ESSAYS by Ovidiu Nedu
Argo, 2024
Pan-sacralitatea naturalistă și „garantarea” destinului ultim
„Șomajul” soteriologic al religiil... more Pan-sacralitatea naturalistă și „garantarea” destinului ultim
„Șomajul” soteriologic al religiilor
„Compulsiunea religioasă” a psihologiei umane
Abordarea cognitivă a dilemelor religioase și concluzia agnostică
Arta de a dibui direcții pe bâjbâite
Relaxarea ca „religie”
Mintea cea „păcătoasă” și masochismul valorilor
Hilara fantomă îngrozită de moarte
Depersonalizarea experienței
„Venerarea” a ceea ce este
Epoche-ul religios și „știința lejerității”
Argolit, 2020
Concepția tradițională: individul ca subiect ultim al demersului spiritual
Indiferența Universulu... more Concepția tradițională: individul ca subiect ultim al demersului spiritual
Indiferența Universului față de viețile individuale
Caracterul conflictual al vieții globale și imposibilitatea „dragostei” universale
Ce contează, individualul sau colectivul?
O spiritualitate „colectivă”
Fantezia „sacralității” vieții individuale
Argolit, 2020
I.CARACTERUL DESCHIS, NON-DOGMATIC AL PERSPECTIVEI RAȚIONAL-SCIENTISTE ASUPRA UNIVERSULUI
I.1.Raț... more I.CARACTERUL DESCHIS, NON-DOGMATIC AL PERSPECTIVEI RAȚIONAL-SCIENTISTE ASUPRA UNIVERSULUI
I.1.Raționalitatea lumii și caracterul „deschis” al scientismului
I.2.Științele incipiente și corelațiile empirice
I.3.Nebuloasa pretențiilor cognitive umane
I.4.Desprinderea unor științe din zona „religiosului”
II.ASTROLOGIA: FUNCȚIONAREA SINCRONICĂ A MECANISMULUI UMAN ȘI A MECANISMULUI COSMIC
II.1.Presupozițiile astrologiei: umanitatea ca sistem și funcționarea sa în sincron cu anumite sisteme cosmice
II.2.Legiferarea/reglementarea experiențelor și valorilor umane
II.3. Alte demersuri de „scientizare” secvențială a vieții psihice și sociale
II.4.Corelația uman-cosmic și incapacitatea științei actuale de a explicita acest raport
II.5.Astrologia și perspectiva „cosmică” asupra omului
PAPERS BUDDHISM by Ovidiu Nedu
Aurora Hrițuleac, Liviu-Adrian Măgurianu, Cristina Maria Tofan (coordonatori), Paradigma conștiinței – abordări multi și interdisciplinare. Limbajele conștiinței, Editura Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, 2024
Yogācāra Buddhism attempts an Idealistic explanation of the manifestation of the entire Universe,... more Yogācāra Buddhism attempts an Idealistic explanation of the manifestation of the entire Universe, which would be nothing but the experience of a cosmic consciousness, known as the “store-house consciousness” (ālaya-vijñāna). As in most schools of Buddhism, consciousness is not considered as a substantial reality but rather as a particular experience; hence, this cosmic consciousness is also nothing but the interwoven holistic experience of everything there is. It is the wide awareness of the entire causal interconnexion.
Individual beings and their personal lives are not as much “entities” and experiences undergone by these “entities” but rather “isolated”, “private” experiences. The “physical” world is equally mere consciousness, mere experience. Its claimed “objectivity”, ascribed to it by humans, is due to the fact that it is a shared experience, interwoven with a plurality of “personal” experiences. Everything is only experience having various degrees of “privacy” or “sharing”.
Keywords: Buddhism, Yogācāra, Idealism, cosmic consciousness, shared Universe.
Analele Universităţii Dunărea de Jos din Galaţi, Fasc. XIX, Filosofie, 2023
According to the Idealistic school of Mahayana Buddhism, Yogacara, human existence is not as much... more According to the Idealistic school of Mahayana Buddhism, Yogacara, human existence is not as much the condition of a “being”, of an entity, but a mere experience projected by the cosmic consciousness, by the so-called “store-house consciousness” (alayavijnana). Nevertheless, human existence has some special features; it doesn’t represent a simple cosmic experience but rather an “alteration” of the normal condition of reality.
