Quote sheet Flashcards
1
Q
Richard Jones
This description perfectly drew criticism from ‘Mahayana elitism’ by stating that Arhat only focused on its spiritual development and lacked enough compassion to help others.
Buddha
A
‘Mahayanists fault them for focusing on their own salvation—getting themselves out of the realm of suffering—while the whole world suffers.’
2
Q
Buddha
This quote precisely points out the contradiction in the arguments, as it is impossible to argue from a doctrinal perspective that Buddha, as an Arhat, and his disciples are only selfishly concerned with their own salvation.
A
“I am the teacher supreme. I alone am a fully enlightened one whose fires are quenched and extinguished.”
3
Q
Bhikkhu Bodhi
This implies that the ultimate goal of the Bodhisattva ideal is universal enlightenment and Nirvana, which align with Theravada and Arhat, but with the additional support of visualisations, chanting, and teachings from different Bodhisattvas.
A
“Through gradual practice and learning, all of you will become Buddhas.”
4
Q
? of the Buddhist population, particularly in Southeast Asia, adheres to these teachings.
A
53%
5
Q
Bhikkhu Bodhi and many scriptural scholars
This critique sheds light on the Boddhisattva path and Mahayana Buddhism as a whole, as their scriptures and teachings may be seen as deviated and distorted versions of the Dharma. These scriptures are considered to be less prone to mistakes and misinterpretations that may occur during the oral transmission of the Dharma.
A
“Likely to be closer to the Buddha’s actual verbal teachings”
6
Q
Bhikkhu Bodhi two perspective
A
“Historical-realistic perspective” vs “Cosmic-metaphysical perspective”
7
Q
Gethin
Mahayana ignores part of the evidence in Nikaya in which the Buddha does refer himself as a Boddhisatva in the period before his enlightenment and the historical record of Megha spending aeons in samsara perfecting spiritual qualities, which draws similarities to the six paramita and four further perfection of skills such as Upaya-Kausalya and Jnana, demonstrated in Gautama Buddha special ability to articulate and guide others to achieve nirvana.
A
“The eighteen special qualities of a Buddha are common to all Buddhist schools.”
8
Q
Bhikkhu Bodhi
It shows that the Theravada tradition is not reductive to a single account of Nikayas and historical interpretation. It emphasises both as all of them have the eventual goal of reaching enlightenment.
A
“The Theravada tradition has absorbed the bodhisattva ideal into its framework and thus recognised the validity of both.”
9
Q
The Boddhisattva vow
A
“I vow to save them all”
10
Q
Edward Conze’s Definition of Upaya
A
“‘Skill in means’ is the ability to bring out the spiritual potentialities of different people”
11
Q
Who were physically and sexually through the use of skilful means?
A
2017 eight long-term disciples and Rigpa students.
12
Q
Richard Gombrich
Even the doctrine of upaya is often prescribed in Mahayana tradition, but it has a theoretical basis in much foundational text
A
“Upaya Kausalya, is post-canonical, but the exercise of expounding to which it refers, is of enormous importance in the Pali Canon.”
13
Q
Gowans
He disagrees that Buddhist ethics are deontological, arguing that virtue and consequences are also important in Buddhist ethics. Gowans argues that there is no moral theory in Buddhist ethics that covers all conceivable situations such as when two precepts may conflict, but is rather characterized by that.
A
“a commitment to and nontheoretically grasp of the basic Buddhist moral values”
14
Q
Sam Harris
He believes avoiding white lies and false encouragement – so being brutally honest, even about the smallest matters – will allow us to have more beneficial relationships with others and allow others to see reality clearly, without filters and ideologies.
A
“By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is and deny them a collision with reality that is necessary to improve their life.”
15
Q
Alicia Matsunaga
Showing that Upaya is necessary even in the language and teaching of the Buddha.
A
“Inadequacies of human language, which is based on a conceptualized view of reality”
16
Q
Sutra of Hui Neng
Trikaya is a fundamental doctrine, that is permeated in reality.
A
“Within our Essence of Mind, the Three Bodies of Buddha (Trikaya) are to be found, and they are common to everybody.”
17
Q
Chogyam Trungpa
This describes the feature of Dharmakaya as the ultimate reality.
A
“The basis of the original unbornness.”
18
Q
Bhikkhu Bodhi Emanation body
A
“The truth of Buddhism depends on the efficacy of the Buddhist path exemplified by the life of the Buddha.”
19
Q
Avi Sion
It demonstrates that any metaphysical claim that Mahayana makes is pointless, as it doesn’t have any empirical and pragmatic justification for the whole theory.
A
“Dogmatic metaphysical claim, that is logically confusing and meaningless”
20
Q
Buddha
The Buddha emphasised the significance of this attainment and encouraged the direct and profound contemplation on void nature. Since there is no rising nor falling, thus everything was originally in complete calmness.
A
“Since there is no absolute self-nature thus every existence exhibits void-nature.”
21
Q
Douglas Berger representing the School of Logic (Nyaya)
A
“For one to say that all things lack a fixed nature would be also to say there is no assertion, no thesis like Nagarjuna’s.”
22
Q
Prajnaparamita
A
“Even all dharma cannot be talked about in any proper sense.”
