Journal of Buddhist Ethics

An online journal of Buddhist scholarship related to ethics.

Archive for the ‘Volume 03 1996’


AAR Panel: Revisioning Buddhist Ethics

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Opening Statement

Charles Prebish

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Cutting the Roots of Virtue

Daniel Cozort

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Buddhism and Suicide: The Case of Channa

Damien Keown

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Ethical Particularism in Theravāda Buddhism

Charles Hallisey

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Are There Seventeen Mahāyāna Ethics?

David W. Chappell

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Response: Visions and Revisions in Buddhist Ethics

Christopher Ives

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Two Notions of Poverty in the Pāli Canon

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Two Notions of Poverty in the Pāli Canon

Mavis Fenn
McMaster University

The paper is divided into two sections. The first focuses on an analysis of the Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta, a sutta that provides the most extensive discussion of poverty as deprivation in the Nikāyas. Poverty in this text is primarily a socio-political issue that effects the spiritual development of all members of society. The second section of the paper focuses on the notion of poverty as simplicity, a notion associated with renouncers who are akiñcana, “without anything,” “lacking possessions.” Central to this section is an analysis of the Aggañña Sutta.

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Kusala in Canon and Commentary

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Good or Skilful? Kusala in Canon and Commentary

L. S. Cousins
University of Manchester

This paper examines the use of kusala in the commentarial sources and finds that, although the commentators are aware of various senses of the word kusala, they tend to give primacy to meanings such as “good” or “meritorious.” A detailed examination of the canonical Pāli sources gives a rather different picture. The original meaning of kuśala (Sanskrit) in the sense with which we are concerned would then be “intelligent.” Its sense in early Buddhist literature would be “produced by wisdom.” The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the concept of puñña—”fortune-bringing action” rather than “merit.”

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Development of Buddhist Economic Ethics

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Continuity and Change in the Economic Ethics of Buddhism:­ Evidence From the History of Buddhism in India, China and Japan

Gregory K. Ornatowski
Boston University

This paper offers an outline of the development of Buddhist economic ethics using examples from early Theravāda Buddhism in India and the Mahāyāna tradition as it evolved in India, medieval China, and medieval and early modern Japan, in order to illustrate the pattern of continuities and transformations these ethics have undergone. By “economic ethics” the paper refers to four broad areas: (1) attitudes toward wealth, i.e., its accumulation, use, and distribution, including the issues of economic justice and equality/ inequality; (2) attitudes toward charity, i.e., how and to whom wealth should be given; (3) attitudes toward human labor and secular occupations in society; and (4) actual economic activities of temples and monasteries which reflect the lived-practice of Buddhist communities’ economic ethics.

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Review: Wisdom and Compassion in Mahāyāna Buddhism

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Ocean of Nectar: Wisdom and Compassion in Mahāyāna Buddhism. By Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. London: Tharpa Publications, 1995, viii + 592 pages, , £16.95/$29.95 (paper).

Reviewed by John Powers

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Review: Zen and the Way of the Sword

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Zen and the Way of the Sword: Arming the Samurai Psyche. By Winston L. King. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, 265 pages, $10.95 (paper).

Reviewed by Charles B. Jones

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Review: Buddhism and Bioethics

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Buddhism and Bioethics. By Damien Keown. London: Macmillan Press, and New York: St Martin’s Press, 1995, xvi+208 pages, £40 / $50.

Reviewed by James P. McDermott

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Review: Ultimate Values in Theravāda

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Desire, Death, and Goodness: The Conflict of Ultimate Values in Theravāda Buddhism. By Grace G. Burford. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1991, xii, 213 pages, $38.95.

Reviewed by Mavis Fenn

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Review: Theravāda Psychology and Soteriology

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

The Five Aggregates: Understanding Theravāda Psychology and Soteriology. By Mathieu Boisvert, Editions SR Vol.17: Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses, Wilfred Laurier Press, 1995, xii +166 pages, ISBN: 0-88920-257-5, US$24.95.

Reviewed by Peter Harvey

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Review: Visions of Sukhāvatī

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Visions of Sukhāvatī: Shan Tao’s Commentary on the Kuan Wu-Liang-Shou-Fo. By Julian F. Pas. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995, xviii, 452 pages.

Reviewed by Charles B. Jones

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Review: Sources on the Experience of Buddhism

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations. By John S. Strong. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995, xv + 367 pages, $22.95 (paper).

Reviewed by Roger Corless

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Review: Bodhisattva Practices

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Commentary on the Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. By HH the Dalai Lama, translated by Acārya Nyima Tsering. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1995, x+106 pages, ISBN: 81-85102-97-X, Rs 120.

Reviewed by Jay L.Garfield

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Review: Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism

SSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Buddhism and Language: A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism. By José Ignacio Cabezón (Foreword by Frank E. Reynolds), SUNY Series, Toward a Comparative Philosophy of Religions, Frank E. Reynolds and David Tracy, editors. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1994, xiii + 299 pages, ISBN 0-7914-1900-2 (paper).

Reviewed by Mark Siderits

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Review: Chronicles, Politics and Culture in Sinhala Life

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

The Presence of the Past: Chronicles, Politics and Culture in Sinhala Life. By Steven Kemper, The Wilder House Series in Politics, History and Culture. Ithaca, N.Y. and London: Cornell University Press, 1991, xiv +244 pages, ISBN: 0-8014-2395-3, US$29.95.

Reviewed by Nirmala S. Salgado

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Review: Buddhism in Australia

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

The Buddhists in Australia. By Enid Adam and Philip J Hughes. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1992, xii + 71 pages, ISBN 0 644 35805 X, A$9.95.

Buddhism in Western Australia: alienation or integration? By Enid Adam, published by the author (eadam@echidna.stu.cowan.edu.au), x + 224 pages, ISBN 0 646 25136 8, A$19.95.

Reviewed by Helen Waterhouse

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Review: Sexuality in Ancient India

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Sexuality in Ancient India: A Study Based on the Pali Vinayapiṭaka. By L.P.N. Perera. Kelaniya, Sri Lanka: The Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies, 1993.

Reviewed by Tessa Bartholomeusz

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Review: Ethics in Early Buddhism

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Ethics in Early Buddhism. By David J. Kalupahana. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995, ix +171 pages, ISBN: 0-8248-1702-8, US$27.00, cloth.

Reviewed by Peter Harvey

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Review: Two American Theravāda temples

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Old Wisdom in the New World. By Paul Numrich. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 1996, xxiv + 181 pages, ISBN 0-87049-905-X, $25 (cloth).

Reviewed by Martin Baumann

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Review: Essays on Meditation

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

Buddhism in a Foreign Land: Essays on Meditation. By Robert Mann. Bradford on Avon: Aukana, 1996, 160 pages, £7.50.

Reviewed by Amadeo Solé-Leris

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Review: Buddhism and the West

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 3 1996

The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture. By Stephen Batchelor. London: Aquarian, 1994, xvi, 416 pages, ISBN 0-938077-69-4 (paper), $ 18.00, 0-938077-68-6 (cloth), $ 30.00.

Reviewed by Adriano Lanza

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