La questione del misticismo: l’accettazione d’una realtà sovrasensibile e di un raccoglimento interiore. Profili comparati tra buddhismo zen, shivaismo, sufismo e mistica cristiana

Author(s): Gianfranco Longo / Language(s): Italian Issue: 10/2015

The mysticism’s problem begins when our knowledge of the world becomes search for the deep: the sorrow and the joy are the same moments of life, lived in a mirror in which to dwell. The kintsugi art is care and meditation about joy and sadness, about the past time and present moment where life and death have a common point that introduces us to the mystery of our beginning.

SOME REMARKS ON LAGHU-TATTVA-SPHOTA XXI.9-24

Author(s): Małgorzata Glinicka / Language(s): English Issue: 29/2015

The article is aimed at analysis of 9–24 stanzas of XXI chapter of philosophical poem Laghu-tattva-sphoṭa, i.e. A Light Bursting of the Reality, authored by Amṛtachandra-sūri (10th c. A.D.), the Jain thinker. Chapter XXI is dedicated to the problem of universals and particulars, meaningful and influential subject of Indian, as well as Western philosophy.

ПОЛІФОНІЧНІСТЬ РОЗВИТКУ РЕЛІЙГІЙНО-ФІЛОСОФСЬКОЇ ДУМКИ В ІНДІЇ: АНТРОПОЛОГІЧНИЙ ВИМІР

Author(s): Dmytro Malezhyk,Hleb Khomenko / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 4/2015

The article deals with the main world outlook and value properties of traditional personality in Indian philosophy. The main attention has been attended to a sense of human being according to the Oriental canons. The comparative analysis of human peculiarities in the main Indian religious and philosophical teachings has been made.From the 18th the process of comparison of personality in the Western and the Orient civilizations begins. The main distinctive feature of them is an attitude to the nature and environment. While ‘western’ person was formed under the influence of socio-economical factors, ‘Oriental’ person acquired personal traits due to development of religious and philosophical schooling.The origins of western researches of an anthropological pattern of the Orient civilization are very stereotyped. The reason of this occurrence is a subjective understanding of the Oriental personality by western researchers. The first scientists who noted it was Arabic thinker E.Said, who founded an Orientalism as a branch of learning. Moreover, important part from this point of view was the European aspiration for increasing its identity through the opposition ‘We VS They’.The validity of the Arabic thinker’s thoughts is confirmed by researches of Soviet scientist Ye. Torchinov. After the example of the Upanishads (i.e. Sanskrit sacred books), the scientist debunks Western prejudices as for human absence in the Orient. According to the treatise’s ideas, the main aim of human being is an achieving of release, which is possible only by means of personal effort. It indicates existence of subjective determination in the Orient civilization. These stereotypes and monotony are the result of scientific systematization and abstracting of the researches. We can not deny an availability of Western elements in the Orient and vice-versa.Typical representative of the Oriental typology of cultures is an Indian area. According to M. Weber, it should be paid a special attention to India because of originality of its cultural forms. The polyphony of evolution of religious and philosophical thought in India played an important role in the forming of anthropological pattern. Each of the Indian philosophical teaching was based on cosmic and moral law. Unlike the Western religious teachings Indian philosophy disclaims the thought of God, which rule the world.The main schoolings of orthodox and non-orthodox tradition of Indian philosophy differed according to their attitude to Veda. Orthodox, or classical tradition includes six religious and philosophical teachings. They are similar in the understanding of the world, i.e. the unity of Brahman and Atman. The aim of human being in accordance with these teachings is an overcoming of samsara.In particular, adherents of Yoga stress on an achieving of salvation by means of meditative practices. According to Yoga, human is identified with clear consciousness. The founder of Yoga Patanjali says that during the cognition human identifies with chitta – intellectual activity and reflection of the world. Release of chitta’s influence is an obligatory demand for a salvation.Such attitude to human we can see in Vaiseshika and Nyaya teachings. According to them an interaction between mind and body and the world occurs by means of regeneration of Atman. As opposed to Yoga schooling of Vedanta stressed on the rules of individual behavior.In Buddhism, which is one of the most popular Indian teaching, anthropological pattern is described by means of the Four Noble Truths. Sensation of suffering in Buddhism is a result of human pursuit of happiness. The most optimal way for salvation is a renunciation of passions and excessive emotions. The universal law of bodhi requires of perception of self- essence and environment in unity and integrity. Urge towards good for good is a integral part of karma’s purity. A major contribution of Buddhism to Indian philosophy is an universalization of human values regardless of social conditions. At the same time Buddhism as any Indian religious and philosophical teaching concurs an ahimsa principle, i.e. non-doing of evil for all kind of animate nature.Jainism also claims a salvation as the highest sense of human being. Contrary from Buddhism this teaching doesn’t require a severe asceticism. Unity of substance and spirit may be achieved by means of natural self-perfection. Mortification of own passions is one of Five Great Vows, which are the base of Jainism philosophy.Every religious and philosophical Indian teaching suggests an universal way of human being. Its essence is in an fusion of individual and world soul, which arouse release and salvation. The absence of Western cogito subject are compensated by the Orient impersonal subject. In spite of globalization, the research of main features of the Orient civilization is one of the most priority challenges nowadays.

