I’ve posted a copy of my teaching notes from Class 2 of the course “Important Topics in Mainstream Buddhism”.

The teaching notes were written in an outliner program (Omni Outliner Pro, for those who are interested), and the web page it created from the outline is a dynamic page; the little triangles to the left of the outline items are actually buttons, and you can use them to collapse and expand outline sections. That should make it a little easier to get an overview of the approach that I took to the topic – the Buddha’s Dhamma.

The first element in the outline is a link to the rendering of the Buddha’s first teaching, “Turning the Wheel of the Law” – the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. That’s the single most essential teaching in Buddhism, and all the other teachings derive from it or expand on it in one way or another. A number of years ago, a young linguistic scholar in Britain claimed that her linguistic analysis of the language of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta indicated that it could not have been composed by Siddhata Gotama. A prominent monk in Thailand was interviewed and asked about that claim, that the man we know as the Buddha could not have delivered that core teaching; what would be the impact of that finding, he was asked, on Buddhism. He chuckled and answered, “Well, whoever delivered that teaching, that was the Buddha.”

Throughout the teaching notes, I’ve included passages of text from several sources:

• The definitions of Pali terms – expecially the Pali terms for the eight factors of the Buddha’s path – are taken from the Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary; they’re a little confusing, but I just look for the meanings and the etymologies of the terms and ignore the references to the Pali texts in which those terms appear or which provide commentary on their meaning. I’ve found the Pali-English Dictionary site enormously useful in my study of the Buddha’s teachings, and I think that it’s quite marvelous that such a distinguished scholarly tool, which was only available to graduate students and professors at the world’s top universities just a decade or so ago, is now freely available, with a decent user interface, to anyone with a web browser.
• The passages from the various suttas are all taken from the excellent Access to Insight website. If you are interested in extending your understanding of Buddhism and the Buddha’s teachings, you would not be wasting your time to browse that site, just following links that look interesting, and begin to develop a sense of how it all holds together. Many of the teachings at Access to Insight are presented in two or three different translations, and all of the translations are scholarly, clear, and graceful. There are also a number of essays by prominent Buddhist teachers and monks, and pages of helpful references to good books and other useful websites.

I’d be interested to know whether you find the posting of these class notes helpful. Please use the Comments to give us your thoughts, ask questions, or suggest ways in which I might make this site, and the class itself, more interesting or more helpful.