Pali Canon

This article examines Susheel Kumar Sharma's poetry collection Unwinding Self: A Collection of Poems (2020) as a profound exploration of existential dilemma within the context of postcolonial identity fragmentation and ecological crisis. Sharma's work navigates the fractured self-arising from a hybrid cultural heritage-Indian spiritual roots intertwined with Western education-amidst the pressures of modernity and technology. Drawing parallels with modernist poets like T.S. Eliot and Nissim Ezekiel, the analysis highlights Sharma's "micro-concrete moments" expanding into "macro-cosmic experiences," critiquing anthropogenic environmental degradation and spiritual desiccation. While Sharma seeks solace in nature and tradition, he remains ambivalent, unable to fully embrace the salvific potential of myth or religion as Eliot might have, reflecting the post-human condition. His poetry emerges as a modernist intervention intersecting postcolonial and ecological thought, questioning the poet's role in a world of mechanical reproduction and searching for authentic selfhood amidst pervasive rootlessness.

This article examines the roles of Mahākāśyapa in early Mahāyāna sūtras, followed by exploring the same in Āgama/Vinaya literature. In the case of early Mahāyāna sūtras, his main function appears to be the providing of authentication for teachings related to the bodhisattva path. Alongside relying for the most part on the respect he elicits, the same function can also involve making him the object of ridicule. Both respect and ridicule appear to stand in dialogue with him being cast in accounts of the first saṅgīti as the disciple who acted as the heir of the Buddha. Among Āgama discourses in which he appears, several instances found in the Kāśyapasaṃyukta stand out for promoting him in ways that closely relate to his depiction in accounts of the first saṅgīti. Overall, in these different types of literature the character portrayal of Mahākāśyapa can serve as a means of conveying messages, at times with polemic intent, to the target audiences of the respective texts.

Abstract

This article proposes a philosophical reading of space-time as a Trame of informational coherence, within which matter appears as locally actualised informational coherence. The proposition is presented as speculative philosophical cosmology in the Whiteheadian sense: it does not seek to substitute itself for contemporary physical theories, nor does it claim strict Popperian falsifiability. Its claims to philosophical examination rest on internal conceptual coherence and on explanatory power before the open ontological questions that scientific cosmology raises without addressing them by its own means.


A law of phenomenal determination is articulated, according to which every appearance proceeds from a strictly unique interdependent framework. From this articulation an ethical-ontological dimension is developed: ethics is read as the expression, within the sphere where individuated intelligences interact, of the informational coherence that constitutes reality.


The reading enters into dialogue with Husserlian phenomenology, the processual lineage from Heraclitus to Whitehead — with Bergson, Bohm, and Stengers as contemporary companions — and the doctrine of paṭiccasamuppāda transmitted in the suttas of the Pāli Canon. It is confronted with major contemporary ontological debates through Wheeler, Penrose, and Kastrup, and articulates a distinct position — neither materialist nor idealist, but informational in the proper sense developed throughout.

The Mulapariyayasutta has the distinction of being the most dense, difficult, abstruse and complicated texts of the Pali Canon. While the translation of the lost Sanskrit original is preserved in Chinese, fragments of this lost Sanskrit manuscript have been found in Turfan, Central Asia. This paper is a reconstruction of the lost Sanskrit text of the ancient Mulaparyayasutra text. This paper covers: • The reconstructed Sanskrit text. • The English translation of the Sanskrit text. • Commentary on the Pali and Sanskrit text. • Anglicized Pali text.

It is often assumed that Gautama Buddha taught a philosophy absolutely counter to Vedic Sanathana Dharma. It is also assumed that he did not believe in the idea of the Atman.
By analysing a key verse in the Sundarika Sutta (Sutta Nipāta 3:4), I show that Gautama Buddha not only believed in the Atman, but also advocated core Vedic, Advaita Vedanta and Sankhya concepts found in the Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanishads.

In life there are changes that are so gradual that they escape notice. They arrive quietly, without drama, like the fading of light at the end of day. One does not notice the precise moment the room grows dark. One only realizes, after some time, that what was once visible has become obscure. Aging is often like this. Not an event, but an accumulation. A slower step. A shorter reach. A hand placed against the wall while putting on trousers. A pause before standing, as though the body must first negotiate with itself before obeying. These moments are small. Taken alone, they appear insignificant. Yet together they form a pattern, and patterns reveal truths that isolated moments conceal-that the boundaries of capacity have begun to narrow. For years, I accepted these negotiations without question. Like most people, I assumed they belonged naturally to age. Strength diminishes. Energy recedes. Recovery slows. The body contracts. This was the accepted grammar of aging. It seemed obvious. Yet what is obvious is not always true. Or perhaps more precisely: what is obvious is not always complete. At eighty-five, I found myself confronted by a question I had never seriously asked. Had my body truly lost its capacity for adaptation, or had I simply stopped asking it to adapt? It was an unsettling question because it introduced responsibility. If decline belonged only to time, there was nothing to be done. But if decline was partly adaptation to diminished demand, then I was not merely experiencing decline. I was participating in it. That realization changed everything. Curiosity replaced resignation. And curiosity is incompatible with surrender. Resignation accepts conclusions. Curiosity tests them. So, I returned to the gym. Not to reclaim youth. Youth is irretrievable. Time does not reverse itself. I returned not in pursuit of youth, but in pursuit of evidence. I wanted to know if adaptation still existed. Walking back into the gym after years away felt unlike any return in youth. In youth, the gym represents ambition. At eighty-five, it represented truth. The machines were unchanged. The weights were unchanged. But I was not. It was strangely familiar, like returning to a language one had once spoken fluently but had not used in years. I sat at the first machine. Adjusted the seat. Placed my hands on the steel handles. The steel felt cold. The weight stack seemed modest. But its significance exceeded its pounds. It was a question in physical form. Can you still adapt?

