DOCSLIB.ORG

Causality & Emptiness the Wisdom of Nagarjuna

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Causality & Emptiness the Wisdom of Nagarjuna casualitycasuality andand emptinessemptiness TheThe WisdomWisdom ofof NagarjunaNagarjuna Dr Peter Della Santina HAN DD ET U 'S B B O RY eOK LIBRA E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.buddhanet.net Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc. causality and emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Peter Della Santina causality and emptiness: The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Copyright © 2002, Peter Della Santina Published by the Buddhist Research Society, No. 2 & 4, Lorong 24A Geylang Buddhist Singapore 398526 Research Year 2002 Society ISBN 981-04-5657-3 (pbk) singapore Printed in Singapore by C.W. Printing For free distribution causality and emptiness The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Peter Della Santina causality and emptiness: The Wisdom of Nagarjuna Copyright © 2002, Peter Della Santina Published by the Buddhist Research Society, No. 2 & 4, Lorong 24A Geylang Buddhist Singapore 398526 Research Year 2002 Society ISBN 981-04-5657-3 (pbk) singapore Printed in Singapore by C.W. Printing For free distribution I dedicate this book to the late Khenpo Migmar Tsering, principal of the Sakya Institute of Higher Buddhist Studies, Rajpur, Dehra Dun, India. His wisdom, compassion and genuine good humour are greatly missed by his students and friends. Table of Contents Table of Contents Part Four : Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas Author's Preface vii Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas 137 Section Two: Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas 147 Part One: The Good Hearted Letter Section Three: Nagarjuna's Commentary to Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas 157 Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's The Good Hearted Letter 3 Section Two: The Good Hearted Letter with 183 Explanatory Notes 8 Notes Part Two: The Heart of Interdependent Origination Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's Heart of Interdependent Origination 49 Section Two: The Stanzas of The Heart of Interdependent Origination 60 Section Three: Nagarjuna's Commentary to The Heart of Interdependent Origination 62 Part Three : Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas 69 Section Two: Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas 76 Section Three: An Explanation of Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas Based on Candrak$rti's Commentary 84 Table of Contents Table of Contents Part Four : Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas Author's Preface vii Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas 137 Section Two: Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas 147 Part One: The Good Hearted Letter Section Three: Nagarjuna's Commentary to Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas 157 Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's The Good Hearted Letter 3 Section Two: The Good Hearted Letter with 183 Explanatory Notes 8 Notes Part Two: The Heart of Interdependent Origination Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's Heart of Interdependent Origination 49 Section Two: The Stanzas of The Heart of Interdependent Origination 60 Section Three: Nagarjuna's Commentary to The Heart of Interdependent Origination 62 Part Three : Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas Section One: An Introduction to Nagarjuna's Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas 69 Section Two: Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas 76 Section Three: An Explanation of Reasoning: The Sixty Stanzas Based on Candrak$rti's Commentary 84 Causality and Emptiness: The Wisdom of Nagarjuna another of N@g@rjuna's shorter texts, Reasoning: the Sixty Stanzas.4 Finally, in 1985 when I was in Singapore working for the Ministry of Author's Preface Education, the opportunity to work on N@g@rjuna's Reasoning: The Sixty stanzas came my way. I was able to make a translation of the Genesis text with the Help of a Sakya scholar who was then resident at the Sakya center there. Later I was also able to consult Candrak$rti's In the early seventies when I first went to India to study commentary to the work. In the course of time, I was able to Buddhism, I soon came into contact with H.H. Sakya Trizin the construct an English rendering of the major themes of the forty first hierarch of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism and the commentary. Sakya community of scholars and monks which surrounded Him at The translation of the texts that appear in this book Dehra Dun and Mussoorie. It was H.H. who first introduced Jay therefore were completed over a period of twenty years from 1971 to Goldburg and myself to N@g@rjuna's The Good Hearted Letter.1 That 1991. Two of the text included in this book have in fact appeared happy event eventually led to a Translation of the letter which has before in print. The first to do so was The Heart of Interdependent been much appreciated over the years by students of Buddhism. Origination. It was published