The peaceful and homogenous state of reality gets altered when human mind starts developping experiences of self-“elevation” (unnatti), of “pride” (mana) towards what it appropriates as its own identity. The natural calm of reality gets disturbed and the experience projected by the mind becomes an afflicted (klista) one; this is the beginning of suffering (duhkha) and of bondage (samsara).
Thus, the projection of individuality upon the calm cosmic level can be considered as the “fall” of Yogacara Buddhism.
Analele Universitatii Bucuresti. Limbi si Literaturi Straine, 2021
Even if absolutist approaches of time and space, which see these as selfexisting substances, are ... more Even if absolutist approaches of time and space, which see these as selfexisting substances, are more agreed by the archaic cosmologies, at times, we can encounter the more philosophical alternative, of considering them in a relativist way. The article deals with two such approaches. At first, it analyzes the relational time of Buddhism, considered not as a substance but as the serial order of the so-called "moments" (ksana). It also deals with the more complex approach of a realistic school of Brahmanism, Vaiśesika, which includes, among the "substances" (dravya), a relational time (kāla) and a relational space (diś), apart from an absolute space, labelled as "ether" (ākāśa). The ether would be the receptacle where things are located, altogether, while the "space" (diś) or, better said, the directions, account for the spatial order of the objects. Moreover, the school approaches dimension or corporeality in a relativist way, considering them as a numerical issue, as the result of gathering together of the so-called "atoms" (paramānu).
Analele Universităţii Dunărea de Jos din Galaţi, Fasc. XVIII, Filosofie, nr. 12, 2021
According to Yogācāra, the Idealistic stream of Mahāyāna Buddhism, personhood is not based on an ... more According to Yogācāra, the Idealistic stream of Mahāyāna Buddhism, personhood is not based on an entity but rather on a fictious projection. This illusory identity is experienced by the mind (manas); in Yogācāra philosophical jargon, “mind” refers to that function of consciousness through which some experiences are appropriated (upā-dā) and turned into a self (ātman).
All the subsequent individual experiences of the “individual being” take place within the frame of this illusion projected by the mind. The limitations each individual being experience are explained by Yogācāra Buddhism through the fact that the person is always “wrapped” in the illusion of individuality projected by the mind. The mind becomes the root of all evil, the primary origin of bondage. The entire soteriological effort of Yogācāra will be directed towards the annihilation of this “mind”.
Keywords: Buddhism, Vijñnavda, Yogācāra, personal identity, mind (manas), illusion, self-limitation.
Buletinul Fundației Urechia, 2022
Buddhism, under all its forms, incriminated the individual condition, the ego, considering it as ... more Buddhism, under all its forms, incriminated the individual condition, the ego, considering it as the main cause for the appearance of suffering (dukha). The denial and the annihilation of the individual self were the main aspects of the religious path of Buddhism.
Although agreeing to this religious "diagnosis," Buddhist schools diverge on how the liberation from the ego would be achieved. Primary Buddhism, Hīnayāna, due to its humanistic standpoint, that prevented any attempt to look beyond human individuality, sought liberation from the ego by its simple annihilation. Mahāyāna, the newer form of Buddhism, founded on monistic-absolutist metaphysical systems, which accepted the existence of an ultimate reality to which everything would be reduced, urged the liberation from the ego by universalization, by assuming the absolute condition.
In this new metaphysical and religious context, it became necessary to deal with universality, with the cosmic level of reality, a level ignored by primary Buddhism (Hīnayāna). Mahāyāna, however, was faced with the need to discuss universality, and thus new concepts emerge, as tools for dealing with the cosmic level of reality. The "store-house consciousness" (ālayavijñāna), the cosmic consciousness, is one of them. The term appears since quite old texts, such as Lakāvatāra-sūtra or Sadhinirmocana-sūtra, but it gets consecration only in Yogācāra / Vijñānavāda school, in the 4th century. Yogācāra tries to present an idealistic explanation of the whole Universe, which would represent nothing but the experience of a cosmic consciousness, of the "store-house consciousness".
