Methodological Introduction

This chapter explores some of the methodological issues that arise from studying Buddhist ethics. It gives an overview of the four noble truths, and it argues that Buddhist ethical theory is grounded in the Buddhist metaphysical outlook captured by dependent origination, selflessness, and impermanence. It further argues that Buddhist ethics is an attempt to solve the ubiquity of suffering that is grounded in these three characteristics of reality, and that this solution is reflected in the eightfold path. Also addressed are the six realms of transmigration on the Buddhist Wheel of Life, and their applications to the forms of suffering.

Agency and Moral Psychology

This chapter articulates a view of Buddhist agency grounded in the theory of dependent origination. It addresses the Augustinian concepts of caused and uncaused actions. It argues that Buddhist conception of agency and moral evaluation are not grounded in this Western theory of freedom of the will, but of participation in a web of dependent origination, resulting in a deterministic action theory. The chapter explores the implications of this determinism, and the problems that arise from it. Also discussed is the distinction between the self and a person, the concept of twofold self-grasping and the duality it creates

Causation

This chapter explores the notion of causation involved in the central Buddhist thesis of dependent origination, the thesis that the existence of a person just consists in the occurrence of a causal series of impersonal, impermanent psychophysical elements. It is claimed that as this thesis undergoes philosophical elaboration and development, the underlying notion of causal determination is subjected to a process of dehomuncularization: anthropomorphic elements of the folk notion of causation are stripped away, leaving in its place no more than the notion of regular succession across the Humean mosaic. The Abhidharma doctrine of four conditions is examined and compared to Aristotle’s doctrine of four causes. There is also discussion of an Abhidharma controversy concerning whether cause and effect may be simultaneous.

Buddhism and the Environment

Buddhism is a vast and heterogeneous set of traditions embedded in many different environments over more than two millennia. Still, there have been some similar practices across Buddhist cultures that contributed to the construction of local Buddhist environments. These practices included innumerable stories placing prominent Buddhist figures, including the historical Buddha, in particular places. Many of these stories concerned the conversion of local serpent spirits, dragons, and other beings associated with a local place who then themselves became Buddhist and were said to protect Buddhism in their locales. Events in the stories as well as relics and landscape features were marked by pillars, reliquary shrines (stupas), caves, temples, or monasteries that often became the focus of pilgrimage or considered particularly auspicious places for Buddhist practice, where one could encounter buddhas and bodhisattvas. Through ritual practices such as pilgrimage, circumambulation, and offerings, Buddhists engaged environments and their local spirits. Landscapes were transformed into Buddhist sites that were mapped and made meaningful according to Buddhist stories and cosmology. Farmers, herders, traders, and others in Buddhist cultures whose livelihood depended on their environments engaged the spirits of the land, whose blessings they needed for their own good. Just as they transformed the meaning of local environments, Buddhists also transformed the material environment. In addition to building monasteries, stupas, and other religious structures, Buddhist monastics developed administrative and engineering expertise that enabled large-scale irrigation systems. As Buddhism spread through Asia, it brought agricultural technologies that created the watery landscapes enabling rice production and increasing the agricultural surplus that made possible large monasteries and urbanization. In the last decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st, eco-Buddhist scholars and practitioners have found resources in Buddhist traditions to construct a Buddhist environmental ethic. Some have argued that concepts such as dependent origination, the ethics of loving-kindness and compassion, and other ideas from classical Buddhist traditions suggest that Buddhism has always been particularly attuned to the environment. Critics have charged that eco-Buddhists are distorting Buddhist traditions by claiming that premodern traditions were responding to contemporary environmental concerns. Moreover, they argue, Buddhist ideas such as dependent origination, or its more environmentally resonant interpretation as “interdependence,” do not in fact provide a satisfying grounding for an environmental ethic. Partly in response to such critics, much scholarly work on Buddhism and the environment became more focused on concrete phenomena, informed by a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, place studies, art history, pilgrimage studies, and the study of activism. Instead of focusing primarily on universal concepts found in ancient texts, scholars are just as likely to look at how local communities have drawn on Buddhist ontology, ethics, cosmology, symbolism, and rituals to develop Buddhist responses to local environmental needs, developing contemporary Buddhist environmentalisms.

Nāgārjuna and his “Mūlamadhyamakakārikā” in light of Je Tsongkhapa “Great Commentary” to this text

The subject of this article is meaning of the work “Ocean of Reasoning : a Great Commentary on the Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā” by Je Tsongkhapa for understanding the phenomenon of Nāgārjuna, his contribution to the development of the history of Buddhism overall and Buddhist philosophy in particular, essence of the explained by hum system of Madhyamaka – middle way, free from the extremes of reification and nihilism. The author establishes that false interpretations of Mūlamadhyamakakārikā as just logical-epistemological text and a guide for polemicizing, as well as such an improper understanding of the ontology of Nāgārjuna, when the doctrine of dependent origination is proclaimed higher teaching of the Buddha, can be overcome through the commentary of Je Tsongkhapa. The novelty of this study is defined by the fact that it involves original text of Tsongkhapa, which is translated into the Russian language for the first time, as well as introduced into the discourse on national Buddhology. Due the commentary of Tsongkhapa, it is established that the doctrine of emptiness is the “heart of teaching of the Buddha”, and the argument on the dependent origination is “superior to all arguments”, as it helps to cognize emptiness as the “dependently emerging suchness”. The doctrine of dependent origination and the view of emptiness comprise a semantic unity, although they are not identical. Therefore, translation from the Tibetan language and examination of the writings of Je Tsongkhapa, namely “A Great Commentary”, are relevant and essential for reconstruction of the authentic teaching of Nāgārjuna, as well as overall comprehension of Buddhist philosophy.