The Origins of Buddhism with Debashish Banerji

Debashish Banerji, PhD, is Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and Chairman of the East West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He is author of Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformative Yoga Psychology Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo and also The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore, a book about his great grandfather. He edited an anthology about his great uncle, Rabindranath Tagore in the Twenty-First Century. With Robert McDermott, he has coedited an anthology titled Philo-Sophia: Wisdom Goddess Traditions.

Here he points out that the earliest known Buddhist texts emerged several hundred years after the Buddha lived. Therefore, to better understand the origins of Buddhism, he relies upon artistic and architectural evidence – particularly the stupas of Buddhism, to which there are few textual references. Buddhism appears to have influences both from central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. He regards the stupas as being influenced by solar deity traditions.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the 1st Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death.

(Recorded on November 25, 2021)

[NewThinkingAllowed]

Statement of Comment etiquette for New Thinking Allowed

[mcdaib]

It is always such a pleasure, not to mention enlightening, when you have Dr. Banerji as a guest. Keep up the fantastic diversity of intelligence Dr Mishlove...

[aclearlight]

Very illuminating, thank you! It's wonderful to receive such clear, comprehensive and expert knowledge on Buddhist history. Popular discourse and literature on this topic tends to be fragmentary, abbreviated, biased and often just factually wrong; you have provided a valuable resource here. I especially enjoyed the clarification on the doctrine of "anatman" as this so often garbled and mis-stated.

[LoveJungle]

I LOVE when you have Debashish on! Always so informative and insightful yet conversational and easy to absorb. You guys have a great rapport!

[itsmyremoteviewingjourney]

Well Spoken, well explained, it had me riveted! Thank you for the stories.

[ramyafennell]

Firstly to see Jeffrey in that wonderful coloured jacket!..
and then to hear such an unforgettable scholarly interchange between you two...thank you.

[Cyriljayant]

Amazing conversation and this is my revisit. Thank you Dr. Jeffry and Professor Banerji for you beautiful talk of wisdom on Buddhism !!!

[amanitamuscaria]

Debashish is so wonderfully knowledgeable and such a good communicator. I watched the Jason Jorjani video about the Buddha possibly being Lao Tse and Scythian in origin. Very interesting to hear Debashish's understanding as well. May I recommend Drg Drysha Viveka talks by Swami Sarvapriyananda for a good study of exploring the Self - neti neti. It is excellent. Btw, love the jacket Jeffrey!

[abilsingh]

Thank you very much for this very interesting conversation. I learned a lot from this.

[juneshasta]

Jeffrey and Debashish exploring the three images of the Buddha - gnosis, devotional, and tantric, bring to mind the three ways taught by Gurdjieff of the Yogi, Monk, and Fakir. It points to the ancient tradition of harmonizing the intellectual, emotional, and physical aspects.

[JohnHenrySheridan]

Awesome interview !
I love the black background of NTA interviews. It creates a timeless, location-less feeling which is wonderful for philosophy. :)

[emmetlcraig]

Hello again from Ireland!..Serious scholars'...Smiling Buddhas'...Admiring Doctors...budding! initiates of the esoteric Great White Lodge...Art science History religion philosophy nature...Bodi Tree White elephants...you forgot to mention Tigers, U.F.O.'s of The Bhagavad Gita!...Great stuff, keep it up thanks!

[JuandiegoFA]

What an amazing series with Debashish Banerji! Please keep them coming! I would love to hear you discuss more about For example, the two dhatu mandalas, siddham calligraphy, meditation in the A letter (Ajikan), Mahavairocana, combining mantra with mudra and visualization, relation to yoga and the Shddhis, etc. You both are incredible, thank you so much. Regards from Ecuador!

[mwmingram]

Lots of interesting information here. Thank you very much both.

[AdiMaco]

This was a very interesting talk, very interesting!

[LoneRanger.]

Absolutely loved it. Thanks DB and JM. 💜

[nigelericogden]

As a point of interest, the Bön tradition also speaks of the Central Asian origins of an older Buddha (than Shakyamuni) … Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche (18, 000 years) … what a wonderful interview … thank you gentlemen 🙏 Namaste

[eduardomendoza]

Thank you very much for this. I would love to see a chapter about Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava.

It is great to see you. Good day to everyone.

[Anders]

Interesting that the origin of Buddhism is fairly obscure. One idea that came to me is that Buddhism, maybe like the other major religions, is a teaching produced by some esoteric group of people with advanced knowledge, like how later Shakespeare could have been a pseudonym for such group.

[davidsillars]

A deeply fascinating subject. Perhaps the Bön view of a pre-Buddhist teaching and teacher, Tonpa Shenrab, coming from "Tadjik" and the Zhang Zhung civilisation, Central-Asia perhaps, is worth examining in relation to this. Their tradition has the Buddha as a disciple of Tonpa Shenrab. I see Bön as the Judaism to Buddhism's Christianity! Great interview.