Talk overviews

About these overviews

Each overview is a short summary of one talk or a whole series: what I perceived in it as the central idea (or ideas), and the connections without which those ideas would lose their meaning. I write it in plain language so that readers have a starting point even without a background in Buddhist terminology. You find the overview at the start of the talk page; a series page has its own overview and a preview of each talk.

The overviews are made to the best of my knowledge and are not 100% precise. I may miss an important nuance, misunderstand what the speaker meant, or put the emphasis somewhere other than where the speaker would put it.

An overview contains what I perceived as the central idea (or ideas); other viewpoints are possible. Another listener may hear a different emphasis in the same talk. An overview is neither a summary authorised by the speaker nor an interpretation of the teaching.

An overview does not replace the talk. The full text is on the talk page and, where we have a recording, so is the audio or video. See also About talk transcripts and translations.

The overviews of Shobogenzo chapters are explained separately: one-minute overviews.