Stanford Releases a Free Series of Talks on Buddhism

A little while back, we published exciting news ofa free online course in Buddhism offered by Harvard University. The archived course introduces Buddhist beliefs to novices, and illumines them for practitioners. Now the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University has a way to carry on your self-education: it’s made its expansive series of talks on Buddhism available on YouTube.

The 35 Stanford videos posted so far — the earliest of which date back about a year — feature lectures from a range of experts, including active practitioners and scholars. It’s an ongoing series, too, with a full schedule of talks planned for 2017.

If the Harvard curriculum is a great way to become familiar with Buddhism, the Stanford course goes a bit wider, with speakers discussing the religion from a range of perspectives. There are talks on Buddhist wisdom, recent historic revelations, discussions of complex concepts, and what it’s like to bring the religion to new geographic areas.

The most recently posted talk is by Christian K. Wedemeyer, an associate professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His talk is called “Rhetorics of Solidarity in Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature, or ‘You’re So Vain, I Bet You Think This Sūtra is About You’.”

(BUDDHIST STUDIES AT STANFORD)