This article discusses the need for a new and revised edition of the Rasavāhinī (Ras) composed by Vedeha Thera in Sri Lanka in the mid-thirteenth century. To this end, we discuss the current state of Ras research and key issues in the known editions, particularly the relationship with the Sinhala Saddharmālaṅkāraya (Sdhlk), written around the turn of the fourteenth to fifteenth century; and the Southeast Asian Ras manuscripts, which have not been sufficiently studied. Our study makes it clear that studying the Southeast Asian Ras manuscripts, in conjunction with Sdhlk, throw further light on the history of Ras transmission. We further propose new editorial principles that incorporate these materials, which we argue lead us closer to the text as intended by the original author. 1. For the completion of this article, we are incredibly grateful to the Foundation of His Holiness Somdet Phra Ñāṇasaṃvara Centennial Commemoration for funding, and Dr Aiko Umeda for

Human consciousness is characterized by constant transitions in time. On the other hand, what is consciously experienced always possesses the temporal feature of “now.” In consciousness, “now” constantly holds different contents, yet it remains “now” no matter how far it goes. This duality is thematized in Husserlian phenomenology as “the standing-streaming now.” Although this phrase appears contradictory in everyday language, it has a structure that can be clearly understood and formalized. In this paper, we show that this structure can be described as a monoid in category theory. Furthermore, monoids can be transformed into the coslice category, which corresponds to the way of perceiving present moments as juxtaposed in succession. The seemingly contradictory nature of the “now” as both flowing and standing can be precisely structured and comprehended through the monoid, while the perspective of the “now” as discrete points on a timeline can be effectively formalized using the cos...

The first part of the Buddha's second sermon, "The Characteristic of No Self", is extremely problematic. It does not fit the cultural context, philosophically it is silly, it does not agree with the Buddha's central doctrines, and it contradicts the second part of the same short text. Moving a single word ("not") up a sentence we get a clear and coherent argument; this must have been the original text. The Chinese version corroborates this. This particular type of corruption shows that here we have something exceptionally rare: a demonstrably verbatim quotation from the Buddha himself.

In this paper, I first closely look at the notion of right or wrong livelihood (ājīva), and show that it has never been clearly understood in Theravādin tradition, and also that this misunderstanding has adversely affected both traditional and modern interpretation of Buddhist ethics. To solve this  issue, I propose the theory of multiple sieves as an interpretive framework
for Buddhist ethics. Although Buddhist moral evaluation ultimately depends on intention (cetanā), ethical precepts are formulated primarily in terms of bodily and verbal actions. This methodological feature results in moral categories that are inevitably imprecise, allowing certain ethically problematic activities to escape judgment at one level while being restricted at another. Buddhist ethics is therefore best understood as a system of multiple, hierarchically arranged moral filters.

The paper first examines the Five, Eight, and Ten Precepts, together with the Vinaya, to demonstrate how increasingly refined moral frameworks regulate activities permitted at more basic levels. On this basis, it argues that right livelihood functions as a secondary moral sieve, capturing forms of livelihood that may not constitute explicit violations of right action or  right speech. The same analytical model is applied to the canonical lists of five wrong trades and five unwholesome gifts, explaining why these practices are prohibited despite not necessarily violating fundamental precepts such as non-killing or basic religious practices such as generosity.
By situating these doctrines within a unified ethical structure, the paper  offers a coherent reading of Theravāda sources and resolves interpretive tensions that have influenced both traditional and modern discussions of Buddhist moral theory.

