Spacious Awareness in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Its Role in the Modern Mindfulness Movement

This paper investigates a particular understanding of ‘awareness’ in Mahāyāna Buddhism and its relevance for secular mindfulness. We will focus on the Zen and Mahāmudrā traditions which share a view of awareness as an innate wakefulness, described using metaphors of space, light and clarity. These traditions encourage practices in which the meditator rests in this spacious ‘non-dual’ awareness: Zen’s ‘just sitting’ and Mahāmudrā’s ‘open presence’. We explore the role of this approach within secular mindfulness, in particular Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). We see how Jon Kabat-Zinn brought influences from Zen into the creation of MBSR, in his approach of ‘non-doing’, and in the practice of ‘choiceless awareness’, akin to Zen’s ‘just sitting’. We then examine how ‘open presence’ meditation is developed in the Tibetan Mahāmudrā tradition, using a sixteenth-century text Mahāmudrā: The Moonlight as our focal point. Turning to interviews with leading UK mindfulness teachers with Tibetan Buddhist training, we explore how this understanding of awareness can infuse meditation with a sense of ‘space’, and how that manifests in their teaching. We argue that a willingness to explore the ‘space of awareness’ can help mindfulness to offer a transformative path beyond stress reduction and therapy.     

The importance of Hinayāna and Mahāyāna

Volume 1. Hinayāna. Den tidlige indiske buddhisme. Volume 2. Mahāyāna. Den senere indiske buddhisme. Christian Lindtner, 1998, Copenhagen, Spektrum/Forum Publishers, Vol. 1: 228 pp., ISBN 87 7763 170 6; Vol. 2: 256 pp., ISBN 87 7763 174 9     

On the nature and message of the Lotus Sūtra in the light of early Buddhism and Buddhist scholarship (towards the beginnings of Mahāyāna)

The aim of this paper is to compare the contents of the Lotus Sūtra and the style of presentation of its message with the thrust of the Buddha's teachings as they are preserved in the early Buddhist sources, particularly the Sutta Piaka of the Pāli Canon, and also in the Pāli commentarial literature. In the process it attempts to identify in the early sources the precedents of some of the bold statements in the Lotus Sūtra which appear as complete innovations, but may be elaborations of elements contained in Pāli sources in germinal form. Despite the difference in style, language and mythological imagery, the conclusion is that both the Sutta Piaka and the Lotus Sūtra express in their respective manners the true spirit of the Buddhist message. Attention is drawn also to the striking parallels between the Buddhist picture of the multiple universe and modern cosmological theories.     

Delivering the last blade of grass: Aspects of the bodhisattva ideal in the Mahāyāna

The ideal of the bodhisattva was crucial in the development of the Mahāyāna branch of the Buddhist tradition. It provided a meeting ground for cardinal Mahāyānist doctrines concerning prajñã (wisdom), karunā (compassion) and ?ūnvatā (voidness), as well as introducing into Buddhism more overtly religious elements which help to account for its popular appeal in those areas where the Mahāyāna took hold. The vow of the bodhisattva to forego entry into nirvāna until all beings “down to the last blade of grass” have been delivered raises several apparent contradictions and condundrums; these disappear in the light of a proper understanding of the pivotal Mahāyānist doctrine of ?ūnvatā. This paper examines the relationship of the bodhisattva ideal to the metaphysic of sunyata and discusses the place of this ideal in the spiritual economy of the Mahāyāna.     

Clinging to Nothing: The Phenomenology and Metaphysics of Upādāna in Early Buddhism

The concept of clinging (upādāna) is absolutely central to early Buddhist thought. This article examines the concept from both a phenomenological and a metaphysical perspective and attempts to understand how it relates to the non-self doctrine and to the ultimate goal of Nibbāna. Unenlightened consciousness is consciousness centered on an ‘I’. It is also consciousness that is conditioned by and bound up with a being in the world. From a phenomenological perspective, clinging gives birth to the illusion of self, or what is called the ‘conceit of “I am”’. From a metaphysical perspective, clinging binds consciousness to a worldly being. Seen in the first way, Nibbāna is ‘centerless’ consciousness. Seen in the second, it is unconditioned consciousness. Viewed in either way, Nibbāna is a state of consciousness reached through the eradication of clinging     

Beauty and Aesthetic Experience in Theravāda Buddhism

The following essay deals with the specificity of aesthetic experience and apprehension of beauty in the frame of Theravāda Buddhism. This essay is aimed, above all, to Western readers, since aesthetics and beauty, as an inherent quality of nature and works of art, are constitutive parts of the Western philosophical and cultural tradition. I consider texts written in Western languages and available in the Western debate. On the one hand, so far as aesthetics is concerned, as a philosophical reflection on beauty and art, Theravāda Buddhism may seem to be critical towards any kind of aesthetical experience. On the other hand, Theravāda Buddhism can offer a different and peculiar perspective on art and beauty. The aim is to demonstrate that there is a specific aesthetic experience in Theravāda Buddhism and this experience allows a different perception and use of the work of art and a different experience of beauty.     

