What is Debate for? The Rationality of Tibetan Debates and the Role of Humor

In this essay, I examine the mode of operation and aim of debates in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. I contrast the probative form of argument that was privileged by the Indian tradition to the more agonic practice favored by Tibetan scholastics. I also examine the rules that preside over this dialectical practice, which is seen by the Tibetan tradition as essential to a proper scholastic education. I argue, however, that the practice of debates cannot be reduced to this dialectical model, for it has an important performative aspect not easily encompassed by the rules. I examine this aspect of Tibetan debates, focusing particularly on the role of humor. I conclude with a few remarks on the type of rationality entailed by the importance of humor and of other rhetorical elements involved in Tibetan debates.

Karl Barth and God in Creation: Towards an Interfaith Dialogue with Science and Religion

Is our neo-orthodox interpretation of Karl Barth correct? Does Barth's theology provide an opportunity to promote creative, equable dialog with natural science and religious pluralism? In this article, I contend that Barth's theological language of analogy, eschatology, nature, and Sabbath integrate with and complement scientific explanations.     

Cooking Living Beings:

Bodies play important and diverse roles in Buddhist ethics. Drawing upon an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist compendium of bodhisattva practice, this paper explores the role bodhisattva bodies play in the ethical development of other living beings. Bodhisattvas adopt certain disciplinary practices in order to produce bodies whose very sight, sound, touch, and even taste transform living beings in physical and moral ways. The compendium uses a common South Asian and Buddhist metaphor to describe a bodhisattva's physical and moral impact on others. Bodhisattvas are said to “cook living beings.” The paper considers how this metaphor suggests ways of nuancing modern Western conceptions of ethical self‐cultivation, particularly as articulated by Michel Foucault in his studies of the technologies of the self.     

无我：佛教中自我观的心理学分析

“无我”不仅是佛教心理学的核心, 也是佛教心理学关于自我本质的独特见解：微细难知的末那识是自我产生的根源; 东方式禅定是自我研究的方法; 自我是五蕴和合的幻相, 无我是假我与真我的统一。佛教心理学以“无我”揭示了自我的真谛, 是对西方心理学自我研究范式的一种补充与超越。     

智旭对天台佛学与《周易》之会通

宋代以降,融会佛教诸宗已成佛教界主流,继而又与\"三教合一\"思潮相互激荡.明代的智旭,他既\"究心于台部\",又倡导融会诸宗、儒佛会通,他的<周易禅解>一书即是这种思想的产物.书中智旭把天台的无情有性与周易之铺天匝地、天台的止观并重与周易之乾坤刚柔、天台的四悉檀与周易的训蒙之道加以会通,并以周易的<井>卦解天台六即果位,以周易之<大有>卦解天台之\"十界互俱\"说.     

论易学史研究在易佛关系问题上的两个疏忽——兼谈太虚大师的易学思想

易学是中国学术史上的一大显学。学界对于易学史的研究已取得了相当的成就,但这一成就背后却还留存着一个遗憾．那就是我们的易学史研究疏忽了易佛关系这一大课题,这包括两个方面(一)我们没有研究在佛教传入中国的前期,为什么佛教在与儒学和道学相沟通的同时却不与易学相沟通;(二)我们没有重视宋明以后存在的大规模的易佛沟通现象。本文以素描的方式勾画出了一幅被学者们忽略了的易佛关系图,有理有据地对疏忽易佛关系的研究状态提出了警策,并以太虚大师的易学思想为例,说明了易佛关系是不应该被疏忽的。