{"podcast":{"title":"Clear Mountain Monastery Project","slug":"clear-mountain-monastery-project-3695945","podcast_index_feed_id":3695945,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/clearmountainmonastery/feed.xml","website_url":"https://www.clearmountainmonastery.org/","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/19513480/Podcast_cover_Mtsi9xknl.jpg","author":"Clear Mountain Monastery","episode_count":100,"summary":"Dharma talks from monastics at Clear Mountain, an aspiring Buddhist Forest monastery in the greater Seattle area. The Forest Tradition represents a return to the simple way of life taught by the Buddha. Monastics aspire to live as the early disciples did: dwelling in the forest, studying the teachings, and devoting themselves to meditation. To learn more, visit https://wwww.clearmountain.org.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-19T18:18:52.716137+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/clear-mountain-monastery-project-3695945"},"episode":{"title":"Stanford Scholar on the Conceits & Blind Spots of Every Form of Buddhism | Prof. Paul Harrison Q&A","slug":"stanford-scholar-on-the-conceits-blind-spots-of-every-form-of-buddhism-prof-paul-harrison-q-a","published_at":"2026-06-04T14:23:25+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/clear-mountain-monastery-project-3695945/stanford-scholar-on-the-conceits-blind-spots-of-every-form-of-buddhism-prof-paul-harrison-q-a","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/clear-mountain-monastery-project-3695945","url":"https://clearmountainmonastery.podbean.com/e/stanford-scholar-on-the-conceits-blind-spots-of-every-form-of-buddhism-prof-paul-harrison-qa/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/gaz9pzcycot9p5s1/yt_video_JwXTK1up5UE_7sf3xp.mp3","summary":"In this session, Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho interview Paul Harrison, professor of religious studies at Stanford University (https://religiousstudies.stanford.edu/people/paul-harrison).00:00:00 Introduction00:01:23 Balancing academic scholarship and personal spiritual practice00:04:09 Exploring the spiritual dimension of studying Buddhist texts00:05:55 How early Mahayana Buddhism emerged00:08:56 The timeline and setting where Mahayana began to diverge00:12:54 Explanation of the Lokaksema Corpus and early ascetic Mahayana traditions00:15:21 The cultural motivations and societal forces that drove the Mahayana movement00:18:11 Why early texts lack questions about attaining full Buddhahood00:21:29 The tension between historical scholarly development and traditional faith views00:25:11 Blind spots in the Theravada and linguistic distances from Pali00:30:59 The validity of an early Buddhist text conceit vs radical doctrinal differences with Mahayana texts00:34:48 The implications of written transmission versus oral recitation, and what the Gandhari scrolls reveal about it00:38:00 Do modern scholars actively practice text memorization?00:45:59 The historical evidence for ancient Greek and Persian cross-cultural influences on early Buddhism00:49:57 The polemical framing of Sariputta and the sectarian put-downs of the Shravakas in texts like the Vimalakirti Sutra00:54:06 The most fascinating current realms of research in Buddhist academia00:56:13 The key historical and doctrinal insights gained from the Gandhari scrolls00:57:28 The utility and drawbacks of using AI for translating sacred Buddhist textsBiography of Paul Harrison:Paul Harrison is the George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. Educated in his native New Zealand and in Australia,…","meta_description":"In this session, Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho interview Paul Harrison, professor of religious studies at Stanford University (https://religiousstudies.s…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3874,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/clear-mountain-monastery-project-3695945/episodes/stanford-scholar-on-the-conceits-blind-spots-of-every-form-of-buddhism-prof-paul-harrison-q-a/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/clear-mountain-monastery-project-3695945/stanford-scholar-on-the-conceits-blind-spots-of-every-form-of-buddhism-prof-paul-harrison-q-a.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}