TLDR

This is a free, online, fully-self-paced course, covering the core essentials of Buddhism in 10-min-bite-sized bits. The core essence of the Buddhist Path are two intertwined aspects:

  • The Four Noble Truths, and
  • The Eightfold Path.

No faith or blind belief required. Just come and see for yourself.

Purpose & Objectives

  • to provide a free, simple, clear introduction to Buddhist principles, especially for non-Buddhists who are curious to learn the core basics.
    • In line with the Buddha’s own teaching, this material is provided for free. Please do NOT re-use this material for your own profit.
  • to help beginner Buddhists to learn and retain the core Buddhist principles, which are common across all major Buddhist traditions
  • to help beginner Buddhists see and apply these principles in their daily lives

In the longer-run, hopefully this helps users of this get:

  • A clearer understanding of what are & what aren’t core Buddhist principles
  • Better long-term retention of core Buddhist principles & teachings, which each individual can recall at will
  • More application of these principles in people’s daily lives, to address and reduce their suffering

Course Outline

The main frameworks for outlining this content are two: The Eightfold Path and The Four Truths.

The curriculum is scaffolded on the Eightfold Path factors, and should take two continuous weeks, and about 10-20 minutes a day:

How each part is structured

Each section is largely structured the same way:

  • Excerpt: this would be an excerpt from the source text of the Buddha, largely taken from the Pali and Chinese sources.
  • Explanation: this is an elaboration of the text, including how the concept could apply in life.
  • Exercises: this would include reflection questions & Orbit Prompts

    How to use this

    My suggestion would be the following:

  • Read one post a day. Don’t try to read everything all at one go: I’ve intentionally structured this to be simple, so you can cover each segment within 10-20 minutes daily.
  • Try one daily exercise.
  • Answer the Orbit prompts, at the end of each segment.
    But…it is really up to you!

Sources

Most of the texts will be referenced to their available parallels at SuttaCentral. The use of the Eightfold Path as a framework is inspired by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli’s seminal work, The Life of the Buddha and Bhikkhu Nyānatiloka’s The Word of the Buddha.

My Background

You might wonder, “why should I trust you, PJ?” What makes me credible as a source? You’re right to ask!

I have been practicing ever since my first mindblowing meditation retreat with Ajahn Brahmavamso (commonly known as “Ajahn Brahm”) in 2010. I’ve written about that retreat here. You can read more about me here.

Over the 13+ years, from my own personal study of the Dharma, I have made my own way through following teachers (Ajahn Brahm, Ajahn Brahmali, Ajahn Sujato and Venerable Analayo) and experimenting with my own practice.

We are now living in a very unique time in history: in the last 10-20 years, we have finally reached a point in time where the different texts from different Buddhist traditions are being compared and analysed in comparison, often for the first time. This is especially true of the Chinese Agamas being compared with the Pali parallels, with the Chinese Agamas being translated into English. This recent comparative analysis has yielded a very rich and interesting understanding of Buddhist teachings, which were previously unavailable. What is striking for me, as an amateur reading these texts, is how modern the Buddha often sounded. And how applicable to modern life!

So this my effort to bring these core principles to a wider audience, hopefully in a format which is clearer, more easily-understood and applicable to modern life.