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

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

Buddhism's "The Book of the Ones"

John D. Ireland (trans.), Vagga Sutra (Itivuttaka: "This Was Said (by the Buddha)," 1.24-27); Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

§ 24. A Heap of Bones

This was said by the Blessed One... "Meditators, the skeletons of a single person, wandering on and running through the Wheel of Life and Death (samsara) for an aeon (kalpa), would create a heap of bones as large as this Mount Vepulla, if there were someone to collect them and if the collection were not destroyed."
 

The bones of a single person

Accumulated in a single aeon

Would make a heap

The size of a mountain —

So said the Great Sage.
 

He declared it to be

As great as Mount Vepulla

To the north of Vulture's Peak

In the hill-fort of Magadha.
 

But when one sees with perfect wisdom

The Four Noble Truths as they are —

Suffering, the origin of suffering,

The overcoming of suffering,
 

And the Noble Eightfold Path

Leading to the cessation of suffering —

Having merely run on

Seven times at most,
 

By destroying all fetters

One makes an end of suffering.

§ 25. Lying {Iti 1.25; Iti 18} 
This was said by the Blessed One... "Meditators, I say that for an individual who transgresses in one thing, there is no harmful deed whatsoever one would not do. What is that one thing? It is this, meditators: deliberately telling a lie."
 

There is no harm that cannot be done

By a person who deliberately lies,

Who transgresses in one thing,

Taking no account of the next world.

§ 26. Giving  {Iti 1.26; Iti 18} 

Dana in Thailand: woman gives to Theravada monks and novices (Bugphai/flickr.com)

.

This was said by the Blessed One... "Meditators, if beings knew -- as I directly know and see -- the result of giving and sharing, they would not eat [a single morsel] without having given, nor would they allow the stain of stinginess to obsess them and take root in their minds/hearts. Even if it were their last morsel, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared it, if there were someone to share it with. But, meditators, as beings do not know, as I know, the result of giving and sharing, they eat without having given, and the stain of stinginess obsesses them and takes root in their minds/hearts."
 

If beings only knew —

So said the Great Sage —

How the result of sharing

Is of such great fruit,
 

With a gladdened mind/heart,

Rid of the stain of stinginess,

They would duly give to noble ones

Who make what is given fruitful.
 

Having given much food as offerings

To those most worthy of offerings,

The donors go to heaven

On departing the human state.
 

Having gone to heaven they rejoice,

And enjoying pleasures there,

The unselfish experience the result

Of generously sharing with others.

§ 27. The Development of Loving-kindness {Iti 1.27; Iti 19}

This was said by the Blessed One... "Meditators, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future rebirth, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the mind-release of loving-kindness. The mind-release of loving-kindness surpasses them and shines forth, bright and brilliant.

"Just as the radiance of all the stars does not equal a sixteenth part of the moon's radiance, but the moon's radiance surpasses them and shines forth, bright and brilliant, even so, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the mind-release of loving-kindness...

 

"Just as in the last month of the rainy season, in the autumn, when the sky is clear and free of clouds, the sun, on ascending, dispels the darkness of space and shines forth, bright and brilliant, even so, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the mind-release of loving-kindness...

 

"And just as in the night, at the moment of dawn, the morning star shines forth, bright and brilliant, even so, whatever grounds there are for making merit productive of a future birth, all these do not equal a sixteenth part of the mind-release of loving-kindness. The mind-release of loving-kindness surpasses them and shines forth, bright and brilliant."

 

For one who mindfully develops

Boundless loving-kindness

Seeing the destruction of clinging,

The fetters are worn away.
 

If with an uncorrupted mind

One pervades just one being

With loving kindly thoughts,

One makes some merit thereby.

But a noble one produces
An abundance of merit
By having a compassionate mind
Towards all living beings.

Those royal seers who conquered
The earth crowded with beings
Went about performing sacrifices:
The horse sacrifice, the man sacrifice,

The water rites, the soma sacrifice,
And that called "the Unobstructed."
But these do not share even a sixteenth part
Of a well cultivated mind of love,

Just as the entire starry host
Is dimmed by the moon's radiance.
One who does not kill
Nor cause others to kill,
 
Who does not conquer
Nor cause others to conquer,
Kindly towards all beings —
Has enmity for none.

