What to Lean On When There’s No Original Buddhism

The hunt for a pure, original Buddhism is a modern habit. It is also, often, a kind of fear. After the conversation with Dr. Gary Donnelly, I wanted a quieter space to say what I lean on instead. This is a follow-up to There Is No Original Buddhism — with Dr. Gary Donnelly:    • There Is No Original Buddhism — with Dr. G...   I talk about: the Western obsession with finding “the original thing,” and the worth we think that gives it why I don’t think we have a Western Buddhism yet lineage as two departments: the texts, and realization in living practitioners the four seals as a better test of Buddhadharma than a historian’s reconstruction faith that starts with reasoning and has to become direct seeing why living teachers matter more than books, once we are serious how the purity hunt shows up in meditation as trying to do it right, jumping practices, or pretending curiosity instead of correctness practice as uncovering, not a self-improvement project A book I mention on the four seals: What Makes You Not a Buddhist by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse. 0:00 Welcome 2:00 Why we hunt for the original 5:00 We don’t have a Western Buddhism yet 7:36 Lineage: texts and realization 10:38 The four seals as a test 12:49 The fear of doing it wrong 15:51 Meeting a living teacher 26:30 Curiosity instead of correctness 28:43 Practice as uncovering