Because the store-house consciousness had such an explanatory role, the authors of Yogācāra formulated a series of arguments for its existence. In general, the arguments start from exposing a problematic situation, structured on the basis of Abhidharma's categorical system. It goes on to say that this model of analysis and explanation is not enough and, as a result, the introduction of a new concept - and thus of a new level of reality - is justified and even necessary.
Mohan Jatindra Mishra & Vedika Hurdoyal-Chekhori (ed.), Ecology and Environment Ethics: Indological Perspectives, 2022
Unlike other streams of Buddhism, Yogācāra is more tolerant with the cosmic manifestation, consid... more Unlike other streams of Buddhism, Yogācāra is more tolerant with the cosmic manifestation, considering it as real and not necessarily evil. Evil, affliction and bondage start when the holistic "eco-logical" level is broken and individual beings start rising and imposing themselves. The root of all evil in the Universe is the attitude of "elevated state of [self]-consciousness" (cittonnati), the "pride that I am" (asmimāna), the "raising of the individual self above the others" (ātmānam………… unnamayati anyebhyo 'dhikaṃ). Though without any explicit ecological statement, Yogācāra Buddhism, as early as in the IVth century AD, starts denouncing the self-centered attitude of any being, considering it not only as a cause of breaking the cosmic "calmness" but even as the "root of all [individual] affliction" (mūlakleśa), the main cause of all bondage.
Analele Universităţii Dunărea de Jos din Galaţi, Fasc. XVIII, Filosofie, 2021
After being engendered through the appropriating activity (upadana) of the mind (manas), applied ... more After being engendered through the appropriating activity (upadana) of the mind (manas), applied to the universal experience of the storehouse consciousness (alayavijñana), the individual experience is constituted through the conjoint activity of the six "operational consciousnesses" (pravrtti vijñana): the five sensory consciousnesses and the mental consciousness (manovijñana). The brute sensory experience is projected by the five sensory consciousnesses, approximating the senses, but being rather some faculties (indriya), capacities, the potentiality of consciousness to engender some specific types of experience. In Yogacara, the sensory experience is totally devoid of concept (vikalpa), presenting itself as an amorphous flow of sensory inputs. Conceptualization is performed by the mental consciousness which, in an illusory manner, projects the categorically discriminated entities onto the sensory flow. Yogacara authors claim that the conceptually determined entities created by the mental consciousness (manovijñana) are purely fictitious, hence the mental consciousness projecting a totally illusory ontological sphere, which broadly comprises all the states of human awareness. Most of the human conscious experiences take place at the level of this conceptual sphere, this meaning that human awareness and the entire human drama involve mainly illusory entities. Therefore, conceptual experience is severely flawed, firstly, because it is produced at the level of the limited individual self (atman), and, secondly, due to its fictitious character (vitatha).
Danubius, 2020
Mahāyāna Buddhism, hostile to any kind of conceptual construction (vikalpa), which is blamed for ... more Mahāyāna Buddhism, hostile to any kind of conceptual construction (vikalpa), which is blamed for operating artificial delimitations within a homogenous and amorphous reality, presents its own doctrine not as a “truth” but rather as psychological “skill-in-means” (upāya), which aims at liberating humans from the illusory reality cast by their own mental discriminations. Thus, doctrine is denied all cognitive value, both in respect to a metaphysical level of reality and in respect to the mere empirical level. Its validity pertains to the psychological efficiency that it could display in the process of “counter-acting/opposing” the errors that ensnare humans. Therefore, the issue of religious truth is transferred from the cognitive sphere to the psychological and existential sphere, its value being of a rather therapeutic type.
The doctrine is considered as an antidote (pratipaksa) which has the sole role of denying the reality of the various mental constructions which create the sphere where the self inflicted human drama takes place. Thus, the doctrine is deprived not only of cognitive value but also of objectivity, its efficiency depending on the existence of some particular errors, of a particular type of bondage. The actual content of a religious teaching does not reflect an „objective truth” but rather a particular kind of error, which is denounced and rejected by the doctrine. Buddhist texts even utterly state that it is not possible to identify an own-meaning of the term „void” (sūnya), the main soteriological concept of Buddhism, which gets a sense only in association with another term, whom it could determine. Thus, religious teachings have more to do with subjective errors than with an objective truth.
