.to/4y0NpQE
• Y. Karunadasa — The Dhamma Theory: Philosophical Cornerstone of the Abhidhamma
• Nyanatiloka Mahāthera — Guide Through the Abhidhamma Piṭaka https://amzn.to/3SabxB7
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Abhidharma, for the historical development of Theravāda, Sarvāstivāda, and other early Buddhist Abhidharma traditions
• Comparative Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma, the seven-book collection developed on the other side of the Indian subcontinent, and the sarvāsti position the Theravādins reject https://amzn.to/4qyodyo

• Buddha's Wisdom, Aug. 24, 2026; Amber Larson (ed.); Dhr. Seven (Saylay Susila's editor on Unravelling book), Wisdom Quarterly

Sutra Study with Bhikkhu Bodhi (8/8)

Teacher: American scholar monk Bhikkhu Bodhi

Dharma students, on Saturday, August 8th, 2026, Bhante (Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi) will be holding his Sutta Study class in two modes, in-person (in NY) and online (on Zoom).

We will study The Book of Eights. See a PDF of this chapter here. To participate through Zoom, interested parties must register on the BAUS website here.

Class begins at 9:30 am ET with a 40-minute meditation: 30 minutes of mindfulness-of-breathing (ana-pana-sati) and 10 minutes of cultivating loving-kindness (metta bhavana).

Meditation is followed by sutta (discourse) discussion, starting at 10:10 am and running until 11:20 am ET. To determine the time in your own time zone from anywhere in the world, use The World Clock. (Zoom link below).

• An Online Course on the Anguttara Nikaya
• Numerical Discourses, The Book of Eights, Sutta Nos. 36-39
• We continue our exploration of this bundle of suttas dealing with giving (dana) and other aspects of a layperson's Buddhist practice.
• Monk Mode vs. 'Sicko Mode' Challenge

The schedule will be as follows:

• 9:30 to 10:10 am: Meditation
• 10:10 to 11:20 am: Sutta Study
• The Sutta Study class will be conducted over Zoom at the link given here:

Zoom link for Sutta Class

• Passcode: Sambodhi
• Meeting ID: 812 2960 9505
• Passcode: Sambodhi

One tap mobile

+16468769923,,81229609505#,,,,*26115386# US (New York)

+13126266799,,81229609505#,,,,*26115386# US (Chicago)

Dial by location

+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

• Meeting ID: 812 2960 9505
• Passcode: 26115386
• Find local number: us02web.zoom.us/u/kIeabgixD

Virtual meditation over Zoom

Wednesdays 7:00–8:00 pm (ET) with Bhikkhu Bodhi

Dharma students are invited to join Bhante at 7:00 pm (ET) for a Buddhist 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. The session consists of a 15-minute vandana (chanting verses of homage as Buddhist music), followed by a 45-minute guided meditation. All are welcome to join in. The sacred Pali texts for recitation are attached separately. Please see class page on website for chanting text.

With metta,

Bhikkhu Bodhi, Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS.org)

• DONATION (both are free, but dana is accepted)

ZOOM

Passcode: 368764

Note: This is a recurring meeting from 7:00pm to 8:00 pm Wednesdays.

Join Zoom Meeting us02web.zoom.us/s/83540900862...

Meeting ID: 835 4090 0862

Passcode: 368764

One tap mobile

+16468769923,,83540900862#,,,,*368764#

US (New York) +13017158592,,83540900862#,,,,*368764#

US (Washington DC)

Dial by location

+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 835 4090 0862

Passcode: 368764

Find local number: us02web.zoom.us/u/kcYniDdmfU

The Buddhist Association of the U.S. (美國佛教會)

Chuang Yen Buddhist Monastery

2020 Route 301, Carmel, New York 10512

contact@baus.org

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (BAUS.org); Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Seven (7) Levels of Buddhism

(Greg Knows All) The 7 levels of Buddhism in 27 minutes

This silly looking cartoon of a video is profound, so much so that we are included to call its maker, Greg Knows All, "Añña GREGḍañña" or "Greg who knows" (after the Buddha's very first enlightened disciple, Añña Konḍañña, "Kaundinya who knows, who see").

