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b'When I first got interested in meditation, all the talk of the Buddha that I encountered in the various books I was reading and lectures I was attending seemed like more of a bug than a feature. I was looking for science-backed stress relief, not religion. But the more I learned, the more interested I became in the Buddha. He was, after all, not a god or a prophet. He was, based on the available evidence, a mortal man who made no claims about the creation of the universe. In fact, to the extent that he did make metaphysical claims, he explicitly told people: don\\u2019t believe anything because I tell you. Meanwhile, he laid out a set of meditation instructions and an approach to the human situation that, in my experience, are extraordinarily practical and valuable. And yet, many of today\\u2019s meditators don\\u2019t know much about who the Buddha was or what he actually taught. Hence today\\u2019s guest, the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi. He was born Jeffrey Block in Brooklyn, became a Buddhist monk as a young man, and then went on to become one of the premier translators of Buddhist scripture. In this conversation, we talk about: why it can be so helpful for meditators to know what the Buddha taught; how these teachings survived for centuries before they were ever written down; how he makes sense of the teachings on karma and rebirth; the Buddha\\u2019s daily schedule; what kind of person the Buddha was; and what the Buddha taught about staying engaged in politics. Before we started rolling, I asked Bhikkhu Bodhi how I should address him, and he said many people call him \\u201cBhante,\\u201d which is a term that is used in Buddhist circles to address monks, and translates into something like \\u201cvenerable sir.\\u201d\\nWhere to find Bhikkhu Bodhi online:\\nWebsite: https://bodhimonastery.org/ven-bhikkhu-bodhi.html\\nFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/bhikkhu.bodhi.1\\nBooks Mentioned:\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering by Bhikkhu Bodhi http://www.noblepath.org/audio.html?fbclid=IwAR3dAFyckLujaBuYe1y8v0arh9UTq6XLsS_bQHq-layEdGVoA_cfoqVfODg\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives by Dr. Jim B. Tucker: http://www.jimbtucker.com/return-to-life.html\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula Thero http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/What%20the%20Buddha%20Taught_Rahula.pdf\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0The Foundations of Buddhism by Rupert Gethin https://bookshop.org/books/the-foundations-of-buddhism/9780192892232\\nOther Resources Mentioned:\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Dr. Ian Stevenson\\u2019s research on Perceptual Studies (apparitions, past lifetimes, and near death experiences) - https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/who-we-are/dr-ian-stevenson/\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Buddhist Global Relief - https://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/\\nAdditional Resources:\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Ten Percent Happier Live: https://tenpercent.com/live\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Coronavirus Sanity Guide: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide\\n\\u2022\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0Free App access for Frontline Workers: https://tenpercent.com/care\\nFull Show Notes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/Bhikkhu-Bodhi-302\\n\\nSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.'