The Refuge of Dhamma
Exploring the Buddha's Discourses
About this Course
The discourses of the Buddha, called suttas, are one of the world’s most majestic collections of spiritual teaching. They record many styles of teaching, from inspiring poetry to psychological guidance, social theory, and philosophical masterpieces that address the deepest human fears, hopes, and potential.
In this course and practice series we dive into the beauty and richness of the Buddha’s teachings, reading texts from the Pāli Canon, the body of ancient texts preserved by Theravāda Buddhist cultures in South and Southeast Asia, in accessible English translations.
You will hear the voice of the Buddha, building his community and laying out a path of practice that leads to liberation from all forms of suffering. You will find advice for the most stubborn challenges in meditation and ordinary life. And you will be invited to realize for yourself the profound liberation he called “the heartwood of the holy life.”
This course collects the first two classes in my Spirit Rock sutta study series, The Refuge of Dhamma, taught live in 2021, beginning with important short discourses that provide a strong foundation for a lifetime of practice, and the Buddha’s first discourse, in which he teaches the Four Noble Truths and begins the lineage of Dharma transmission that still shapes our practice and community. The course continues with two autobiographical discourses describing the Buddha’s early life and practice, and the majestic sutta at the heart of the Long Discourses (Dīgha Nikāya) collection, “The Fruits of the Ascetic Life.”
Beginners to practice are welcome and may be inspired to hear these teachings that are at the heart of all Buddhist traditions, but some experience in meditation and mindfulness is assumed.
Course created with and hosted by Spirit Rock. Link takes you to the Spirit Rock site.
Take this Course
This course is hosted by Spirit Rock. It is available on a wide sliding scale, based on self-assessment of your income and ability to offer your resources in a way that supports others with lesser resources to attend. Please support us and Spirit Rock by engaging sincerely with the process and selecting the highest level you can on the sliding scale (or beyond it). Your generosity directly gifts scholarship support to those who need it, and allows us to share these teachings with everyone who might benefit from them, regardless of access to wealth. Thank you!
What’s included
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In this first session, we read a short, beautiful discourse about a practitioner who tried to walk to the end of the universe, only to be taught by the Buddha that it could be found only through embodied meditative inquiry.
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
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In this session, we read the famous discourse to the Kāḷāma people in which the Buddha teaches principles for self-inquiry and exploration of what's true, and a path to liberation that begins with the divine abidings (brahmavihāra) of lovingkindness, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. This is an approach to practice that has deep resonance in our contemporary culture, where doubt can so easily arise as we hear competing ideas about what’s true or useful in spiritual practice. The discourse offers a heart-centered approach to practice, grounding us first in ethics and lovingkindness, and from there toward the path of liberating insight.
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
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In this class we look at a discourse in which the Buddha lays out the ethical precepts in detail, in one of the forms often used for them, in which they are divided into categories of body, speech, and mind, with the common fifth precept ("refraining from intoxicating drinks that lead to heedlessness") omitted. The Buddha then connects the keeping of the ethical precepts through the principle of causation to the practitioner's ability to accomplish any aim, whether worldly (a better rebirth) or unworldly (full liberation).
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
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In this class we look at a discourse given to monastics using the example of a cloth being dyed to indicate the possibilities of a heart-mind that is purified of distraction and the impulse toward ethical misconduct. The foundation of ethical practice is connected here to the arising of "experiential confidence," also known as "verified faith," in the triple gem of Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and from there to the development of the brahmavihāra and full liberation.
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
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In this final class of the first round of this course, we read the Buddha's famous first discourse, given to his five ascetic friends just a few weeks after his awakening. In this text, which is chanted and memorized by millions of Buddhists, lays out the basic structures of the entire system, including the “middle way,” the “Four Noble Truths,” and the “Noble Eightfold Path.”
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
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We start the second half of the course (the second live series) with a look at the life of the person who came to be called the Buddha, meaning “awakened one.” We’ll look broadly at the life of Siddhatha Gotama, the Buddha, and begin reading the discourse called "The Noble Search" (MN 26), one of the earliest descriptions of the Buddha’s practice leading up to his awakening.
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
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The Discourse with Saccaka contains one of the most beloved episodes in the life of the Buddha: his realization of the fruitlessness of harsh ascetic practices of bodily mortification and discovery of the “middle way.” These were very popular practices in his time (and still are in some South Asian spiritual traditions), used by many sects including the Jains. Gotama realizes that he’s not finding freedom, and asks himself if there’s a better way to practice, leading to remembering a peaceful childhood moment under a rose-apple tree and intuiting that this (pleasurable, peaceful concentration) is the way.
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
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“The Fruits of the Ascetic Life” (Sāmaññaphalasutta, DN 2) is one of the most famous and beloved discourses in the Pāli Canon. The framing story is poignant. A king of Māgadha named Ajātasattu killed his father Bimbisāra, a devoted patron of the Buddha, in order to gain the throne. Shortly after this, depressed and seeking wisdom, he visits the Buddha on the advice of his physician, after rejecting suggestions to visit any of the six other spiritual teachers his advisors recommend.
Responding to Ajātasattu’s question about the results of monastic practice that one could experience in the present life, the Buddha lays out the entire monastic path and its benefits, starting with relief from hard work and caste position, through deep meditative attainments, all the way to full liberation. In the course of this long exposition, the Buddha gives full descriptions and lovely examples and similes for many of his most central teachings.
Reading content
Two guided practices
Recorded class teaching
Inquiry questions
Further study links
Friendly for both beginning and advanced practitioners, and sometimes I don't know which one I am. :) There was a lot to chew on and practice with—much more than I expected! It was a very rich experience.
— Class Participant