Therefore, Buddhism does not hesitate to claim the voidness of its own path („the voidness of voidness” - sūnyatāsūnyatā), which is considered only as a temporary useful tool, which must be itself discarded during the process of liberation. The old school of Buddhism, Hīnayāna, is blamed for having developed an extremely elaborated psychological analysis which turned to be itself an obstacle on the path to liberation; this way, their religion itself opposed the accomplishment of the religious goal.
Mahāyāna Buddhism considers its own doctrine in a relativist, instrumental manner, rather existential and therapeutic than cognitive and metaphysical.
Keywords: Buddhism; Mahāyāna; doctrine; void; pluralism; relativism; non-cognitive religion.
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ESSAYS by Ovidiu Nedu
„Șomajul” soteriologic al religiilor
„Compulsiunea religioasă” a psihologiei umane
Abordarea cognitivă a dilemelor religioase și concluzia agnostică
Arta de a dibui direcții pe bâjbâite
Relaxarea ca „religie”
Mintea cea „păcătoasă” și masochismul valorilor
Hilara fantomă îngrozită de moarte
Depersonalizarea experienței
„Venerarea” a ceea ce este
Epoche-ul religios și „știința lejerității”
Indiferența Universului față de viețile individuale
Caracterul conflictual al vieții globale și imposibilitatea „dragostei” universale
Ce contează, individualul sau colectivul?
O spiritualitate „colectivă”
Fantezia „sacralității” vieții individuale
I.1.Raționalitatea lumii și caracterul „deschis” al scientismului
I.2.Științele incipiente și corelațiile empirice
I.3.Nebuloasa pretențiilor cognitive umane
I.4.Desprinderea unor științe din zona „religiosului”
II.ASTROLOGIA: FUNCȚIONAREA SINCRONICĂ A MECANISMULUI UMAN ȘI A MECANISMULUI COSMIC
II.1.Presupozițiile astrologiei: umanitatea ca sistem și funcționarea sa în sincron cu anumite sisteme cosmice
II.2.Legiferarea/reglementarea experiențelor și valorilor umane
II.3. Alte demersuri de „scientizare” secvențială a vieții psihice și sociale
II.4.Corelația uman-cosmic și incapacitatea științei actuale de a explicita acest raport
II.5.Astrologia și perspectiva „cosmică” asupra omului
PAPERS BUDDHISM by Ovidiu Nedu
Individual beings and their personal lives are not as much “entities” and experiences undergone by these “entities” but rather “isolated”, “private” experiences. The “physical” world is equally mere consciousness, mere experience. Its claimed “objectivity”, ascribed to it by humans, is due to the fact that it is a shared experience, interwoven with a plurality of “personal” experiences. Everything is only experience having various degrees of “privacy” or “sharing”.
Keywords: Buddhism, Yogācāra, Idealism, cosmic consciousness, shared Universe.
The peaceful and homogenous state of reality gets altered when human mind starts developping experiences of self-“elevation” (unnatti), of “pride” (mana) towards what it appropriates as its own identity. The natural calm of reality gets disturbed and the experience projected by the mind becomes an afflicted (klista) one; this is the beginning of suffering (duhkha) and of bondage (samsara).
Thus, the projection of individuality upon the calm cosmic level can be considered as the “fall” of Yogacara Buddhism.
All the subsequent individual experiences of the “individual being” take place within the frame of this illusion projected by the mind. The limitations each individual being experience are explained by Yogācāra Buddhism through the fact that the person is always “wrapped” in the illusion of individuality projected by the mind. The mind becomes the root of all evil, the primary origin of bondage. The entire soteriological effort of Yogācāra will be directed towards the annihilation of this “mind”.
Keywords: Buddhism, Vijñnavda, Yogācāra, personal identity, mind (manas), illusion, self-limitation.
