Introduction, Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy

Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. 16. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, May 2019.

This 6,220-word review article of The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy is concerned not only to review the work but to place it within the broader context of the study of Buddhist philosophy. As such, and in addition to evaluating the substantive Buddhist philosophical content of the book, I analyse in some detail the theoretical and methodological apparatuses the book deploys in order to translate classical Indian Buddhist philosophical positions, arguments, debates, assumptions, and concerns into an idiom recognizable to contemporary Western philosophers. Throughout, I argue that the fine balancing of emic and etic exigencies exemplified in the book ably elucidates how philosophically astute exposition of systematic thought built upon presuppositional frameworks alien to those of the exegete’s own intellectual culture may transculturally transmit such thought in a manner that simultaneously retains the distinctive features of the source materials and facilitates argumentatively justified engagement with them on the part of audience members unfamiliar with or even antagonistic toward them.

Goodreads.com, 2020

This is a review of volume eight of a 25 volume series on the philosophy of India, a project directed by professor Karl H. Potter. It reviews the second of five volumes on Buddhist philosophy in the series.

2021

This seminar examines the history of Buddhist Thought in India. Buddhists like to place emphasis not on belief as such but on practicing, following a path, and knowing, directly seeing. This direct ‘seeing things the way they really are’ (Skt. yathābhūtadarśana ≈ P. yathābhūtadassana) is held to free a person from the depths of suffering through cognitive transformation. By ‘Buddhist thought’ we mean, in this general context, the discussions, speculations, and arguments concerning ‘how things really are.’ In this seminar we will try to understand this issue through the works of various Buddhist philosophers beginning with Śākyamuni Buddha (480-400 BCE) through to Candrakīrti (ca. 570-650 CE).

2014

Syllabus for seminar (13 students) on Buddhist philosophy, centered on a complete reading of the eighth-century Indian-Tibetan Buddhist treatise Madhyamakalamkara in translation. As a source-text, this treatise provides a good classical survey of several traditions of Buddhist and non-Buddhist Indian philosophy framed in a dialectical Madhyamaka critique. The reading of the primary source served as the basis for further reading in secondary sources and extensive class discussions.

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CONTENTS The online pagination 2012 corresponds to the hard copy pagination 1992 Abbreviations............................................................................vii List of Illustrations.....................................................................ix Introduction...............................................................................xi T.H. Barrett Devil’s Valley to Omega Point: Reflections on the Emergence of a Theme from the Nō..............................1 T.H. Barrett Buddhism, Taoism and the Rise of the City Gods................13 L.S. Cousins The ‘Five Points’ and the Origins of the Buddhist Schools...27 P.T. Denwood Some Formative Inf1uences in Mahāyāna Buddhist Art…...61 G. Dorje The rNying-ma Interpretation of Commitment and Vow…..71 Ch.E. Freeman Saṃvṛti, Vyavahāra and Paramārtha inthe Akṣamatinirdeśa and its Commentary by Vasubandhu….................................97 D.N. Gellner Monk, Househo1der and Priest: What the Three Yānas Mean to Newar Buddhists...................................................115 C. Hallisey Councils as Ideas and Events in the Theravāda…………....133 S. Hookham The Practical Implications of the Doctrine of Buddha-nature……................................................................149 R. Mayer Observations on the Tibetan Phur-ba and the Indian Kīla ........................................................................163 K.R. Norman Theravāda Buddhism and Brahmanical Hinduism: Brahmanical Terms in a Buddhist Guise……………..............193 References...............................................................................201

Buddhist-Christian Studies, 2010

APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall 2019. Newark: The American Philosophical Association.

This issue on Buddhist Philosophy Today: Theories and Forms and the previous issue on Buddhist Philosophy Worldwide: Perspectives and Programs are two special issues of the APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies which I was invited to guest edit. They are designed to include descriptive and prescriptive/evaluative elements: On the one hand, scholars working on Buddhist philosophy throughout the world provide a descriptive snapshot of the state of the field in their geographical/disciplinary area; on the other, they proffer an evaluative appraisal of how Buddhist philosophy has been carried out and/or a prescriptive programme of how they feel it should be carried out. This collection of articles by experts of the widest possible spectrum of classical, modern, and contemporary Buddhist philosophical schools working in universities throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America thus comprises both an informed survey of the current state of research and a manifesto for the field. As such, it constitutes an important contribution to the ongoing project by scholars of ‘less commonly taught philosophies’ (including but not limited to Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Africana, and Feminist philosophies) to expand the ambit of professional philosophy beyond the narrow confines of the Western canon. Contributions study Buddhist philosophy based on authorial experience in Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Poland, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.