Paper 7 established that the saṃsāric limit cycle persists when the fractal inheritance operator satisfies-the third failure mode of liberation, where accumulated kamma inertia is too large to overcome within a single lifetime. The canonical Theravāda response to this failure mode is the Pāramī (pāramitā in Sanskrit): ten perfections systematically cultivated across multiple lifetimes to precondition the operator toward a liberation-compatible configuration. We prove that each of the ten pāramī-dāna, sīla, nekkhamma, paññā, viriya, khanti, sacca, adhiṭṭhāna, mettā, upekkhā-maps bijectively and with zero free parameters to a distinct modification of the fractal inheritance operator in the E₈/CFT visible sector. Their three canonical levels-ordinary (pāramī), superior (upapāramī), and ultimate (paramattha-pāramī)-correspond to three amplitudes of the operator modification: partial, full-sector, and irreversible. Within the 28-dimensional non-kernel visible sector, the ten pāramī naturally partition into four fundamental internal operators corresponding to the 4D Cartan subalgebra, and six relational exchange operators spanning the 24D root generator space (dimensions). This zero-parameter Lie algebra mapping exactly summates to 28 conditioned dimensions. The ten modifications collectively implement a convergent conditioning protocol: after N lifetimes of pāramī cultivation, converges to a configuration where initial bias and the saṃsāric limit cycle becomes increasingly fragile. We prove convergence via Banach's fixed-point theorem applied to the combined pāramī contraction operator and derive an explicit upper bound on the number of lifetimes required. The Bodhisatta's ten-perfection protocol is the unique complete set of modifications that guarantees convergence from arbitrary initial conditions-including beings with catastrophically large accumulated kamma. The mapping is zero-parameter, and the convergence rate is determined entirely by the E₈ spectral structure with no tunable inputs.

There are thousands of variants in the Pāli canon. This paper is a continuation of Part I published in JOCBS November 2024 with additional examples from the Theragāthā. It examines the reasons and processes by which variants arise with many examples. The major factors involved are 1) the nature of the source transmission, i.e. the different dialects and/or koiné in which the Buddha taught that were prevalent in north India (§2.1). 2) Natural, diachronic language change over time which tended to simplify by, for example, voicing or eliminating unvoiced stops, replacing aspirated stops with aspirates only, etc. (§2.2). 3) Sanskritizations which acted to "restore" Pāli to its putative "original" OI form (§2.3). 4) Linguistic diffusion from neighbouring IA languages and dialects where one dialect might interact with and alter another (§2.4.1); linguistic diffusion from autochthonous languages (§2.4.2); linguistic diffusion due to bilingual speakers of Dravidian and Middle Indic (MI), whose native language was non Indo-Aryan (IA), and who had to adapt a foreign phonemic system into the MI transmission (§2.4.3); linguistic diffusion due to foreign word borrowing from non-IA languages into MI; confusion due to the transcription of these "foreign" words, and lack of knowledge of the Pāli language (§2.4.4). 5) Oral transmission ambiguity and errors due to memory, recitation and auditory issues (oral/aural); a potpourri category subsuming all seven of the above processes (§ §1-2.4.4) and additional variants which are purely sonic in nature (§2.5). 6) The introduction of explanatory

¡Una obra fundamental para los practicantes y estudiosos del budismo en español! Por primera vez, el Majjhima Nikāya, una de las colecciones más relevantes de los discursos del Buda, ha sido traducido íntegramente al español. Esta monumental edición, que incluye un prólogo especial del Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, ha sido realizada por Miguel Ángel Romero y publicada por Pariyatti Publishing. Con 152 discursos esenciales del canon pali, la obra se presenta con una cuidadosa traducción y un valioso aparato de notas. Descubre cómo esta publicación histórica acerca las enseñanzas del Buda a la comunidad hispanohablante.

The Master Digest Volume 1 is the first in a series of anthologies that will order the underlying research associated with the audit of the Golden Fleece. This Volume focuses on methodological foundations and a backstory that motivates the present undertaking. Volume 2 expected to be released in the next few weeks shifts in scope from methodology to Administrative transactional reality.

This study investigates the Dīgha Nikāya, the "Collection of Long Discourses" in the Pāli Canon, as a foundational source for early Buddhist meditation. It examines how selected discourses systematically present the stages, components, and purposes of meditative training within the integrated path of ethics (sīla), concentration (samādhi), and insight (paññā). While contemporary scholarship has explored mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) and absorptions (jhāna) across various Nikāyas, less attention has been given to the Dīgha Nikāya as a unified textual framework. This project explores five key discourses from the Dīgha Nikāya (the Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2), the Poṭṭhapāda Sutta (DN 9), the Tevijja Sutta (DN 13), the Mahānidāna Sutta (DN 15), and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (DN 22)) to trace how the early Buddhist texts map out the meditative path. Rather than presenting meditation as a single technique, these suttas unfold it in stages: beginning with ethical conduct and the deepening of concentration through the absorptions; moving into the cultivation of the four brahmavihāras of loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity; then examining how meditative practice reshapes perception and understanding; followed by a thorough exposition of dependent origination (paṭicca-samuppāda); and finally, the detailed, systematic practice of mindfulness and insight as laid out in the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
This qualitative textual study bridges canonical models and contemporary interpretations, presenting the Dīgha Nikāya as a comprehensive foundation for meditative training toward liberation (Nibbāna).