Although agreeing to this religious "diagnosis," Buddhist schools diverge on how the liberation from the ego would be achieved. Primary Buddhism, Hīnayāna, due to its humanistic standpoint, that prevented any attempt to look beyond human individuality, sought liberation from the ego by its simple annihilation. Mahāyāna, the newer form of Buddhism, founded on monistic-absolutist metaphysical systems, which accepted the existence of an ultimate reality to which everything would be reduced, urged the liberation from the ego by universalization, by assuming the absolute condition.
In this new metaphysical and religious context, it became necessary to deal with universality, with the cosmic level of reality, a level ignored by primary Buddhism (Hīnayāna). Mahāyāna, however, was faced with the need to discuss universality, and thus new concepts emerge, as tools for dealing with the cosmic level of reality. The "store-house consciousness" (ālayavijñāna), the cosmic consciousness, is one of them. The term appears since quite old texts, such as Lakāvatāra-sūtra or Sadhinirmocana-sūtra, but it gets consecration only in Yogācāra / Vijñānavāda school, in the 4th century. Yogācāra tries to present an idealistic explanation of the whole Universe, which would represent nothing but the experience of a cosmic consciousness, of the "store-house consciousness".
Because the store-house consciousness had such an explanatory role, the authors of Yogācāra formulated a series of arguments for its existence. In general, the arguments start from exposing a problematic situation, structured on the basis of Abhidharma's categorical system. It goes on to say that this model of analysis and explanation is not enough and, as a result, the introduction of a new concept - and thus of a new level of reality - is justified and even necessary.
The doctrine is considered as an antidote (pratipaksa) which has the sole role of denying the reality of the various mental constructions which create the sphere where the self inflicted human drama takes place. Thus, the doctrine is deprived not only of cognitive value but also of objectivity, its efficiency depending on the existence of some particular errors, of a particular type of bondage. The actual content of a religious teaching does not reflect an „objective truth” but rather a particular kind of error, which is denounced and rejected by the doctrine. Buddhist texts even utterly state that it is not possible to identify an own-meaning of the term „void” (sūnya), the main soteriological concept of Buddhism, which gets a sense only in association with another term, whom it could determine. Thus, religious teachings have more to do with subjective errors than with an objective truth.
Therefore, Buddhism does not hesitate to claim the voidness of its own path („the voidness of voidness” - sūnyatāsūnyatā), which is considered only as a temporary useful tool, which must be itself discarded during the process of liberation. The old school of Buddhism, Hīnayāna, is blamed for having developed an extremely elaborated psychological analysis which turned to be itself an obstacle on the path to liberation; this way, their religion itself opposed the accomplishment of the religious goal.
Mahāyāna Buddhism considers its own doctrine in a relativist, instrumental manner, rather existential and therapeutic than cognitive and metaphysical.
Keywords: Buddhism; Mahāyāna; doctrine; void; pluralism; relativism; non-cognitive religion.
„Șomajul” soteriologic al religiilor
„Compulsiunea religioasă” a psihologiei umane
Abordarea cognitivă a dilemelor religioase și concluzia agnostică
Arta de a dibui direcții pe bâjbâite
Relaxarea ca „religie”
Mintea cea „păcătoasă” și masochismul valorilor
Hilara fantomă îngrozită de moarte
Depersonalizarea experienței
„Venerarea” a ceea ce este
Epoche-ul religios și „știința lejerității”
Indiferența Universului față de viețile individuale
Caracterul conflictual al vieții globale și imposibilitatea „dragostei” universale
Ce contează, individualul sau colectivul?
O spiritualitate „colectivă”
Fantezia „sacralității” vieții individuale
I.1.Raționalitatea lumii și caracterul „deschis” al scientismului
I.2.Științele incipiente și corelațiile empirice
I.3.Nebuloasa pretențiilor cognitive umane
I.4.Desprinderea unor științe din zona „religiosului”
II.ASTROLOGIA: FUNCȚIONAREA SINCRONICĂ A MECANISMULUI UMAN ȘI A MECANISMULUI COSMIC
II.1.Presupozițiile astrologiei: umanitatea ca sistem și funcționarea sa în sincron cu anumite sisteme cosmice
II.2.Legiferarea/reglementarea experiențelor și valorilor umane
II.3. Alte demersuri de „scientizare” secvențială a vieții psihice și sociale
II.4.Corelația uman-cosmic și incapacitatea științei actuale de a explicita acest raport
II.5.Astrologia și perspectiva „cosmică” asupra omului
Individual beings and their personal lives are not as much “entities” and experiences undergone by these “entities” but rather “isolated”, “private” experiences. The “physical” world is equally mere consciousness, mere experience. Its claimed “objectivity”, ascribed to it by humans, is due to the fact that it is a shared experience, interwoven with a plurality of “personal” experiences. Everything is only experience having various degrees of “privacy” or “sharing”.