23
Q
Peter Harvey
Seeing it through the lens of Upaya (conventional truth)
A
“Seeing them thus is wisdom, leading to non-attachment to conventional realities.”
24
Q
Thich Nhat Hanh
A
“The word ‘emptiness’ should not scare us. It is a wonderful world.”
25
Historical Record (Douglas Berger)
“…styled himself a vaitandika, a person who refutes rival philosophical positions while advocating no thesis themselves.”
26
Hume
“Reason is the slave of the passions”
27
Fromm
'The voice of our true self that summons us'
28
Piaget
“Children consider rules as being absolute and unchanging, that is ‘divine-like’”
29
Keith Ward
Criticism on Freud
“no more than the rationalisation of primitive drives to sex, aggregation, or power.”
30
Freud (Superego)
"The superego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehaviour with feelings of guilt."
31
Freud (Religion)
"The protection against consequences of his human weaknesses."
32
Aquinas against Augustine
"Conscience is reason making right decisions, not a voice giving us commands"
33
Aquinas synderesis
‘’No evil can be desirable, either by natural appetite or by conscious will’’
34
Aquinas Conscientia
"Every judgment of conscience, be it right or wrong...in such a way that he goes against his conscience, always sins."
35
Romans 2 conscience
"Do by nature those things that are laws... their consciences bearing witness to them."
36
Wolterstoff on regret and time
“Regrets over the pervasive pattern of what transpires within time have led whole societies to place the divine outside of time.”
37
Augustine Presentism
"a never-ending present."
38
Augustine fake revelation
“Else we have time and change; and not a true eternity nor true immortality…”
39
Katherin A. Rogers
“Does succeed in solving the dilemma of freedom and foreknowledge,”
40
Anselm on eternity
“Eternity cannot be changed, but is changeable by free will at some time before it exists.”
41
Richard Swinburne on the nature of God
“God moves through time the same way as we do.”
42
Richard Swinburne on criticism of eternity
“The God of the Hebrew Bible… is pictured as being in continual interaction with humans”
43
Anthony Kenny All causal relations and sequence between events within time disappear
“My typing of this paper is simultaneous with the whole of eternity.”
44
Boethius
“Eternity is the simultaneous possession of boundless life, which is made clearer by comparison with temporal thing.”
45
AJ Ayer
“A sentence is factually significant (meaningful) if, and only if, we know how to verify the proposition.”
46
Aquinas Omnipotence
“Not because of any defect in the power of God, but because it has not the nature of a feasible or possible thing.”
47
E.M. Curley
“Descartes's doctrine commits him to the contradiction that there are no necessary truths, no truths whose negation is impossible.”
48
Anslem Omnipotence
“That than which nothing greater can be conceived”
49
Matthew 19:24 Omnipotence
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
50
DZ. Philip
“To ask of what use are the scream of the innocent… is to embark on a speculation we should not even contemplate.”
51
Hume on the problem of evil (Hickean edition)
“Couldn’t our world be a little more hospitable and still teach us what we need to know? could we not learn through pleasure as well as pain?”
52
Hickean theodicy
“Man is in process of becoming the perfected being whom God is seeking to create……through a hazardous adventure in individual freedom.”
53
Genesis 1:26
'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.'
54
Swinburne on theodicy x2
The analogy of “over-protective parent”
“…… the very language it employs, actually adds to the evil it seeks to justify”.
55
Augustine own contradiction
“Nothing, therefore, happens unless the omnipotent wills it to happen. He either
allows it to happen or he actually causes it to happen”
56
[Evans] on Augustinian theodicy
“All evil arises in the will of man”
57
Saulius Geniusas
“Pain is a distinctive phenomenological experience”
58
Augustine on theodicy and evil
“As God only made things that exist, and because “evil” is not an existing thing, so God cannot be responsible for any evil”.
59
Genesis 1 on no evil
“God saw that all he made and it was really good”.
60
Spinosa on the problem of evil
“All things are necessary what they are, and in nature there is no good and evil.”
61
Kant produce a deontological way of measuring actions based on categorical imperative and duties.
“To seek out and establish this supreme principle of morality”
62
Kant This means to treat people in ways that reflect their inherent value, and not mere objects of instrumental value, which is good as it is fair and applicable to everyone.
“We are, however, as human beings, not things but persons, and by turning ourselves into things, we risk dishonor human nature in our own persons.”
63
Kant This provides a moral grounding/justification for basic human rights. Coming from the external freedom that everyone is treated equally.
“Humanity is itself a dignity and I am obliged to recognize practically the dignity in the humanity of every other person.”
64
Kant This mean that through using reason, we can avoid feeling and intuition from interfering with decision making. It should be use in a large scale.
"Unless reason takes the reigns of government into its own hands, the feelings and inclinations play the master over man."
65
Kant first categorical imperative
"Act as if the maxim of your action were to become, by your will, a universal law of nature."
66
O’Neil
"...Kantian moral theory requires unambiguously that we do no injustice."
67
Palmer
"If one person reasoning logically concludes that a particular argument is self-contradictory, then another person going through the same argument and also reasoning logically will arrive at the same conclusion."
