Buddhism and Descartes This Paper Proposes an Alternative Conception of Persistence That Challenges Our Basic Presupposition About Persistence of Persons
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Abstracts: 1. Itsuki Hayashi, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Ontology of Discontinuity: Buddhism and Descartes This paper proposes an alternative conception of persistence that challenges our basic presupposition about persistence of persons. We presuppose the ontology of continuity, the belief that the basic nature of existence is to continue to exist. I give arguments for the opposite view: the ontology of discontinuity, according to which the basic nature of existence is to perish unless made to continue. The arguments in support of the ontology of discontinuity come from Descartes and the Buddhist logicians, such as Dharmakīrti, Śāntarakṣita and Ratnakīrti. The main purpose of this paper is to articulate the ontology of discontinuity through the discussion of these philosophers. Keywords: Persistence, Personal Identity, Causation, Creation, Buddhism, Descartes. 2. Sergey Yu. Lepekhov, ScD of Philosophy, professor, Deputy Director of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Social Sciences. The principles of open society and ideals of Buddhist civilization According to Popper, democracy, and the one of the western type at that, is the best form of the state system which makes open society possible. At the same time, democratic traditions and institutions have been historically developing not only in the West but also in the East. The same can be said of science and rationalistic philosophy that play a decisive role in Popper‘s concept. A number of crucial principles of Buddhist civilization forming throughout the millennium appear to be quite corresponding to the model of open society. The principles of universal humanism and compassion as the staple of the world; the principle of universal responsibility for forming social institutes and organizations aimed to solve problems common to all people; the principle of tolerance and common ethical direction of all world religions can be attributed to such principles. The humanistic ideal of Buddhism is an individual satisfied with life in society and living in harmony with nature. Buddhism encourages self-restriction and social solidarity, justice and equality, pure thoughts and deeds. The economic ideal of Buddhism is small energy and material consumption leading to results satisfactory to man. According to Buddhism spiritual evolution of the individual us a basis of society‘s sustainable development. Buddhist civilization emerged as an alloy of the elements of numerous preceding cultures and civilizations, experience of many generations of various ethnoses. The peculiarity of Buddhist civilization‘s development lies in the fact that to a considerable extent such experience was selected quite purposefully, and the further development was greatly influenced by philosophic reflection. Even in those cases when logic was deliberately restricted or even denied, the integrity of Buddhist culture, Buddhist knowledge, deliberate and responsible attitude to reality was not broken. Buddhist civilization lies ―in between‖ since in most cases it acts a close-to-perfect mediator among other cultures and civilizations, various ethnic groups and peoples. 3. Joanna Gruszewska, Who is a true Brahmin? Defining a Brahmin in the literature of early Buddhism Proposed paper would like to deal with problem of the usage and modes of defining the term ―brahmin‖ that can be found in the early examples of Buddhist literature. The study will focus on the analysis of the selected fragments of the Pali Canon, special attention will be paid to the examination of 26th chapter of the Dhammapada – Brāhmaṇa vaggo. 4. Lek. med. Anastazja Holečko, Akademia Tradycyjnej Medycyny Tybetańskiej Polska, Branch of International Academy for Traditional Tibetan Medicine Tibetan Medicine – the Buddhist Art of Healing Known as Sowa rigpa (gso ba rigs pa) – the healing science, Tibetan medicine was traditionally studied as one of the five major sciences, next to Nangten rigpa (nang bstan rigs pa)– Buddhist philosophy. It is Buddhist view that makes this ancient medical system so effective. Only through understanding causality, interdependence, and treating real causes of sicknesses one can reach lasting results: healthy body and happy mind. 5. Sunirmal Das, Jadavapur University, Indie. Paradox of Suffering: A Buddhist Encounter Buddha teaches us everyone experiences suffering.1 A person consists of five aggregates: a body, feeling, perception, disposition, and self-consciousness. These five aggregates are full of pain. The doctrine of praticcasamuppāda offers the explanation of how suffering originates. Although he recognizes a number of different factors combine to cause suffering, desire plays a crucial role in this causal network. Thirst (tṛṣṇā) or craving is the cause of the suffering. It is threefold: thirst for sensual pleasures, thirst for being or will to live, and thirst for wealth and power. David Burton (2002) points out that craving leads to attachment (upādāna). Having being born with a body, senses and mind, one comes in contact with sense objects, and this cognitive contact produces the feeling of pleasure, pain and indifference. As Siderits (Buddhism as Philosophy, 2007) mentions, these feelings trigger desires, and desires that are conditioned by ignorance, lead to rebirth, and this produces the suffering that is associated with all sentient existence. Since one of the main goals of Buddhism is the cessation of suffering, Buddhist seeks to eliminate suffering by cutting off craving and resulting attachment in all its manifold forms. But in this attempt to eliminating desires there is a kind of paradox which is found out by A. L. Herman (1979) and John Visvader (1978), and which is the sole concern of this paper. They argued that since desire causes suffering, by attempting to eliminate desire, one simply adds to one‟s suffering. So, desire being cause for suffering can never be eliminated. Therefore, suffering is unavoidable. We can‟t escape from the swamp of suffering for our attempt to annihilate suffering is a paradox. Then, obviously the question will arise „Is the goal of Buddhist philosophy, i.e. the cessation of suffering, attainable? Although, both Herman and Visvader identified this paradox as the „paradox of desire‟, I call it „paradox of suffering‟. If we consider Gautama‟s (writer of Nyāsūtra) definition of suffering then we can easily find out a connection to call „paradox of desire‟ as „paradox of suffering‟. In the heart of the every feeling of pain there is a desire to be free from pain. What is not desired to be terminated is not felt pain. Therefore, „the desire to be free from suffering‟ can be translated as „the desire to be free from the desire to be free from pain‟. Here the object of desire becomes the elimination of that desire. Even Siderits (2007), in a very similar way, finds out such a paradox which he calls the „paradox of liberation‟. In this paper, after discussing the nature and origination of suffering and the role of desire in it, I will show the possibility of a paradox in our attempt to eliminate suffering, and finally I will try to offer a solution to this paradox. Keywords: Suffering, desire, attachment, feeling, liberation, cessation of suffering, motivation, causation, impermanence 6. Frederick Shih-Chung Chen (DPhil. Oxford), Counting the Buddha, Research Fellow of IKGF, Erlangen –Nuremberg University. Counting the Buddha The chanting service on the names of innumerable Buddhas which prevails at Buddhist repentance rituals and funeral service, such as the repentance liturgy of prostrations to The Three Thousand Buddhas 拜三千佛 during the Lunar New Year and the recitation of the Amitabha Buddha jeweled repentance 彌陀寶懺 at funerals in modern day, is a distinct idiosyncrasy of Chinese Buddhism. This practice has been a prominent proceeding in the Buddhist liturgy since the early medieval period in China. The popularity of the scriptures concerning ―the Names of the Buddhas‖ during the medieval period can be testified by the historical accounts of penitence rituals on the recitation of ―the Names of the Buddhas‖ performed in China and Japan, the great amount of manuscripts related to the title of Foming jing 佛名經 (the Sutra on Names of the Buddha) excavated in Dunhuang, manuscripts uncovered at Nanatsu-dera 七寺 in Japan, and the inscriptions of the sutra at the stone cave at the Grove of the Reclining Buddha, Wofoyuan 臥佛 院, in Sichuan. The origin of these Chinese scriptures on ―the Names of the Buddhas‖ is still unclear. From a linguistic point of view, in many cases, the terms used in the countless names of Buddhas are unlikely to have been merely derived from ancient Central Asian and Indic languages. The frequent appearance of nuances based on the variations of Chinese characters in the names of apparently the same or the same kind of Buddha indicate that, rather than being a work of translation from a source of Indic origin, the Sutra on the Names of the Buddha was probably a work composed in China. In addition, in many of these excavated manuscripts and inscription of the Sutra on the Names of the Buddha, numbers mark how many Buddha names have been recited. They usually appear between every one hundred Buddha names. This paper therefore surveys the origin of the idea of recitation of the names of innumerable Buddhas and how it was practiced. It seeks to demonstrate why the chanting service on ―the Names of the Buddhas‖ became an indispensable proceeding in Buddhist liturgies in East Asia until today. 7. Prashant Kumar, India. Buddhism and Existentialism: A Similar Inquest to Understand Life This paper offers the relationship between Buddhism and Existentialism in terms of denying the pre-given knowledge of objects but accepting every object as a new objet of knowledge without any concept attached to them. With respect to that existentialism accept human facticity and denies modernistic and scientific methods where ―Self‖ does not appear as an active subject but accepts this world as historic pre-given truth.