in 1974 in the Journal of Buddhist Not long afterwards, I began to work on translations of Studies of the University of Delhi. The next to appear was the some of N@g@rjuna's shorter texts which were then still translation of N@g@rjuna's The Good Hearted Letter in 1978. The untranslated. The first was very short indeed, N@g@rjuna's The remaining two translations have never been published. Of the two Heart of Interdependent Origination.2 Despite of its brevity that have appeared earlier, the translation of The Heart of however, it proved to have more than enough in it to keep a young Interdependent Origination has remained largely unchanged scholar occupied with it for sometime. It still seems to me to be of although the introduction has been considerably expanded. In the indispensible for understanding the Buddhist conception of case of N@g@rjuna's The Good Hearted Letter the translation has Interdependent Origination. been revised at many places and the commentary completely The next work to attract my interest was N@g@rjuna's rewritten. Emptiness: The Seventy Stanzas.3 It was of a totally different order N@g@rjuna declares that the Two Truths, the conventional from The Heart of Interdependent Origination. In the first place, it and the ultimate, represent the profound Truth of Buddhism. The was considerably longer than the former. In addition, the subject conventional truth is constituted by the practice of the path in matter was more difficult since it dealt with the key applications of conformity with the laws of cause and effect. The ultimate truth is the Philosophy of Emptiness. The translation of this text, none other than Emptiness. The four texts included in this book accomplished with the help of Tibetan scholars of the Gelukpa and therefore represent the whole gamut of N@g@rjuna's Wisdom from Sakya traditions, took place over a period of several years. the first practical steps to be taken on the path to Enlightenment to During the course of the translation of Emptiness: The the final ending of all stress and bondage. N@g@rjuna's The Good Seventy Stanzas, I became increasingly interested in studying Hearted letter has been used for centuries in India, Tibet and Mongolia as a basic manual of instruction for following the Buddhist way of life. In The Heart of Interdependent Origination N@g@rjuna 1Suh=llekha 2Prat$tyasamutp@dah=dayak@rik@ 3/#nyat@saptati 4Yukti&a&tik@ vii viii Causality and Emptiness: The Wisdom of Nagarjuna another of N@g@rjuna's shorter texts, Reasoning: the Sixty Stanzas.4 Finally, in 1985 when I was in Singapore working for the Ministry of Author's Preface Education, the opportunity to work on N@g@rjuna's Reasoning: The Sixty stanzas came my way. I was able to make a translation of the Genesis text with the Help of a Sakya scholar who was then resident at the Sakya center there. Later I was also able to consult Candrak$rti's In the early seventies when I first went to India to study commentary to the work. In the course of time, I was able to Buddhism, I soon came into contact with H.H. Sakya Trizin the construct an English rendering of the major themes of the forty first hierarch of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism and the commentary. Sakya community of scholars and monks which surrounded Him at The translation of the texts that appear in this book Dehra Dun and Mussoorie. It was H.H. who first introduced Jay therefore were completed over a period of twenty years from 1971 to Goldburg and myself to N@g@rjuna's The Good Hearted Letter.1 That 1991. Two of the text included in this book have in fact appeared happy event eventually led to a Translation of the letter which has before in print. The first to do so was The Heart of Interdependent been much appreciated over the years by students of Buddhism. Origination. It was published in 1974 in the Journal of Buddhist Not long afterwards, I began to work on translations of Studies of the University of Delhi. The next to appear was the some of N@g@rjuna's shorter texts which were then still translation of N@g@rjuna's The Good Hearted Letter in 1978. The untranslated. The first was very short indeed, N@g@rjuna's The remaining two translations have never been published. Of the two Heart of Interdependent Origination.2 Despite of its brevity that have appeared earlier, the translation of The Heart of however, it proved to have more than enough in it to keep a young Interdependent Origination has remained largely unchanged scholar occupied with it for sometime. It still seems to me to be of although the introduction has been considerably expanded. In the indispensible for understanding the Buddhist conception of case of N@g@rjuna's The Good Hearted Letter the translation has Interdependent Origination.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna's Middle
    Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna’s Middle Way 1994 Jonah Winters About this Book Any research into a school of thought whose texts are in a foreign language encounters certain difficulties in deciding which words to translate and which ones to leave in the original. It is all the more of an issue when the texts in question are from a language ancient and quite unlike our own. Most of the texts on which this thesis are based were written in two languages: the earliest texts of Buddhism were written in a simplified form of Sanskrit called Pali, and most Indian texts of Madhyamika were written in either classical or “hybrid” Sanskrit. Terms in these two languages are often different but recognizable, e.g. “dhamma” in Pali and “dharma” in Sanskrit. For the sake of coherency, all such terms are given in their Sanskrit form, even when that may entail changing a term when presenting a quote from Pali. Since this thesis is not intended to be a specialized research document for a select audience, terms have been translated whenever possible,even when the subtletiesof the Sanskrit term are lost in translation.In a research paper as limited as this, those subtleties are often almost irrelevant.For example, it is sufficient to translate “dharma” as either “Law” or “elements” without delving into its multiplicity of meanings in Sanskrit. Only four terms have been left consistently untranslated. “Karma” and “nirvana” are now to be found in any English dictionary, and so their translation or italicization is unnecessary. Similarly, “Buddha,” while literally a Sanskrit term meaning “awakened,” is left untranslated and unitalicized due to its titular nature and its familiarity.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies in Buddhist Hetuvidyā (Epistemology and Logic ) in Europe and Russia
    Nataliya Kanaeva STUDIES IN BUDDHIST HETUVIDYĀ (EPISTEMOLOGY AND LOGIC ) IN EUROPE AND RUSSIA Working Paper WP20/2015/01 Series WP20 Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Studies Moscow 2015 УДК 24 ББК 86.36 K19 Editor of the series WP20 «Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Studies» Vitaly Kurennoy Kanaeva, Nataliya. K19 Studies in Buddhist Hetuvidyā (Epistemology and Logic ) in Europe and Russia [Text] : Working paper WP20/2015/01 / N. Kanaeva ; National Research University Higher School of Economics. – Moscow : Higher School of Economics Publ. House, 2015. – (Series WP20 “Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Studiesˮ) – 52 p. – 20 copies. This publication presents an overview of the situation in studies of Buddhist epistemology and logic in Western Europe and in Russia. Those studies are the young direction of Buddhology, and they started only at the beginning of the XX century. There are considered the main schools, their representatives, the directions of their researches and achievements in the review. The activity of Russian scientists in this field was not looked through ever before. УДК 24 ББК 86.36 This study (research grant № 14-01-0006) was supported by The National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow). Academic Fund Program in 2014–2015. Kanaeva Nataliya – National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow). Department of Humanities. School of Philosophy. Assistant professor; [email protected]. Канаева, Н. А. Исследования буддийской хетувидьи (эпистемологии и логики) в Европе и России (обзор) [Текст] : препринт WP20/2015/01 / Н. А. Канаева ; Нац. исслед. ун-т «Высшая школа экономи- ки». – М.: Изд. дом Высшей школы экономики, 2015. – (Серия WP20 «Философия и исследо- вания культуры»).
    [Show full text]
  • Ontology of Consciousness
    Ontology of Consciousness Percipient Action edited by Helmut Wautischer A Bradford Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ( 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or me- chanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] or write to Special Sales Depart- ment, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Stone Serif and Stone Sans on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong, and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ontology of consciousness : percipient action / edited by Helmut Wautischer. p. cm. ‘‘A Bradford book.’’ Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-23259-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-73184-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Consciousness. 2. Philosophical anthropology. 3. Culture—Philosophy. 4. Neuropsychology— Philosophy. 5. Mind and body. I. Wautischer, Helmut. B105.C477O58 2008 126—dc22 2006033823 10987654321 Index Abaluya culture (Kenya), 519 as limitation of Turing machines, 362 Abba Macarius of Egypt, 166 as opportunity, 365, 371 Abhidharma in dualism, person as extension of matter, as guides to Buddhist thought and practice, 167, 454 10–13, 58 in focus of attention, 336 basic content, 58 in measurement of intervals, 315 in Asanga’s ‘‘Compendium of Abhidharma’’ in regrouping of elements, 335, 344 (Abhidharma-samuccaya), 67 in technical causality, 169, 177 in Maudgalyayana’s ‘‘On the Origin of shamanic separation from body, 145 Designations’’ Prajnapti–sastra,73 Action, 252–268.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Buddhist Theory of Impermanence and Marketing”