Ideologia hindutwy i neruizm w indyjskiej myśli politycznej

Author(s): Jakub Zajączkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2010

AITAREYOPANIS AT – TRIPTIHON ZA ATMANA

Author(s): Isidora Tolić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2022

The Aitareya Upanishad is a short prose Upanishad, divided into three chapters. According to these chapters, the basic topic of this text is arranged, namely atman (ātman-) and its aspects. The first chapter is devoted to the creative, driving force of the cosmological atman, whose effect macrocosmic spheres and their microcosmic equivalents arise. In the second chapter gives a picture of the triple birth of the atman, namely at the moments of human conception, birth and death. The last chapter presents atman in its abstract aspect, equating it with brahman (brahman-) and the activities of the mind. According to the philosopher's choice Śankara, is counted among the main (mukhya) Upanishads. It belongs to texts Rgveda and is considered one of the most ancient Upanishads. Along with the text and its translation, we attach short remarks, which should make it easier for the reader to understand.

Nietzschean Accents in the Work of Shree Rajneesh (Osho)

Author(s): Artur Hrehorowicz / Language(s): English Issue: 29/2023

The main aim of the text is to analyse some aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy that are inappropriately referred to by Shree Rajneesh (Osho) and omitted by Michael Skowron in his research, and to interpret them critically, taking into account the context in which they function in the whole reflection of this guru. The research methodology used in the article is based on the analysis, reconstruction and synthesis of Osho’s texts. The research conducted indicates that Osho perceives Nietzsche’s views in a non-scientific way, subjectively fitting them to the assumptions of his own concept of freedom and human self-development.

От критическо мислене в трансцендентализма през трансценденталното съзнание в будизма към практикуване на метафизика

Author(s): Ivan Kamburov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

The article presents the critical grounds for philosophizing in the Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhist schools in relation to Immanuel Kant’s transcendental philosophy. We develop the thesis that, in all three cases, the philosophical reflection takes place through the integration of the theory of the psyche and the theories of objects. Kant’s antinomies are compared with the metaphysical questions that Buddha has left unanswered. Against this background, the question of the transcendental subject as pure consciousness is discussed in Kant’s perspective and in Buddhism. Three models of transcendental philosophy are formulated: classical, non-classical, and post-classical.

Date and Authorship of the Ātmabodha

Author(s): Ivan Andrijanić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The article examines the authorship and dating of Ātmabodha, a popular philosophical poem that, in a popular and poetically imaginative manner, expounds on the main teachings of the Indian philosophical school of Advaita Vedānta. Although traditionally attributed to the renowned philosopher Śaṅkara (8th century), the article presents arguments for placing the work several centuries after Śaṅkara. In addition to the state–of–the–art stylometric method, the General Imposters Framework, which does not recognize Ātmabodha as Śaṅkara’s work, Ātmabodha also does not meet Hacker’s colophon criterion. The paper places particular emphasis on instances of post–Śaṅkarite doctrinal and terminological developments in Ātmabodha, specifically in the comprehension of the concept of ignorance, alongside the introduction of later terminology and concepts. The available evidence suggests a tentative dating of the work between the 11th and early 14th centuries

