But, of course, women were not represented at the first council. So the texts of women were not collected…

… this article explores how the early Buddhist teaching can challenge and enrich how we think of persons and bodies in relation to other beings and environments. Through a discussion of the powerful emotion of fear and the importance of vulnerability, the article develops thoughts on how Buddhist emotional practices as practices of care can inspire new approaches in today’s times of escalating ecological crisis and acute vulnerability in coexisting and intersecting human and nonhuman pluriworlds.

Crested peacocks…

The following lines intend to sketch dogs’ relation to humans and their fellow quadrupeds and birds from the ancient Indian sources, as was done exhaustively for Greek and Latin literature long ago.

Starting with a brief summary of the recent discussion on the introduction of writing in India, the article examines the material contexts of the written texts produced during the reign of the Indian emperor Aśoka (r. 268-232 BCE). Even if these inscriptions on rocks and rock pillars may not have been the first written evidence, they represent the most extensive and diverse corpus of written texts from the early phase of writing in South Asia. Although this corpus only covers a period of less than twenty years, it shows a fairly quick development and improvement in various material aspects of writing, including writing materials, techniques, surfaces and text transmission.

The Buddhist attitude to any such revelation would be that of accepting what is true, good and sound and rejecting what is false, evil and unsound after a dispassionate analysis of its contents without giving way to prejudice, hatred, fear or ignorance.

K. N. Jayatilleke outlines three broad means of spiritual knowledge, where Buddhist thought fits in, and how this compares to the major religious thought at the time of the Buddha.

The three means are: revelation, reason, and direct experience. Jayatilleke places Buddhism squarely in the third category. He then explores these means of knowledge as viewed by the materialists, Jains, and followers of the Vedas, comparing them with Buddhist thought.

Walking together, dwelling as one,
the knowledge master mixes with foolish folk.

One of the Buddha’s attendants learns to listen to the Buddha’s advice.

It’s useful for us, understanding the Buddha’s teaching, to see it (as it were) through ancient Indian eyes and to put ourselves in the space of his contemporaries.

An introduction to society at the time of the Buddha and the broader historical moment he lived in.

Why am I afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states?

The Buddha responds to a follower of another religion with a long account of the various austerities he practiced before awakening, detailing the astonishing lengths he took to learn the truth of the body and feelings.

The Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad employs the chariot imagery in the service of a unitary notion of, and perpetual correspondence between, the different particles of being that make up the different dimensions of a person. The particles of intelligence (prajñā) and the breath are all fastened together just as in a chariot the rim is fastened to the spokes and the spokes to the hub.

Śailā puts all of this down to none other than a mass of duḥkha.

The assonances evoked by the reinterpretation of these Vedic and Upaniṣadic themes would have had a powerful effect in the ancient Indian oral culture, where the impact of a visual image invested with sacred meanings such as the chariot imagery would have had a deep resonance for the audience. This background puts into its broader ideological perspective the significance of the early Buddhist use of the chariot simile to illustrate the characteristic of absence of an unchanging and essentialised self in subjective experience, based on the analysis by way of the five-aggregates model.

The Tathagata, great king, is liberated from reckoning in terms of consciousness; he is deep, immeasurable, hard to fathom like the great ocean.

While staying in Toraṇavatthu, King Pasenadi wishes to visit a spiritual teacher, and the nun Khemā is highly recommended to him. He asks her about whether a Realized One exists after death, and she says this is not answerable. Later he visits the Buddha, who replies in exactly the same way.

They were able to make all these iron implements and once you’ve got that, the social situation changes quite considerably because you’re able to grow a surplus of crops.

A brief history of Northern India setting the stage for the Buddha’s life and teachings.

As a result of his theft of soma, Vedic Namuci is said to be “wicked”…

A possible Vedic origin for the Buddhist “devil.”

… the “Axial Age” presents a puzzle: why did this emerge at the same time as distinct moralizing religions, with highly similar features in different civilizations? The puzzle may be solved by quantitative historical evidence that demonstrates an exceptional uptake in energy capture (general prosperity) just before the Axial Age in these three regions.

Statistical modeling confirms that economic development, not political complexity or population size, accounts for the timing of the Axial Age.

… praised in this life by the astute,
they depart to rejoice in heaven.

The Buddha gives encouragement to a brahmin seeking alms for his parents.