    “The Buddhist Theory of Impermanence and Marketing” Alan Ching Biu Tse Ka Chun Tse AUTHORS Ka Ho Tse Alan Au Vane-ing Tian Alan Ching Biu Tse, Ka Chun Tse, Ka Ho Tse, Alan Au and Vane-ing Tian ARTICLE INFO (2007). The Buddhist Theory of Impermanence and Marketing. Innovative Marketing , 3(2) RELEASED ON Tuesday, 05 June 2007 JOURNAL "Innovative Marketing " FOUNDER LLC “Consulting Publishing Company “Business Perspectives” NUMBER OF REFERENCES NUMBER OF FIGURES NUMBER OF TABLES 0 0 0 © The author(s) 2021. This publication is an open access article. businessperspectives.org Innovative Marketing, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2007 19 THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF IMPERMANENCE AND MARKETING Alan Ching Biu Tse*, Ka Chun Tse**, Ka Ho Tse***, Alan Au****, Vane-ing Tian***** Abstract The Buddhist theory of impermanence bears a high level of relevance to the many cyclical theories in marketing and economics. This article attempts to connect these two areas, both of which have general and wide-ranging implications, and explain the utility of the concept of impermanence to business managers. Key words: Marketing Management, Impermanence, Buddhist Philosophy, Cyclical Theory. he Buddhist Theory of Impermanence and Marketing The application of Buddhist logic in the development of marketing theory and practice is new. So far little, if anything, has been written on applying Buddhist logic in marketing. The lack of at- tempts to link Buddhism and business marketing is largely due to the common but over-simplistic notion that Buddhist ideologies are nihilistic and advocate that nothing is worthwhile, directly con- tradicting the profit-driven perspective of marketing managers seeking to maximize a firm’s wealth.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, Revised Edition
    REVISED EDITION John Powers ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 1 Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 2 ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 3 Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism revised edition by John Powers Snow Lion Publications ithaca, new york • boulder, colorado ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 4 Snow Lion Publications P.O. Box 6483 • Ithaca, NY 14851 USA (607) 273-8519 • www.snowlionpub.com © 1995, 2007 by John Powers All rights reserved. First edition 1995 Second edition 2007 No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission from the publisher. Printed in Canada on acid-free recycled paper. Designed and typeset by Gopa & Ted2, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Powers, John, 1957- Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism / by John Powers. — Rev. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN-13: 978-1-55939-282-2 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-55939-282-7 (alk. paper) 1. Buddhism—China—Tibet. 2. Tibet (China)—Religion. I. Title. BQ7604.P69 2007 294.3’923—dc22 2007019309 ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 5 Table of Contents Preface 11 Technical Note 17 Introduction 21 Part One: The Indian Background 1. Buddhism in India 31 The Buddha 31 The Buddha’s Life and Lives 34 Epilogue 56 2. Some Important Buddhist Doctrines 63 Cyclic Existence 63 Appearance and Reality 71 3. Meditation 81 The Role of Meditation in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism 81 Stabilizing and Analytical Meditation 85 The Five Buddhist Paths 91 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Buddhist Idealism1
    Final draft of article in Goldschmidt & Pearce (eds.) Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics, Oxford (2017) Buddhist Idealism1 Bronwyn Finnigan School of Philosophy Australian National University Idealism has been a prominent philosophical view in Indian Buddhist thought since the 4th century CE. It was a topic of considerable debate for centuries amongst Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophers in India and Tibet. It also had a significant influence on the intellectual culture of China and Japan. Much can be gained from contemporary engagement with these arguments. It has the potential to reveal cross-cultural antecedents to contemporary views, new arguments that could be re-mobilised in current debates, and may challenge the presuppositions that frame Western discussions of idealism by providing alternatives. There are several ways to approach such a study. One approach is comparative; taking the Western philosophical tradition as one’s starting point and considering the extent to which Buddhist arguments might advance or depart from established views. While there are many potential benefits of this approach, it runs the risk of reading Western philosophical commitments into Buddhist thought rather than drawing a genuine comparison. There is also considerable debate on either side of the comparative divide about the nature and presuppositions of idealistic arguments, issues which would need to be carefully addressed and potentially resolved for a genuine comparison. 1 I would like to thank Dan Arnold, Jay Garfield, Jonathan Gold, Shinya Moriyama, Tom Tillemans and the editors of this book for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. 1 Final draft of article in Goldschmidt & Pearce (eds.) Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics, Oxford (2017) This chapter will take a more modest approach.