Kiedy zmienność staje się stałością Reinterpretacja jogicznego tapasu w rzeczywistości „społeczeństwa ryzyka” Ulricha Becka

Author(s): Nina Budziszewska,Klaudia Bączyk-Lesiuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2023

The article attempts to answer the question concerning the possibility of reinterpreting tapas and locating it in the risk society. The authors, referring to Ulrich Beck’s concept, look for the ways out of the “kingdom of shadows”, possessed by a constant sense of threat, both in the global and local sphere. The article takes a cross-sectional look at tapas in old Indian literature, looking for possibilities of its contemporary implementation on non-Indian grounds, as a response to the deteri- orating psycho-physical state of 21st century society.

Sautrāntika vs. sarvāstivāda-vaibhāṣika – rani buddhistički prijepori o prirodi stvarnosti

Author(s): Goran Kardaš / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 01/169/2023

The article analyses and interprets the critique of the special dharmic theory of the early Buddhist school of sarvāstivāda-vaibhāṣika undertaken by the school of sautrāntika. Special attention is paid to the critique of the theory of the existence of dharmas, elementary psycho-physical data, in all three time periods. At the beginning, a general Buddhist theory of two truths is presented, which tries to legitimize the so-called philosophy of abhidharma as a “higher teaching” regarding reality (dharma theory) which is only rudimentarily present in the Buddha’s discourses. Then we turn to a concise presentation and analysis of the key ontological concepts of sarvāstivāda-vaibhāṣika, and then to the critique of the same undertaken by the school of sautrāntika. It is concluded that sautrāntika, with its critique, “returned” Buddhist philosophy on the path of pure phenomenology after the sarvāstivada-vaibhāṣika’s attempt to interpret the Buddha’s teaching in line with a realistic reductive ontology.

Abjektsiooni kogemus theravaada budismis

Author(s): Evelin Hermaküla / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 20/2023

Julia Kristeva on kirjutanud, et “erinevad abjektidest puhastumise viisid [...] moodustavadki religioonide ajaloo ning lõppevad [...] kunstiga, mis ulatub üle religioonide piiride” (Kristeva 2006: 34). India usundites, sealhulgas budismis, on siiski mitmeid praktikaid, mille eesmärgiks on inimkeha abjektsuse teadvustamine. Saada teadlikuks kehade ja esemete lakkamatust vananemisest ja hääbumisest on budismis oluline. Asjade külge klammerdumine on mõttetu – õige pea on käes hetk, mil sellest objektist on alles vaid kõdu ning muld. Kehaga seotud iha ületamiseks ja keha tegeliku olemuse mõistmiseks vaatlevad theravaada budistlikud mungad üheksat erinevat lagunemisastmega laipa ning skeletti.

SOME INSIGHTS FROM BENJAMIN BERGMANN (1772–1856), A PIONEER OF MONGOLISTICS AND TIBETOLOGY, IN THE CONTEXT OF LATER WESTERN ORIENTAL STUDIES

Author(s): Kaspars Kļaviņš / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The genesis of Mongolian studies and Tibetology in Europe is closely linked to the beginnings of Buddhist studies, becoming acquainted with the traditional religions of Asian peoples, and the reception of ancient Indian and Chinese cultures. In addition, a significant phase of this research took place in the Russian Empire, where scholars such as Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811), Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1783–1835), Isaac Jacob Schmidt (1779–1847), and others contributed to the study of these fields. The Baltic-German clergyman, historian, linguist, and orientalist Benjamin Fürchtegott Balthasar von Bergmann (hereinafter Benjamin Bergmann; 1772–1856), born to the family of Gustav von Bergmann (1749–1814), who was the Lutheran pastor of the Āraiši parish, is very important in this context. His main work on Asian studies was the four-volume work “Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken in den Jahren 1802 und 1803” (Nomadic Roaming Among Kalmyks in 1802–1803), published in German in Riga, which aimed to shed light on the culture of the Kalmyks (a group of western Mongolian tribes – Oirat settlers) living in the lower Volga region: ethnography, language, literature, religion, etc. Considering the connection between the Kalmyks practising Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism) and Mongolian and Tibetan spirituality, Bergmann’s work also sought to explain the nature of Lamaism, which is objectively linked to various aspects of the mythological and philosophical tradition of ancient India, given that Buddhism arrived in Tibet from India and moved from Tibet onwards to the Mongol lands. Bergmann interpreted all this material within the framework of his possibilities for obtaining information, within his own worldview, and that of his contemporaries, sometimes putting forward new hypotheses and breaking with these frameworks. In order to better understand the issues and problems of contemporary Orientalism, it is necessary to become familiar with the insights and mistakes of its pioneers – in this case, Bergmann – which have further developed within the study of East Asian cultures and spiritual traditions both in terms of changing perceptions of Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. and in terms of continuing mistakes in the context of romanticised Orientalism, the search for Eastern exoticism, or the construction of an Asian image adapted to a European worldview. This article looks at some of Bergmann’s insights more relevant to contemporary research and debate in comparative religious, literary, and folklore studies.

