This page describes how the site is produced. The site is produced by a small editorial team, working under the constraints and the limits described below.

Who is on the team #

The editorial team is small: one editor in chief and two or three reviewers. We are not a monastic order. We are not a university. We are not a monastery. We are practitioners and readers of the standard literature.

The editor in chief is a practitioner in the Insight Meditation (Vipassana) tradition, with a background in the study of religion and several years of editorial work on Buddhist materials. The reviewers include practicing Buddhists in the Theravada, Mahayana, and Tibetan traditions, who review the articles for doctrinal accuracy in their respective areas.

The team is small and anonymous by design. We list the roles, the areas of expertise, and the standards we hold ourselves to. The content is, however, drawn from the standard scholarly literature — Bhikkhu Bodhi, Thanissaro, Peter Harvey, Donald Lopez, Richard Gombrich, Paul Williams, John Powers, and the others — and the Sources & further reading sections on each article cite those works specifically.

How the articles are written #

The site’s content is produced in a multi-step process:

  1. Drafting. The editor in chief drafts each article, drawing on the standard scholarly literature and the specific primary sources for the topic.
  2. Editorial pass. The editor in chief reviews the draft, rewrites any sections that read as templated or generic, and adds the scholarly apparatus (Sources & further reading, scholarly inline citations, page numbers where applicable).
  3. Domain review. Articles on specific traditions (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Pure Land, Chan/Zen) are reviewed by a reviewer with expertise in the relevant tradition. The reviewer’s corrections are incorporated.
  4. Source check. Each article is checked against at least three scholarly sources. Where a claim is contested, the article names the contestation. Where a claim is unverified, the article is rewritten or the claim is removed.
  5. Last-review date. The article is given a lastReviewed date in the front-matter. After one year, the article is reviewed again.

Where a fact is corrected, the correction is logged on the Corrections page. Where a reader writes in with a substantive question, the response is logged on the Corrections page or in the relevant article.

What this site is not #

  • It is not a substitute for a teacher. The single most common advice in any Buddhist tradition is find a teacher. This site will not give you that, and it cannot.
  • It is not a complete Buddhist studies curriculum. The standard introductions — Harvey, Gombrich, Williams & Tribe, Lopez — cover far more ground in far more depth.
  • It is not a confession of any particular school. Where Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana differ, we say so. Where they agree, we say so.
  • It is not an academic publication. It is an educational guide, written for general readers, with the scholarly apparatus kept light. Where you want depth, the Sources & further reading section will take you there.

How to use the site #

The site is organised in three levels: main topics (broad areas like Core Teachings, Meditation, and Traditions), sub-topics (more focused pages within each main topic), and specific articles (the detailed long-form pieces on particular teachings, practices, or texts). Most readers will do well to start with a main topic and follow the links into the sub-topics that interest them.

A short path through the site:

Corrections and feedback #

We take corrections seriously. If you find a factual error, a missing source, or an article that could be improved, please open an issue or contact us. The contact form is at the foot of every page. The Corrections page is the public record of what we have got wrong, what we have done about it, and what we are still uncertain about.

Sources #

The articles draw on the following reference works, which are cited individually in the Sources & further reading sections of each article:

  • Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism (Cambridge, 2nd ed., 2013)
  • Donald S. Lopez Jr., ed., Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics, 2004)
  • Richard Gombrich, Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2006) and What the Buddha Thought (Equinox, 2009)
  • Paul Williams with Anthony Tribe, Buddhist Thought (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2000)
  • Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India (Allen & Unwin, 1962)
  • John Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (Snow Lion, 2nd ed., 2007)
  • Christopher Queen, ed., Engaged Buddhism in the West (Wisdom, 2000)
  • David McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (Oxford, 2008)
  • Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans., In the Buddha’s Words (Wisdom, 2005)
  • Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans., The Wings to Awakening (Metta Forest Monastery, 2010) and various suttas at dhammatalks.org
  • His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The World of Tibetan Buddhism (Wisdom, 2005)

A note on the site itself #

This site is built with Hugo and served from Cloudflare’s edge. It is updated periodically; the last review of each article is shown at the top. We do not collect personal data. We do not run advertising. The site is intended as a public good.

— The editorial team