    [Show full text]
  • The Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth- Century Amdo Scholar Sum Pa Mkhan Po Ye Shes Dpal ’Byor (1704-1788)
    Renaissance Man From Amdo: the Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth- Century Amdo Scholar Sum Pa Mkhan Po Ye Shes Dpal ’Byor (1704-1788) The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:40050150 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Renaissance Man From Amdo: The Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth-Century Amdo Scholar Sum pa Mkhan po Ye shes dpal ’byor (1704-1788) ! A dissertation presented by Hanung Kim to The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History and East Asian Languages Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April, 2018 © 2018 – Hanung Kim All rights reserved. ! Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp Hanung Kim Renaissance Man From Amdo: The Life and Scholarship of the Eighteenth- Century Amdo Scholar Sum pa Mkhan po Ye shes dpal ’byor (1704-1788) Abstract! This dissertation examines the new cultural developments in eighteenth-century northeastern Tibet, also known as Amdo, by looking into the life story of a preeminent monk- scholar, Sum pa Mkhan po Ye shes dpal ’byor (1708-1788). In the first part, this study corroborates what has only been sensed by previous scholarship, that is, the rising importance of Amdo in Tibetan cultural history.
    [Show full text]
  • 13. Tibetan Buddhism.Pdf
    Prajïäpäramitä Sütra, Tibetan Manuscript Tibetan Buddhism Çäntideva's Bodhisattva Vow 12. By giving up all, sorrow is transcended And my mind will realize the sorrowless state. [Çäntideva was an 8th century Indian Mahäyäna It is best that I now give all to all beings philosopher of the Mädhyamika school (in the line from In the same way as I shall at death. Nägärjuna). His text, the Bodhicaryävatära (Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life) still exists in Sanskrit and 13. Having given this body up its Tibetan translation is universally used in the practice of For the pleasure of all living beings, Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama regards this text to be By killing, abusing, and beating it of paramount importance. In the film Kundun, about the May they always do as they please. life of the Dalai Lama, we hear these opening verses as the young Dalai Lama is given his first instruction.] 14. Although they may play with my body And make it a thing of ridicule, 8. May I be the doctor and the medicine Because I have given it up to them And may I be the nurse What is the use of holding it dear? For all sick beings in the world Until everyone is healed. 15. Therefore I shall let them do anything to it That does not cause them any harm, 9. May a rain of food and drink descend And when anyone encounters me To clear away the pain of thirst and hunger May it never be meaningless for him. And during the eon of famine May I myself turn into food and drink.
    [Show full text]
  • Paleo-Compatibilism
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by PhilPapers Journal of Buddhist Ethics ISSN 1076-9005 http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/ Volume 19, 2012 Buddhist Reductionism and Free Will: Paleo-compatibilism Riccardo Repetti Kingsborough College, CUNY Copyright Notice: Digital copies of this work may be made and distributed provided no change is made and no alteration is made to the content. Re- production in any other format, with the exception of a single copy for pri- vate study, requires the written permission of the author. All enquiries to: [email protected]. Buddhist Reductionism and Free Will: Paleo-compatibilism Riccardo Repetti1 Abstract This is the second article in a four-article series that ex- amines Buddhist responses to the Western philosophical problem of whether free will is compatible with “deter- minism,” the doctrine of universal causation. The first ar- ticle focused on the first publications on this issue in the 1970s, the “early period”; the present article and the next examine key responses published in the last part of the Twentieth century and first part of the Twenty-first, the “middle period”; and the fourth article will examine re- sponses published in the last few years. Whereas early- period scholars endorsed compatibilism, in the middle pe- riod the pendulum moved the other way: Mark Siderits argued for a Buddhist version of partial incompatibilism, semi-compatibilism, or “paleo-compatibilism,” and Charles Goodman argued for a straightforward Buddhist hard determinism. The present article focuses on Sider- 1 Department of History, Philosophy and Political Science, Kingsborough College, CUNY.
