The "Insight" tradition is derived from the "southern route" of Southeast Asian Theravadan in Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand, so we will start with this, and more generally some of the historical context within which Buddhism arose in India; the extent to which material attributable to the Buddha actually derives from a single historical person, the institutionalization of Buddhism after the death of the Buddha, culminating in the written Pali Canon following about 500 years of a purely oral tradition, and then later influential commentaries, notably the Visuddhimagga. We will then skip forward to the specific and rather idiosyncratic circumstances of this approach which came into the US starting in the 1980s.

Suggested reading:

• Barbara O'Brien. "Who was the Buddha?" Lion's Roar July-2020. https://www.lionsroar.com/who-was-the-buddha/
• Lion's Roar staff. "What is the Pali Canon?" (Oct-2018) https://www.lionsroar.com/what-is-the-pali-canon/
• Derek Pyle. "What is American Theravada Buddhism in the 21st Century?" (Mar-2019) https://www.lionsroar.com/theravada-buddhism-america/

Link to slides from talk (pdf file)

Link to rough outline for the talk (pdf file)

Other resources

• Karen Armstrong. Buddha. (2001) (relatively short and very clearly written narrative of the life of the Buddha looking at various textual sources—trying to sort the probable from the mythical—and historical context)
• Thich Nhat Hanh. Old Path, White Clouds. (1987) A very extended life of the Buddha; one of TNH's first works and you can also see various ways he is developing his modernizing concepts via what is included and excluded.
• Donald S. Lopez. The Buddha: Biography of a Myth. (2025) In search for the historical Buddha, as it were; also a lot on the early 19th century interpretations.
• Stephen Batchelor. After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age (2017) Another search for the historical Buddha, with a secular intent and focused on the specific circumstances of his time.
• Stephen Batchelor. The Buddha, Socrates, and Us (2025) The Buddha as a revolutionary ethical philosopher
• Jan Westerhoff. The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy 2019. Review here: https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/the-golden-age-of-indian-buddhist-philosophy/
• Erik Braun. The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (2013) (Braun is a major scholar in the field and teaches at UVA)
• Susan Stone. The Sati Trilogy. Novelization of the Buddha and his times by a local author/teacher
• Richard Gabriel. "Buddha: Enlightened Warrior" https://www.historynet.com/buddha-enlightened-warrior.htm (alternative view of Buddha's upbringing given that all accounts agree that he was from the kshatriya warrior class)
• Sylvia Boorstein. It's Easier Than You Think. Boorstein is a co-founding teacher of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center and an early innovator in combining insight practices and Western psychotherapy. Her memoir is Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist.
• Very detailed discussion of IMS's multiple Theravadan lineages: https://www.spiritrock.org/about/our-buddhist-lineage

Podcasts

• Jack Kornfeld. Buddhism 101. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/super-soul/id1264843400?i=1000408470928