… the origin of Buddhism did not in any way depend upon the role of iron.

I see some fervent mortifiers who takes it easy reborn in a place of loss. But I see another fervent mortifier who takes it easy reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.

The Buddha tells a naked ascetic the true meaning of austerity.

Then a certain brahmin who was a reciter of the mystic syllable ‘huṁ’ went up to the Buddha and exchanged greetings with him.

For Bhante Sujato’s fascinating explanation of his unorthodox translation of this sutta, see the essay on D&D about it.

… ascetics and brahmins who are not free of greed, hate, and delusion for sights known by the eye, who are not peaceful inside, and who conduct themselves badly among the good by way of body, speech, and mind. They don’t deserve honor, respect, reverence, and veneration.

In discussion with a group of householders, the Buddha helps them to distinguish those spiritual practitioners who are worthy of respect from those who aren’t.

… four inspiring places that a faithful gentleman should go to see

The sāl tree played a significant part in the life of the Buddha as recorded in Pali literature, although its role has been overshadowed by the Holy Fig, the Bodhi Tree

This article briefly discusses the role of Sal trees in the life of the Buddha and their various mentions in Buddhist literature, versus the singular mention of the Bodhi Tree.

… excavations revealed a sequence of early structures preceding the major rebuilding by Asoka

See this post by Bhante Sujato explaining that it’s quite expected that Maya would haven given birth at a pre-existing shrine. And see this response by Richard Gombrich further refuting the paper’s proposed chronology.

Still, the paper does inform us a bit about the site as Maya must have found it: a ~200-year-old outdoor shrine with thick wooden fencing around a central tree.

… it was common for khattiyans to be referred to by brahmanical priestly names

… most of the [plants’] names and their etymologies prove to be quite meaningful

although the Buddha took over some of the terminology of Brahmanical Hinduism, he gave it a new Buddhist sense. The change of meaning is almost always a result of the fact that the Brahmanical terms were used in a framework of ritualism, while the Buddha invested them with a moral and ethical sense.

Pali has the expected features of a natural standard language and can be seen as a precursor of Epigraphic Prakrit.

You can hear the pronunciation of some of these names over at ReadingFaithfully.org.

… in the canonical Buddhist texts […] kṣatriya-dharma (The Way of the Warrior) is openly condemned as anti-social, whereas generally in the orthodox Hindu view, kṣatriya-dharma is considered as the norm or legitimate duty of kings

… of all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love.

Goodwill far outshines all other ways of making merit.

The lay life is like farming in that it’s work with many requirements and when it fails it’s not very fruitful; but when it succeeds it is very fruitful.

Working hard is not valuable in and of itself; what matters is the outcome. And just as in lay life, spiritual practice may or may not lead to fruitful results.

Ānanda’s tears and the Buddha’s expression of gratitude and thanks are testament to the close bond between the two men, one that went beyond their kin relationship.

A down-to-earth biography of the Buddha based on the Pāli Canon.

An interactive, electronic edition can be read online here.

The ancient Indian gāthā – a proverbial, succinct type of single-stanza poetry, often collected in thematic sets – became a favoured form of expression among groups of ascetics from the middle to the end of the 1st millennium BCE.

We do not have any definite information

… report of valiant soldiers from a master-slave society in Greece should have been brought home by the Indian soldiers that had participated in Xerxe’s campaign

It is plausible that the Buddha heard of the Spartans.

What’s going on here? What’s wrong with cows?

Bhante Sujato explains how this pair of verses relates the concerns of Axial Age India.

The numerous poetic descriptions of forests, parks and gardens in Sanskrit poetry hardly ever omit to mention bees and their humming

In this work, the questions pertaining to the means of knowledge known to, criticized in, and accepted by the Buddhism of the Pali Canon are fully discussed. A comprehensive survey of the historical background was indispensable for this purpose.

For Bhante Sujato’s lectures on this book, see Sujato, 2021.

“unintentional acts are not very blameworthy.”
“But if they are intentional?”
“Then they are very blameworthy.”
“But where does Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta say that intention is classified?”
“In the mental rod, sir.”

The Buddha debates karma with a rich supporter of the Jains, winning him over.

The four toraṇas, or gateways, [put] the stūpa, symbolically, at the place where four roads meet, as is specified in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta.