This study investigates the Dīgha Nikāya, the "Collection of Long Discourses" in the Pāli Canon, as a foundational source for early Buddhist meditation. It examines how selected discourses systematically present the stages, components, and purposes of meditative training within the integrated path of ethics (sīla), concentration (samādhi), and insight (paññā). While contemporary scholarship has explored mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) and absorptions (jhāna) across various Nikāyas, less attention has been given to the Dīgha Nikāya as a unified textual framework. This project explores five key discourses from the Dīgha Nikāya (the Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2), the Poṭṭhapāda Sutta (DN 9), the Tevijja Sutta (DN 13), the Mahānidāna Sutta (DN 15), and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (DN 22)) to trace how the early Buddhist texts map out the meditative path. Rather than presenting meditation as a single technique, these suttas unfold it in stages: beginning with ethical conduct and the deepening of concentration through the absorptions; moving into the cultivation of the four brahmavihāras of loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity; then examining how meditative practice reshapes perception and understanding; followed by a thorough exposition of dependent origination (paṭicca-samuppāda); and finally, the detailed, systematic practice of mindfulness and insight as laid out in the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta.
This qualitative textual study bridges canonical models and contemporary interpretations, presenting the Dīgha Nikāya as a comprehensive foundation for meditative training toward liberation (Nibbāna).

Dietary ethics occupy a central place in Indic religious traditions, where norms surrounding meat consumption articulate deeper ontological commitments and moral responsibilities toward non-human life. This article offers a comparative analysis of Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jaina approaches to meat, non-violence, and animal ontology, and examines how their ethical force is reconfigured under conditions of modern capitalist consumption. While early Buddhist monastics were permitted to consume meat not "killed for them or by them," Jaina traditions advanced stringent regimes of non-violence grounded in karmic causality, and Brahmanical frameworks developed ritualized economies of purity, sacrifice, and restraint. Rather than treating these models as stable inheritances, the article argues that industrial slaughter, global supply chains, and the commodification of animal life fundamentally alter their moral logic. Drawing on the concept of "entangled modernities," the article shows how Indic dietary ethics function less as prescriptive rules than as diagnostic frameworks for interrogating responsibility, harm, and moral agency in contemporary food systems. In doing so, it contributes to current debates on religion, animal ethics, and ecological responsibility by foregrounding the limits of ethical individualism under globalized consumption.

The search for a spiritual path is born out of suffering. It does not start with lights and ecstasy, but with the hard tacks of pain, disappointment, and confusion. However, for suffering to give birth to a genuine spiritual search, it must amount to more than something passively received from without. It has to trigger an inner realization, a perception which pierces through the facile complacency of our usual encounter with the world to glimpse the insecurity perpetually gaping underfoot. When this insight dawns, even if only momentarily, it can precipitate a profound personal crisis. It overturns accustomed goals and values, mocks our routine preoccupations, leaves old enjoyments stubbornly unsatisfying.

The persistence of the individual according to the Pāli Piṭakas is a topic of debate among scholars. While some argue that the Buddha denied a persisting individual entity, the author contends that the Buddha taught the existence of a self-consciousness (Viññāna or Vigñāna or vijñāna) that persists through reincarnations. This individual consciousness, evolving and growing through incarnations, retains its identity and continuity, as evidenced by various quotes from the Pāli Piṭakas.

The Buddha taught the identity and persistence of the reincarnating Ego, referred to as consciousness or Vigñāna or vijñāna, which experiences births and deaths. This teaching is supported by the Buddha’s ability to recall past lives and the concept of a universal Noumenon underlying all phenomena. The Buddha’s teachings align with those of other great teachers, emphasizing the continuity of the self and the path to enlightenment.

BS: "Mendicants, these two extremes should not be cultivated by one who has gone forth. What two? BB: "Bhikkhus, these two extremes should not be followed by one who has gone forth into homelessness. What two? PME KEY: "There are these two extremes, O monks, that a monk (lit. one who has gone forth to homeless life) should not follow (lit. not to be followed by a monk). What are the two?  Sevitabba: ptp of sevati [√sev (serve, associate) + itabba (kicca)] Antonym: asevitabba, parivajjetabba = should be associated with; should be affiliated with; should be partaken of; lit. to be associated Dveme, bhikkhave, antā pabbajitena na sevitabbā.-(passive sentence) Passive gerundive expressing moral obligation Pabbajitena = is an agent declined in instrumental 4. Yo cāyaṃ kāmesu kāmasukhallikānuyogo hīno gammo pothujjaniko anariyo anatthasaṁhito, 4. Yo cāyaṃ ca + ayaṃ (sandhi) Kāmesu Kāmasukhallikānuyogo Kāma (sense pleasure) + sukhallika (sensual happiness/ sensual enjoyment) + anuyogo (pursuit of) Relative pronoun, Conj/ind + demo pro Locative Adhikaraṇa-kāraka Comp, chaṭṭhī tappurisa (kāmasukhallikāya + anuyoga). Sukhallika: [√sukh (please, be comfortable) + a + lla > sukhalla + ikā (taddhita suffix)] -# CD: pg106 -an adjectival suffix indicating indulgence or fondness. Anuyogo: prefix: anu (after, along) + yoga (yoking, joining, application) # CD: pg 84 = pursuit of M,nom,sg Conj/ind + demo pro,

The paper examines the formation of the Dhammapada and its relationship to other texts of Buddhist didactic poetry. The study analyzes the divergence of the Gandhari Dharmapada and the Pali Dhammapada, and conducts a lexical and morphological analysis of the divergent stanzas. The author also draws attention to the controversial issue of the languages of dissemination of early Buddhism, the most important of which is Gandhari, the language of the Silk Road and the oldest Buddhist manuscripts.

