Buddhist Schools of Thought with Gary Gach

Gary Gach is an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Francisco. He is author of The Idiot's Guide to Buddhism as well as Pause, Breathe, Smile – Awakening Mindfulness When Meditation is Not Enough. He is cotranslator of three Korean books of poetry by Ko Un. He is editor of What Book!? Buddha Poems From Beat to Hiphop. He recently served as cotranslator for Hafiz's Little Book of Life.

Here he reviews and presents his take on different movements within Buddhism – including theravada, zen, pure land, and mahayana.

00:00 Introduction
03:59 Original teachings of the Buddha
07:40 Difficulty of comparing and constrasting
13:02 Parapsychology and Buddhism
19:02 Western style Buddhism
25:36 Pure Land Buddhism
34:47 Deities in Buddhism
40:23 Fusions of religious thought
51:36 Conclusion

Edited subtitles for this video are available in Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Swedish, and Spanish.

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 Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death.

(Recorded on July 5, 2024)

[NewThinkingAllowed]

Statement of Comment Etiquette for New Thinking Allowed

[stephenbastasch]

Gary Gach is GREAT in this interview - articulate, with a scholar's grasp of the many variegated nuances of Buddhism. PLEASE have him back again!!!

[RichardMills-sy]

Peace ☮ and love to you all !! Love the show 🙏🙏👍👍

[ruthnamaste]

Very insightful and entertaining interview!
On another note... Swami Sarvapriyananda would be an amazing guest! Jeffrey please.... 🙏🏼 have him on your podcast. 😊

[jill]

Ajahn Brahm, who is a popular speaker for Theravada Buddhism is very outspoken about the validity of psychic phenomenon and was involved previously with the Society for Psychic Phenomenon in England

[greenthumb]

Thank you for posting this interview, interesting.

[bennguyen]

Would love to know why some practices, are kept secret and require authorization to talk about! For example, an interview video with Swami Sarvapriyananda (“Japa – Power of the Divine Name”) he suggests certain mantras are secret due to their power (24min mark). Perhaps this is what those that appear to levitate have practiced.. using their Udana Vay throat-chakra

Regarding the 17m mark, it reminds me of the question, what is Chinese Food called in China? food!

BTW, what's the probability of Jeffrey interviewing Swami Sarvapriyananda?

[jill]

Pure Land Buddhism doctrine is hard to pin down, but they do believe in Pure Land Realms ie, Sukhavati, which is the pure land realm of Amitabha Buddha and is a realm that people can attain after death where they can continue to practice until they reach liberation without having to experience rebirth on Earth plane.

[jill]

I liked that Gary brought up the symbol of yin/yang. Although more of a Taoist symbol rather than a Buddhist one, it would be a great topic for further discussion on your show. It has been an important symbol in my life and led me to writing the book, "Practicing the Way of the Tao Te Ching."

[itsmyremoteviewingjourney]

Wow what an interesting conversation!! Im glad I found this one :) thanks Jeff and Team!! You too Gary, your very entertaining :)

[sethschmucker]

A great place practicing Theraveda from Ajahn Chah is Abhayagiri in Redwood Valley. They have a good podcast too.

[NotMyGumDropButtons.]

25:10 we are constantly giving birth to each other, might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard

[danielhopkins]

It is interesting to note that the early Buddhist school the Mahasamghikas held the Buddha Godama was God much like later Mahayanist did. They were peopled mostly by Licchavis, the Niccibis of the Manusamhita: from Nisisbis Syria. The Nusseibeh of Jerusalem who peopled Palestine claim to have come to Jerusalem under the same Ptolemy Philadelphus whose name is inscribed on Ashoka's edict as being a willing recipient of Buddhist missionaries. The same Ptolemy was said to have commissioned the Septuagint that first attests the legend of King Solomon deciding ownership of a baby between two disputing mother claiments. Max Muller and several Jewish scholars claim it was lifted from a Buddhist jataka fable.
It is also interesting to note that the Buddhist claim to hsve converted the Kambojas during the reign of Cambyses or Cyrus. Cambyses and Cyrus are namesakes of the Indian Kurus and Kambojas. The same group of Buddhist missionaries seem to have made it to Memphis Egypt during the reign of Cambyses as the archeologist Flinders Petrie unearthed an Indian Buddha at the Memphis Ptah temple dated to the time of Cambyses. "Ptah" is etymologized as " The Opener", Hebrew 'patah', " open", Arabic 'iftah', "open ' as Sanskrit dictionaries state that Budh means " open" bedides meaning" awake "

[zak]

As a lay person, I didn't understand a word of what was said by Mr. Gach. The two gentlemen are too knowledgeable.

[mikelis]

¨As for Islam in China during Li Bai's time, it's likely that there were some Muslim traders and travelers present in China during the Tang Dynasty, but Islam had not yet spread widely throughout the country. The Tang Dynasty was a period of significant cultural exchange and trade between China and the Islamic world, and there were likely some Muslim communities in China's southern and western regions. However, Islam did not become a major religion in China until the 10th century CE, during the Song Dynasty.¨ Sir, what prove do you have that Libai was half muslim? He was born in 701AD, it´s highly unlikely.