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Welcome to the Dharma Study website. The site is maintained to provide support for the classes I teach at the University of Cincinnati’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (at Adath Israel Synagogue) and at St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church in Clifton, as part of their Religious Exploration Program.

“The Teachings of the Buddha.” In this class, we will examine eight of the more significant and widely known of the Buddha’s discourses. In our discussion of each discourse, we will review the events in the Buddha’s life that provide the context for the discourse, and we will examine the ideas presented in the discourse to see how they relate to the historical development of Buddhism and how they remain relevant to the task of maintaining sanity and equanimity in a confused and turbulent world. The course will be presented as a general introduction to the Buddha’s life and thought. The Teachings of the Buddha will be presented as an OLLI class on Tuesday mornings, and as a class in St. John’s Religious Exploration Program on Tuesday evenings. Here’s a link to a detailed Syllabus.

“Topics in Mainstream Buddhism.” This class will review some fundamental concepts that are present in all Buddhist traditions. We’ll look at the concept of Dharma – the Law that governs the natural world as well as the results of our ethical decisions; Karma – ethically significant action; the Buddhist understanding of how events unfold from preceding conditions; Nirvana – the characteristic condition of an enlightened mind; and the Eightfold Path to enlightenment. We will also look into the history of Buddhism and how the different traditions have evolved. Topics in Mainstream Buddhism will be presented as an OLLI class on Thursday mornings. Here’s a link to a detailed Syllabus.

Both classes meet once a week for eight consecutive weeks. All readings for both classes will be available on this site.

Locations and Dates

The Teachings of the Buddha

Topics in Mainstream Buddhism