The shape of the earth was mentioned in the text: When it is midday on the continent of Jambudvipa, the sun is setting on the continent of Purvavideha in the east and rising above the continent of Aparagodaniya in the west while it is midnight on the continent of Uttarakuru in the north. When it is midday in Aparagodaniya, the sun is setting in Jambudvipa and rising in Uttarakuru, while it is midnight in Purvavideha. When it is midday in Uttarakuru, the sun is setting in Aparagodaniya and rising in Purvavideha, while it is midnight in Jambudvipa. When it is midday in Purvavideha, the sun is setting in Uttarakuru and rising in Jambudvipa while it is midnight in Aparagodaniya. - Lengthy Discourses

Thank you for this informed and reasonable conversation on an important topic! 🙏

Great conversation. Ajahn Punnadhammo has great talks.

Excellent stream.

i'm surprised that our learned & extinguished panellist missed discussing about Magahi / Magadhi, earlier it was Magadhi Prakrit believed to be spoken by the Buddha, and the language of the ancient kingdom of Magadha. Buddha did not give any sermons in Pali, Is it true that since, Magadhi was strictly a spoken language and the text had to be written in Sri Lanka, ancient Sinhala was used for this purpose ?

I did study Abhidhamma in Bangkok with Ajahn Sujin Boriharnwanaket (the study group was small but fierce...); it was always interesting to see how some mendicants would come in and be "dhammically" burnt to a crisp...Ajahn Sujin's take was always: "Why meditate without right view?" I don't particularly lean towards Abhidhamma, but recognise its value and utility as a tool to test one's grasp of dhamma (even negatively, i.e., as a way to hone our knowledge of the suttas, for instance). I understand that the preceding is more of a statement than a question, but if Pannobhasa Reynolds so wishes he may treat it as one in some future Q&A.

Thank you for this video. Very useful and interesting discussions. Metta to all

Interesting discussion

Very interesting and informative discussion gentlemen..I truly enjoyed it.

34:40 Vinaya 52:02 Abhidhamma 1:06:32 Commentaries

Humans in Jambudvipa continent and the Humans in other 3 continents are not same Humans and their oceans are different too. Therefore, the earth is like a galaxy with a spiral arm made by hidden matter. So the stories in those texts are not only relevant to our Human realm.

Though you covered some interesting points you missed out the most important point is that the teaching of the Buddha is verifiable by your own experience. Within every Buddhist tradition that exists there are several teachings that are the core. The 4 Noble truths and the 3 characteristics of Impemanence, Suffering, and Not Self. Within the Sutta collections you forgot to talk about where they started from. The first and second suttas attributed to the Buddha are the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma sutta and the Characteristics of Not self sutta. If you start your examination from that point then you can work out the rest from your own experience in meditation. The Tipitaka started from that point in time where the Buddha taught the group of five monks. That should be the starting point for any investigation of authenticity of the Buddhist texts. It doesnt matter which language the teaching is recorded in as much as that it holds the meaning of the teaching within it. So Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, Anatta Lakkhana sutta and mahasatipatthana sutta are the keys for experiencing the teaching in your own life. You cant go wrong if you start there and understand them. He who sees Dhamma sees the Buddha.

Ajahn Punnadhammo, with regard to his comment regarding the canon of scripture, is completely wrong. Emperor Constantine did not have the final say in confirming the canon; his role in that council was purely that of the one who called the bishops and arranged for that council to take place. It is also should be remembered that the Council of Nicea was called to address contemporary issues of the time, such as the Arian heresy. Keep the historical context in mind. If you're going to critique Christianity, at least know the fundamental facts of Church history.

Catholic theology and tradition is that the words of the Bible are divinely inspired, and therefore Jesus had to have spoken all the words ascribed to him in the Bible. Church law says that if someone were to publicly state the opposite to you, he would be a "public heretic" and automatically "put himself outside the Church" having "separated himself from it." If a priest were to do that, he might even lose his priestly status, I'm not sure. Nevertheless this position has been publicly maintained by some priests and theologians without punishment since modernism and liberalism took over after the death of pope pius the twelfth.

The belief that Jesus didn't exist is a very very fringe belief and the history of what became canon in the New testament is far more complex than just Constantine and the council of Nicea.

20:00 Do you believe in Dianasors?

Abhidhamma is the greatest science in Buddhism.

Thanks for the once again interesting discussion, in my view : Buddhist texts are almost meaningless. Truth is simple and clear and has instructions and meaning. These texts never say anything. How many times can you say Buddha is the greatest and this is the true dhamma the really really true dhamma and no doubt about it ? It's just nonsense. The first thing is that conceptual models of the outer structure, the inner structure, and also of practice are useless without practice .... in other words with verification through attainment. Otherwise it is nothing - if you aren't going to verify with attainment then why are you reading ? The second thing is there are certain barriers to verification that come from fundamental delusions like I don't exist or God doesn't exist ... these are cunning barriers to any form of structured knowledge. The third thing is such things as transmission can be investigated so that some technical details are learned. But, the fundamental problem is that human beings are so used to talking nonsense for thousands of years always of the type "this is the dhamma the true dhamma and no hokey-pokey about it" ... modern Western man needs to sharpen his knife and put these things into their place. Of course there is something there but these ancient Chinese whispers go on forever. You know the fact that people have taken to chanting these sutras says very little about human intelligence, why not just bang the sutra on the forehead - maybe it can go in that way !

This is why many people reject the very negative ideas about women in the texts. The authenticity of these texts is in question.

Brian and the Ajan are funny. They doubt the existence of Jesus but don't realize that scientists doubt the existence of Buddha as well. "My religion is always right" I guess. Look up "The Authencity of the Early Buddhist Texts." It's two monks arguing for the scientifically controversial claim that the four main suttas are authentic.