 

This, too, is the meaning of what was said by the Blessed One. Thus I heard.

"The Buddha and His Teachings" (Narada)

Ven. Narada (via UrbanDharma.org); Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha and His Teaching by Ven. Narada is is one of the clearest and most detailed introductions to the fundamental teachings of Buddhism available in English.

In simple and lucid language the monk-author explains the doctrines and concepts that form the common bedrock of Buddhism as preserved by the Theravada school.

The first part of the work is devoted to the life of the Buddha. The remainder of the book explains in detail the Buddha's teachings, the final chapter showing the relevance of Buddhism to the problems of modern life.

 

Ven. Narada Maha Thera (born Sumanapala Perera, July 14, 1898-October 2, 1983) was a Theravada Buddhist monk and translator, the abbot of Vajirarama Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was a popular figure in his native island country and beyond.

 

Born in Kotahena in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo to a middle-class family, he was educated at St. Benedict's College and Ceylon University College and ordained as a Buddhist monastic at the age of 18.

 

In 1929 he represented Sri Lanka at the opening ceremony for the new Mulagandhakuti Vihara monastery in Sarnath, India, and in 1934 he visited Indonesia, the first Theravada monk to do so in more than 450 years.

From that point on he traveled to many countries as a Buddhist missionary: Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, South Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Nepal, and Australia.

In 1956, he visited the United Kingdom and the United States and addressed a huge crowd at the Washington Monument.

 

Along with others (such as Ven. Piyadassi) he contributed to the popularization of the sermon (bana) style Dharma talk in the 1960s and brought Buddhist teachings "to the day-to-day lives of the Westernized middle class in Sri Lanka." Free download (3.9 MB PDF)

Who is "The Buddha"? (video)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; PBS; G.P. Malalasekera (Pali Proper Names)

First of all, what is a buddha? It is the title of a fully enlightened teacher, either one who remains silent or one fully suited to teach and make known the Dharma (the liberating wisdom that leads to enlightenment and nirvana) in the world.

Second, who is the Buddha? The title refers to Siddhartha Gautama (Pali, "Siddhattha Gotama") the historical teacher of our age.
 

He was a Sākiyan [Scythian] (the Sākiyans were evidently subjects of the Kosala king; the Buddha calls himself a Kosalan, M.ii.124).

He was the son of King Suddhodana. All Pāli language commentaries and Sanskrit works represent the Buddha as the son of a king, descendant of a long line of famous ancestors.

The king was the chief ruler of Kapilavastu. [In fact, the royal family had three seasonal capitals resorted to according to the weather at Kabul, Bamiyan, and Mes Aynak in Buddhist Afghanistan].

His birth mother was Queen Mahā Māyā, Suddhodana's chief consort [first wife among wives], and he belonged to the Gautama-clan (gotta). [Maya passed away when Prince Siddhartha was seven days old, and he was raised by her sister, who was also married to the king, Queen Maha Prajapati Gautami, who later became the first Buddhist nun in history.]

• 

  Scythians kept moving east into "India"

  Of course, he is spoken of as belonging to the Shakya or Saka Clan, for he is a Scythian (Sakan), which is a word ascribed by the Ancient Greeks to describe the nomadic family clans who claimed and settled stretches of Central Asia, janapadas ("footholds of the clan") particularly along the Silk Route. They were warriors, so they came to be described as kshatriyas as if it were there caste status. But they did not ascribe to Vedic Brahmanism's caste system.

Before his conception in the womb, he was in a space world known as Tusita, waiting for the due time for his birth in his last rebirth.

Then, having made the "five investigations" (pañcavilolcanāni) as to the suitability of parents and historical period to be reborn (see buddha), he took leave of his deva companions and came to earth.

(According to the Lalitavistara Sutra he appointed the Bodhisattva Maitreya ["Friend," the Future Buddha] as king of Tusita in his place).

Many wondrous and marvelous events attended his conception and birth. (These are given in the Acchariyabbhutadhamma Sutra, M.iii.118f; also D.ii.12f. A more detailed account is found in J.i.47ff; both the Lai. and the Mtu.ii.14ff differ as to the details given here of the conception and the birth). More