The Bhante Punnaji Podcast

By Sanathavihari Bhikkhu

The Bhante Punnaji Podcast is a channel dedicated to sharing the radical explorations of Pre-Sectarian Buddhism, according to Bhante's understanding. The legacy of Bhante Punnaji's teachings is based ... more

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FAQs about The Bhante Punnaji Podcast:

How many episodes does The Bhante Punnaji Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 23 episodes available.

The Bhante Punnaji Podcast episodes:

March 19, 2025Healing Through the Dhamma: Bhante Saranapala on Kindfulness & Compassion
In this episode, Bhante Sanāthāvihārī (creator of this podcast) speaks with Bhante Dr. Saranapala, the "Kindful Canada Monk," about his journey, his teachings, and his mission to spread mindfulness and kindness worldwide. You'll hear about:

Bhante Saranapala’s path from ordaining in Bangladesh at age 10 to bringing the Dhamma to Canada and beyond
How he employs kindfulness, a concept that blends mindfulness with kindness as a tool for emotional and psychological healing
His global initiative, A Mindful and Kind Nation, and how he shares Dhamma with police officers, banks, and legal professionals
Insights into the teachings of Bhante Punnaji, including fresh interpretations of Buddhist terms like dukkha ("difficult to handle") and satipaṭṭhāna ("placing attention within")
The connection between Dhamma and modern psychology, and how Bhante Puññaji bridged Buddhist philosophy with Western therapeutic concepts
Why personal transformation is the key to societal change, and how small daily acts of kindness can create a more harmonious world
The power of humor and joy in spiritual practice, and how teachers like the Dalai Lama and Ajahn Brahm use laughter to uplift and inspire

Join us for a thoughtful and engaging conversation on the transformative power of Dhamma in everyday life!

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
58min
August 02, 2024Satipaṭṭhāna: Q&A
In this episode you'll hear Bjante Puññaji answer a number of audience questions, covering a wide range of topics, including:
How meditation leads to a virtuous circle, that eventually leads to liberation

How to apply appropriate attention

The currents of Western philosophy in contrast with Buddhism

How experience arises

What the problem of existence is

How conditionality works

The interactions between emotions and thoughts in the mind

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
48min
July 04, 2024Satipaṭṭhāna: How to Cultivate Both Samatha & Vipassanā
In this episode you'll learn:
How emotions can derail us

How meditation helps us solve our thinking problem

How calming emotions helps us act more skillfully

How to calm these emotions by calming the body and calming the mind

What is samādhi

The transition from satipaṭṭhāna to samādhi through the seven factors of awakening

How deeper levels of concentration help us understand the process of experience

How understanding the process of experience with wisdom and knowledge helps put an end to suffering and attain liberation

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
58min
June 07, 2024Satipaṭṭhāna: Western Psychology and Buddhist Psychology
In this episode you'll learn:
The importance of taking care of your mind

Why relaxation is important

How the breath and relaxation are connected

How relaxation is letting go

What materialism is

How the scientific perspective of the body, brain and mind relates to Buddhism

How Western psychology developed an understanding of the phenomena of the brain and mind

How Western psychology explains and deals with the problems of the mind

The four Upādānas (normally translated as "clinging") and the process of personalizing

How personalizing is suffering

How the process of personalizing is stopped by giving up the idea of self

The process of cognition in Buddhist psychology

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
1h 23min
June 01, 2024Satipaṭṭhāna: Breathing Instructions and Observing the Mind
In this episode you'll learn:
How to take stock of the mind

How to become conscious and stopping unwholesome thoughts and reactions

How to explore the breath through the sensations of the body

How to calm the mind and relax the body

The conditions necessary to enter Jhāna

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
15min
April 24, 2024Satipaṭṭhāna: Meditation Instructions
In this second part covering Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation, you'll learn:
How to bring the attention inward

Why mediation is beneficial

What calming the mind means

How meditation helps us to let go

How to deal with certain hindrances to our meditation

What existence is and how it relates to feeling

The problems with pleasure and pain

How to comfort someone going through pain

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
51min
April 10, 2024Satipaṭṭhāna: Introduction to Meditation
In this episode you'll learn:
what meditation means in the words of the Buddha
how to draw your attention inward

how to relax the body such that we can deal with emotional problems

how to create a life that supports our practice of meditation

how meditation extends beyond what we normally think

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
1h 32min
November 09, 2023The Four Divine Abodes
In this episode you'll learn:
What the divine abodes, or brahmavihārā, are

How each of the four abodes—goodwill (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), empathetic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā)—work

Why it's hard to follow the precepts when we do not develop these four qualities

How the brahmavihārā, through an interest in others, leads to relief of suffering

Why the brahmavihārā are not emotional excitement

How the divine abodes lead into one another successively

How the abodes eventually lead us into seeing things clearly

The relationship between the brahmavihārā and our behavior

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
27min
October 24, 2023The Fabric of Reality
In this episode you'll hear about:
how Buddhism isn't at odds with the scientific conception of the world

how the line between the material and the spiritual is blurred when considered from the buddhist point of view

what psychic powers are and how they arise

what the Jhānas are and how one gets into them

how the mind works

Buddhist psychology

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
1h 36min
October 12, 2023Buddhist Determinism: Concurrence of Antecedents
In this episode you'll learn about:
Determinism and how it differs from dogmatic views of divine intervention

The cognitive process by which experience is constructed

How emotions are born out of ignorance and why they're the source of our problems

How to liberate ourselves from our emotions by understanding how the different factors of experience come into play

What role jhāna plays in liberation

The process of jhāna and how it differs from a state of hypnosis

Dependent Origination, the principle that explains how the world of experience arises, and which constitutes the teaching of the Middle Way

Bhante's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bhantepunnajivideo
Bhante's Website: http://protobuddhism.com
Bhante's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhantepunnaji
...more
1h 19min

FAQs about The Bhante Punnaji Podcast:

How many episodes does The Bhante Punnaji Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 23 episodes available.