How the early Buddhists took the burial mounds and sacrificial posts of prehistoric India and adapted them to fit their new religious context:

… the stūpa symbolises the Dharma and the transformations it brings

Was the Buddha vedagū according to the Brahmanical understanding of expertise in the three Vedas?

Gotama Buddha, at least as he is depicted in the Suttanipāta, was influenced by and is to be understood in light of Kosalan Vedic tradition.

… it is impossible that they should teach the path to that which they neither know nor see

The simile of the blind leading the blind followed by lovely similes for the chords of sensual pleasure and the hindrances, as well as for their overcoming via the limitless, divine abidings.

The Pali account of the physician Jīvaka illustrates a well-established āyurvedic medical tradition and preserves at least one practice not found in classical āyurveda.

Comparing Jīvaka’s story to the old āyurvedic texts.

… scholars have had little to no luck in identifying a Brahmanical source for the 32 marks of a great Man, in spite of the fact that the Buddhist texts are nearly unanimous is stating that this is a Brahmanical concept

Theravāda, Zen and Lamaism, for all their superficial differences, share common ground in the practice of meditation, which is the ground of original Buddhism and qualifies them to take the name

The authoritative history of early Buddhism.

That nuns did participate in the transmission and explication of the sacred texts is, however, proven by both literary and epigraphic records.

A well-written overview of what the historical record says about early Buddhist women.

… the major focus of each chapter is the attempt to broadly interrelate the political, economic, social and religious aspects of a period with the intention of showing where and why changes have occurred

An excellent introduction to early Indian history and the setting in which the Buddha and his Religion grew.

Here you will find presented a number of maps of places in Ancient Asia to help as a reference for those interested in understanding the geography and history presented in Buddhist texts.

… after the parinibbāna… Ānanda may have made Kosambī his base

An interesting example of what can be gleaned from a place-centered reading of the Pāli Canon.

… early Buddhism rode to popular acceptance on the crest of a significant urban revolution that swept across large parts of the Gangetic region in the sixth century B.C.

Traditional Indian geography was always a strange amalgam of a few facts and a lot of fiction. But facts there are.

A companion book for anyone traveling to Mount Kailash, or just curious about the intersection of sacred and scientific geography in the Himalayas.

… the Buddhists’ approach appears to have been much bolder than that of most of their contemporaries.

Despite the volumes of scholarship published since, Buddhist India remains a remarkable introduction to the topic more than a century later.

The original picture that emerges from the Pali literature, however, reveals a very human person who, living in troubled, insecure times, faced numerous difficulties and challenges, both personally and to his monastic community. Here, we shall outline this earliest version of Buddha’s life, based on the scholarly research of Stephen Batchelor presented in his Confession of a Buddhist Atheist.

The Buddha’s movements northwards were of course limited by the then impenetrable jungles of the Himalayan foothills and it is unlikely that he ever went further south than the southern edge of the Ganges watershed. Still, this would mean that his wanderings covered an area roughly equivalent to 200,000 square kilometres, a huge area by any standards.

A short introduction to the territory covered by the Buddha’s wanderings.

Young Brahmins would already begin memorizing the sacred texts by rote when they were about eight years old, and some began the training still earlier. Only after having completed this task successfully, following years of memorization, would they study the meaning of what they had memorized.

Women are often the main upholders and supporters of a religion or faith or movement. This was certainly so with Buddhism when it was at its beginnings

A brief sketch of gender roles in ancient India at the time of the Buddha.

“It would not be appropriate for me to give the Buddha a powerful laxative.”

The first few sections of the Robe Chapter tells of the origins and exploits of the Buddha’s personal physician.

Note that, while the treatments described in this tale remain undeniably dramatic, they nevertheless present an accurate account of ancient Indian medicine.

See also: the version of this story preserved in T553.

… one of the most outstanding testimonies to the Buddha’s capability as a teacher is the conversion of the killer Aṅgulimāla.

… the particular wording introducing these place names can tell us much about the development of the literary form of early Buddhist texts and about the historical memory of the early authors

Despite an extremely unfortunate (and, tellingly, uncited) dig at the very end against the Lord Buddha’s final words, this (otherwise) well researched and moderate take on mining the EBTs for historical fact gives us a good idea of how the texts were composed and when.

