Early Buddhism Course

[plwk]

Workshop 1 History Of Buddhism
This session is facilitated by Bhante Sujato on 23 February 2013


Workshop 1- History of Buddhism
This session is facilitated by Ajahn Brahmali on 23 February 2013


Workshop 1 - History Of Buddhism
This session is facilitated by both Bhante Sujato and Ajahn Brahmali on 23 February 2013

Workshop 2 - Texts Of Early Buddhism
This workshop will take place on 23 March 2013

[James the Giant]

I went, it was very interesting. I'm just out of camera shot, to the left.
There were 5 bhikkhus, 4 bhikkhunis, and three anagarikas attending, plus about 70 laypeople.

The summary of this month's workshop:

Workshop 1 : History of Early Buddhism
The very idea of Buddhism implies an “original” or “pure” teaching that is grounded in the ultimate truth of experience. But such a teaching does not exist in any simple or obvious way, and must be carefully reconstructed from historical sources, with all the uncertainties that this implies. This workshop considers how the search for Early Buddhism was developed in the West, and how Buddhist traditions have responded to it. Our ideals of Buddhist thought and practice have been conditioned by this search, which has been a fruitful source of inspiration and spiritual renewal.

This first full-day workshop was a good introduction, fairly basic. The readings that Ajahn Sujato has chosen are very interesting. One of the readings compares and analyses three different versions of the same sutta, and shows how the suttas have been added to and chopped-about, altered.
It was a real eye-opener for me, I didn't realise the suttas had been so changed and rewritten.
I'm looking forward to next month.

Course materials and readings; http://www.courses.bswa.org.au/info/

[plwk]

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[Sein]

I found the questions and topic for discussion very interesting.
Is there any records of this or any related topic in here?