Ven. Mahendra (Pāli: Mahinda; c. 285 BC – 205 BC), the son of
Emperor Aśoka and a revered Buddhist monk, played a pivotal role
in propagating Buddhism beyond the Indian borders. His mission
took him to Siṁhala (present day Sri Lanka), where he is believed
to have introduced Buddhism to the island nation. However, the
exact location of his hermitage in Patna had remained a mystery for
centuries.
This discovery occurred during personal exploration as a part
of a project funded by the Chinese Social Science Fund, People’s
Republic of China, between 2018 to 2023 in Patna. This paper will
be a humble attempt to unearth the remains of a Buddhist hermitage
that is believed to be associated with Ven. Mahendra, which is based
on Ven. Faxian (法顯; 337 CE – 422 CE), Xuanzang (玄奘; 602
CE – 664 CE), Colonial records, and local legends. These findings
include a small ancient shrine, a local legend that date back to the
Aśokan era. The site provides valuable historical insights into the
life and legends of Ven. Mahendra in Pāṭaliputra before heading to
Sri Lanka.
The recent discovery of the lost hermitage place of Ven.
Mahendra in Patna is a remarkable archaeological revelation
that sheds new light on the early history of Buddhism in India.
This discovery, which occurred in the heart of the ancient city of
Pāṭaliputra (Present Day-Patna), has the potential to reshape our
understanding of the spread of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent
during the time of King Aśoka.
This paper will highlight the recent discovery of the lost
hermitage place of Ven. Mahendra in Patna is a breakthrough in
the study of early Buddhism and the historical linkages of India
and Sri Lanka. It offers a glimpse into the life and legacy of an
influential Buddhist monk and opens new avenues for research into
the spread of Buddhism during the time of Emperor Aśoka. This
finding not only enriches our understanding of history but also has the potential to contribute to the cultural and economic development
of the region.
Keywords: Mahendra, Aśoka, Pāṭaliputra, Patna, Sri Lanka,
Buddhism, Faxian, Xuanzang.

This article presents the transformative paradigm of 'The Righteous Foundation,' an integrated framework that synthesizes Buddhist wisdom (the Bala-Prajna-Karuna triad) with social capital theory to propose a new model for modern entrepreneurship. In response to the dominant narrative of aggressive, resource-intensive growth-which has been increasingly critiqued for generating systemic burnout, ethical erosion, and environmental degradation (Piketty, 2014; Raworth, 2017; Davis, 2022)-this framework proposes a path of "Righteous Livelihood" (Samyag Ajiva). Grounded in empirical doctoral research on Nepalese immigrant entrepreneurs in the UK, the article demonstrates how their culturally embedded practices of community reliance, adaptive resilience, and ethical networking organically reflect these Buddhist principles. By making this implicit wisdom explicit and engaging with contemporary theories of effectuation and bricolage (Sarasvathy, 2001; Baker & Nelson, 2005), we construct the model of the "Bodhisattva Entrepreneur": one who harnesses limited resources not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for innovation, building ventures that are vehicles for multi-dimensional well-being. This framework challenges traditional theories of competitive advantage by positioning compassion as a strategic organisational capability (Dutton et al., 2014), wisdom as adaptive agility linked to dynamic capabilities (Teece et al., 2016), and power as empowerment. It offers a pragmatic, hopeful, and sustainable roadmap for organisational development, particularly for diaspora communities and global entrepreneurs seeking to build impactful commerce with integrity at its core.

Saṅgharāja Dr. Jñānaśrī Mahāthera (1925–2025) was one of the most senior and influential Buddhist monks in contemporary Indian Buddhism. Renowned as a missionary monk, he played a significant role in the revival, propagation, and institutional consolidation of Buddhism in modern India. His life was marked by unwavering commitment to the monastic ideal of purified brahmacarya (celibate spiritual discipline), which shaped both his personal practice and public religious leadership. Through teaching, missionary activities, and moral example, Saṅgharāja Dr. Jñānaśrī Mahāthera contributed substantially to the ethical, educational, and spiritual dimensions of contemporary Buddhist society. His legacy remains integral to understanding the development of modern Indian Buddhist monasticism and missionary engagement.

