ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 26, 2019 Buddhism and Capital Punishment: A Revisitation Martin Kovan University of Melbourne The first Buddhist precept prohibits the intentional, even sanctioned, taking of life. However, capital punishment remains legal, and even increasingly applied, in some culturally Buddhist polities and beyond them. The classical Buddhist norm of unconditional compassion as a counterforce … Continue reading Buddhism and Capital Punishment: A Revisitation →
ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 24, 2017 Capital Punishment: a Buddhist Critique Martin Kovan University of Melbourne Capital punishment is practiced in many nation-states, secular and religious alike. It is also historically a feature of some Buddhist polities, even though it defies the first Buddhist precept (pāṇatipātā) prohibiting lethal harm. This essay considers a neo-Kantian theorization of … Continue reading Capital Punishment: a Buddhist Critique →
ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 21, 2014 Thresholds of Transcendence: Buddhist Self-immolation and Mahāyānist Absolute Altruism, Part Two Martin Kovan University of Melbourne In China and Tibet, and under the gaze of the global media, the five-year period from February 2009 to February 2014 saw the self-immolations of at least 127 Tibetan Buddhist monks, nuns, and lay-people. … Continue reading Buddhist Self-immolation and Mahāyānist Absolute Altruism, Part Two →
ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 20, 2013 Thresholds of Transcendence: Buddhist Self-immolation and Mahāyānist Absolute Altruism, Part One Martin Kovan University of Melbourne In China and Tibet, and under the gaze of the global media, the four-year period from February 2009 to February 2013 saw the self-immolations of at least 110 Tibetan Buddhist monks, nuns and lay-people. … Continue reading Buddhist Self-immolation and Mahāyānist Absolute Altruism →
ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 19, 2012 The Burmese Alms-Boycott: Theory and Practice of the Pattanikujjana in Buddhist Non-Violent Resistance Martin Kovan University of Melbourne This essay presents a general and critical historical survey of the Burmese Buddhist alms-boycott (pattanikujjana) between 1990 and 2007. It details the Pāli textual and ethical constitution of the boycott and its … Continue reading The Burmese Alms-Boycott →
ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 16, 2009 Violence and (Non-)resistance: Buddhist Ahiṃsā and its Existential Aporias Martin Kovan University of Queensland This essay considers a paradigmatic example in Buddhist ethics of the injunction (in the five precepts and five heinous crimes) against killing. It also considers Western ethical concerns in the post-phenomenological thinking of Derrida and Levinas, … Continue reading Buddhist Ahimsā and its Existential Aporias →
General Editor Victor Forte Albright College Associate Editor James Mark Shields Bucknell University Technical Editor Daniel Cozort Dickinson College Assistant Editor Ananda Reed Assistant Editor Rick Repetti Assistant Editor Dion Peoples Area Editors Erik Hammerstrom Pacific Lutheran University China and East Asia Matthew Walton University of Toronto Theravada/South … Continue reading Journal Editors and Editorial Board →