68
David Hume (Kant)
“The approbation or blame …… is not a speculative proposition or affirmation, but an active feeling or sentiment”
69
Arthur Schopenhauer
“…all can be equally well off only if each makes the egoism of others the limit of his own.”
70
Jean Paul Sartre on ethic
“No rule of general morality can show you what you ought to do: no signs are vouchsafed in this world.”
71
H.J Paton
“We have no independent insight into the alleged necessity first presupposing freedom.”
72
Hegel
"a system of shared customs and social institutions"
73
Robert E Goodin
‘’Utilitarianism of whatever stripe is, first amd foremost, a standard for judging public action.’’
74
Jeremy Bentham Acts (utility as a way of measuring)
"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do."
75
Jeremy Bentham (greatest amount of happiness on largest amount of people effected.)
‘The interest of the community then is... the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.'
76
Jeremy Bentham This demonstrates the universality of the utilitarian theory, which everyone is considered in the theory.
"The question is not can they reason? nor can they talk? but Can they suffer?"
77
Mill Rules
‘’Act in accordance with those rules which, if generally followed, would provide the greatest general balance of pleasure over pain.’’
78
Mill This shows that qualitative measure of utility is more fitting to the human nature, as quantitative measures.
"It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. "
79
Mill (Golden Principle)
"To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality."
80
Sidgwick
"In practice it is hard to distinguish between higher and lower pleasures"
81
Sidgwick Ethics is about which actions are objectively right. Our knowledge of right and wrong arises from common-sense morality and intuition
'Reason shows me that if my happiness is desirable and good, the equal happiness of any other person must be equally desirable.' (an axiom of justice, prudence and benevolence)
82
Peter Signer
'Our own preferences cannot count any more than the preferences of others.'
83
Philip Pettit
‘’So long as they promised the best consequences (...) it would forbid nothing, not rape, not torture, not even murder’’
84
Robert Nozick
"What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?"
85
Zizek on business ethics and Utilitarianism
"[Utilitarianism] —sounds appealing, but it leaves intact the existing order of things, providing the illusion that a slight correction here and there will bring about a just society."
86
Zizek on CSR
“Prolonging the disease…. rather than curing it.”
87
Marx
“On the exploitation of the many by the few.”
88
Anand Giridharadas
“Jeff Bezos wants to start a school for kids whose families are underpaid by people like Jeff Bezos.”
89
Milton Freeman
“Make as much money for their stockholders as possible”.
90
William MacAskill
“All you are doing is taking away the best working opportunity that these people in very poor countries have”
91
Peter Singer x2
"Famine, Affluence, and Morality,"
“Promoting the long-term, sustainable welfare of all.”
92
Augustine on original sin
"seminally present"
93
Nagarjuna
"...dependent designation, Is itself the middle way."
94
the Heart Sutra
form is emptiness, emptiness is form’
95
Ciero, through nature we can observe the goals and regularity of things.
‘’True law is right reason in agreements with nature; it is applied universally, unchanging, and everlasting.’’
96
Bible Roman 1:20 (Natural Law)
"Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been perceived in the things that have been made".
97
Aquinas. This describes the advantage of universality
‘’natural law is the same for all men.... there is a single standard of truth and right for everyone.... which is known by everyone.'
98
The doctrine of double effect acknowledges the chaotic and difficult nature of the world by making the theory more applicable to real-life situations.
“Nothing hinders one act from having two effects, only one of which is intended, while the other is beside the intention. Moral acts take their character from what is intended, not from what is outside the intention, as this is accidental.’’
99
Aristotle This shows that everything has a final cause/telos. Allowing the creation of primary precept.
‘’Nature makes nothing without a purpose.’’
100
GE Moore This describes the problem of the naturalistic fallacy
“Good does not, by definition, mean anything that is natural; and it is therefore always an open question whether anything that is natural is good.”
101
David Hume Is ought statement
‘’For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, it is necessary that it should be seen and explained; and while a reason should be given’’
102
Kai Nielsen
‘’According to science, there is no such thing as an essential nature that made a man man.’’
103
Lie Zi
‘’we give meaning to these co-occurrences based on our belief system.’’
104
Karl Barth (the fall)
‘’The relativising effect of both freedom and sin upon all historical term.’’
105
William Temple (the good Samaritan and the selfless sacrifices from Jesus.)
“There is only one ultimate and invariable duty, and its formula is ‘Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself’.”
106
Joseph Fletcher
“Relativizes the absolutes, it does not absolutize the relative!”
107
Augustine (situation ethics)
‘’To know whether a man is a good man one does not ask, what he believes or what he hopes but how he loves.’’
108
Paul Tillich (a middle way of legalism and anti-nomianism)
“The law of love is the ultimate law because it is the negation of law; it is absolute because it concerns everything concrete. The paradox of final revelation, overcoming the conflict between absolutism and relativism, is love.”
109
Authur Schopenhauer (on compassion)
“Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct and needs no casuistry.’’
110
John 13:34-35 (love)
‘’I give you a new commandment, that you love one another’’
111
Paul Ramsey on rules
“The rules often assist us in adjusting between contradictory courses of action grounded in love.”
