Buddhist Wisdom for the Long Night

Over the past month I have been posting a four-part video series drawn from The Awakened State: What Buddhist Enlightenment Actually Means: the maps and the territory, the nature of what we are, the body that knows, and the practice of awakening. Those were the parts. This is the whole: a four-and-a-half-minute overview of the book’s argument.

The short version. The early maps read like maps of extinction: greed, hatred, and delusion burned out root by root. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra reverses them. Even the being written off as hopeless is a burned seed that still contains life. Zhiyi’s Six Identities keep that claim honest: already the Buddha in principle, not yet in conduct. And the practice is not a different life. It is this one, seen clearly.

The book is short and rigorous, and it is available here:

If you have followed the series, thank you. Questions are welcome in the comments.

Sadly, the “Read sample” button, doesn’t work, and the paperback won’t be available anytime soon, maybe next year.