Background: Buddhism says that life is a confluence, a cycle of birth and death. This cycle is called saṃsāra. Such life and death of every living being as a continuum, believing that consciousness continue after death and will be reborn. The early four incidents occurred in Buddha’s life that motivated him to renounce household life are the best examples to understand death. Objective: The objective of the paper is to explain that human body is consisted of five aggregates. As long as we have these aggregates we have to undergo the sufferings including death. Methodology: Library based analytical approach has been employed to carryout this research. Result: Through the study human body is found to be consisted of five aggregates. Suffering is inevitable as long as we have these aggregates. Death is unavoidable. Meditation is key to lead humans free from death and suffering. Upon doing practice it in a precise and unmistaken way one is engaged in unmistaken śamatha and vipaśyanā to uplift humankind from the bondage of Samsara. Conclusion: Death is certain to happen and it has three reasons for this certainty: one must die because there is no one who has not died before, the body is composite, and life ebbs from moment to moment. In addition to these three, the time of death is uncertain because some die in the womb of mother, some just after birth, some at young age and so on. This death has two main divisions, three main causes: Process of ceasing sense powers at the time of death and process of dissolutions of elements of the time of death. Similarly, the experience which beings have at the time of death varies. However, there is certainly a way to be free from this unwanted suffering of death and that can be possible upon following the prescribed path beginning with the mindfulness of death as expounded by the Buddha and his successors.
Background: This paper explores health, hygiene, medicine, morality and social etiquette of the people in the contemporary societies in ancient India focusing on the accounts of Chinese pilgrims Yuan Chwang (629-645 A.D.) and I-tsing (671-695), the two pilgrims who visited India during 7th Century. Objective: The paper aims to explore the travelogue of the Chinese visitors as the primary source of the article which is abound with the information in regard to health, hygiene and dietary habits including medicinal practices, moral practices and social etiquettes practiced by the monastic and non-monastic people in the contemporary societies in ancient India. Methodology: Library based methodology of historical research, textual analysis, and comparative cultural study have been applied to complete this article. Result: Yuan Chwang gives details of personal cleanliness, dietary rules, and measures for treatment of illness during 7th century India whereas I-tsing gives accounts of health practices - exercises, diet and medicine - in Buddhist monasteries. The paper compares the health practices of ancient India and contemporary China focusing on spiritual and physical discipline and their contribution in maintaining well-being of the people in the society. Conclusion: The paper explores the prevalence of healthy characteristics in the societal people, like cleanliness, cultural values, morality, reverence and self-discipline, in both physical and spiritual world, in the societies of India during that time.
Background: This paper analyzes Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's interpretation on the doctrine of karma and rebirth in Buddhism. Dr. Ambedkar, obviously, accepts the traditional Buddhist concept regarding karma and rebirth but he forwards his different opinion that the body upon the dissolution gets its Mahabhuts (Prithvi, Agni, jal, Vayu) stored in the respective Mahabhuts in the Universe. Objective: The paper is meant for clarifying Ambedkar's idea on karma and rebirth. It is to prove that the agrigates of a being get mixed into the mega agrigates in the universe during the time of death; and at the time of rebirth, the agrigates get reassembled with karmic consciousness, and there the being gets rebirth based on the past karma. Methodology: Library based Interpretive or Analytical approach is adopted to carry out the research. Result: Through the study it has been found that at the time of rebirth, the Mahabhuts including the elements like heat and consciousness come back to the mother's womb to get assembled and there the new being gets delivered on the planet together with the fruits of its old karma. Ambedkar relates karma and rebirth to modern science explaining 'Rebirth' as a cycle of physical elements, instead of the wandering soul. It is shown how Ambedkar reinterprets the traditional Buddhist ideas to fit with the conceptions of modern science and philosophy in the article. Conclusion: The Paper forwards the idea of Ambedkar that there is no rebirth of the soul but regeneration of the matter or element. There is the possibility of the fruit or retribution of the moral or immoral actions done by a person as the new being gets its old elements assembled during the time of rebirth.