112
1 Corinthian on intention
‘’Or do you not know the saint will judge the world’’
113
William Barclay
“…...But if there is no love, or if there is not enough love, then freedom can become licence, freedom can become selfishness and even cruelty.”
114
Leviticus 20:16 (intrinsically and wrong action)
“‘If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.’’
115
Mortimer J. Adler
"half-baked theory of conduct aired during the early sixties. It is morally wrong."
116
William Paley (Design Qua Purpose)
“The marks of design are too strong to be got over. Design must have had a designer. (That designer must have been a person. That person must have been God.)"
117
William Paley (watch/watchmaker)
“Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for stone (that happened to be lying on the ground).”
118
Aquinas (telelogical argument)
“Hence it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly……As the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore, some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end"
119
John Hick (posterior/empirical method to prove the existence of God) criticism
“The universe is religiously ambiguous, it evokes and sustains non-religious as well as religious response.”
120
J.L Mackie (If the physical aspect of this argument fails, it would only be reduced to a cosmological argument.)
“All material order not only is not self-explanatory but is positively improbable and in need of further explanation”
121
David Hume (no experience of the universe being made)
“…… Our experience, so imperfect in itself and so limited both in extent and duration, can afford us no probable conjecture concerning the whole things.”
122
David Hume (too many imperfect problems and evils that a perfect create.)
“This world, for ought he know, is very faulty and imperfect, compared to a superior standard, and was only the first rude essay of some infant deity.”
123
Richard Swinburne (Ockham razor teleological)
“The great simplicity of a wide hypothesis outweighs by far its wideness of scope in determining intrinsic probability… great simplicity of the hypothesis of the thesis.”
124
Michael Palmer (the attribute of God cannot even be identified/logically described by humans.)
“For while the definition of the divine attributes may seem straightforward enough, its implications may be much less so.”
125
Genesis (Scientific evidence is not fully compatible with the traditional explanation)
“So, God created mankind in his own image.”
126
Neal Gillespie (Darwin)
“Darwin deprived their argument of the analogical inference that the evident purpose to be seen in the contrivances by which means and ends were related in nature was necessary a function of the mind."
127
Richard Dawkins The hypothesis of God is entirely unnecessary, and that order is due to natural selection alone without any purpose.
“Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distance target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection.”
128
Friedrich Tennant
“The fitness of our world to be the home of living beings depends upon certain primary conditions, astronomical, thermal, chemical… It is suggestive of a formative principle.”
129
Mill on good
| advantage
“What good it brings to them is mostly the result of their own effort.”
130
Mill (problem of evil)
“the force of good cannot subdued-completely and all at once-the power of evil, either physical or moral.”
131
Penrose deus ex machina
"It tends to be invoked by theorists whenever they do not have a good enough theory to explain the observed facts."
132
Bernard Russell on Ontological Argument
“The argument does not to a modern mind, seem very convincing, but it is easier to feel
convinced that is must be fallacious, than it than it is to find out precisely where the fallacy
lies.”
133
St. Anselm on the validity of the Ontological arguments
“Why then has the fool said in his heart, there is no God, since it is evident to a rational mind''
134
Gaunilo
“reductio ad absurdum”
135
Descartes Ontological argument
"... The necessity which lies in the things itself, that is, the necessity of the existence of God,
determines me to think in this way”
136
Kant on ontological arguments
"Existence is not a perfection, but that in the absence of which there are no perfection."
137
Hume on ontological arguments
“There is an evident absurdity in pretending to demonstrate a matter of fact, or to prove it by
any arguments a priori”
138
Paul Tillich on the being of God
“God does not exist. He is being-itself beyond essence and existence."
139
Thomas Aquinas
First way via motion
“For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality."
140
Thomas Aquinas
First, cause from a causal chain
'In the world of sensible things, we find there is an order of efficient causes.'
141
Russell on Cosmological Argument
I should say that the universe is just there, and that's all'
141
Leibniz on Cosmological Argument
'If you suppose the world eternal, you will suppose nothing but a succession of states and will
not find in any of them a sufficient reason.'
142
William Lane Craig on Cosmological Argument
'If the universe began to exist, and if the universe is caused, then the cause of the universe
must be a personal being who freely chooses to create the world.'’
143
Brian Davies on cosmological argument
“But it does not by itself establish the existence of God with all the properties sometimes
ascribed to Him.”
144
Hume on the contradiction of cosmological argument
“Consequently, the actual separation of these objects is so far possible that its implies no
contradiction.”
145
Rudolph Otto on Religious experience
“Mysterium tremendum et fascinans”
146
Rudolf Otto on William James
“William James has collected a great number of [examples of religious experience] without,
however, noticing the non-rational element which thrills in them…”
147
William James Insight
“They are states of insight into depth of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect.”
148
William James Pragmatic approach
"Be ready now to judge the religious life by its results exclusively"
149
William James mystic consciousness
“The drunken consciousness (for example) is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our
total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of that larger whole.”
150
Dr. Maudsley
“He may find an incomplete mind a more suitable instrument for a particular purpose.”
151
Richard Swinburne on religious experience (Principle of Testimony)
“In an absence of special considerations, the experiences of others are probably as they report them.”
