Next Step Dharma

About Oren Jay Sofer

Oren Jay Sofer teaches meditation and communication internationally. He holds a degree in comparative religion from Columbia University, is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication, and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for the healing of trauma. Oren is also the author of several books, including the best-seller “Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication” and his latest book, “Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices to Meet a World In Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love.”

His teaching has reached people around the world through his online communication courses and guided meditations. A husband and a father, Oren lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys cooking, spending time in nature, and home woodworking projects.

About Spirit Rock & Insight Meditation

Spirit Rock is a spiritual training institution in the Insight Meditation tradition grounded in the Buddha’s teachings in the Pāli discourses. Our vision and mission is to bring people to a depth of realization of the Buddha’s path of liberation through direct experience, and to provide practitioners with teachings to manifest wisdom and compassion in all aspects of their lives, for the benefit of all beings. We welcome practitioners of all backgrounds and levels of experience to join communities of learning, support, and connection in our spiritual sanctuary and refuge.

This course is part of Spirit Rock’s new Dharma Institute, which offers in-depth study of the teachings and practices of the Buddha and the Insight Meditation lineage, along with professional trainings and continuing education. 

Spirit Rock was founded in 1986 by a group of Insight Meditation teachers, including Jack Kornfield, who, along with Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, and Jacqueline Schwartz, founded Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, MA, in 1976. These centers, along with Gaia House (Devon, UK), are among the first centers teaching Insight Meditation (vipassanā) in the West. Read more about the founding of Spirit Rock and IMS in Jack Kornfield’s article “This Fantastic, Unfolding Experiment.” 

Insight Meditation is based in Theravāda (“The Way of the Elders”) Buddhism, as practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), and Thailand, though our teachers carry many different lineages within—and outside—Theravāda. Our primary practices are based in the Mahāsī lineage of Burmese vipassanā and the Thai Forest Saṅgha lineage of Ajahn Chah. Read more aboutour Buddhist Lineage and listen to talks from teachers about the roots of our practice.

Intro to the Pāli Canon

This presentation gives a brief overview of the collection of early Buddhist texts known as the Pāli Canon. It includes the story of how the spoken teachings of the Buddha came to be memorized and eventually written and translated and an overview of the Canon itself, one of the most majestic collections of spiritual and philosophical literature in the world.

Abbreviations for the collections in the Pāli Canon

Sutta Nipāta (Snp): Anthology of Discourses, an early text that is part of the Khuddaka Nikāya

Majjhima Nikāya (MN): The Middle-Length Discourses

Saṁyutta Nikāya (SN): The Connected Discourses

Aṅguttara Nikāya (AN): The Numbered Discourses

Dīgha Nikāya (DN): The Long Discourses

Further Resources

For more on the Pāli Canon, as well as the Chinese Āgama collection and much more, explore the fantastic online resource for Early Buddhist study, Sutta Central. This beautiful site has nearly the entire Sutta and Vinaya collections from the Pāli Canon translated into English and many other contemporary languages. Some good places to start include the Introduction, Getting Started, and A Reader’s Guide to the Pali Suttas sections.

Another deep resource for study is the voluminous output of Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, an American monastic scholar. His publication website, Dhamma Talks, has a vast collection of his scholarship, study guides, meditation teaching, and translation work freely available.

The magisterial American monastic scholar and translator Bhikkhu Bodhi has recorded a 221 class series on the Majjhima Nikāya, a 187 class series on the Aṅguttara Nikāya, and much more.

Questions?

Visit Help for additional information and guidance. After visiting the Help page, if you still need support with the Online Learning Platform, email OLPsupport@spiritrock.org.