Tagged: Buddhism
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Anālayo - Dependent Arising (2020)
1In the Buddhist concept of dependent arising, consciousness and name-and-form share a unique, reciprocal relationship, mutually conditioning each other like two bundles of reeds that can only stand by leaning together. This dynamic, where consciousness requires name-and-form for its content and name-and-form requires consciousness to be experienced, creates the continuous matrix of subjective experience. When this consciousness becomes "established" through desire, it perpetuates the cycle of rebirth, but the "unestablished consciousness" of an enlightened one (*arahant*) is no longer dependent on name-and-form, thereby ending future re-becoming. Ultimately, the text argues that consciousness is not a solution but a conditioned, impermanent, and potentially deluding part of the human predicament (*dukkha*), and its cessation is integral to achieving liberation.
Bronkhorst - Some Uses Of Dharma In Classical Indian Philosophy (2004)
2In classical Indian philosophy, the term *dharma* has two distinct primary uses, one Buddhist and one Brahmanical. In Buddhist Abhidharma, particularly the Sarvāstivāda school, *dharmas* (plural) are the ultimate, irreducible, and momentary constituents of all that exists; this atomistic view posits that only these fundamental elements are real, while complex entities like persons are non-existent composites. In contrast, the Brahmanical Vaiśeṣika school demonstrates a significant evolution in the concept of *dharma* (singular). Initially understood as 'merit' defined by Vedic injunctions, similar to the Mīmāṃsā school's view, *dharma* was later transformed by Vaiśeṣika's ontological concerns. In its classical formulation, *dharma* became a specific quality inherent in the soul (*ātman*), paired with its opposite *adharma* (demerit), absorbing the older, distinct concept of *adṛṣṭa* ('the unseen') to become a precise causal factor in a person's psychological functioning and path to liberation.
Bronkhorst - The Buddhist Noble Truths (2023)
3The Buddhist Four Noble Truths can be interpreted as scientifically plausible psychological claims when viewed through modern neuroscience and psychology. In this framework, suffering arises from the conscious awareness of conflicting, unresolved needs, a state often masked by temporary distractions like mental "flow." These conflicts and their associated desires, or "thirst," are rooted in entrenched emotional memories that form our personality, functioning like "mini-addictions." The cessation of this suffering and desire is therefore possible through memory reconsolidation, a process where reactivating these core memories allows their emotional charge to be permanently erased. The path to this goal involves accessing these otherwise hidden memories, which the author proposes could be achieved through deep mental absorption, thereby enabling the reconsolidation process to resolve the underlying conflicts at their source.
Fiordalis - Miracles in Indian Buddhist narratives and doctrine (2010)
4The narrative of the Kāśyapa brothers' conversion, a cornerstone of early Buddhist texts like the Mahāvagga, illustrates a "thaumaturgical impasse" where the Buddha initially fails to convert rival ascetics through numerous displays of superhuman power, such as taming a fire-breathing serpent, but fails to convert the ascetic Kāśyapa, who remains convinced of his own spiritual superiority. The impasse is only broken when the Buddha employs telepathy to read Kāśyapa's prideful thoughts and confronts him directly, which finally leads to his conversion and is followed by the Buddha's "Fire Sermon." By comparing alternate versions of this story from different Buddhist schools, the author demonstrates that while some accounts suggest a hierarchy in which telepathy and teaching are superior to physical miracles, other versions blend these categories, indicating that early Buddhists did not hold a single, unified view on the relationship and effectiveness of the three types of miracles—superhuman power, mind-reading, and teaching the Dharma.
Jurewicz- Playing with Fire (2000)
5In her analysis, Joanna Jurewicz posits that the Buddhist law of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda) is a polemical reinterpretation of Vedic cosmogony, which shares a similar structure and even specific concepts but is stripped of its positive value by the Buddhist doctrine of no-self (anattā). The twelve links of the Buddhist chain are shown to parallel stages of Vedic creation, where concepts like *avidyā* (ignorance) and *saṃskāra* (volition) mirror the Creator's initial state and subsequent will, and later links like *nāmarūpa* (name-and-form) and the sense bases (*ṣaḍāyatana*) map onto the *ātman's* differentiation into the cognized world. The central Vedic metaphor of a creative, divine fire (Agni) is deliberately inverted, with its "thirst" to create becoming the destructive fire of craving (*tṛṣṇā*) and its need for fuel becoming clinging (*upādāna*). By systematically removing the *ātman* as the divine agent, the Buddha reframes the entire desirable Vedic creative process as a meaningless and absurd chain of events that inevitably culminates in suffering through becoming, birth, and death (*bhava, jāti, jarāmaraṇa*).