Етическите принципи в класическата йога на Патанджали като универсален онтологичен фундамент

Author(s): Rumyana Toleva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

This article aims to present the classical yoga philosophy ethical foundations as a universal ontological fundament. The ethical principles expounded by Patanjali in Yoga Sutra are explored in two aspects of existence – in their dynamic applicability related to human social life and in their stability as a universal spiritual basis for manifestation of the various forms of existence. Patanjali’s ethics is set forth in its interrelation with the metaphysical, epistemological, and soteriological aspects of his study, the utmost purpose of which is complete termination of human suffering through transcendence of the phenomenal world. The article emphasizes the practical aspect of yoga ethics as an essential part of the yoga philosophy and as optional means for overcoming the contemporary challenges in the modern world of distorted human values.

Kāla: laiko veidai klasikinėje Indijos filosofijoje

Author(s): Audrius Beinorius / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 105/2024

This article discusses the perception of time (kāla) in the Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain schools on the basis of primary Sanskrit sources and critical studies. The study employs an integral methodology – textual-semantic, hermeneutical and comparative – to approach the study. It concludes that the approaches of the schools diverge most prominently on the following questions: is the perception of present possible? Is the sensible present instantaneous, or does it have duration? Is time objective and real, or is it just a subjective construction? It has been revealed that there is no single dominant perspective in the Indian philosophical approaches, with the principal polemic being between the Buddhist and the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika schools. The study concludes that, in Indian philosophy, time is understood not psychologically, but epistemologically, in relation to questions of reliable cognition and the validity of knowledge.

Caracterul fictiv al condiţiei personale (ātman), conform budhismului Yogācāra

Author(s): Ovidiu Cristian Nedu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 12/2022

According to Yogācāra, the Idealistic stream of Mahāyāna Buddhism, personhood is not based on an entity but rather on a fictitious projection. This illusory identity is experienced by the mind (manas); in Yogācāra philosophical jargon, “mind” refers to that function of consciousness through which some experiences are appropriated (upā-dā) and turned into a self (ātman). All the subsequent individual experiences of the “individual being” take place within the frame of this illusion projected by the mind. The limitations each individual being experiences are explained by Yogācāra Buddhism through the fact that the person is always ”wrapped” in the illusion of individuality projected by the mind. The mind becomes the root of all evil, the primary origin of bondage. The entire soteriological effort of Yogācāra will be directed towards the annihilation of this “mind”.

Experiența umană conștientă în budismul Yogācāra (Conștiințele operaționale - PRAVRTTI VIJÑANA)

Author(s): Ovidiu Cristian Nedu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2021

