Philosophy
Spiritual traditions / Philosophy 
10 excerpts, 31:33 total duration




Buddhist Identity in the Modern World – Aug. 15, 2015

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14. Comment: Some Buddhists get upset when they hear someone say that Buddhism is a philosophy. [Philosophy] [Aversion] [Buddhist identity]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno: “It’s a lot more than that.”


Western Disciples of the Thai Forest Tradition, Session 26 – Feb. 10, 2016

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6. The Buddha taught not-self by ecouraging his disciples to ask these questions. [Teaching Dhamma] [Not-self] [Questions] [Philosophy]

Sutta: SN 22.59 Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta questionaire (Chanting Book translation).

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Skillful qualities] [Ajahn Chah]


Readings from The Island, Session 8 – Jan. 18, 2025

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3. “When kamma meets this present moment way of handling experience, this synchronic approach, is there some sort of free will there?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Kamma] [Conditionality] [Philosophy]

Reference: The Wings to Awakening by Ajahn Ṭhānissaro, pp. 35-37.

Quote: “The concept of free will is quite European.” [Philosophy] [Culture/West]

Reference: “Is God a Taoist?”, Raymond M. Smullyan in The Mind’s ‘I’, edited by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett.


Readings from The Island, Session 16 – Feb. 1, 2025

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3. Comment: The Scottish philosopher David Hume expressed his understanding of the nature of self similar to a Buddhist understanding. [Philosophy] [Not-self] // [Sense bases] [Perception]

Reference: David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature.


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5. Discussion about possible connections between Western philosophy and Buddhism. [Philosophy] [History] [Spiritual traditions]


Readings from The Island, Session 40 – Mar. 8, 2025

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6. “You mentioned [existentialism/eternalism] and nihilism as familiar Western philosophical ideas. I understand that Buddhism’s approach is not one or the other. How do other Western philosophical ideas like solipsism or materialism sit?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno. [Philosophy ] [Middle Path] // [God] [Humor] [Views] [Suffering] [Cessation of Suffering] [Teaching Dhamma]

Sutta: SN 22.86: “I teach suffering and the end of suffering.”

Comment: Philosophy usually tries to create a philosophy from which you pull down how to live your life, but the Buddha is the other way around. [Philosophy ]

Sutta: DN 1: Sixty-two wrong views.


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7. “It is, friend, in just this fathom-high carcass endowed with perception and mind that I make known the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world.” — SN 2.26.5 [Bhikkhu Bodhi translation]. [Nature of the cosmos] [Four Noble Truths]

Quote: “This pithy utterance of the Buddha may well be the most profound proposition in the history of human thought...” — Bhikkhu Bodhi’s footnote to the above passage. [Bhikkhu Bodhi] [Philosophy]

Sutta: SN 35.116: The world in the Noble One’s discipline.