Category Archives: Essays

The Ironic Assumptions of Gregory Schopen

Gen­er­a­tions of schol­ars, from the incep­tion of the mod­ern study of Buddhism, have estab­lished a long-lasting and rel­at­ively stable con­sensus regard­ing the texts and his­tory of early Buddhism. While inev­it­ably sub­ject to the usual kinds of uncer­tainty, incom­plete­ness, and evol­u­tion, this con­sensus has provided a frame­work for the pos­it­ive devel­op­ment of our under­stand­ing of the Buddha, his teach­ings, and his com­munity. This con­sensus has been chal­lenged by the prom­in­ent Amer­cian aca­demic, Gregory Schopen. His essays have been the most influ­en­tial reas­sess­ment in the his­tory of Buddhist stud­ies. Many of his ideas are regarded as vir­tu­ally canon­ical in mod­ern aca­demia, and have per­meated far bey­ond the nor­mal reach of Buddhist aca­demic work. How­ever, his argu­ments are far bet­ter regarded among non-specialists than among those who actu­ally study early Buddhism. This essay shows a num­ber of flaws and prob­lems with Schopen’s work on early Buddhism, by implic­a­tion sup­port­ing the tra­di­tional consensus.

October 29, 2012 – 11:51 pm | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Why Devadatta Was No Saint

Devad­atta is depic­ted as the archetypal vil­lain in all Buddhist tra­di­tions. Regin­ald Ray has argued for a rad­ical reas­sess­ment of Devad­atta as a forest saint who was unfairly maligned in later mon­astic Buddhism. His work has been influ­en­tial, but it relies on omis­sions and mis­taken read­ings of the sources. Ray’s claim that ‘there is no over­lap between the Mahāsaṅghika treat­ment [of Devad­atta] and that of the five [Sthavira] schools’ is untrue. On the con­trary, the man­ner in which Devad­atta is depic­ted in the Mahāsaṅghika is broadly sim­ilar to the Sthavira accounts. Such dif­fer­ences as do exist are lit­er­ary rather than doc­trinal. The stor­ies of Devadatta’s deprav­ity became increas­ingly lurid in later Buddhism, but this is a nor­mal fea­ture of the myth­o­lo­giz­ing pro­cess, and has noth­ing to do with any ant­ag­on­ism against forest ascet­ics. In any case, the early sources are unan­im­ous in con­demning Devad­atta as the instig­ator of the first schism in the Buddhist community.

October 24, 2012 – 9:53 pm | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

A Higher Criticism of Archeology

The found­a­tions of mod­ern under­stand­ing of Buddhist his­tory have been chal­lenged by skep­tical schol­ars like Gregory Schopen, who allege that the meth­ods of the ‘higher cri­ti­cism’ are so dubi­ous as to be worth­less. How­ever, Schopen’s cri­tique badly mis­rep­res­ents how text crti­cism has been used, and his influ­ence has led to a wor­ry­ing decline in schol­ar­ship of early Buddhism.

February 21, 2011 – 7:07 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Rebirth and the In-between State in Early Buddhism

Does Early Buddhism cat­egor­ic­ally reject or, on the con­trary, tacitly admit the pos­sib­il­ity of an inter­me­di­ate state between two adja­cent lives? How can these descrip­tions and views be used to make sense of research find­ings on ‘Near Death Exper­i­ences’ bring us closer to a more accur­ate under­stand­ing of death and beyond?

May 27, 2010 – 11:26 pm | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

The Ring & I

The Dhamma of the Lord of the Rings.

May 27, 2010 – 10:06 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Play | Tagged | Comments (0)

How to Grow a Nun

How mon­ast­ics, espe­cially nuns, are trained at Santi Forest Mon­as­tery, in accord­ance with the ori­ginal Vinaya, and incor­por­at­ing the best mod­ern practices.

May 27, 2010 – 9:37 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Bhikkhunis in Thai Monastic Education

In the debate about bhikkhuni ordin­a­tion, inform­a­tion plays a key role. We have made sub­stan­tial strides in our under­stand­ing of Buddhism in his­tory, the rela­tion between dif­fer­ent Buddhist tra­di­tions, and so on. Unfor­tu­nately, little of this inform­a­tion has per­meated into the tra­di­tion Sangha bod­ies. Century-old text­books are not cor­rec­ted, not mat­ter how obvi­ous their mis­takes are.

May 27, 2010 – 9:05 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Bala the Clown

Exist­en­tial clown­ing for loners and misfits.

May 27, 2010 – 7:58 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Play | Comments (0)

The Tyranny of Transcendence

This essay focusses on saṅkhāra, the use of will. In spir­itual circles, relin­quish­ing will is often touted as the route to enlight­en­ment, whereas in fact it is an essen­tial part of healthy human development.

May 27, 2010 – 7:18 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Mystique of the Abhidhamma

While the abhid­hamma is presen­ted as being based on the Buddha’s ulti­mate dis­cern­ment of ‘mind & mat­ter’, in real­ity the clas­sical Theravādin abhid­hamma is a schol­astic philo­sophy which is little under­stood, and which, if examined crit­ic­ally, is full of inco­her­en­cies. Within Buddhist tra­di­tion, how­ever, the abhid­hamma is per­haps more sig­ni­fic­ant for its purely reli­gious or mys­tical sig­ni­fic­ance, rather than as a guide for prac­tice or understanding.

May 26, 2010 – 10:07 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off