Tag Archives: philosophy

White Bones Red Rot Black Snakes

Enchant­ing, power­ful, hor­rific, beau­ti­ful, wise, deadly, com­pas­sion­ate, seduct­ive. Women in Buddhist story and image are all these things and more. She takes the signs of the ancient god­dess – the lotus, the sac­red grove, the ser­pent, the sac­ri­fice – and uses them in aston­ish­ing new ways. Her story is one of suf­fer­ing and great tri­als, and through it all an unquench­able long­ing to be free. This beau­ti­fully illus­trated work is as layered and sub­vers­ive as myth­o­logy itself. Based dir­ectly on authen­tic Buddhist texts, and informed with insights from psy­cho­logy and com­par­at­ive myth­o­logy, it takes a fresh look at how Buddhist women have been depic­ted by men and how they have depic­ted themselves.

July 18, 2011 – 8:14 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Books, 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 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

When Life Begins

Repro­duct­ive eth­ics are one of our most urgent mod­ern dilem­mas. Each year, it seems, new tech­no­lo­gies push the bound­ar­ies of life. Abor­tion remains a divis­ive polit­ical issue. In the Buddhist under­stand­ing of the Middle Way, we can seek a more reas­on­able approach.

May 26, 2010 – 9:11 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

All Dhammas

The basis of insight med­it­a­tion is the con­tem­pla­tion of imper­man­ence, suf­fer­ing, and not-self. Yet even here we are faced with a tricky inter­pret­ive prob­lem: for while all saṅkhāras are said to be imper­man­ent and suf­fer­ing, all dham­mas are said to be not-self. Why this subtle, enig­matic shift, and what are the implic­a­tions for meditation?

May 20, 2010 – 9:44 pm | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Satipaṭṭhāna and the Evolution of the Dhamma Theory

While the Satipaṭṭhana Sutta is often claimed to be the most import­ant of the Buddha’s teach­ings, close tex­tual ana­lysis reveals that it is a com­pos­ite text, with sub­stan­tial dif­fer­ences between the many exist­ing ver­sions. The use of the fun­da­mental term dhamma in fact reveals the text to be part of the early Abhid­hamma movement.

May 20, 2010 – 10:21 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Without Delay

The term akā­lika, ‘time­less’, is one of the most famil­iar in the whole Dhamma. It is recited as part of the daily chant­ing as a fun­da­mental aspect of the Dhamma. And yet its mean­ing is far from clear, and so it has attrac­ted many inter­pret­a­tions. Rather than being a philo­soph­ical notion, it seems that is a call to action: if you prac­tice, you can see the res­ults for yourself.

May 20, 2010 – 9:20 am | By Bhikkhu Sujato | Posted in Essays, Study | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off