The mechanisms of karma and rebirth are contentious for many modern people. This talk examines their various presentations in the early texts on the basis of their (1) viability as natural phenomena (2) benefit as a support for the practice of Dhamma. I argue that (2) is the overriding consideration, given that Buddhism is a practice tradition, not science. The Buddha did not make claims of absolute truth, but rather provided working assumptions to guide our practice. The meaning of these teachings differs between mundane and supramundane levels of practice, and are often misunderstood in a way that can be detrimental to practice.

The Culture of Awakening Project is an ongoing exploration of the Buddha's teachings from a socioculltural perspective. Given the naturalistic method of my research, this exploration engages a lot of scholarly disciplines besides Buddhist studies, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, evolutionary science, primatology, philosophical ethics, social psychology and others. The claims made here are provisional; some are likely to be revised as the exploration proceeds, until the results are published. Please visit me at cintita.org to participate in discussion.

The present talk introduces the Buddhist practice of "purifying the mind," and compares it to the ethics of Aristotle and Confucius as a practice of acquiring the "skill of virtue." We look at human nature as a dualism, the "inner chimp" and the "inner human." The latter is hyper-social and cooperative, almost bee-like (arguments for this in future episodes).

This is the fifth talk delivered by Bhikkhu Cintita at the Satipatthana Rethought retreat held at the American Bodhi Center in Hemstead, Texas, May 24-27.