dharma talk

noun

A public discourse by a Buddhist teacher, similar to a sermon or homily, and distinguished from a lecture by being shorter and less formal.

Meanings

noundharma talk (plural dharma talks)

plural dharma talks

  1. BuddhismA public discourse by a Buddhist teacher, similar to a sermon or homily, and distinguished from a lecture by being shorter and less formal.

    It is important to note that a dharma talk is not a lecture, although it has a didactic purpose. Such a talk is given usually as an accompaniment to a period of meditation.

    2014 February 19, Charles R. Strain, The Prophet and the Boddhisattva: Daniel Berrigan, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Ethics of Peace and Justice, Wipf and Stock Publishers
    1 more example

    I'd never given a dharma talk before, much less in the local Lao dialect, to hundreds of people. I just got up there, and he said, "Tell them what you know of the dharma, go to it."

    2011, Jack Kornfield, Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

dharma talk. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dharma%20talk

MLA

“dharma talk.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dharma%20talk. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dharma talk,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dharma%20talk.

Source: dharma talk on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.