Buddhist Idealists and their Jain Critics

An attempt is being made in this paper to survey Dharmakīrti's various arguments against external objects. This paper was completed already in 2014, and is uploaded here as pre-print since the publication took longer than expected (the volume should come out in May 2017).

Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2012

The article examines a fundamental problem in classical Jaina philosophy, namely, the ontological status of dead matter in the hylozoistic and at the same time dualistic Jaina worldview. This question is of particular interest in view of the widespread contemporary Jaina practice of venerating bone relics and stūpas of prominent saints. The main argument proposed in this article is, that, from a classical doctrinal point of view, bone relics of renowned ascetics are valuable for Jainas, if at all, because of their unique physical attributes, rather than the presumed presence of the deceased in the remains as posited in much of the extant literature on relic worship across cultures. The specific focus of the article are Jaina and non-Jaina explanations of the qualities of special matter in terms of karmic and natural processes of transformation. Keywords Ascetic body Á Power Á Sacred matter Á Relics Á Stūpas Á Jaina karman theory Á Theory of parin : āma Á Theory of multiple causation Á Principle of the excluded third Á do-kiriyā-vāya Á terāsiyā-vāya Á cattara-bham : gā This article is dedicated to Karel Werner. The research was in part funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellowship AH/I002405/1. I am indebted to " Ac" arya S´ubhacandra, and Muni Padmacandra (Jaymalgacch), and " Ac" arya Sun" ls" agara, Muni Amodhak" rti, and Muni Amarak" rti (Digambara " Ac" arya " Adis" agara A _ nkal" kara Parampar" a) for their explanations of details of Jaina karman theory; and to Lance Cousins, Padmanabh S. Jaini, Kristi Wiley and J. Clifford Wright for their insightful comments on earlier versions of the text.

Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, 2022

The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy is the first scholarly reference volume to highlight the diversity and individuality of a large number of the most influential philosophers to have contributed to the evolution of Buddhist thought in India. By placing the author at the center of inquiry, the volume highlights the often unrecognized innovation and multiplicity of India’s Buddhist thinkers, whose unique contributions are commonly subsumed in more general doctrinal presentations of philosophical schools. Here, instead, the reader is invited to explore the works and ideas of India’s most important Buddhist philosophers in a manner that takes seriously the weight of their philosophical thought. The forty chapters by an international and interdisciplinary team of renowned contributors each seek to offer both a wide-ranging overview and a philosophically astute reading of the works of the most seminal Indian Buddhist authors from the earliest writings to the twentieth century. The volume thus also provides thorough coverage of all the main figures, texts, traditions, and debates animating Indian Buddhist thought, and as such can serve as an in-depth introduction to Buddhist philosophy in India for those new to the field. Essential reading for students and researchers in Asian and comparative philosophy, The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy is also an excellent resource for specialists in Buddhist philosophy, as well as for contemporary philosophers interested in learning about the rigorous and rich traditions of Buddhist philosophy in India.

CONTENTS The online pagination 2012 corresponds to the hard copy pagination 1992 Abbreviations............................................................................vii List of Illustrations.....................................................................ix Introduction...............................................................................xi T.H. Barrett Devil’s Valley to Omega Point: Reflections on the Emergence of a Theme from the Nō..............................1 T.H. Barrett Buddhism, Taoism and the Rise of the City Gods................13 L.S. Cousins The ‘Five Points’ and the Origins of the Buddhist Schools...27 P.T. Denwood Some Formative Inf1uences in Mahāyāna Buddhist Art…...61 G. Dorje The rNying-ma Interpretation of Commitment and Vow…..71 Ch.E. Freeman Saṃvṛti, Vyavahāra and Paramārtha inthe Akṣamatinirdeśa and its Commentary by Vasubandhu….................................97 D.N. Gellner Monk, Househo1der and Priest: What the Three Yānas Mean to Newar Buddhists...................................................115 C. Hallisey Councils as Ideas and Events in the Theravāda…………....133 S. Hookham The Practical Implications of the Doctrine of Buddha-nature……................................................................149 R. Mayer Observations on the Tibetan Phur-ba and the Indian Kīla ........................................................................163 K.R. Norman Theravāda Buddhism and Brahmanical Hinduism: Brahmanical Terms in a Buddhist Guise……………..............193 References...............................................................................201

