Study the Dhamma in a small group, testing claims by reasoning
Meet with two to five people, read one short passage, and test its claims against evidence and experience, marking what cannot yet be settled as open.
Why it works
Suna (2025) reports Ambedkar’s vision as one of rationalising and humanising religion. A group that tests each claim against evidence and experience, rather than accepting it on authority, puts that framing into practice rather than only describing it. Naming what the group cannot settle keeps the inquiry honest about the historical disputes that surround the texts.
How to do it
- Gather two to five people and agree on one short passage, from The Buddha and His Dhamma or from the vows.
- Each person states, in one sentence, what the passage claims.
- Test it together: what evidence would show it true or false, and where does it match your experience and where does it not?
- Mark any claim the group cannot test as open, not settled.
- Close by naming one question to bring to the next session.
Evidence
Suna (2025) reports Ambedkar’s vision as rationalising and humanising religion. No study has tested a group inquiry of this kind, so the practice itself is untested. (anecdotal)
Testing claims by reasoning does not settle questions of historical fact that scholars still dispute. Mark those as open.
Sources
Common mistake
Treating the group as a debate to win, rather than a shared inquiry in which a claim may be revised.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Navayana Buddhism: Ambedkar’s Path, the 1956 Nagpur Conversion and Its Practices
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Take up the Three Jewels and the Five Precepts as the 1956 ceremony framed them, in the company of a community and a teacher rather than alone.
- Read The Buddha and His Dhamma slowly, as an argument
Read Ambedkar’s book-length account of the Buddha and his Dhamma in short parts, writing down the claim each part makes and where it asks you to change how you act.
- Reflect on the 22 vows one group at a time
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