Keywords: Buddhism, Yogācāra, Idealism, cosmic consciousness, shared Universe.
The peaceful and homogenous state of reality gets altered when human mind starts developping experiences of self-“elevation” (unnatti), of “pride” (mana) towards what it appropriates as its own identity. The natural calm of reality gets disturbed and the experience projected by the mind becomes an afflicted (klista) one; this is the beginning of suffering (duhkha) and of bondage (samsara).
Thus, the projection of individuality upon the calm cosmic level can be considered as the “fall” of Yogacara Buddhism.
All the subsequent individual experiences of the “individual being” take place within the frame of this illusion projected by the mind. The limitations each individual being experience are explained by Yogācāra Buddhism through the fact that the person is always “wrapped” in the illusion of individuality projected by the mind. The mind becomes the root of all evil, the primary origin of bondage. The entire soteriological effort of Yogācāra will be directed towards the annihilation of this “mind”.
Keywords: Buddhism, Vijñnavda, Yogācāra, personal identity, mind (manas), illusion, self-limitation.
Although agreeing to this religious "diagnosis," Buddhist schools diverge on how the liberation from the ego would be achieved. Primary Buddhism, Hīnayāna, due to its humanistic standpoint, that prevented any attempt to look beyond human individuality, sought liberation from the ego by its simple annihilation. Mahāyāna, the newer form of Buddhism, founded on monistic-absolutist metaphysical systems, which accepted the existence of an ultimate reality to which everything would be reduced, urged the liberation from the ego by universalization, by assuming the absolute condition.
In this new metaphysical and religious context, it became necessary to deal with universality, with the cosmic level of reality, a level ignored by primary Buddhism (Hīnayāna). Mahāyāna, however, was faced with the need to discuss universality, and thus new concepts emerge, as tools for dealing with the cosmic level of reality. The "store-house consciousness" (ālayavijñāna), the cosmic consciousness, is one of them. The term appears since quite old texts, such as Lakāvatāra-sūtra or Sadhinirmocana-sūtra, but it gets consecration only in Yogācāra / Vijñānavāda school, in the 4th century. Yogācāra tries to present an idealistic explanation of the whole Universe, which would represent nothing but the experience of a cosmic consciousness, of the "store-house consciousness".
Because the store-house consciousness had such an explanatory role, the authors of Yogācāra formulated a series of arguments for its existence. In general, the arguments start from exposing a problematic situation, structured on the basis of Abhidharma's categorical system. It goes on to say that this model of analysis and explanation is not enough and, as a result, the introduction of a new concept - and thus of a new level of reality - is justified and even necessary.
The doctrine is considered as an antidote (pratipaksa) which has the sole role of denying the reality of the various mental constructions which create the sphere where the self inflicted human drama takes place. Thus, the doctrine is deprived not only of cognitive value but also of objectivity, its efficiency depending on the existence of some particular errors, of a particular type of bondage. The actual content of a religious teaching does not reflect an „objective truth” but rather a particular kind of error, which is denounced and rejected by the doctrine. Buddhist texts even utterly state that it is not possible to identify an own-meaning of the term „void” (sūnya), the main soteriological concept of Buddhism, which gets a sense only in association with another term, whom it could determine. Thus, religious teachings have more to do with subjective errors than with an objective truth.
Therefore, Buddhism does not hesitate to claim the voidness of its own path („the voidness of voidness” - sūnyatāsūnyatā), which is considered only as a temporary useful tool, which must be itself discarded during the process of liberation. The old school of Buddhism, Hīnayāna, is blamed for having developed an extremely elaborated psychological analysis which turned to be itself an obstacle on the path to liberation; this way, their religion itself opposed the accomplishment of the religious goal.