Dharma Dilemmas in Digitalized Days, 2024

A Buddhist system of two truths provides a descriptive framework with criteria for what counts as real in contrast to what does not. This paper looks at the relationship between these two truths in the works of two seventh-century Indian philosophers, Dharmakīrti and Candrakīrti, and draws implications for comparison and contrast with modern scientific understandings of the world. It highlights important features of Dharmakīrti's epistemology that aim to circumvent cultural conventions in a way that resonates with scientific representations of knowledge. It also contrasts this approach with one inspired by Candrakīrti in order to argue for the place of ethics and persons in a hybrid Buddhist-scientific picture of the world.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ancient-greek-and-indian-buddhist-philosophers-on-reality-and-selfhood-9781350460379/, 2026

Introduction TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I Exchanges and influence. 1. J. Westerhoff/ U. Zilioli, Ancient Greek and Indian Buddhist philosophies: status of the art and a comparative appraisal. 2 Matt Cobb, Travel and Intellectual Exchange across the Ancient Indian Ocean world (ca. 100 BCE to 600 CE). PART II Nihilism, eliminativism and and Simplemindednness. 3 Roberta Ioli, Being and not being in Gorgias’ proper demonstration. For a non-eliminativist reading of PTMO. 4. Ugo Zilioli, On What Is Not: Gorgias and Nāgārjuna on nihilism. 5. Diego Zucca, An Aristotelian Viewpoint on the Presence of an Eliminitavist Trend in Presocratic Philosophy. 6. Sonam Kachru, For and Against Simplemindednness in Buddhist Metaphysics. PART III Indeterminacy and Scepticism. 7. Ugo Zilioli, Pyrrho’s revelation. On the hieratic style and oral origin of the Aristocles passage, between East and West. 8. Refik Güremen, Pyrrho and Vagueness: A Fregean Analysis 9. Anish Chakravarty, Interweaving Ancient Philosophical Traditions: Sañjaya’s Gymnosophism and Pyrrhonism. PART IV Selfhood, Consciousness and Re-birth. 10. Enrico Piergiacomi, The Treasury of the Self. Democritus on Physics and Moral Identity. 11. Joachim Aufderheide, No-Self in Plato and Vasubandhu. 12. Andrea Sangiacomo, Consciousness in the Pāli discourses of the Buddha 13. Szilvia Szanyi, Rebirth Without a Self: Sthiramati on the Transformation of Consciousness.

Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 2022

This article investigates the original meaning of dependent arising in the Buddha's teaching, by focussing on the imasmiṃ sati formula. Modern scholars such as the Rhys Davidses, K.N. Jayatilleke and Paul Williams have interpreted it as a principle of causation, comparable to a scientific conception of causation. I argue instead that this formula implies that the Buddha held that causation is nothing more than the correlation of causes and effects, and that it commits the Buddha to a Humean regularity thesis about causation. I draw a distinction between the Buddhist and scientific concepts of causation, and then summarise an alternative approach made by more recent scholars such as Sue Hamilton, Noa Ronkin and Eviatar Shulman, who present dependent arising in terms of conditionality in the causal structure of subjective experience. I conclude by presenting the argument that the imasmiṃ sati formula does not express a principle of causation but is rather a formula for the method of discovering and presenting causation as conditionality in experience.

2019

This seminar examines the history of Buddhist Thought in India. Buddhists like to place emphasis not on belief as such but on practicing, following a path, and knowing, directly seeing. This direct ‘seeing things the way they really are’ is held to free a person from the depths of suffering through cognitive transformation. By ‘Buddhist thought’ we mean, in this general context, the discussions, speculations, and arguments concerning ‘how things really are.’ In this seminar we will try to understand this issue through the works of various Buddhist philosophers beginning with Śākyamuni Buddha (480-400 BCE) through to Candrakīrti (ca. 570-650 CE).