Robert Pippin was for decades among the most outspoken American Hegelians, defending Hegel’s idealist legacy not only against the post-Hegelian turn towards non-discursive or non-notional reality but also rejecting Heidegger’s treatment of Hegel. So it comes as a shock when,in his new book The Culmination (Pippin, 2024), he endorses Heidegger’s characterization of Hegel’s thought as the culmination of Western metaphysics, as the full deployment of its basic premise that being equals logos, i.e., that the truth of everything that exists (or that can exist) can be articulated in the form of discursive judgments, so that the full system of logic is at the same time a full ontology, the description of conditions that everything that exists should meet. In all probability, Heidegger’s answer would have been that capitalism is just one among ontic organizations of the technological disclosure of Being – as he put it, Soviet Union and the US are “metaphysically the same.” To this we should insist that capitalism is not simply an ontic phenomenon, one of the possible versions of technological attunement: capitalism is not just a social phenomenon, it also has a transcendental-ontological status. It is not modern science and technology as such which push us to continuous domination over and exploitation of nature – they function like this only within the frame of capitalism with its permanent propensity towards expanded self-reproduction. So, Pippin is right here: it is not enough to mention technological disponibility as the source of the disappearance of Meaningfulness – one should add the word “capitalism” never used by Heidegger. Here Marx surprisingly meets radical conservatives: Patrick Buisson, the French ultra-conservative, was right in claiming that “le grand deconstructeur, c’est le capitalisme.”
Daesoon Jinrihoe (Korean: 대순진리회) is one of many new religious organizations that emerged in Korea in the second half of the 19th - first half of the 20th century as an alternative to traditional religious and philosophical teachings (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism) and imposed Western Christianity. Some of them did not go beyond the closed communities, while the Daesoon Jinrihoe organization, relying on rich traditions of intellectual and social resistance to the authorities and expansion of the West, was able not only to survive in the modern world, but also to become successful and the fastest growing in the Republic of Korea. The purpose of the study is to analyze the ideological roots of Daesoon Jinrihoe, the fundamental aspects of the religious doctrine of the movement and its current state. The main source for studying the doctrine, principles and goals of Daesoon Jinrihoe is the canonical work “Jeongyeong”, first published in 1929 and representing a record of the deeds of Kang Jeungsan, who became, according to religious dogma, the earthly incarnation of the Supreme God Sangje and in this capacity began to reorganize the Universe. “Jeongyeong” consists of several sections written in hanja (Korean writing based on Chinese characters) and describing the life and miracles of Kang Jeungsan in specific life situations. Another source - “The Constitution of Dao” is a list of rights, duties and rules of conduct for members of the organization, describes its internal structure and management system. In domestic historiography there are no academic works devoted to the topic under study. The author relied on the works of Korean and Western researchers, who to one degree or another covered the history of the creation and activities of Daesoon Jinrihoe. The conclusions of this study are that the popularity of the Daesoon teaching is based on its appeal to the ideas and images of traditional Korean religions that have become part of the national mentality, and the inclusion of the organization in the modern national and world agenda.
The philosophy of consciousness without an object represents a profound inquiry into the nature of consciousness when divorced from its typical objects of thought, perception, or attention. This paper examines the theoretical underpinnings, implications, and philosophical challengesof a consciousness that does not necessarily tether itself to an object. Drawing from classical and contemporary sources, including Eastern philosophies and Western phenomenology, this study explores the conceptual and existential dimensions of such a state of consciousness, providing insights into its potential impacts on understanding self, awareness, and the nature of reality.
Thousands of kilometres travelled by 32 thudong monks from Thailand to Indonesia was not only a spiritual moment for the participants but also a historical event in Indonesian interfaith relations. Given the abundance of enthusiasm, this article aims to explain the purity of interfaith harmony created by local communities and Thai monks, who also contributed to promoting interfaith dialogue discourse among grassroots communities. By delving into the internet, a netnography approach is used to get a deeper and broader understanding of the events by comparing one digital document with another. In the interfaith encounters along the pilgrimage highway, both parties exhibited reciprocal behaviours of shared feelings and kindness that encouraged them to complete the ritual mission together. They were able to dismantle the religious barriers that frequently impede harmonious interfaith relations as a result of warm acceptance, hospitable interactions, and engaging dialogue onsite and via social media.