152
Richard Swinburne biggest probability of the explanation of the world
"I suggest that the overwhelming testimony of so many millions of people to occasionally
experience God, must be seen as tipping the balance of evidence decisively in favour of the
existence of God."
153
Freud critique of religious experience
"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual
wishful impulses."
154
Feuerbach
“Religion is the dream of the human mind.”
155
Jean Paul Sartre on religious experience
“It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose.”
156
John Cottingham on art and religious expereince
“The dimension of the sacred as it has often been called in religious parlance does not in fact
require religious belief at all.”
157
Teresa of Avila
“God establishes himself in the interior of this soul in such a way, that when I return to myself, it
is wholly impossible for me to doubt that I have been in God and God in me”
158
J.B Mabbott (Naturalism)
"Natural rights must be self-evident and they must be absolute."
159
Robert Nozick (implies that there are intrinsic values)
"There is no actual contact with any deeper reality,as the experience of it can be simulated."
160
Phillipa Foot
“As Hume is only targeting deductive reasoning from is to ought”
161
F.H. Bradley (self-realisation served the end of what he calls the self as a whole)
“The fact that we often feel ourselves to be under some obligation”
162
H.A. Pritchard (Intuitionism)
‘The sense that we ought to do certain things arises in our unreflective consciousness.’
163
Freud (Moral Authority)
“Internalisation of outer authorities”.
164
Moore and Pichard
"There is involved confidence in our reason.”
165
Willam Barclay (extreme egoism)
"[Intuitionism] gives people a frightening amount of freedom."
166
A.J. Ayer (Emotivism) two quote
‘The presence of an ethical language adds nothing to its contents.’
“one really never does dispute about questions of value”
167
JL Mackie (Emotivism)
“While his emotions … will be part of the subject of the judgement, no such relation between the subject and their proposed action will be part of the predicate.”
168
Alasdair MacIntyre (Emotivism)
“The emotivist is unable to distinguish between my dislike of curries from my dislike of genocide."
169
J.S Mill on euthanasia
"Over himself, over his body and mind, the individual is sovereign"
170
Job 1:21 on life
“The lord gave and the lord has taken away; may the name of the lord be praised.”
171
Ecclesiastes (plan of God)
“And a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die,”
172
Pope John Paul 2 on euthanasia
“Euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person.”
173
Dianne Pretty
"I want a quick deal without suffering at home surrounded by my family"
174
James Rachels on euthanasia
“Killing in itself is no worse than letting die, and thus active euthanasia is no worse than passive euthanasia”
175
James Rachels on differences of active and passive
"There is the feeling that because killing at a distance is easier, one would not have to be such a monster to do it.”
176
Descartes on Soul
“I think, therefore, I am. cogito, ergo sum”
177
Descarte on indivisibility argument
“I am only a thing that thinks, I cannot distinguish any parts in me.… Although the whole mind seems to be united to the whole body”
178
Elisabeth of Bohemia
“It easier to concede matter and extension to the soul than to concede that an immaterial thing be moved by a body.”
179
Thomas Nagel
“An organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism”
180
Gilbert Ryle
“It represents the fact of mental life as if they belonged to one logical type or category when they actually belong to another.”
181
Dawkins on selfish genes
“We are survival machines- robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish genes.”
182
Plato on soul
"The soul is the very likeness to the divine and immortal"
183
Hume on perfection
“simply conceive of its negation: ‘not imperfect’ to gain the concept of ‘perfect’.”
184
Aristotle on soul
"being a axe would be its essence and so its psyche"
185
Heraclitus
'No man ever steps in the same river twice'
186
Plato universal goodness
‘The idea of good is inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right'
187
I.M. Crombie
“Our knowledge of the external world is not a matter of undergoing ‘sense data’ but of interpreting them.”
188
Bertrand Russell on Plato
“He runs away from this view because he is afraid of falling into the bottomless pit of nonsense”
189
W.S Willson on Plato
“Form and Matter are inseparable but at the same time distinct”
190
Karl Popper on Plato
“Find some comfort in absolute certainty”
191
Aristotle on the prime mover
"There is a substance which is eternal and unmovable and separate from sensible things."
192
Aristotle on posterior
“Most of all the senses, make us know and bring to light many differences between things.”
193
Campbell reflecting on Hume
"Aristotle may be guilty of the error of composition."
194
Jean-Paul Satre
“Existence precedes essence”
195
Jon Kabat-Zinn
“To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are’’
196
Dr. March
"These mindfulness practices show considerable promise and available evidence in the case that their use is currently warranted in clinical situations."
197
Zizek on Secular Buddhism
“It enables you to fully participate in the frantic pace of the capitalist game while sustaining the perception that you are not really in it.”
198
Ron Purser on Secular Buddhism
‘’ But the rush to secularise and commodify mindfulness into a marketable technique may be leading to an unfortunate denaturing of this ancient practices’’
199
Dhammapada why meditation is important
‘’All that we are is the result of all our thought.’’
200
Gethin on what is meditation
‘’One stills and clears their mind and turns it towards insight and investigation.’’
