Clik here to view.
What Have We Proven About the Heart Sutra?
My thinking on the Heart Sutra was probably due for an overhaul, and I have been fortunate recently to correspond with an academic who has taken an interest in the Heart Sutra. This has led me to...
View ArticleNotes on Atikūṭa and Tuóluóní jí jīng «陀羅尼集經» (T 901)
In some of my published work I have identified the source of the Heart Sutradhāraṇī as the Tuóluóní jí jīng«陀羅尼集經» (T 901), translated by Atikūṭa on 6th May 654 CE. Some recent correspondence has...
View ArticleNotes on the Tuóluóní jí jīng «陀羅尼集經» and the Heart Sutra Dhāraṇī
Having looked at the background of Atikūṭa and the Tuóluóní jí jīng«陀羅尼集經» (T 901) in my previous post, I will now look more closely at the relationship between the Tuóluóní jí jīng and the Heart...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Mantra at the end of Xuanzang's Dà bānrě bōluómìduō jīng «大般若波羅蜜多經»
In my review of Ji Yun's article on the Heart Sutra (01 June 2018), I noted that, in section 7, in discussing the work of Chén Jiǔchéng 沈九成 (whom he refers to as "Shen"), Ji comments on the mantra as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The False Allure of Origins
“The story of human origins has never really been about the past. Pre-history is about the present day. It always has been.” --Stefanos GeroulanosEarlier in the year, I addressed some methodological...
View ArticleNotes on T253 and T254
In this post, I will show that the extended Heart Sutra text T254 is a lightly redacted or edited version of T253, rather than an independent translation from Sanskrit. Moreover, T253 incorporates all...
View ArticleMinor Figures: Lìyán 利言 and Liú Zhìchéng 劉志成
In Buddhist Modernism, there are strong currents of Romanticism and Protestantism, which leads to an emphasis on the "heroic" individual practitioner liberating themselves (and perhaps hanging around...
View ArticleOn Abstract Thought and Nominalism.
A curious feature of philosophy, as a field of human enquiry, is that it seems almost impossible to make progress. Thousands of philosophy articles and books are published every year, and they discuss...
View ArticleMinor Figures: Prajñā.
Bānrě 般若 or Prajñā, was a Buddhist monk from India who travelled to China and translated Buddhist texts. Prajñā was credited with the translation of Bānrě bōluómìduō xīn jīng«般若波羅蜜多心經» (T 253), though...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Classical is Cooler
Many extravagant claims are made for quantum physics, and in comparison classical physics often seems to be dismissed, almost as though it is of little consequence. Amongst other things, it has long...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Minor Figures: Jī
Jī 基 (632–682) [aka Kuījī 窺基] plays a relatively minor role in the history of the Heart Sutra. He composed a commentary: Bānrěbōluómìduō xīn jīng yōu zàn «般若波羅蜜多心經幽贊». Although it is undated, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Quantum Mechanics is Currently Wrong and How to Fix It.
It is now almost a century since "quantum mechanics" became established as the dominant paradigm for thinking about the structure and motion of matter on the nanoscale. And yet the one thing quantum...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Notes on Early Atomic Models
In attempting to explain quantum mechanics, many authors take the approach of providing a linear historical narrative of "heroic failure" (a theme of special importance to the British). Thomson's "plum...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Quanta, Quantization, and the Myth of Quantised Gravity.
In 1905, Einstein famously published four papers, each of which caused a revolution in physics. Although he is better known for his theory of relativity, it was his 1905 explanation of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ψ-ontology and the Nature of Probability
“The wave function is real—not just a theoretical thing in abstract mathematical space.”—Sean Carroll. Something Deeply Hidden.Harrigan & Spekkens (2010) introduced the distinction between those...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is Physics a Scam?
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”—Upton Sinclair“Theoretical physicists used to explain what was observed. Now they try to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Observations and Superpositions
The role of observation in events has been a staple of quantum physics for decades and is closely associated with "the Copenhagen interpretation". On closer inspection, it turns out that everyone...
View ArticleThe Curious Case of Phlogiston
I'm fascinated by revisionist histories. I grew up in a British colony where we were systematically lied to about our own history. Events in the 1970s and 1980s forced us to begin to confront what...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Theory is Approximation
A farmer wants to increase milk production. They ask a physicist for advice. The physicist visits the farm, takes a lot of notes, draws some diagrams, then says, "OK, I need to do some calculations."A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The (Measurement Problem) Problem
The measurement problem is perhaps the best-known puzzle in quantum mechanics. A vast literature addresses this problem without ever resolving it. The measurement problem is also responsible for one of...
View Article