This sutta is also known as the Pañcavaggiya Sutta. The basis for this title is that the Buddha was addressing to his original group of five [pañcavaggiya] disciples. They were the five monks, namely, Kondañña,

Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahānāma and Assaji, who accompanied Gotama when he became an ascetic. In this discourse, the Buddha analysed the constituents of a person's body and mind and expounded that the five aggregates namely form [rūpaṁ], feeling [Vedanā], perception [saññā], mental formations [saṅkhārā], consciousness [viññānaṁ] are impermanent [anicca], suffering [dukkha], and subject to change and none of these five aggregates are regarded as self. And since all five aggregates are nonself, they lead to affliction and are not controllable. By seeing, with right wisdom, the aggregates as "not mine, not I, not my self,", and through uprooting clinging, the minds of the five monks were freed from defilements, and at the end of the discourse, all the five monks became arahants.

This analysis on this sutta is the work of Sis Wong who is attending BA class from 2024-2026. We thank her for her hard work here.

A survey of religious ideas and practices attributed to Brahmins in the Pāli suttas sheds some light on the kind of dialogues that early Buddhists might have had with Brahmins. Contrary to how Brahmins have historically been seen, recent research by Michael Witzel, Patrick Olivelle, and Signe Cohen has shown that they were diverse and riven by internal conflicts. The Brahmins in the Pāli suttas are interested in sacrificial, purificatory and mortuary rites. They seem obsessed with social class. They place a heavy emphasis on traditional knowledge contained in the three Vedas, but not the Atharvaveda. Their soteriology revolves around a creator God called Brahmā, and they never mention ātman, or brahman, or the identity of the two. This suggests, contra other commentators, that the Brahmins we meet in the Pāli texts did not have firsthand knowledge of the Upaniṣads.

Note: I wrote this draft in 2012, but was at this time being drawn into research on the Heart Sutra and have never found the time to follow it up. While one or two important contributions have been made since, none of them quite tackles this issue they way I do here. So I share it as is.

There is an old story, told in different cultures, about several blind people encountering an elephant. One feels the trunk and concludes the elephant is a snake. Another touches the leg and insists it is a pillar. A third presses against the side and declares it a wall. Each is sincere. Each is careful. Each is correct-locally. And each is wrong about the whole. The usual moral of the story is humility: no one has the full picture, so we should listen to one another. But that reading misses something important about the modern world. Today, the problem is not that we are blind. The problem is that we are trained, rewarded, and professionally sorted in ways that prevent anyone from stepping back far enough to see the elephant at all. Modern knowledge is fragmented into disciplines that specialize in ever-smaller pieces of reality. Moral philosophers debate norms. Economists debate incentives. Psychologists debate cognition. Sociologists debate institutions. Religious scholars debate symbols. Each field develops its own language, its own methods, and its own internal debates. Each touches a real part of the same underlying system. And yet the system itself-hierarchy, extraction, insulation of elites, and the moral distortion that follows-rarely becomes the object of unified diagnosis.

This study examines how male poets Nissim Ezekiel and Susheel Kumar
Sharma authentically inhabit and articulate female consciousness in
selected poems, exploring Ezekiel’s “Night of the Scorpion,” “On Bellasis
Road,” and “Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S.” alongside Sharma’s “A
Lament,” “Me, A Black Doxy,” and “Bubli Poems.” Grounded in feminist
literary theory, it investigates how these poems convey women’s moral,
emotional, and existential experiences while advancing the feminist ideal of
equivalence. Central to this analysis is the Indian aesthetic concept of
sādhāraṇīkaraṇa or madhumati-bhumika, which universalises individual
emotion and fosters empathetic communion with female subjectivity,
aligning philosophically with John Keats’s concept of Negative Capability,
wherein the poet suspends selfhood and judgement to fully immerse in
another’s consciousness (Keats 21). Through this cross-cultural lens, Ezekiel and Sharma transform intimate experiences of maternal suffering, social marginalisation, physical labour, and the pursuit of autonomy into
emotionally resonant, universal narratives. Despite their male positionality,
both poets achieve profound empathetic depth, effectively bridging Indian
aesthetic thought and Western poetic sensibility to produce nuanced and
authentic portrayals of female personae in contemporary Indian English
poetry. This study highlights how their works contribute meaningfully to
feminist poetics by challenging gendered boundaries and elevating
women’s voices in a traditionally male-dominated literary landscape.

Keywords: Female consciousness, Maternal suffering, Female subjectivity

The Therīgāthā (psalms of the elder nuns), part of the Buddhist Pali canon's Khuddakanikāya of Sutta Piṭaka, dates to the 6th century BCE and is credited as the world's first anthology of women's literature. This paper examines three interconnected themes revealing how patriarchal norms permeated early Buddhist textual and literary spaces. First, it explores how threats to maternal and marital identities catalyzed laywomen's renunciation, stressing the connection between these socially prescribed roles and women's identity. Second, it analyzes how male-defined beauty standards positioned the female body as an obstacle to spiritual liberation, exposing the male gaze underlying both attraction and disgust. Finally, it contrasts women's self-representation in the Therīgāthā with their portrayal in the male-authored Petavatthu Jātaka, revealing stark differences: where the Therīs emerge as complex spiritual seekers supported by fellow nuns, the Petavatthu casts laywomen as jealous, faithless, and antagonistic in their failures as ideal wives. Through comparative textual analysis, this paper argues that while Buddhism offered women unprecedented access to spiritual pursuits, the path itself remained fundamentally male-centric, recasting rather than dismantling patriarchal expectations.