When the wandering ascetic Siddhartha first thought to teach and make known the Path to Enlightenment (Bodhi) and Liberation (Nirvana), what today the ancient Theravada tradition calls "Buddhism" or Buddha-Dhamma (The Doctrine of the Awakened One), he had no one to teach, no one at least whom he thought would understand. There were his wise albeit unenlightened teachers, but they were passed away and reborn in worlds where they could not be reached for a very long time. Some planes of existence are so long lasting, it's staggering. So he realized his five former companions on his spiritual quest might get it. When he taught them, one did. And that was Kondanna (Kaudinya)

He may be reading this from somewhere, possibly What the Buddha Taught or a scholarly rundown of the historical Buddha's path by Bhikkhu Bodhi or Ven. Professor Analayo. Wow, Greg.

• Buddhaghosa's The Path of Purification
• Guide Through the Path of Purification
• Introducing [Theravada] Buddhist Abhidhamma
• Sila is virtue, morality, ahimsa (nonharming)
• Kasinas (discs) as Kammaṭṭhāna (one's Field of Effort in Meditation)
• Monastic Disciplinary Rules (Patimokkha, the "Path to Moksha" for Buddhist nuns and monks)
• The Buddha's Gradual Path of Progress does not drop off suddenly but deepens like the ocean shelf, producing its result. 1) Virtue is established to bring about peace of mind and serenity of spirit free of misgivings and worry. 2) Atop that foundation of peace and blamelessness, stillness (samadhi), profound peace of mind, is placed. 3) The crowning of this pyramid is what establishes it and makes it permanent, insight (the gnostic experience of wisdom for oneself and depending on no one's authority, direct knowing-and-seeing, personal realization)

DOUBT as hindrance or a teacher

No one is immune to doubt, not even Jesus Christ, one of the founders of Christianity | UMC

Doubt as hindrance and teacher in Buddhism

(Doug's Dharma) What did the Buddha have to say about "doubt" (vicikiccha), one of the Five Hindrances to meditation and spiritual progress?

Let's look at the ways doubt can be a hindrance to our progress along the path to enlightenment and liberation, as well as a steppingstone to advancement.

Consider that there are ways that doubt can be overcome, noting two key examples of this in the Early Buddhist texts.

Buddhist monk foremost in wisdom

Who was Sariputta/Śariputra? (Life of the Buddha's Chief Disciple)

Chief Male Disciple foremost in wisdom Ven. Śāriputra Mahathero

🧡 Find this material useful? Check out Dr. Smith's Patreon and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: dougsseculardharma.

🧡 Donations may also be made through: paypal.me/dougsdharma. 📙 BOOK: A Handbook of Early Buddhist Wisdom, with a foreword by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi: books2read.com/buddhisthandbook

☸️ FREE mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org. 🎙 Check out podcast with Jon Aaron, Diggin' the Dharma: digginthedharma.com

✅ Videos recommended:

• Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge
• The Five Hindrances to Meditation: "Armies of Māra"

✅ Discourses (suttas) mentioned:

• https://suttacentral.net/sn46.55/en/s...
• suttacentral.net/mn23/en/sujato
• https://suttacentral.net/sn22.84/en/s...
• https://suttacentral.net/an3.65/en/su...
• suttacentral.net/mn74/en/sujato
• suttacentral.net/mn26/en/sujato
• Website: dougsdharma.com
• Doug's Dharma, May 5, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Every Mahayana Buddhist sutra is fake?

