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Facts and Feelings
WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS have pondered the questions of 'what is knowledge?', and 'what is truth?' for centuries. Without, it must be said, coming to any kind of consensus. And without, it seems to me,...
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Irrelevant Details
Revised 7.6.2012 with suggestions from Bryan Levman (BL). Many thanks.I'VE BEEN READING the Cūḷa-Māluṅkya Sutta (M 63) which is a well know text, if only because of the allegory of the man shot by an...
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How the Doctrine of Kamma Changes Over Time
Anubis weighing the soul of Ani the Scribe against the Law to decide his fate in the afterlife. Egyptian Book of the Dead.EVER SINCE I FIRST published my article on the confession of King Ajātasattu in...
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How Buddhist Rebirth Changes Over Time
ONE OF THE FACTS about the foundation texts of Buddhism that most people don't seem to have taken in is that rebirth is an idea with a history. The idea did not spring into being fully formed. And...
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Why Do Fools Fall in Love?
WHEN I BECAME A BUDDHIST I was initially attracted by the fellowship of the people and the promise of becoming a better person. I also found attractive the idea that Buddhism did not require blind...
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Canonical Sources for the Vajrasattva Mantra
I've mentioned that Maitiu O'Ceileachair and I have identified the earliest textual occurrence of the Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra in the Chinese Tripiṭika. Circumstances have meant that Maitiu...
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Why I am (Still) A Buddhist.
Cairn and flag to celebrate my private ordination,June 10, 2005. (Cairn ~ 1.5m). In the hills abovethe Guhyaloka Retreat Centre, Spain.(38.620356,-0.186663looking almost due west.)GIVEN THE TONE of my...
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Semmelweis Reflex
Ignatius Semmelweis1818-1865ONE OF THE REAL BENEFITS of living in the UK is the BBC, a non-commercial network of TV and Radio stations. I'm a fan of Radio Four which is fairly high-brow in its approach...
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Revisiting Greater Magadha
WHEN JOHANNES BRONKHORST'S BOOKGreater Magadha hit the scene a lot of us were over-awed by the scope and complexity of the argument. I wrote about my first encounter with it in a blog post called...
View ArticleThe 'Mind as Container' Metaphor
"Whatever complex biological and neural processes go on backstage, it is my consciousness that provides the theatre where my experiences and thoughts have their existence, where my desires are felt and...
View ArticleChanging the World: a Case Study.
This post, the last I have planned for this blog, is an extended version of an essay I submitted to Śabda the newsletter that our Order use to keep in touch (it's like a once a month manual forum)....
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Just a quick note to let people know that an article of mine has been published in the Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. Vol 3.Abstract:This article explores the plausibility of...
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Heart Sutra Syntax
Dr. Edward ConzeUPDATED. This is one of those issues where I just have to write down my thoughts and there's not enough to warrant a published article.I'm studying the Heart Sutra to practice my...
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Another article of mine has been published. This time in the newly revamped Western Buddhist Review. BTW I am now a member of the editorial board of the WBR. Finishing these more in-depth articles was...
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Heart Sutra: Horiuzi Palm-leaf mss. Transcription
"Facsimile of the two palm-leaves of Horiuzi, sent to Prof. Max Müller in 1880. Catal. of Japanese books and mss. in the Bodleian Library, No....
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Heart Sutra Study Again 10 Feb 2013
I'm reprising this event due to popular demand:Manuscript ADD 1553: Heart Sutra.A day of study on thePrajñāpāramitāhṛdaya or Heart Sutra familiar & yet mysterious Cambridge Buddhist Centre. Sun 10...
View ArticleThinking it Through
I haven't felt the urge to blog lately because I've been caught up in various things. At the same time I've been involved with a desultory discussion about the value of inter-religious dialogue with...
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Emptiness for Beginners.
Not surprisingly some of the most abstruse doctrines in Buddhism are widely misunderstood, or the terms are used vaguely. One of the most abused terms in our Buddhist lexicon is śūnyatā. Since I've...
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Insight, Peak Experience and the Supernatural
It's important to be clear that in critiquing the conceptual explanations of experience, as I did in my essay Thinking it Through, I am not denying experience itself. People have experiences. Clearly...
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Study Day: How the Buddha Thought
The next study day I am leading will be on March 24 @ the Cambridge Buddhist Centre.In this seminar we will read through a selection of Pāli suttas and extracts (with a focus on the Kaccānagotta Sutta)...
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