Indian culture is rooted in the ethos of compassion and non-violence, which leads naturally to vegetarianism. Buddhism which has non-violence at its core has always championed vegetarianism. Buddhist literature is replete with commandments and references which promote compassion on all beings and vegetarianism. The literature shows that at that time animal welfare and environment conservation was a key issue and was much cared for both by the kings and general public.

In this article, I discuss the separation of ‘santuṭṭhi (contentment)’ in the Pali literture, which has been considered in studies on the formation and development of gradual path preached in the several Āgamas. My discussion focuses on two points: interpretation of the Pali commentaries and the transmission of the Pali canon. The results are as follows.
1. The structure of the early stages of the gradual path is (1) ‘sīlakkhandha,’ (2) ‘indriyasaṃvara,’ (3) ‘satisampajañña’ and (4) ‘santuṭṭhi’ in D 2, while (1) ‘sīlakkhandha,’ (2) ‘indriyasaṃvara’ and (3) ‘satisampajañña’ in M 27. In the case of M 27, ‘santuṭṭhi’ is a part of ‘sīlakkhandha’.
2. It is natural to assume that Sumaṅgalavilāsinī (Sv) interprets ‘santuṭṭhi’ in D 2 as part of the conditions for the practice of ‘nīvaraṇappahāna’ (i.e. having (1) to (4) in 1 above).
3. Papañcasūdanī (Ps, ad M 27) and Manorathapūraṇī (Mp, ad A 4.198) give the same interpretation as Sv, and subcommentaries of Ps and Mp (Ps-ṭ (Be), Mp-ṭ (Be)) also support the interpretation.
4. However, in the M 27 and A 4.198, ‘santuṭṭhi’ and ‘sīlakkhandha’ are not separated. This has resulted in a discrepancy between the description of M 27, A 4.198 and the interpretation of Ps, Mp (and these subcommentaries).
5. The tendency to conform the structure of the gradual path in D 2 is also evident in Puggalapaññatti (Pp), which quotes the gradual path from M 51 and A 4.198.
6. Burmese Chaṭṭhasaṅgāyana Tipiṭaka Version (Be) has a marked tendency to add the ‘santuṭṭhi’ entry at the beginning of the ‘nīvaraṇappahāna’, based on the only one transmission (A 4.198) and interpretation of [sub]commentaries (2, 3 above).

A Natural Mindfulness

Mark Foote bridges ancient wisdom and modern science in this exploration of seated meditation. Drawing on Gautama Buddha's original teachings, Zen masters from Dogen to Shunryu Suzuki, and contemporary research in biomechanics and neuroscience, Foote reveals how natural, automatic movement in the body emerges when we surrender volition and allow consciousness to find its own place.

La Fundación Dharma-Gaia, en colaboración con la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, te invita a explorar las lenguas originales del budismo: pali, sánscrito y tibetano clásico. Este programa online combina flexibilidad y excelencia académica, con clases en directo y grabadas para que aprendas a tu propio ritmo desde cualquier lugar. Supera las barreras lingüísticas, accede a los textos budistas en su idioma original y comprende mejor su contexto cultural y filosófico. Diseñado para estudiantes, investigadores y practicantes, este curso te permitirá conectar con la esencia del budismo y abrir nuevas oportunidades académicas y profesionales. ¡Comienza tu viaje al corazón del budismo hoy mismo!

The Saṅgāmaji-sutta tells an episode in the life of a brahmin (brāhmaṇa). Saṅgāmaji may have already been a follower of the Buddha's ideas, or even a disciple of the Buddha, and he went to Sāvatthi to see the Buddha and hear his teachings. Upon hearing this, his ex-wife appeared with their child. The ex-wife asked him three times to take care of her (i.e., his wife - there is a difference between the individual translations, which is mentioned in the footnote above in the section describing this). It is worth noting that the ex-wife always calls Saṅgāmaji a samana (pali: samaṇa), which refers to his lifestyle: now a follower of the Buddha, he is by no means leading a family lifestyle. The samana does not take any action either time. The ex-wife then places the child in front of Saṅgāmaji, declares that “This is your child,” and asks him to take care of the child. Saṅgāmaji does not care about the child, does not look at it, does not speak to it. Then the ex-wife goes away and watches from a distance. However, the samana does not take any action either against him or against their common child. Then the ex-wife goes back for the child, seeing that Saṅgāmaji is not only attached to her, but also to her own child. To most people, this seems cruel and insensitive. That is why it may be strange for us, 21st-century Western readers, that the Buddha praises this very behavior in the poem and calls Saṅgāmaji a brahmin. In the Pali canon, a brahmin is a synonym for a spiritual aspirant, a wise man, an ideal spiritual person, we could call it a kind of “Buddhist ideal.” This kind of indifference on the part of a father is not entirely new: the Buddha (even as Gotama) did almost the same thing when he became a pabbajita. The topic raises further questions and provides an opportunity for further reflection.

