Support for Academic Study of Pali and the Context of Early Buddhism

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[Deleted by author.]

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Didn’t IMS start some Early Buddhism studies course with Bhikkhu Analayo, Stephen Batchelor, and others?

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I think Richard Gombrich has summer courses at Oxford; however, I think one has to pay for them but perhaps worth enquiring(?)

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The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies has an online Pali course taught by Richard Gombrich and Alexander Wynne. It’s been very highly praised though unfortunately it will cost you £750. Link

And this free course hosted at Bodhi Monastery looks quite promising:
Pali course

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[Deleted by author.]

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If you’re interested in independent studies you could go live at a monastery as a lay person and just bring a copy of Warder etc. with you. This won’t work though if you have financial requirements beyond a meal a day and a roof at night.

Don’t you have a PhD in Philosophy? If you could survive teaching philosophy part time at a community college that might free you up enough to study Pāli in your spare time.

What is it ideally that you’re looking to do?

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Oh lord… when you find some of such support plz forward to me after taking your fill.

Or you can give it to someone who deserves it if you insists stubbornly on having “principles” or something of the like.

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[Deleted by author.]

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Belated birthday greetings!

Last month I turned 49 and have been having many of the same thoughts you are having. It’s unfortunate that lack of material support for full-time dhamma study and practice is such a widespread issue, but we have seen the subject come up many times on this forum alone.

Because I know this is a serious request I hope you’ll forgive that I found Coemgenu’s comment humerous, as I imagine it comes from first-hand knowledge and frustration.

Please don’t give up. :pray:

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[Deleted by author.]

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I’m doing a Pali self-study at the moment and there are several online resources available for it. There is not much in the way of legitimate academic courses here in the U.S. unfortunately and the few colleges that I have researched who do offer various Buddhist study programs are prohibitively expensive. I am 45 and just graduated from college back in December after returning to school and am looking into doing a master’s program in Buddhist studies. Most of the programs that I can find are outside of the U.S. and as I said above, the ones that are stateside are too expensive or are too far away.

As for the financial side of things, you can always apply for federal financial aid and that was how I had to fund my BA degree in psychology/criminology. It sucks, but it is available if you want to jump through all of the hoops. The only colleges that I have found who offer programs are in California, Colorado, and if I’m not mistaken, there was one in New York. However, they are stupid expensive - like $40,000 a year expensive. You can do an entire PhD program from start to finish at a foreign college for a quarter of that if you look around and many can be done online. The few that I have reached out to do not offer financial aid for westerners though because, and I am quoting one of the admissions and financial aid representatives from a school in Thailand, “westerners are rich and can afford to pay our tuition”. I told them that by their standards I may be rich, but by American standards I am beyond poor and they didn’t care :slight_smile:

Message me if you want some more information and here is a link to get you started:

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I turn 57 in a few weeks and have reached what i feel is your goal …
Was stuck in similar way i read and understand you, and i simply started putting the teaching to a real test, and it took about 5 years of dedicated incorporated practice into lay life, and it worked on all sort of “planes”. Now i have all the time in the world for whatever :slightly_smiling_face:

Be fine!

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[Deleted by author.]

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Like i “feel” …
Ok?

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[Deleted by author.]

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It fitted perfect to my experiences, and I responded with what the heart Said.
Never mind the frustrated one, it’s the same one worrying, and not what this ol heart recives.

:+1:

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In short: what Nadine said. :anjal:

I know this was in response to a different line altogether, but to recontextualize it (I hope in alignment with your OP), in terms of your wish to “get more serious about learning Pali and studying the Pali texts and the historical context of early Buddhism”, do you have an idea of what that might look like for you? Eg. do you have a particular qualification level you’d like to attain? Do eg. you want to keep open a door to potentially researching and/or teaching in the field, or is formal certification secondary to learning the material (whereby, perhaps auditing, or self-study around university syllabuses and other lower-cost, jury-rigged possibilities might be explored)?

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[Deleted by author.]

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[Deleted by author.]

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Thank you so much for the link to the Bodhi Monastery. I’m already using AKWarder and Ven Brhamali’s classes of same, and the Ghair book, for which I found an answer key and readings of the texts online. But these lectures will add even more redundancy. This is sorely needed as I’ve reached 73, and while my understanding remains fairly well intact my memory is definitely underpowered. Only halfway through the first one, but finding it provides excellent background info. Thank you :pray:

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