As we get further into a ‘Digital Age’ the Sangha full of it’s skillful beings have started to find footing in the world of ones and zeros. All over the internet Theravada temples, monasteries, and hermitages are plugging into the network. This has bloomed into many beautiful projects and has really helped strengthen the Sangha and bring the Dhamma to so many. A big way that this is taking place is through online videos of various aspects of Sangha life around the world. Be it either by Dhamma discussion, reciting chants, ordinations, celebrations, and so much more.
Many; perhaps most, of these videos are being uploaded on Youtube. It has become the public forum in this regard. Youtube holds so much content and it can be easy to for many great Theravada channels and their content to get lost in the shuffle of the “all mighty and naïve” algorithm. This can be a problem and maybe a long term solution can be developed, but for now perhaps a simple solution to a some what complex problem.
As Buddhist we are all very familiar with lists. So lets make a new one of all the Theravada Youtube channels that we have come across. This post can be a place of reference for newcomers or even more senior members to channels across the Youtube platform.
When proposing a channel to be added to the list please try to define which basic tradition within the Sangha they are from, for example… Theravada, Tibetan, Zen, Pureland, etc… Channels that are not obviously in one of these categories will be put into other. Though there are many subdivision, I think this basic organization will be sufficient. The order in which channels appear within a category are fairly arbitrary. Anyways lets just jump into it!
The ‘Uncertain Category’ if someone is familiar with or knows where they should be categorized let me know. Please share you’re favorite channels with everyone, it may be really helpful to others!
two theravadin monks, both with really great content on their channel. ajahn sona usually makes videos about daily life practice. ajahn Punnadhammo makes more videos on abhidhamma, buddhist history, cosmology etc.
Okay time to update this little project today.
Again if anyone has any Buddhist Youtube Channels that we don’t have on the list here please come forward and share them. You may have a channel with a teacher or teachers that could help out a fellow friend on the path.
Update
OH NO. I guess I just learned a valuable lesson. Apparently I’m not allowed to edit the original post and keep adding to the list as I originally intended. I was going to clean up the list a little bit and add the ones the members had put forth. Does anyone have a way to edit the original post now or is it too late?
Okay I got a ton done today. I added a bunch more channels. Thank you to @mikenz66 , @Moloch , and @anon56826743. I got those channels all added. Also thank you @nisabhobhikkhu ‘The Fourth Messenger’ website pointed to more channels as well. I will dig for more channels next weekend. The next update to the list I am going to try to add a description to each channel and the monks associated with their content.
Anyone who has any suggestions, channels, or something else to add please share!
Aside from the ones already mentioned, I highly recommend Buddhist Gem Fellowship channel, it has many amazing playlsits, including this Sutta Retreat with Ajahn Brahmali that was a lifechanger for me (thank you @Viveka for sharing it with me):
And I could also share my own channel, but it is in Polish language. Around 95% of the content is early/theravada buddhism and guided meditations and
~5% some other stuff that I found interesting enough to share. In english there are some talks of Ayya Khema with improved sound quality compared to the source audio and one talk of Ajahn Brahm that I didn’t found uploaded elsewhere (the original link stopped working so I re-uploaded it) and it is really good one on Loving-kindness.
I am all caught up on the recommended channels given throughout the week!
I did run into some issues, but that is no surprise.
I had not really thought about the idea of channels in different languages. An obvious oversite now that the issue has arisen. At this time I will only being adding channels to the list that are in English. Channels in other languages should still be recommend. Though they may not be added to the list in the immediate future, having them included in the thread may still be helpful to others!
I am open to suggestions as with how to include other languages. I’m thinking that eventually maybe a subsection? Perhaps just having them posted by other members within the thread is enough? Honestly nervous about the increase in the scope of this project if non-English channels start getting added. Perhaps changing the thread to “Western Theravada Youtube Channels” may be a good idea.
I’m uncertain how to approach this issue at this time.
Anyways, please keep suggesting Youtube channels! I’ll be doing a little more work on this thread tomorrow. Would like to start organizing the list and adding channel descriptions, maybe even photos! If you have any suggestions just in general on formatting, editting, organization, etc, please feel free to share!
). We’re following the Suttas and the Suttas only.