This study explores the role of the Dalai Lama institution in the political processes of Mongolia, both from a historical perspective and in the context of contemporary events. The aim of the article is to identify the key factors influencing the presence of the Dalai Lama in Mongolia’s socio-political life. Conceptually and methodologically, the research relies on the theory of post-secular society. The sources for this study include legal documents from Mongolia, data from national censuses, results from sociological surveys, and publications from Mongolian, Russian, and Western media that address the relationships between state, society, and religion. The authors argue that modern Mongolia exemplifies a post-secular society. It is noted that the abandonment of state atheism and the phenomenon of “Buddhist revival” have led to a significant intertwining of religious and secular institutions. The figure of the 14th Dalai Lama is regarded as a crucial participant in these processes. The study establishes that the main factors contributing to the involvement of the Dalai Lama in Mongolia’s socio-political processes include his high religious authority among believers, the legitimization of Mongolian reincarnations, and his image as a “democratic leader.” Factors that restrain the influence of the Dalai Lama include a significant segment of non-religious citizens in Mongolia, risks of deteriorating relations with the People’s Republic of China, and trends toward the nationalization of Mongolia’s Buddhist sangha.
Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
About 3.1 million people use the water from Progo River for domestic use, agriculture, livestock and even for religious rituals which solidifies the importance of Progo River to the residence. However, the characteristics of the Progo River has not been studied well. This paper aims to understand the characteristics of the Progo River and the main threat to the river. To achieve those objectives, a SWOT analysis was used particularly in three segments of Progo River Basin, which is upstream, midstream, and downstream reach. The upstream segment has a basin slope more than 25%, the middle segment has a basin slope of 8-25%, and the downsteam segment has a basin slope less than 8%. The SWOT analysis would be based on desk study, hydrological analysis, water quality analysis and field observation. The upstream segment is characterized by high land erosion rate, steep slope, and the presence of Umbul Jumprit, a holy site for Buddhism. The midstream segment is very close to the residence area which reduces the water quality of the river. Furthermore, some scouring issues and flooding risk have become the main concern in this area. The downstream segment is crossed by several bridges of national roads while also having a gravel mining activity. This activity causes a massive scouring problem to the structures. It is clear that the main threat to the Progo River Basin is volcanic and human activities. For a starter, the government should prioritize the revitalization act in the upstream area which has a great impact on the midstream and downstream areas. Because SWOT analysis from water resources management perspective have never been done in the Progo River Basin, these findings can be served as a foundation for the integrated water resources management in the basin.
This paper articulates the theoretical and epistemological premises of the Free Drawing, Person in the Rain and Kinesthetic Family projective tests. It first introduces a neuro-cognitive and developmental perspective on the use of drawings as research methods, then a psychodynamic perspective on their use as empirical and clinical methods in investigations of the unconscious and psychic functioning. The articulation identifies a common trunk that substantiates the theoretical-epistemological and methodological presuppositions of these tests as the structuralist and dualist matrix, based on the topics of Freudian psychoanalysis and the conception of the defences conceived by the Ego psychology approach.
The <i>Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā</i>, “Questions of the Oceanic Intelligence,” is the fifth chapter of the <i>Mahāsaṃnipāta</i>, “Great Collection,” and is a canonical work belonging to the tradition of Mahāyāna <i>sūtra</i> literature. This sūtra is highly valued in the long history of Mahāyāna Buddhism for its thematic and metaphorical richness, as it personifies the ocean (Skt. <i>sāgara</i>) to represent core aspects of the Mahāyāna doctrinal system. This paper presents two small Sanskrit fragments of the <i>Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā</i> recently identified in the Schøyen Collection, with transliteration and annotated translation. In order to provide a fuller picture of the textual history of the <i>Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā</i>, a quotation from the text on votive tablets from Kedah, Malaysia, is also discussed. These materials are employed as a case study within the context of tangible and intangible heritage. On the basis of the UNESCO declaration of 2003, it is argued that these two kinds of heritage are intrinsically interlinked, and that the categories and their pertaining definitions can be broadened so as to be relevant to more traditions and their heritage.