After being engendered through the appropriating activity (upadana) of the mind (manas), applied to the universal experience of the storehouse consciousness (alayavijñana), the individual experience is constituted through the conjoint activity of the six “operational consciousnesses” (pravrtti vijñana): the five sensory consciousnesses and the mental consciousness (manovijñana). The brute sensory experience is projected by the five sensory consciousnesses, approximating the senses, but being rather some faculties (indriya), capacities, the potentiality of consciousness to engender some specific types of experience. In Yogacara, the sensory experience is totally devoid of concept (vikalpa), presenting itself as an amorphous flow of sensory inputs. Conceptualization is performed by the mental consciousness which, in an illusory manner, projects the categorically discriminated entities onto the sensory flow. Yogacara authors claim that the conceptually determined entities created by the mental consciousness (manovijñana) are purely fictitious, hence the mental consciousness projecting a totally illusory ontological sphere, which broadly comprises all the states of human awareness. Most of the human conscious experiences take place at the level of this conceptual sphere, this meaning that human awareness and the entire human drama involve mainly illusory entities. Therefore, conceptual experience is severely flawed, firstly, because it is produced at the level of the limited individual self (atman), and, secondly, due to its fictitious character (vitatha).

Same-Sex Marriage from the Perspective of Legal Instruments, Human Rights and Hindu Religion

Author(s): I Nyoman Alit Putrawan,I Made Adi Widnyana / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

The purpose of this research is to analyse the anti-discrimination struggle against LGBT from a legal and human rights perspective and same-sex marriage from a Hindu legal perspective. This research is normative juridical research carried out using a statutory regulation approach and a legal concept approach. The analysis was carried out qualitatively. The phenomenon of same-sex marriage has indeed become controversial in various countries, including Indonesia. The struggle for anti-discrimination treatment for LGBT people has become one of the focuses of the human rights struggle. Various national and international legal instruments have regulated the right to equal treatment for everyone. However, this right cannot fully become the basis for legitimacy for the legality of same-sex marriage. Law Number 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage regulates that marriage is carried out by a man and a woman as husband and wife. Viewed from the perspective of Hindu law, the Manawa Dhramasastra states that marriage is carried out by a man and a woman to produce offspring

„[...] Kraj marzeń i romantycznych wzruszeń, bajecznego bogactwa i niewiarygodnej nędzy” – cywilizacja, religia i filozofia Indii

Author(s): Agnieszka Banaś / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2024

Article “[…] A country of dreams and romantic emotions, fabulous wealth and incredible poverty” – civilization, religion and philosophy of India, depicts the rich history of Indian civilization over the centuries. The article discusses the most important issues in philosophy, religion and culture that have changed the face of today’s India over the centuries.

At Home in the World: Remarks on the Bengali Sense of Belonging

Author(s): Mihaela Gligor / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Two Nobel laureates coming from the same geographic area, writing more than 100 years apart, using—more or less—the same concepts to describe the importance of cultural identity. What changed in these 100 years? Generally understood, cultural identity refers to a person’s sense of belonging to a particular culture. We often understand the construction of identity in terms of gender, class, age and ethnicity, language, and/or religion. But what happens when a person is forced to leave his/her culture and to live in a different environment, alongside people never met before, in a place where another language is spoken, and where God has a different name? What does cultural identity mean? How are the home and the world related nowadays? Where is home in the world? This essay views the Bengali sense of belonging in the current context of globalization, linking the determinants of the Bengali culture to the structural changes in the world.

Alexander Piatigorsky: Buddhism as Object and Approach

Author(s): Alyssa DeBlasio / Language(s): English Issue: 45/2024

Alexander Moseevich Piagitorsky (1929–2009) was a philosopher, linguist, scholar of Tamil literature and Buddhist thought, and fiction writer. His wideranging work is situated across several genres, from scholarly studies to philosophical novels, and addresses an expansive array of topics, including Buddhist philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, semiotics, and literary theory, as well as more episodic works on totalitarianism, psychoanalysis, and Russian literature. Piatigorsky was a faculty member at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) from his emigration in the mid-1970s until his death in 2009, making him one of few late-Soviet philosophers with a substantial publication output in English. And yet there is still relatively little secondary scholarship on Piatigorsky written in any language, further adding to the challenge of interpreting his already difficult body of work. Though he lived in the U.K. for over three decades, after his death The Guardian published an obituary saying that few of his SOAS colleagues “would have guessed that this was a man who was widely considered to be one of the more significant thinkers of the age and Russia’s greatest philosopher.” Piatigorsky was indeed part of a prolific group of philosophers who came of intellectual age in the post-Stalin years, but like many émigré thinkers of that era, his transnational status meant that his work has been understudied both in Russia and abroad.