(Natasha Yehenara) Did the Buddha actually say this? The mystery of the Mahayana sutras [that displaced authentic historical Buddha texts with Hindu syncretism and a Brahmin-subverted movement to push the Buddha out and bring back the Old Vedic Religion]

Enlightenment: Four Stages to Awaken

(Buddha's Wisdom) The Four Stages of Enlightenment in Theravada Buddhism

PTS: The Pali Text Society (new website)

The Pali Text Society (PTS)

The British Pali Text Society was established in 1881 and gave us some of the very first translations of ancient Theravada Buddhist texts by such renowned and influential scholars as:

• Isaline Blew Horner
• T. W. Rhys Davids
• Mrs. Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids
• Christmas Humphreys
• R. C. Childers
• F. L. Woodward
• and others who so influenced our teacher
• American Bhikkhu Bodhi, student of
• Sri Lankan Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya
• German Ven. Nyanaponika
• German Ven. Nyanatiloka (author of the best Buddhist Dictionary)
• Sri Lankan Ven. Walpola Rahula (author of What the Buddha Taught)
• and the staff of the Buddhist Publication Society
• and British Maurice O'Connell Walshe (translator of The Long Discourses of the Buddha),
• who in turn had such a preponderant influence on Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal that, were it not for PTS and BPS, there would be no WQ in the English language.

Why Pali and not Sanskrit?

Pali [Magadhi or Magadhi Prakrit, a lingua franca similar to but simpler than Vedic Sanskrit, the exclusive liturgy language of elitist Brahmin priests who adhered to the Old Vedic Religion that preceded Hinduism by thousands of years] is the language of the most complete collection of early Buddhist texts, the Pali canon or Ti-pitaka (the collected Buddhist texts in "Three Baskets" of suttas, vinaya, and abhidhamma), which constitutes "the word of the historical Buddha" as handed down by the tradition of Theravada (the "Teachings of the Enlightened Elders of the Buddha") Buddhism for over 2,000 years.

Since 1881 the Pali Text Society has promoted the study of Pali texts by publishing editions, translations, and other works related to the study of Pali literature.

On the new website one can purchase PTS publications, download many PTS publications for FREE, and find other material and links related to the study of Pali Buddhist texts.

One can also support the Society by becoming a member, getting a 20% discount on all purchases: palitextsociety.org

• The official site of the Pali Text Society (PTS)
• Pali Text Society c/o Gravita Oxford LLP
• First Floor, Park Central 40 - 41 Park End Street
• Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 1JD
• UK Telephone: +44 (0)7436 534 179
• Skype: palitextsociety
• Email: info@palitextsociety.org

Adult content: girls clubbing 'n partying

How can I party and still get my beauty sleep?

Laurie Bag' and Susie Lee began a movement. Earlybirds Club, a party for women who want to dance and get to bed on time, is headed to Philly.

Many describe that party -- which ends at an appropriate 10:00 pm -- as a form of therapy and a rare chance to exhale and reconnect. 

Can I bring my dad, Elon Musk? (Vivian Wilson)

Going out to a club and dancing until 3:00 am is an early 20’ right of passage. For many women and queer folks, the ritual usually involves putting on a slightly too tight outfit, wearing heels that just may kill feet, drinking cheap alcohol without any regard for the next day’s hangover, and sleeping in well past noon.

But then the years pile on, and so do responsibilities -- as careers, partners, and kids get in the way. The time for such shenanigans tends to fall by the wayside. Still, shouldn’t those carefree, joy-filled nights of dancing stay on the table, no matter what our age?

Smiles and bubble guns can be expected at Earlybirds parties (Meagan Shuptar/billypenn.com)

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Start bi, leave gay? Happy Pride Nights

That’s where Earlybirds Club is swooping in to fill the void. The concept, dreamed up 18 months ago in Chicago by friends Laura Baginski and Susie Lee, is a series of dance parties for GenX and Millennial women, lesbian, trans, and nonbinary people (LGBTQIA+), where drinking is optional, one can wear whatever one wants (orthopedic sneakers and fanny packs welcome), and leaving well before midnight is encouraged.

It's not lesbianism...Why does it need a label?

Already, the club has spread into multiple cities with sold-out tickets in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.

And now, for the first time the party is headed to Philly. Source: Earlybirds Club, a dance party for ‘middle aged-ish’ women, is headed to Philadelphia

The story of Early Birds Club Co-Founders Laura Baginski and Susie Lee

(Notes from Chicago) The story of Early Birds Club Co-Founders Laura Baginski and Susie Lee

• Julia Binswanger, billypenn.com at WHYY, Aug. 7, 2025; Freepik.com; Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly