The Refuge of Dhamma: Exploring the Buddha’s Discourses

The Refuge of Dhamma: Exploring the Buddha's Discourses

Dive into the beauty of the Buddha’s teachings, reading discourses from the Pāli Canon in accessible English translations.

with Sean Oakes, PhD

In this study and practice series, we dive into the beauty of the Buddha’s teachings, reading discourses from the Pāli Canon in accessible English translations. This course collects the first two classes in the series, beginning with important short discourses that provide a strong foundation for a lifetime of practice, and the Buddha’s first discourse, in which he teaches the Four Noble Truths and begins the lineage of Dharma transmission that still shapes our practice and community. 

Reflections from Past Participants

What You'll Practice

This Course is for You if:

What You Receive

11.5 hrs of video teachings 

4 Guided meditations 

Readings, Self-Inquiry, and Integration Practices

Live Community Question & Response sessions

Interviews with Founding Insight Meditation teachers

Lifetime Access to Course

Course Syllabus

  • Intro & Welcome
  • Reading: Overview of the Pāli Canon
  • Reading: With Rohitassa (AN 4.45, tr. Sujato)
  • Practice: Embodiment in the Here & Now
  • Skywalker Rohitassa Learns Embodiment
  • Meditation: Guided audio session
  • Inquiry and Further Study: Mindfulness of the Body
  • Reading: With the Kālāmas of Kesamutta (AN 3.65, tr. Sujato)
  • Practice: Lovingkindness Through the Whole Body
  • Authority and Discernment in the Kālāma Sutta
  • Meditation: Guided audio session
  • Inquiry and Further Study: Kamma/Karma
  • Reading: The People of Sālā (MN 41, tr. Sujato)
  • Practice: Arriving in the Here & Now
  • The People of Sālā Ask About Rebirth & the Answer is Ethics
  • Meditation: Guided audio session
  • Inquiry and Further Study: Rebirth & Ethics
  • Reading: The Simile of the Cloth (MN 7, tr. Sujato)
  • Practice: Finding Well-being Through Practice
  • Purification Means Letting Go
  • Meditation: Guided audio session
  • Inquiry and Further Study: Purification & Liberation
  • Reading: Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma (SN 56.11, tr. Bodhi)
  • Practice: Setting up the Conditions for Seeing Clearly
  • The Buddha Turns the Dhamma Wheel
  • Meditation: Guided audio session
  • Inquiry and Further Study: The Middle Way
  • Accordion ContentReading: MN 26
  • Practice: Mindfulness of the Body & Breath
  • A Struggling Young Man Leaves Home
  • Practice: Celebrating the Buddha’s Awakening
  • Liberated and Ready to Teach! Maybe…
  • Meditation: Multiple guided sessions
  • Inquiry and Further Study: The Life of the Buddha, Dependent Origination
  • Reading: The Longer Discourse With Saccaka (MN 36)
  • Practice: Grounding Through the Senses
  • Rejecting Mortification
  • Meditation: Guided audio session
  • Inquiry and Further Study: Jainism & Prāṇāyāma
  • Reading: DN 2
  • Practice: Grounding Mindfulness in the Full Body
  • The Haunted King Seeks Peace
  • Practice: The Heart of Samādhi
  • Forgiveness is Only the Beginning
  • Meditation: Multiple guided sessions
  • Inquiry and Further Study: False Teachers, Renunciation & Samādhi

Meet The Teacher

Sean Oakes, PhD

The Refuge of Dhamma: Exploring the Buddha's Discourses​ teacher

Sean Oakes, PhD, teaches the Dharma with a focus on the integration of meditation, study, and self-inquiry with trauma resolution and social justice. He has studied in Theravāda, Zen, and Vajrāyāna Buddhist lineages, including training as a monk in Burma, and was authorized to teach Insight Meditation by Jack Kornfield in 2010. He completed the Dedicated Practitioner (DPP1), Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga (MYMT2), and Community Dharma Leader (CDL5) trainings at Spirit Rock. In addition to mentor Jack Kornfield, Dr. Oakes’ primary Buddhist teachers include Sylvia Boorstein and Eugene Cash, Kitissaro and Ṭhānissara, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Anam Thubten, and Sayadaw U Janaka, with whom he ordained as a bhikkhu for a Rains Retreat in Burma in 2002. He studied Yoga with Alice Joanou, Rachel Shaw, Amanda Moran, and David Moreno, and taught mindfulness-based Yoga āsana and prāṇāyāma for 10 years. He studied and performed for many years in music, dance, and performance art, and trained in Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Organic Intelligence (OI) with Steven Hoskinson, integrating the complex systems approach from OI in a distinctively Buddhist approach to trauma resolution. Sean teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, and online with Insight Timer, Yoga International, and other lovely organizations. He received his PhD in Performance Studies from UC Davis in 2016, writing on states of consciousness in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance, and lives in Northern California on ancestral Pomo territory with his family and beloved community.

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Payment Plan

11 weekly payments of

$99

Full Payment

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$999

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