Being Mindful of What is Absent

The cultivation of mindfulness in early Buddhist soteriology can comprise awareness of an absence. Such absence can be specific, in the sense of the absence of a particular mental condition. It can also take on a general sense, in that certain meditation practices that involve mindfulness can take as their object the notion that there is nothing at all. Besides being the standard approach for cultivating one of the immaterial spheres, a pre-Buddhist form of practice, the same notion that there is nothing can also be related to insight. Such insight could be retrospectively applied to the attainment of the immaterial sphere of nothingness, or else insight could be cultivated in conjunction with tranquility in a way that involves the same notion of nothingness, testifying to the interrelatedness of these two modalities of meditation in early Buddhism. In addition, the term nothingness can also serve as an epithet for the final goal of Nirvana, a usage that can also be related to mindfulness.

Situating Mindfulness, Part 2: Early Buddhist Soteriology

As the second of three articles, the present essay continues to explore the character of selected aspects of early Buddhism in order to assess its potential relevance as a reference point for those engaged in research on mindfulness in psychology. The exploration, which proceeds in critical dialogue with suggestions made by Donald Lopez Jr. and Evan Thompson, covers the topics of the role of mindfulness as a means for progress to awakening, the path to and the realization of awakening, the implications of the doctrines of not self and of the four noble truths, and the centrality of meditation in early Buddhism. The proposed conclusion is that a deserved criticism of a tendency toward unbalanced presentations of Buddhist thought, so as to be palatable to Western preferences, has gone overboard in the opposite direction, resulting in inaccurate evaluations and exaggerated claims that call for a correction and a sober reassessment of the actual evidence. Such reassessment shows that there is considerable room for an open dialogue between contemporary psychology and Buddhist meditation practice traditions regarding their common ground in the aspiration to understand the workings of the mind with a view to alleviating unnecessary suffering.

Situating Mindfulness, Part 1: Early Buddhism and Scientific Research in Psychology

As the first of three articles, the present essay explores the character of selected aspects of early Buddhism in order to assess its potential relevance as a reference point for those engaged in research on mindfulness in psychology. The exploration, which proceeds in critical dialog with suggestions made by Donald Lopez Jr. and Evan Thompson, covers the topics of the Buddha’s omniscience, Buddhist cosmology, the notion of karma, the role of rebirth, the past lives of the Buddha, and the role of religious authority vis-à-vis the scope of personal investigation in early Buddhist thought. The present paper is meant to serve as a corrective to an apparent tendency in recent scholarship, as part of an in itself deserved criticism of exaggerated positions taken by Buddhist modernists, to overlook or even deny rational dimensions of Buddhist thought, here in particular taken up from the viewpoint of its earliest phase. This tendency appears at times to be based on a lack of historical perspective or understanding of Buddhist doctrines and their development.

Dharmarāja and Dhammarāja (I) Yudhiṣṭhira on anger, patience, forgiveness and peace (Mahābhārata 3,30)

Yudhiṣṭhira, often referred to in the Mahābhārata (MBh) as Dharmarāja and created for an ideal ruler, is also portrayed as a hero full of doubts about his status and duties, sometimes even advocating ideas that are at odds with his status and social affiliation. This is the case in the passage analysed here in this paper, MBh 3,30. The king, deprived of his kingdom and humiliated in exile, presents a diatribe of sorts in the presence of his brothers and wife in which he condemns anger as a reaction to wrongs suffered while praising patience and forgiveness, while also being a supporter of peace. The reactions to his words, which are expressed in the follow‐ ing chapters, as well as the general approach to the role of kṣatriya and the ruler in the epic, may indicate that Yudhiṣṭhira’s words were not fully accepted. On the other hand, a comparison of Chapter 3,30 with selected parts of the Pāli Canon allows us to see how much the ideas put in Yudhiṣṭhira’s mouth have in common with those that can be found in the texts of early Buddhism. On the basis of the proposed intertextual analysis, the author of the paper would also like to purposively reflect on the inclusion in the epic of passages that are a departure from the ethos of warrior and ruler, widely promoted in the epic.

Kathāvatthu (“Points of Controversy”) as a Primary Source of Early Buddhist Philosophy

This article focuses on the under-researched Buddhist text Kathāvatthu (“Points of Controversy”) and aims to better determine its place within Indian philosophy. We consider how the text was compiled, its contents, and main characteristics (such as its genre, its classification lists – mātika). To understand some of those characteristics, we suggest viewing them as shared with the whole Pali Canon (a large body of heterogeneous texts, of which the Kathāvatthu is part). This article also illustrates the issues of translating religious and philosophical texts from the Pāli language. Particularly, we highlight that the Kathāvatthu belongs to the part of Pāli Canon known as the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, and consider how this influences the philosophical discourse presented in this text. We analyze the historical and philosophical content of the Kathāvatthu. We argue that such content of this work is consistently revealed in the discussion of issues controversial for the schools of Early Buddhism. At the beginning of the text, there are the most significant questions for Early Buddhism (about the subject (pudgala), about the one who has reached perfection – arhat). As we get closer to the end of the text, the importance of the issues discussed diminishes. Its final part contains the latest questions. The discussion in each question depends on the logical method of the eight refutations, the use of lists (mātika), and the position of the Theravada school to which the final version of the text belongs. In the article, special attention is paid to the determination of the Kathāvatthu genre. We conclude that the genre of this work can be considered as a unique example of religious and philosophical dialogue in Early Buddhist literature.

Doṣas by the Numbers

This paper explores the origins of the Indian medical nosology involving the three doṣas from the perspective of its formulation into three or four distinct types. The essay compares similarities in passages from three different literary sources: Pāļi texts of early Buddhism, early Sanskrit medical literature, and Greek texts from the Hippocratic Corpus and the Anonymus Londiniensis. The study reveals that the tridoṣa-theory, common to āyurvedic literature from an early time was based on the adoption and then adaption of ideas nourished by an intellectual exchange with the Greek-speaking world.