There are thousands of variants in the Pāli canon. This paper examines the reasons and processes by which they arise with many examples. There are eight major factors involved: 1) The nature of the source transmission, i.e. the different dialects and/or koiné in which the Buddha taught prevalent in north India (§2.1). 2) Natural, diachronic language change over time which tended to simplify by, for example, voicing or eliminating unvoiced stops, replacing aspirated stops with aspirates only, etc. (§2.2). 3) Sanskritizations which acted to "restore" Pāli to its putative "original" OI form (§2.3). 4) Linguistic diffusion from neighbouring IA languages and dialects where one dialect might interact with and alter another (§2.4.1); linguistic diffusion from autochthonous languages (§2.4.2); linguistic diffusion due to bilingual speakers of Dravidian and Middle Indic (MI), whose native language was non Indo-Aryan (IA), and who had to adapt a foreign phonemic system into the MI transmission (§2.4.3); linguistic diffusion due to foreign word borrowing from non-IA languages into MI, confusion due to the transcription of these "foreign" words, and lack of knowledge of the Pāli language (§2.4.4). 5) Oral transmission ambiguity and errors due to memory, recitation and auditory issues (oral/aural);

Part One of this article provides a brief history of what is known of the practice and spread of Buddhism among Dravidian speaking peoples during the lifetime of the Buddha and in the centuries after his passing. It further provides an overview of the impact of the Dravidian language on the vocabulary and structure of Old and Middle Indic. Part Two examines the early Buddhist Pāṭimokkha transmission, which was based on the practice of earlier religious groups, and discusses approximately fifty non-IA technical terms. Their retention in Pāli, it argues, represents the adoption of certain cultural and religious practices from indigenous peoples of South Asia and may represent a translation or adaptation, in part, of an earlier Dravidian language Pāṭimokkha. 1. The words "indigenous" and "autochthonous" are used loosely here to mean "pre-IA"; these groups themselves had to come from somewhere, most likely outside of India in the prehistory of the subcontinent. Further discussion below.

The Vajirabuddhiṭīkā, the oldest known sub-commentary on the Vinaya Piṭaka, is traditionally attributed to the Most Venerable Vajirabuddhi and is thought to have been composed between the Anurādhapura and Polonnaruwa periods. In his Sāratthadīpanīṭīkā, the later sub-commentator, the Most Venerable Sāriputta, criticized certain interpretations in the Vajirabuddhiṭīkā, noting both its doctrinal conciseness and its incorporation of linguistic features from languages other than Pāli. These characteristics appear to have influenced subsequent generations of scholars, yet no critical edition in Sinhalese script has been published to date. Presently, two principal Burmese-script editions exist: an older word-byword Burmese translation (Nissaya) and the version printed at the Sixth Buddhist Council (Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana). A comparative study of Sinhalese-script palmleaf manuscripts reveals notable divergences from the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana edition. Significantly, the older Nissaya translation aligns more closely with the Sinhalese manuscript tradition, suggesting it preserves an earlier recension of the text. This research undertool a comparative textual analysis of the Nidānavaṇṇanā section across six Sinhalese-script palm-leaf manuscripts, the Burmese Nissaya, and the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana edition. The findings shed light on the textual transmission of the Vajirabuddhiṭīkā and lay groundwork for a future critical edition in Sinhalese script.

Source: The Wheel Publication No. 392/393 (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1994). Transcribed from the print edition in 1994 under the auspices of the DharmaNet Dharma Book Transcription Project, with the kind permission of the Buddhist Publication Society. Originally published in Dialogue, New Series Vo. XVII (1990) by The Ecumenical Institute for Study & Dialogue, 490/5 Havelock Road, Colombo 6, Sri Lanka. Reprinted in the Wheel series with the consent of the author and the original publisher

In an age marked by moral relativism, ethical crises, and unprecedented global challenges, ranging from political corruption and environmental degradation to mental health issues and spiritual disorientation, the need for robust ethical frameworks is more urgent than ever. Among the timeless sources of ethical wisdom are the Bhagavad Gītā, a foundational Hindu scripture, and the Dhammapada, a revered text in the Theravāda Buddhist canon. Despite originating in different philosophical traditions, both texts converge on themes central to the cultivation of ethical living such as self-restraint, compassion, non-violence, detachment, and the pursuit of wisdom. By engaging deeply with these texts, this paper argues for their integration into modern ethical education, public discourse, and policymaking. Rather than viewing them as archaic or culturebound, the Bhagavad Gītā and the Dhammapada should be recognized as dynamic sources of moral insight capable of informing 21st-century challenges. Their teachings on ethical selfhood, intentional action, and spiritual responsibility provide not only philosophical depth but practical tools for living with awareness and integrity in an age of uncertainty.