Friday, June 01, 2012

Buddhist Geeks 256: Will the Real Buddha Please Stand Up? (with John Peacock)

Frequent Buddhist Geeks guest Hokai Sobol interviews Buddhist scholar John Peacock (Associate Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Center) in this episode of the Buddhist Geeks podcast. Their topic is one I have long been fascinated by - who was the Buddha, the man, the human being who was born a prince in wealth and opulence and who died a wandering teacher and enlightened being?

His background:

JOHN PEACOCK is both an academic and a Buddhist practitioner of nearly forty years. He was initially trained in the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition in India and subsequently spent time in Sri Lanka studying Theravada. He has lectured in Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, and at present he is Associate Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre and teaches on the Master of Studies programme in MBCT at Oxford University. He has been teaching meditation for over twenty five years and is a Gaia House guiding teacher.
Peacock has a lot of talks/lectures available (for purchase and free, I believe) at the Buddhist Publishing Group site.

Buddhist Geeks 256: Will the Real Buddha Please Stand Up?


 BG 256: Will the Real Buddha Please Stand Up?

by John Peacock


Play

Episode Description:

John Peacock is a scholar and Associate Director of The Oxford Mindfulness Centre. His studies of the earliest Buddhist writings have revealed to him a very human Buddha and a very different Buddhism than we know today.

In a conversation with Hokai Sobol, Peacock describes the historical Buddha as a very practical teacher and a radical social reformer. He cites passages of the earliest writings that describe a very human and emotional Buddha that enjoyed satire. He calls the Buddha the “First Psychologist” and relates to him as a teacher who was more interested in practical psychology than philosophy.

This is Part 1 of a 2 part series.

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