This study presents the findings of a statistical analysis exploring the correlation between supply and demand of clinical Buddhist chaplaincy in the US healthcare system. Quantitative data collected from the field (n=993; total visits(tv.)=1,188) analyze different aspects clinical Buddhist chaplaincy work with regard to patients’ spiritual care needs and the distribution of patient ethnicity, religious/spiritual preference and geographical origin. Insights obtained from the data support a positive and strong correlation between patient spiritual care needs and the work of a clinical Buddhist chaplain as a spiritual care provider.
Unlike the most common in the modern studies – the psychological, ethical, socio-cultural – approaches to the problem of suffering, in this paper the philosophical problematics of ontological dimension of the suffering in the Buddhist philosophy is raised.
Many modern scholars are inclined to think that a more adequate translation for the Sanskrit term duḥkha is “unsatisfactoriness”. However, from the material presented in the article follows that this rendering does not feet the sense of the notion of duḥkha when it is examined in the ontological plane, and thus the traditional translation “suffering” in this sense remains more adequate. It is also shown that the etymology of the Sanskrit term duḥkha as a «improperly installed» axle of the wheel of a cart has strong connotations with the metaphor of the wheel and the symbol of swastika in the Buddhist cultural tradition (wheel of being, three turnings of the Wheel of Dharma etc.).
In this paper the main causes of suffering (self, body, ignorance, desire and other afflictions) exposed in Buddhist texts and scholarship are revised, and on the example of the Cūḷasuññata-sutta it is demonstrated that the real final cause of suffering in the Early Buddhism is our body and not our “self” and ignorance. While in the Mahayana Buddhism based on the philosophy of emptiness and the principle of nonduality, the dichotomy of soul and body is removed, the attainment of nirvana becomes possible in this body and the real cause and source of suffering becomes the ignorance. On the other hand, the paper argues that just the ontological view on the problem of suffering (under the angle of the principle of nonduality) provides us with understanding of the fact that the suffering can be overcome despite its indestructible ontological status.
In recent decades, there has been growing interest among philosophers in what the various Buddhist traditions have said, can say, and should say, in response to the traditional problem of free will. This article investigates the relationship between Buddhist philosophy and the historical problem of free will. It begins by critically examining Rick Repetti's Buddhism, Meditation, and Free Will (2019), in which he argues for a conception of “agentless agency” and defends a view he calls “Buddhist soft compatibilism.” It then turns to a more wide‐ranging discussion of Buddhism and free will—one that foregrounds Buddhist ethics and takes seriously what the various Buddhist traditions have said about desert, punishment, and the reactive attitudes of resentment, indignation, and moral anger. The article aims to show that, not only is Buddhism best conceived as endorsing a kind of free will skepticism, Buddhist ethics can provide a helpful guide to living without basic desert moral responsibility and free will.
This article aims to analyze how Japanese religious polity legitimates the violence against the "heathen", during the socio-political transition of the nineteenth century. Shinto movements of the time opposed not only to Christianism, seen as likely to disturb public order, but also to the Buddhism, privileged under the Ancien regime. This is about interpreting the new socio-political role of Shinto ideas : restore the foundation of the State after the opening of the country in 1853. This evolution of Shinto reflects two trends : hatred towards strangers on one hand, the malaise arising from socio-political crisis, on the other.