Indeed, I have long been tricked, cheated, and defrauded by this mind.

A fun and surprising sutta in which a bumbling but faithful Brahmin is set straight.

You can find part two of the video here.

… it is perhaps not so much the funeral itself, but rather the description which is so unusual and exceptional

The Mahāparinibbānasutta records funeral rites in more detail than any (even roughly) contemporary Indic text. This paper explores how far we may trust its description and what causes may explain its uniqueness in ancient Indian literature.

Buddhist texts are, by and large, nice. There’s no draconian punishments, no irrational fervor, no ‘smiting with swords’. A serene air of reason, balance, and sanity pervades.

This niceness is a huge problem.

Bhikkhu Sujato reminds us that the Pali Canon is still an ancient mythological text which needs to be read with a careful eye towards symbolism and historical context.

The tale is best understood in the light of the need of the early Buddhist tradition to demarcate its position in the ancient Indian context vis-à-vis ascetic practices and ideology.

Bhikkhu Analayo teaches us how to read the Vinaya in light of the Suttas and parallels and against the background of its ancient Indian context.

Just as the sun is valued not only for its own intrinsic radiance but also for its ability to illuminate the world, so the brilliance of the Buddha is determined not only by the clarity of his Teaching but by his ability to illuminate those who came to him for refuge

The Buddha’s first generation of followers established the traditions and values of the early Sangha. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to understand Buddhism without understanding the lives of the early Buddhist saints. This rich and inspiring series of biographies edited by Bhikkhu Bodhi mainly draws from the traditional commentaries of the Theravāda tradition and so provides an excellent balance between readability and faithfulness to the source material. A must read for all students of Buddhism.

There’s a huge amount of it that’s positive! I’m not so surprised that there are negative attitudes towards women depicted in early Buddhist literature, because this is an ancient civilization with traditional values. So, the negativity doesn’t surprise me. But all the positivity does.

A fascinating conversation about the lives of a few of the earliest Bhikkhunis and what their biographies can tell us about life in ancient India.

Mister, that man attacked the king’s enemy and killed them. The king was delighted and gave him this reward.

The Buddha clears a layman’s doubts and confusion about the correct way to understand the law of karma.

Also includes a fascinating description of the Koliyan police — apparently known for their floppy hats and thuggish ways.

The people of Sunāparanta are wild and rough, Puṇṇa. If they abuse and insult you, what will you think of them?

Venerable Puṇṇa goes to the Buddha and asks for a teaching before he immigrates to a foreign land. The Buddha warns him that folk there are fierce, and questions whether he is ready for such a difficult assignment.

Find another translation by Bhante Sujato on SuttaCentral.

Is it possible, venerable sir, to point out any fruit of recluseship that is visible here and now?

One of the greatest literary and spiritual texts of early Buddhism, this sutta gives a thorough account of the path and benefits of renunciation.

‘By this virtue or observance or asceticism or holy life I shall become a great god or some lesser god,’ that is wrong view in his case. Now there are two destinations for one with wrong view, I say: hell or the animal realm. So, Puṇṇa, if his dog-duty succeeds, it will lead him to the company of dogs; if it fails, it will lead him to hell.

It isn’t just breaking the precepts that can lead one to hell. Contrary to contemporary ecumenical sensibilities, the Buddha pulled no punches condemning wrong view. What do you think makes wrong view so “wrong” in this case?

To approach what, for the want of a better term, we call the mythic portions of the Nikāyas with the attitude that such categories as “mythic symbol” and “literally true” are absolutely opposed is to adopt an attitude that is out of time and place. It seems to me that in some measure we must allow both a literal and a psychological interpretation. Both are there in the texts.

Note that I (~KhBh) have removed pages 206–210 from the linked PDF as they contain a lengthy and irrelevant digression into Mahāyāna doctrine. If you’re interested, you can find the full article here.

Faith is the seed, practice the rain,
And wisdom is my yoke and plow.

A simile on the work of the practice as farming.

… this similarity is neither accidental, nor caused by the Buddha’s inability to free himself from the mental paradigms of his culture. I would rather argue that he formulated Pratityasamutpada as a polemic against Vedic thought.

For the Ven. Sunyo and Bh. Sujato’s somewhat sceptical reaction to this article, see “Is Dependent Origination a Parody?” on SuttaCentral.