201
Gethin the importance of both Samatha and Vipassana
"Samatha and vipassana are seen as together the basis of realisation of Buddhist goal."
202
Denise Cush Samatha
"Samatha meditation usually starts with the cultivation of mindfulness- the awareness of oneself and the various states one is in."
203
Denise Cush the use of meditation in Buddhism
‘’Mediation is central in Buddhism because only through training of the citta can one begin to purify the mind of false....... and follow the path to nirvana.’’
204
S. N. Goenka on vipassana
‘’The only conversion involved in Vipassana is from misery to happiness, from bondage to liberation. ‘’
205
Thanissaro/ important of both Samatha and Vipassana
‘’Vipassana helps keep tranquillity from becoming stagnant and dull. Samatha helps to prevent the manifestation of aversion-such as nausea, disorientation or even total blanking out.’’
206
Gethin Against the argument that samatha meditation is too complex and dull and detached from the external world
"Gradual and cumulative process of the spiritual path.... distinguish by various landmarks which the list of stage is intended to indicate."
207
Jon Kabat-Zinn
This shows that we should develop metal strategies through meditation to accept suffering, instead of becoming delusional and deny the worldly changes.
“You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquillity of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness …...leads to delusion.’’
208
Ten Commandment
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
209
Leviticus 20:13
“If a man lies with a man as he does with a woman, both have committed an abomination"
210
Daniel A. Helminiak
“The sin of Sodom was inhospitality and paedophilia, not homosexuality.”
211
Genesis 2:24
“The two shall become one flesh”
212
Lisa Sowle Cahill
“Historically wealthy, powerful men had concubines, usually having lower status.”
213
Tim Kelly
“Losing individual freedom, fulfilment, and autonomy.”
214
Michael Foucault
“Sexuality does not need a reason."
215
Pope Benedict XVI
“The inclination (Homosexual) itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”
216
Christipher Hitchens
“He’s not being condemned for what he does he’s being condemned for what he is”
217
Augustine
‘Love the sinner hate the sin’
218
Kant on marriage
"Grant each other equal reciprocal rights"
219
Kant on sexual desire
“Degradation of Human nature and unmentionable vice”
220
Macintyre on Kantian ethics
“Anybody can universalise anything for their situation.”
221
J.S. Mill on love and harm prin.
“As long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to obtain it.”
222
Joseph Fletcher on sex
“Any form of sex (hetero, homo, or auto) is good or bad depends on whether love is fully served”
223
Dalai Lama on the importance of Dukkha
“The stronger and deeper your insight into suffering is, the stronger your aspiration to gain freedom from it”
224
Mahathera Nyanatilaka on the misinterpretation of dukkha
“Dukkha does not deny the existence of pleasurable experience as it is sometimes wrongly assumed”
225
Buddha on suffering
“All that I teach is, suffering and the deliverance from suffering”
226
Dhammapada on Annica
‘All conditioned things are impermanent – when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.’
227
Peter Harvey on Annica
‘The Buddha emphasises that change, and impermanence are fundamental features of everything bar nibbana’
228
Clive Erriker on Annica
We also are a part of the universe’s ceaseless becoming
229
Majjhima 2
“Thicket of views, a writhing of views, a contortion of views”
230
Toni Packer
There is no “I” to get enlightened. That’s an illusion.
231
Mahathera Nyanatiloka
“This (Anatta) is the central doctrine of Buddhism, without an understanding of which a real knowledge of Buddhism is altogether impossible.”
232
JG Jenning on rebirth
“Rebirth could instead be understood as the recurrence of our selfish desires which could repeat themselves "in endless succeeding generations".
233
Buddhadeva on rebirth
“The whole question of rebirth is quite foolish and has nothing to do with Buddhism”
234
Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the validity of rebirth
"a complete and convincing case that unskillful actions should always be avoided, and skilful ones always developed."
235
B. Alan Wallace *2 on validity of rebirth
"Undermine any sense of moral responsibility, and this is bound to have a profoundly detrimental effect on societies.”
“First-person introspection is a valid means of knowledge about 'rebirth'.
236
Khajjaniya Sutta on no self and no rebirth
'This is not mine. This is not myself. This is not what I am.'
237
Paul William on rebirth
“A variety of psychological modes humans can be in......account for the different realms.”
238
Wittgenstein
“Each language game has its own rules; you can’t play one game with the rules of another.”
239
Language games are interconnected
'The complicated network of similarities overlapping and crisscrossing’
240
D. Z. Phillips on language games
‘Philosophical contemplation seeks to do justice to belief and atheism, to the confusion and the sense that can be found in each.'
241
Josh McDowell
“Truth is objective because God exists outside ourselves; it is universal because God is above all."
242
Ten Commandments Interfaith Communication
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
243
Lewis S. Feuer
“May take one into a metaphysical underworld, which the logical positivist has warned against.”
244
Karl Popper on empiricism
"We would have to test ‘every human who has or will ever exist to conclusively show “all humans are mortal”.
245
Brummer
‘Many of us intuitively assume, that reality is merely the object of knowledge’
246
Ayer on meaningless
‘No statement which refers to a reality transcending the limits of sense experience can have any literal significance’
247
Flew
‘Dies the death of a thousand qualifications’
248
Flew on God
"If belief in God is consistent with any possible discovery about reality, then its existence surely can make no difference to reality."