Mental Pain in the Mahābhārata

International Journal of Hindu Studies - A number of passages in the Mahābhārata draw the distinction between bodily pain (?ārīra? du?kham) and mental pain...     

On the Propositional Treatment of Anatmavāda in Early Buddhism and Ātmavāda in Hinduism

As propositions, Anatmavāda and ātmavāda are simply negations of one another. Thus whatever serves as a criterion for truth of the one must serve as a criterion for the other. When we treat them both as a priori propositions, I claim that we are unable to determine their truth value. But if we treat them both as a posteriori propositions, I argue, we are only able to determine their truth value if we attain unqualified omniscience. Because the Hindu account of knowing is far more conducive to the idea of unqualified omniscience, we might be tempted to assert that the empirical verification of these doctrines taken as propositions is far more likely in the Hindu tradition than the early Buddhist one. However, 'empirical omniscience' carries us very far from received views, thus I conclude that it makes no sense to treat these doctrines as truth-valued propositions.     

The development and use of the eight precepts for lay practitioners,Upāsakas and Upāsikās in Theravāda Buddhism in the West

Sometimes translating religious texts brings us up against the problem of scatological language. The author examines this problem in relation to a story of a former life of the Buddha and explores a variety of avenues for guidance on how to render gūtha ‘shit’ into English. This includes looking at Buddhist monastic law, which does not necessarily give us the guidance we might expect, and how the existing translation of this source of guidance illustrates the very problem in hand. The textual history and context of the story precludes some otherwise useful strategies for determining our translation and the best guide to the translator's hand in this instance turns out to be humour. The author makes a case that, employed judiciously, humour could become a useful hermeneutic tool for drawing meaning from religious literature. Along the way the author also reflects on the influence of the social context of the translator, including changes in British obscenity law, and on the possibility that academia is unconsciously constrained by unexamined assumptions of ‘decency’. Buddhist attitudes to language are also touched upon.     

The Problem of Indifference to Suffering in the Mahābhārata Tradition

International Journal of Hindu Studies - In the Mahābhārata, Kṛṣṇa is regularly accused of ignoring harm that befalls its various characters. In fact, the Sanskrit verb...     

The nibbāna-parinibbāna controversy

Bahya ben Joseph Ibn Pakuda, The book of directions to the duties of the heart, Introduction, translation and notes by Menahem Mansoor. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1973, pp. VIII + 472. £6

Marasinghe, M.M.J., Gods in early Buddhism — a study of their social and mythological milieu as depicted in the Nikāyas of the Pali Canon, Sri Lanka, 1974, pp. xviii + 301. Library ed. RS. 50.00, Popular ed. Rs. 37–50

Conze, Edward, Buddhist wisdom books, The diamond sutra and The heart sutra, London: George Allen &; Unwin, 1975, paperback edition, pp. 110 £1.95

Schloegl, Irmgard (ed.), The wisdom of the Zen masters, London: Sheldon Press, 1975, pp. 80, paperback and cloth (£2.75)

Davies, W.D., The gospel and the land, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974, pp. xiv + 521

Dumery, Henry, Phenomenology and religion. Structures of the Christian institution, Translated by Paul Barrett. Hermeneutics: Vol. V. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975, pp. ix + 114 $7.95

Dhavamony, Mariasusai, Phenomenology of religion, Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1973, pp. 385. 4,000 lire

Larson, Gerald James (ed.), Myth in Indo-European antiquity, (co-edited by C. Scott Littleton and Jaan Puhvel), Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974, pp. 197. £5.00

Dumézil, Georges, From myth to fiction; the saga of hadingus, Translated by Derek Coltman, pp. 253, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1973

Kinsley, David R., The sword and the flute, Kālī and Krsna: Dark visions of the terrible and the sublime in Hindu mythology, University of California Press, 1975, pp. 159 + bibliography, £7.80

McDermott, Six pillars. Introductions to the major works of Sri Aurobindo, Robert A. (ed.), Chambersburg, Pa.: Wilson Books, 1974, pp. 198

Sperber, Dan, Rethinking symbolism, London: Cambridge University Press, 1975. £1.90 (paper)

Poliakov, Leon, The history of anti-semitism (The Littman Library of Jewish civilization), London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1974. Vol. I, pp. ix + 340, £4.25; Vol. II, pp. xiii + 400, £4.25     

We Don’t Need the Guru: Shambhala Facebook Group and (Re)Creating Vajrayāna Buddhism

International Journal of Hindu Studies - The Shambhala Facebook group created a space for individuals to reimagine their religious teachings and practices without the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist...     

Avian Artistry: Decoding the Intertextuality Between Mahābhārata and Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa

International Journal of Hindu Studies - Why do four birds narrate the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa? Narrative enframement plays a crucial role in contextualizing Sanskrit...