Like all the peoples of Siberia, the Buryats were involved in the process of Christianization aiming to complete the spiritual unification of Russia’s multinational population in the 19th century. The Christianization was actively implemented out in Irkutsk Governorate. In Transbaikalia, the process was restrained by the solid position of Buddhism. The Buryats’ conversion to Orthodox Christianity was based on a number of social problems. It entailed changes in the economic and cultural life of the baptized Buryats, influencing their self-identity. In Buryat society there was an ambiguous attitude towards different groups of baptized Buryats. Some of the baptized Buryats rejected the society, and others had to put up with it. The first group consisted of people who had already come into conflict with society. Those were criminals - thieves, robbers. Significantly, a number of newly baptized individuals were married against the will of parents and clan communities. The newlyweds were deprived of ties with their ancestral community after such church marriage. In the 19th century, married women eager to get a divorce got baptized actively. They were pushed for the decision by the arbitrariness and unlimited power of the husband and his relatives. In the other group, there were people who converted to Orthodoxy for ‘objective reasons’ - in view of poverty, to get education, or as a matter of duty. The attitudes of society towards the latter were more loyal. However, the change in religious status led to changes of administrative nature - those of property status and place of residence. These changes led to a split in the Buryat society and the breaking of ties between the newly baptized people and their relatives. At the same time, the process of integration of the newly baptized into Russian society was not that easy. The adoption of Orthodox Christianity by the Buryats not at all meant that they were immediately perceived as ‘own people’ (i.e. insiders) in the Russian environment. The ambiguous attitude of Russians towards the newly baptized Buryats led to the formation of such an ethnic group as karym. In general, the act of baptism was formal for most Buryats: newly baptized ones, as a rule, kept professing the faith of their ancestors - shamanism, which contributed to the preservation of their ethnic, gentile identity. And with the adoption of the liberal law on freedom of religion in 1905, the mass separation of the Buryats from Orthodoxy began. Orthodoxy for the Buryats became an instrument that improved the material conditions of the poor, helped officials to build a dialogue with the authorities ‘in the right direction’, thus destroying the traditional foundations of the Buryat society.
History (General), Oriental languages and literatures
The article is devoted to consideration of efficiency of the method of phonosematic analysis in the translation of sound descriptive vocabulary from Japanese into Russian in the most capacious genre of Japanese poetry - haiku. The relevance of the topic is dictated by the lack of clearly defined principles of translation of sound descriptive lexis in general and by the translators ignoring the ability of phonetic units and the sound organization of the text to act as a carrier of emotional content in particular. The article shows that the traditional principles of translating non-equivalent vocabulary, which includes sound descriptive words, are not effective in the case of the Japanese language, mostly because of the peculiarities of Oriental lyric poetry, rooted in the philosophy of Buddhism, Zen (chin. Chan ) and the national world view, which, in turn, is based on imagery and innuendo. On the material of poetic works by the famous Japanese poet Issa Kobayashi (1763-1828), full of onomatopoetical vocabulary, the features of the semantic structure of sound descriptive words are identified, phonetic means are determined, not only relevant for the adequate representation of this structure, but also for ensuring the unity of form and meaning of sound descriptive words.
Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
The maintenance/strength of self is a very core concept in Western psychology and is particularly relevant to egoism, a process that draws on the hedonic principle in pursuit of desires. Contrary to this and based on Buddhism, a nonself-cultivating process aims to minimize or extinguish the self and avoid desires, leading to egolessness or selflessness. The purpose of this paper is to present the Nonself Theory (NT). The universal Mandala Model of Self (MMS) was developed to describe the well-functioning self in various cultures. The end goal of the self is to attain ultimate wholeness or authentic and durable happiness. Given that the nonself is considered a well-functioning self and ultimate wholeness, the MMS is suitable for constructing the NT. The ego and nonself aspects of psychological self-functioning and their underlying processes are compared, drawing on the four concepts of the MMS: biology, ideal person, knowledge/wisdom and action. The ego engages in psychological activities to strengthen the self, applying the hedonic principle of seeking desire-driven pleasure. In contrast, a nonself approach involves execution of the self-cultivation principle, which involves three ways: giving up desires, displaying compassion, practicing meditation and seeking understanding Buddhist wisdom. These three ways have the goal of seeing through and overcoming the illusion of the self to achieve a deep transformation integrally connected to the experience of eliminating the sense of self and its psychological structures. In addition, the NT provides a comprehensive framework to account for nonself-plus-compassion-related activities or experiences such as altruism, mindfulness, mediation, mysterious/peak experiences, elimination of death anxiety and moral conduct. The NT offers possible answers that might lead to a more comprehensive understanding of human beings and the deeper meaning of life, toward the ultimate goal of ultimate wholeness. An examination of possible clinical applications and theoretical directions for future research in nonself psychology are provided.