Category Archives: Volume 33 2026

Volume 33 2026

Donations for Nepal Emergency

Many Buddhist and Buddhist-related organizations are mobilizing to provide aid for the victims of the recent natural disaster on the Nepal-Tibet border. Here are some to whom you might consider donating:

Friends of Adwan Nepal. This U.S.-based nonprofit organization promotes awareness about Dalit women and children in rural Nepal and is raising money to support families and communities.

Tzu Chi Nepal Flood Relief Platform. The Taiwan-based Tzu Chi Foundation, an international Buddhist disaster relief organization, has opened a direct giving channel. Financial donations directly fund their advance teams on the ground in Nepal delivering food, clean water purifiers, and medical aid.

FPMT Emergency Relief Fund. The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahāyāna Tradition “channels community compassion into direct grant aid for disasters impacting Buddhist communities, monastics, and vulnerable populations across Nepal.”

Jogye Order Official Site. South Korea’s largest Buddhist order has launched an emergency fundraising campaign through its Social Welfare Foundation and Beautiful Togetherness to support recovery in Nepal.

Volume 33 2026

A Triadic Moral Psychology of Economic Ethics in Early Buddhism

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Volume 33, 2026

The Canonical Logic of Prosperity: A Triadic Moral Psychology of Economic Ethics in Early Buddhism

Siong Lee Koh
Independent Researcher

This article reconstructs an early canonical account of Buddhist prosperity by examining the moral psychology in the early Buddhist texts and their Chinese Āgama parallels. Contemporary discussions of “Buddhist economics” often invoke compassion, moderation, non-harming, and mindfulness without sustained attention to the canonical analysis of desire. Drawing on a comparative philological study, this article argues that early Buddhism articulates a distinct ethical logic of economic life through a triadic transformation of motivation: from craving (taṇhā) to wholesome aspiration (chanda); sustained by rapturous diligence (pīti and appamāda); and culminating in contentment (santuṭṭhi). This progression reorganizes the familiar economic sequence of desire, effort, and satisfaction into a moral continuum that culminates not in accumulation but in equilibrium. The resulting “canonical logic of prosperity” reframes well-being as arising from certain ethical conditions rather than the maximization of consumption or preference satisfaction. By clarifying the doctrinal contours of aspiration, affect, and contentment, the article offers a constructive contribution to debates in economic ethics, well-being theory, and the moral psychology of desire. It argues that early Buddhism provides not merely an alternative set of values but a coherent conceptual architecture for understanding economic agency and the cultivation of sustainable prosperity.

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Volume 33 2026

Dharmas of “Gender” in Later Theravāda Scholasticism

Volume 33, 2026

Wrestling with Essentialism: the Dharmas of “Gender” in Later Theravāda Scholasticism

Bruno M. Shirley
Heidelberg University

This article provides a history of gendered ontology in later Theravāda commentaries and compendia. While the canonical Theravāda Abhidhamma sets out a model of gender based on binary dharmas—distinct indriyas (“faculties”) of femininity and masculinity—this seems to have been poorly received by later commentators, who repeatedly reconceptualized the dharmic foundations of gender. I suggest that this is due to the inadequacy of binary and essentialized models to account for the wide diversity of gender experiences depicted in the canonical Vinaya, with implications for contemporary arguments for gender essentialism.

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Volume 33 2026

Theravāda Moral Dilemmas and the Micro-Dynamics of Mental Factors

Volume 33, 2026

Beyond “Mixed Motives”: Cetasika Micro-Dynamics and Theravāda Moral Dilemmas

Indrajith P. Karunanayaka
Independent Researcher

The act of compassionate lying, or causing harm to save a life, poses a deep ethical question. Although many Buddhists accept breaking a precept out of care, the Theravāda Abhidhamma is widely seen as a rigid system that denies this possibility. Previous scholarly debates on this issue have overlooked the crucial role of momentariness. This article examines the psychological mechanics of moral habituation to show how such acts are structurally possible. Drawing on the Dhammasaṅgaṇī, the Atthasālinī, and the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha, the study demonstrates that compassion and the intention to deceive cannot blend into a single mixed state. Instead, they arise in a rapid, alternating karmically active phase of cognitive impulsion (javana) sequence. I argue that this process is driven by the strict rules governing mental factors (cetasikas) and the repetition condition (āsevana paccaya) that reinforce the ethical character of each moment. By highlighting the threshold of determining consciousness (voṭṭhapana), this momentary analysis resolves long-standing debates about mixed motives. The analysis clarifies how compassionate deception functions moment by moment and explains why training in moral conduct (sīla) must doctrinally precede concentration (samādhi) and wisdom (paññā).

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Volume 33 2026

A Radical Buddhist Critique of Labor

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Volume 33, 2026

Right Livelihood in an Age of Bullshit Jobs: A Radical Buddhist Critique of Labor

James Mark Shields
Bucknell University

This essay reexamines the Buddhist concept of Right Livelihood (sammā-ājīva) through a critical lens, situating it within contemporary global capitalism. Engaging both Buddhist philosophy and Marxian analysis, I argue that conventional interpretations—focused on ethical employment or meaningful work—overlook the systemic conditions of labor exploitation, environmental harm, and socially conditioned craving (taṇhā) that define late capitalism. Buddhism identifies suffering (dukkha) as rooted in craving, while Marx shows how capitalism institutionalizes endless accumulation, reducing human beings to interchangeable labor power. Both diagnose structural delusion rather than individual moral failure. The essay critiques corporate mindfulness and “conscious capitalism,” showing how these practices domesticate Buddhist ethics, enhancing resilience and productivity while leaving harmful systems intact. Similarly, socially engaged Buddhist frameworks risk complicity when compassion is framed in service of profit rather than structural change. I propose a radical Buddhist approach to labor centered on refusal, reduction of unnecessary work, and collective reorganization of economic life. Drawing on Buddhist sources, Marxian critique, and contemporary post-work proposals—including universal basic income, degrowth, and commons-based practices—I argue that Right Living today entails reclaiming time for ethical cultivation, community, and political participation. Liberation extends beyond mindfulness to the transformation of labor itself, challenging the structural imperatives that reproduce suffering and craving.

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