249
Basil
‘The partisan admits that many things may and do count against his belief’
250
Hare
“Blik”
251
Hick on the validity of Blik
‘There is no basis for speaking of them as being right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, sane or insane'
252
Anthony Flew claims that Hare’s bilks are just a
‘Fraudulent substitute’
253
Pseudo-Dionysius
“The more we climb, the more language falters……, since we will be near to One which is indescribable”
254
Exodus 20:5
”I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.”
255
Miamonides
‘come nearer to the knowledge and comprehension of God by the negative attributes’
256
Brain Davies
“It is simply wrong to say that someone who has all the negations, arrived at the correct notion”
257
Aquinas
“Not what people want to say when they talk about God.”
258
John MacQuarrie
‘It is not… a literal or direct way of talking about God, and yet it gives us assurance.”
259
Karl Barth
“The finite has no capacity for the infinite”.
260
Brummer
“The analogy of proportionality thus takes us no further than a negative theology”
261
Erika von Schubert
‘A pattern of object which points to an invisible metaphysical reality and participates in it’
262
John Hick
“Unfortunately, Tillich does not fully define or clarify this central notion of participation”
263
William Alston
“There is no point trying to determine whether the statement is true or false.”
264
Tillich
‘Open up levels of reality which otherwise were closed to us’
265
Randall
‘They make us receptive to the qualities of the world encountered’
266
Buddha on his birth
“I am chief of the world; this is the last birth. There is now no more coming to be.”
267
Buddha and Dhamma
“Who sees the Dhamma, sees me, and who sees me, sees the Dhamma”
268
Kalama Sutra (Dharma)
“Then and only then enter into and abide in them”
269
Paul William on the materialistic life
“His father kept these facts of life from Gautama until adulthood shows the absurdity of reading”
270
Paul William on the four sights
“It was a revelation of reality, which provoked a crisis. The only solution was renunciation.”
271
Narada Thera
“Majjhima Patipada, which subsequently became one of the salient characteristics of his teaching”
272
The fourth Jhana Denise Cush
“So profound, subtle and beyond the sphere of reasoning, that others would be too subject to attachment to be able to understand it”
273
Denise Cush on the historical record of Buddha
“All stories indicate that the Buddha was unique”
274
Denise Cush on the inconsistency of the record and interpretation
“There are many versions and occurrences associated with the birth of the Buddha/ Abhidhamma Pitaka”
275
Peter D Santina on inspiration like rebirth
“Buddhism......draws most of its inspiration from the Indus Valley religion”
276
Denice Cush on Brahminism
"The religion of the Brahmins was beginning to absorb the concept of rebirth.”
277
Cousins
”Buddhism has always coexisted with other religious beliefs and practices.”
278
Denise Cush
“Buddhists believe that in the countless previous lives, he prepared the ground for this total insight into reality”
279
Shunryu Suzuki
“Seeking refuge in physical possessions and transient pleasures merely deepens our confusion rather than ending it”
280
YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE on rejection from liberal
“We cannot dismiss the Buddha’s teachings in the name of creative autonomy.”
281
YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE on rejection of faith
“We neither discard genuine faith nor indulge in blind faith.”
282
Nyanatiloka on the Buddha
“Buddha realised and proclaimed to the world the law of deliverance”
283
Suzuki
“The Buddha in Mahayana scriptures is not an ordinary human being walking in a sensuous world”
284
Kornfield
“True freedom comes when we follow our Buddha nature, the natural goodness of our heart”
285
Paul William on the importance of the Buddha
life-story of the founder is in some sense a crucial preliminary to understanding what follows.
286
Buddha on the Dhamma
“Profound, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, sublime, to be experienced by the wise.”
287
Denice Cush on Dhamma
Buddhism is centred on the Dharma, or the ultimate truth about the way things really are.
288
Chopgam Trungpa on Sangha
“Your friends in the Sangha provide a continual reference point which creates a continual learning process.”
289
Venerable Mahinda on the importance of the Sangha
“Upholds a pure and noble way of life – will support the preservation of the Buddha-Dhamma in the world.”
290
Bhikkhu Bodhi on Sangha
“Factor affecting the Sangha-laity relationship and the community in general has been the transition, from a traditional social order to a modern social order.”
291
Thich Nhat Hanh on the Sangha
“Without the sangha, we cannot go far”.
292
Bodhidharma
‘Direct transmission outside tradition and scripture; no dependence on words; directly pointing to the human heart.’
293
Warner on the sudden enlightenment
'Enlightenment never came before and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.'
294
Cush on Zen
'Fully enlightened knows how to best arrange for another person to experience reality.’
295
I hsuan
‘If you come across the Buddha in your path, kill him’
296
Keown uses the Japanese saying
'Rinzai for the shogun, Soto for the peasant.’
297
Analogy of Posion arrow
"The important thing is to get rid of the arrow, not to enquire where it came from."
298
Baggott
‘The purpose of the koan is to break the habitual thought; to short-circuit our logical thinking so that pure intuition can arise.’
