📚 A Foundation Course in Buddhism
A structured two-part course covering the Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, Kamma, morality, the Sangha, and mental development in the Theravāda Buddhist tradition.
Part 1 — The Four Noble Truths
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21:37Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the Buddha's foundational teaching on dukkha — suffering and unsatisfactoriness — as the starting point of the spiritual path.
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19:59Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the five khandhas (aggregates) as the Buddha's framework for understanding where suffering arises in human experience.
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16:54Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the tilakkhana — dukkha, anicca, and anattā — revealing how our mistaken identification with the five khandhas causes suffering.
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20:19Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the Buddha's teaching on taṇhā (craving) as the root cause of dukkha, examining how ignorance leads to delusion and the endless cycle of desire.
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19:20Bhante Bodhidhamma explores paṭicca samuppāda, the wheel of dependent origination, as the centerpiece of Buddha's psychology explaining how suffering arises and can be overcome.
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21:10Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the Buddhist understanding of kamma and vipāka (action and result) within the framework of the Four Noble Truths.
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20:08Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the Noble Eightfold Path as the Buddha's Middle Way, focusing on sīla (morality) as the foundation for mental development and wisdom.
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22:14Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the ten perfections (pāramī) as the positive morality aspect of the Fourth Noble Truth, showing how these virtues lead to liberation.
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20:14Bhante Bodhidhamma explores Right Understanding as the foundation of the Noble Eightfold Path, examining how wisdom progresses from received knowledge to personal realization.
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20:29Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the Mental Development section of the Noble Eightfold Path, focusing on meditation practice and the three factors of Right Effort, Right Concentration, and Right Awareness.
Part 2 — Deepening Understanding
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27:56Bhante Bodhidhamma explores how sensual desires create our emotional patterns and suffering, offering practical meditation approaches to work with moods and feelings.
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24:32Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the difference between healthy conscience and neurotic guilt, showing how meditation can purify unwholesome mental patterns.
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25:21Bhante Bodhidhamma explores how guilt affects meditation practice and offers a Buddhist approach to handling moral transgressions with wisdom and compassion.
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24:30Bhante Bodhidhamma explores Right Intention as the crucial bridge between understanding and virtuous action, examining the Buddha's discourse on the two types of thinking.
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28:27Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the brahmavihāra—loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—as the sublime mental states that characterize the awakened mind.
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25:19Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the crucial difference between blind belief and faith (saddhā) in Buddhism, emphasizing the Buddha's emphasis on personal investigation and verification of truth.
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26:39Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the twelve links of paṭicca samuppāda, examining how ignorance perpetuates the cycle of becoming and how liberation is achieved.
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27:49Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the Buddha's teaching on kamma within the five universal laws, examining how our intentions shape future rebirths and mental states.
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26:25Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the Buddhist community structure, from the Buddha's revolutionary democratic ideals to the four orders of practitioners.
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23:58Bhante Bodhidhamma explains the progressive stages of awakening through the four noble paths and their fruits, from stream-entry to arahantship.
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34:54Bhante Bodhidhamma explores the systematic establishment of silence in vipassanā meditation, examining the five hindrances (nīvaraṇa) and intensive retreat practice.