Krishan - Buddhism and Belief in Ātman (1984)
6The central question in Buddhism regarding a permanent soul, or *ātman*, presents a significant dilemma - the doctrine of *anattā* (no-soul) appears to contradict the belief in karma and rebirth, as it leaves no entity to bear the consequences of actions. The Buddha himself rejected the extreme views of both an eternal, unchanging soul and complete annihilation after death, instead advocating a middle path. Various Buddhist schools attempted to resolve this by proposing concepts that function like a soul without being one, such as a "rebirth-linking consciousness" (*patisandhi viññāna*), an "intermediate existence" (*antarābhava*), or an inexpressible "person" (*pudgala*). The author argues that the doctrine of *anattā* is primarily a rejection of the ego and the notions of "I" and "mine," which are the root of suffering, rather than a denial of a conscious principle. This is supported by the development of concepts like the "store-consciousness" (*ālaya-vijñāna*) and post-mortem rituals in Buddhist cultures, which imply belief in a transmigrating entity. Ultimately, Buddhism seems to deny a static, eternal soul but affirms a dynamic, impermanent yet continuous empirical self that carries karma and memory, likened to a river's current, which is only extinguished upon attaining *nirvāṇa*.
Norman - The origin of Pāli and its position among the Indo-European languages (1988)
7Pāli is a Middle Indo-Aryan language that originated not as a specific regional tongue but as a composite literary dialect used for the Buddhist canon. Descending from the Indo-European language family, it developed from the various Prakrits spoken in North India following the migration of Indo-Aryan peoples and their interaction with indigenous Dravidian and Munda populations. The Buddha and his followers preached in these local vernaculars, and Pāli emerged from the subsequent effort to standardize these diverse teachings into a single language for the Theravādin tradition. While primarily based on a Western Prakrit, Pāli retains features from other dialects, such as Māgadhī, reflecting its mixed origins and the process of translation and compilation. The language was largely fixed when the canon was committed to writing in the first century B.C., after which it underwent further editorial standardization, including significant Sanskritization and, in later periods, minor influences from Sinhalese and the work of medieval Pāli grammarians.
Quiles - Nirvana and Metaphysical Experience (1979)
8The Buddhist concept of Nirvana is fundamentally a metaphysical experience, defined not as an abstract or rational conclusion but as a direct, immediate, and felt knowledge of ultimate reality or "Being." This experience, which transcends sensory perception, is the goal of Buddhism, aiming for a special wisdom (prajñā) or intuitive understanding of the Ultimate Truth that underlies all phenomena. Evidence from early texts like the *Buddha-carita*, which describes the Buddha's enlightenment as a perfect, intuitive knowledge of all things, and interpretations from scholars like D.T. Suzuki, who characterizes Satori as a profound, non-conceptual awakening, both support the view of Nirvana as an experiential encounter with the metaphysical foundation of existence itself.
Sopa - The Special Theory of Pratītyasamutpāda (1986)
9The Buddhist concept of Nirvana is fundamentally a metaphysical experience, defined not as an abstract or rational conclusion but as a direct, immediate, and felt knowledge of ultimate reality or "Being." This experience, which transcends sensory perception, is the goal of Buddhism, aiming for a special wisdom (prajñā) or intuitive understanding of the Ultimate Truth that underlies all phenomena. Evidence from early texts like the *Buddha-carita*, which describes the Buddha's enlightenment as a perfect, intuitive knowledge of all things, and interpretations from scholars like D.T. Suzuki, who characterizes Satori as a profound, non-conceptual awakening, both support the view of Nirvana as an experiential encounter with the metaphysical foundation of existence itself.
Bronkhorst, Johannes - Greater Magadha, Brill (2007)
10In *Greater Magadha*, Johannes Bronkhorst posits the existence of a distinct cultural sphere in early India, located east of the traditional Brahmanical heartland, which was the cradle of religious movements such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Ājīvikism. This culture was defined by a unique spiritual ideology centered on the belief in rebirth and karmic retribution, as well as by features like round funerary mounds (stūpas), a distinct medical tradition, and a cyclical conception of time. Bronkhorst argues that these concepts were foreign to the Vedic-Brahmanical culture to its west, which only gradually absorbed them over a long period of cultural interaction. This process is traced through Brahmanical texts that reveal varied reactions - hesitant acceptance and adaptation in the Upaniṣads and the Mahābhārata, long-term disregard by the Mīmāṃsā school, and outright rejection by the Cārvākas, whom he identifies as a Brahmanical school. A central part of the thesis involves a chronological re-evaluation of late-Vedic literature, which Bronkhorst, using evidence from grammarians like Pāṇini, argues is much later than traditionally held and was composed contemporaneously with this cultural amalgamation.
Gombrich, Richard F. - How Buddhism Began (2006)
11Richard F. Gombrich's *How Buddhism Began* argues that the Buddha's original teachings must be understood within their historical context, primarily as a debate with and reaction to contemporary religious ideas, especially those of Brahminism. Gombrich posits that the Buddha was not an essentialist philosopher concerned with 'what' things are, but a pragmatic teacher focused on 'how' they function, notably by reinterpreting concepts like *kamma* from ritual action to intention. The book's other central theme is that subsequent generations of disciples, by taking the Buddha's metaphors and allegories literally, created new doctrines and scholastic distinctions that went far beyond his original, often context-dependent, message. This process is illustrated through analyses of key texts and concepts, such as the development of 'release by insight' as an alternative to meditation and a reinterpretation of the Aṅgulimāla story, suggesting that many apparent inconsistencies in the Pali Canon arose from a failure to appreciate the Buddha's use of skillful means and the specific debates he was engaged in.