299
Nicheren
'Pure Land separate your body and mind went against the teachings of sutras that Buddhahood is attainable within each body.'
300
Eliot
‘This simple and attractive teaching… offered salvation to those who could justify themselves neither by learning nor by good work’
301
Honen
'as far as we are concerned, lets not commit even the smallest sins’.
302
Shinran
'Even a good man will be received in Buddha’s land, how much more a bad man?’
302
Kurum reflects on the historical record of Amitabha
'Neither (Earliest mention of other Buddha in scripture like Mahasamghikas) mentions Amitabha, his Pure Land, and other deities like Tara.'
303
Williams on the symbolic meaning of Amitabha
‘teaching universal liberation and compassion’
304
Williams on universal salvation
'In the eyes of Amida there is no distinction between monk and laity; all can become enlightened.'
305
Williams on the massive task of letting go
Leaving good and evil to the natural working of karmic law and submitting wholeheartedly.’
306
Narada Thera
‘We ourselves are responsible for our own deeds, happiness and misery. We build our own hells. We create our own heavens.
307
Francesca Fremantle
“Samsara is a sickness; the Buddha… offers a cure; but the patient must recognize the illness with its causes… before the cure can begin.”
308
Buddha on universal nirvana
‘Whoever has such a vehicle, whether a man or a woman, by means of that vehicle, come to nirvana.’
309
Buddha on the Theravada path
‘Women, Ananda, having gone forth are able to realise the fruit of stream-attainment or the fruit of once-returning or the fruit of non-returning or arhantship.’
310
Martine Batchelor.
Is patriarchal, social, cultural, and historical influence on Buddhism… an issue? Very often it can be.’
311
Barnes on Theravada
‘The Theravadins seemed to see individuals as permanently fixed in one gender.’
311
Barnes on Mahayana
‘It is therefore wrong to assume that there is a real distinction between female and male; only unenlightened beings believe that.’
312
The Flower Garden Suttra
‘Women are messengers of hell who can destroy the seeds of Buddahood.'
313
Gurmeet Kaur
‘The first, seventh, and eighth garudhamma ensure that Bhikkuṇī do not under any condition assert their superiority over the Bhikkhus.
314
Barnes on the role of the women
‘Women were there, but most often seem to remain on the shadowy fringes of religious life'
315
Dr. H. Nakamura
'Buddhism was the first tradition to produce one.’
316
Karma Lekshe
‘we take bhikshuni ordination because it signifies a full-time commitment to Buddhist study and practice.'
317
Appleton on Thervada
'the tradition that explicitly excludes women from the bodhisatta path belongs to the commentarial layer of the text.'
318
Rita Gross
'Usually the case even for androcentrism, women are seen as outside the norm, as a foreign object.'
319
Ayer on poteriori
It is impossible for empiricist principles to account for our knowledge of necessary truths.
320
Buddha on suffering and nature
"Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering…"
321
The Buddha on realities
My teaching is a method of experiencing reality and
not reality itself, (just as a finger pointing at the moon is not the moon itself.)
322
The Buddha on the importance of noble truth
"The noble truth is the way leading to the cessation of
suffering"
323
Ken Jones in Buddhism
"It is claimed that all authentic Buddhism must inevitably be engaged. But, there are many cases where historical Buddhism has tended toward escapism."
324
Ven. Dhammanada on War
"The Buddha did not teach his followers to surrender to any form of evil power."
325
Thich Nhat Hanh on War
'One roots of war is the way of seeing the world.'
326
Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change
'The compulsion to consume more and more is an expression of craving.'
327
The Dalai Lama on Engage Buddhism
'It is not enough to be compassionate: you must act."
328
Bhikkhu Bodhi on the environment
"We regard the environment as sacrosanct."
329
Kenneth Krath
"Greed, anger and delusion... need to be uprooted in personal lives, but they also have to be dealt with as a social and political realites."
330
Walpola Ruhala
'No external world exists to you.'
331
Thich Nhat Hanh on meditation and engaged buddhism
'meditation is not escape from society, but to see what's going go.'
332
Clive Errike
"Anger provokes Anger, meanness provokes meanness."
333
Dhammananda on No War
"No reason for war to take place in this world."
334
Steven Bachelor on the origin of Buddhism
‘The transformation of Buddhism into a religion obscures and distorts the encounter of the dharma.’
335
Dalai Lama on the Duel Belonging
"You cannot be a Buddhist and also be a non‐Buddhist"
‘spiritual promiscuity’
336
Jay Garfield
‘Buddhism has been transforming because fundamentally all compounded things are impermanent.'
337
Dalai Lama on Buddhism modernism
Mere speculation devoid of an empirical basis, will not do.
338
Dreyfus on Ritual
Ritual is an essential element of the tradition and adherents make no excuse for its importance. The Dalai Lama is no exception.
339
Bachelor on the importance of secularisation
The secular world demands not another Buddhist Church, but an individuated community.
340
Paul Knitter of Christianity
My God bears a much greater resemblance to sunyata and Interbeing than to the prevalent Christian image
341
Paul Knitter on the benefit
‘Nourished one another'
342
Bible against the Christian Buddhism
"I, the Lord, do not change."