    [Show full text]
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson: from Buddhism to Transcendentalism
    Jue 1 Ralph Waldo Emerson: From Buddhism to Transcendentalism, the Beginning of an American Literary Tradition A Senior Project presented to the Faculty of the English California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree English, Bachelor of Arts by Irene Jue May 2013 © 2013 Irene Jue Jue 2 INTRODUCTION Ralph Waldo Emerson was a key figure in the American literary tradition. He was an extraordinary and revolutionary thinker who helped found a new philosophical, social and literary movement in the United States during the early 19 th century. The movement was created as a way to protest against the general state of society at the time. Transcendentalism grew to be more than just a rebellious act against conformity, however; it became a way of life. Early in his life, Emerson identified as a Calvinist and then later a Unitarian, even becoming a Unitarian minister. However, after the death of his first wife, he renounced his Unitarian beliefs and gave up the observance of any specific kind of religion, instead adopting many different philosophies and epistemologies. Although Emerson was a great thinker, many of his ideas were influenced by other intellectual figures and philosophies, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, the theories of Immanuel Kant, and many more. One of the most significant influences on Emerson’s transcendental ideals was Buddhism. Although there is evidence of Emerson studying Indian Buddhism, many of his philosophies seem to parallel with the school of Zen Buddhism. FUNDAMENTALS OF BUDDHISM Buddhism originated in India, but it is now practiced throughout the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Explanations of Dukkha 383
    Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume 21 • Number 2 • 1998 PIERRE ARfcNES Herm6neutique des tantra: 6tude de quelques usages du «sens cach6» 173 GEORGES DREYFUS The Shuk-den Affair: History and Nature of a Quarrel 227 ROBERT MAYER The Figure of MaheSvara/Rudra in the rNin-ma-pa Tantric Tradition 271 JOHN NEWMAN Islam in the Kalacakra Tantra 311 MAX NIHOM Vajravinaya and VajraSaunda: A 'Ghost' Goddess and her Syncretic Spouse 373 TILMANN VETTER Explanations of dukkha 383 Index to JIABS 11-21, by Torn TOMABECHI 389 English summary of the article by P. Arenes 409 TILMANN VETTER Explanations of dukkha The present contribution presents some philological observations and a historical assumption concerning the First Noble Truth. It is well-known to most buddhologists and many Buddhists that the explanations of the First Noble Truth in the First Sermon as found in the Mahavagga of the Vinayapitaka and in some other places conclude with a remark on the five upadanakkhandha, literally: 'branches of appro­ priation'. This remark is commonly understood as a summary. Practically unknown is the fact that in Hermann OLDENBERG's edition of the Mahavagga1 (= Vin I) this concluding remark contains the parti­ cle pi, like most of the preceding explanations of dukkha. The preceding explanations are: jati pi dukkha, jara pi dukkha, vyadhi pi dukkha, maranam pi dukkham, appiyehi sampayogo dukkho, piyehi vippayogo dukkho, yam p' iccham na labhati tarn2 pi dukkham (Vin I 10.26). Wherever pi here appears it obviously has the function of coordinating examples of events or processes that cause pain (not: are pain3): birth is causing pain, as well as decay, etc.4 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Ram-Indlogic
    The monkey on the tree and other dilemmas R. Ramanujam The Institute of Mathematical Sciences Chennai - 600 113 email: [email protected] Colloquium, Hangzhou, May 27, 2019 First words . I Thanks to Wang Yi for this opportunity and to Zhejiang University for the wonderful atmosphere. I Please feel free to interrupt any time to comment or question. I Statutory Warning: I am not a Sanskrit scholar or expert on the ancient Indian systems of logic, am only sharing what I have learned from secondary sources. Acknowledgements: 1 Bimal Krishna Matilal I Bimal Krishna Matilal (1935 | 1991): an influential Indian philosopher who wrote extensively on the Indian philosophical tradition in logic. I From 1977 to 1991 he was the Spalding Professor of Philosophy at University of Oxford. Acknowledgements: 2 Jonardon Ganeri I Jonardon Ganeri is a philosopher whose work spans the philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology. He is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy (2017). I The Open Minds magazine named him of one of its 50 global open minds for 2016. He is currently in New York. I Almost everything I am talking of here is from Ganeri's writing, and the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosphy. I Epistemic: Under what conditions does knowledge of some facts permit knowledge of another fact. I Dialectic: Under what conditions does the acceptance by someone of some facts require him or her to accept some other fact. I Linguistic: Use the forms of linguistic expressions to identify forms of inferences and arguments. This is the modern method. Indian philosphers seem to have been mostly preoccupied with the first three.
    [Show full text]