Mahāyāna Buddhism considers its own doctrine in a relativist, instrumental manner, rather existential and therapeutic than cognitive and metaphysical.
Keywords: Buddhism; Mahāyāna; doctrine; void; pluralism; relativism; non-cognitive religion.
It is not as much as in the Judeo-Christian tradition, where the Universe exists for the sake of man, but neither as in the rough Materialistic outlooks, where the Universe could have existed devoid of humans, too. In Yogācara, the ultimate subject is the Cosmos and not the individual being; nevertheless, human beings are not mere accidental (āgantuka) apparitions within the Universe, but rather some of its major mechanisms, the ones which propel the Cosmos. Thus, the dependence is mutual: men appear in the Universe but, equally, they maintain into existence the Universe.
The paper deals with the two major functioning mechanisms of the cosmic consciousness (ālayavijñāna), the outflow (nisyanda) and the karmic maturation (vipāka), proving that the outflow can’t provide more than a limited continuity of a particular manifestation. The perpetuity of the cosmic consciousness is possible only through the karmic maturation mechanisms which always involve human affliction and human subjects.
The voidness (śūā) of Yogācāra Buddhism is „softer” than in other schools of Mahāyāna, being rather a „relational” void. It is not equated with nothingness but only with the absence of the claimed constructed characteristics from the real conditional flow.
Keywords: Buddhism, Mahāyāna, Yogācāra, conceptual construction (parikalpa), conditional flow (paratantra), relational voidness.
The function of projecting the individual, when looked upon from the perspective of the universal level of the storehouse consciousness, is described as the “appropriation” (upadana) of an individual identity by the universal consciousness; when it is looked upon from the perspective of the individual himself, the function of projecting and maintaining individuality is described as “mind” (manas). In Vijnanavada, the mind represents that function of consciousness which, appropriating a determined sphere of experience as its own identity, gives birth to the individual being.
As the mind represents the very condition through which the person is projected, the personal experience automatically includes the activity of the mind. The mind is the one that, in a non-deliberate, non-conceptual manner, appropriates the person, the individual self; nevertheless, at its level, the experience of the ego is still conceptually undetermined, irrational, unconscious, instinctual, subliminal. The attachment to ego, as it is experimented at the level of the mind, manifests as irrational instincts or natural urges. Only at the level of the mental consciousness, the ego, the individual self, is rationally, conceptually depicted, acquiring a clearly determined conceptual identity.
When a certain series of factors is ascribed the status of “individual self” (atman), of “person” (pudgala), the entity thus created is nothing else but an ontological fiction. The consciousness affected by the error (viparyasa) of the individual self projects itself within a sphere of ontological illusion, a sphere wrongly identified as reality. What is truly real, i.e. the ultimate reality (dharmadhatu) and the conditional flow (pratityasamutpada) of an ideatic nature, gets out of comprehension when the person, the individual self are considered as real and the whole experience starts to be structured according to the tendencies induced by the individual identity.
The activity of the mind creates the “fundamental error” (viparysamula), the “fundamental ignorance”, its veiling activity which engenders that background ignorance affecting the human being during all his experiences. The absence of the absolute knowledge in case of the human beings is explained precisely by the fact that their experience is constituted on the basis of the experience of the mind.
The attitude of the subject towards those components of the experience that have been assumed as his own self changes and becomes one of “elevation” (unnati), of “pride” (mana). The attitude meant by these terms is that of a special importance paid to certain components of experience, due to the new status that has been ascribed to them. Once his own nature has been identified within the fleeting experience, this experience stops being only experience and illusorily becomes his own nature. He is no longer indifferent to the transformations of the experience, which are no longer mere experiences, but appear as alterations of his own nature. This way, the subject undergoes affliction (klesa), gets entrapped in his own experience. The anxiety and the suffering that characterize human existence are due to this erroneous identification of the human nature with the illusory identity appropriated by the mind.
Keywords: Buddhism, Vijnanavada, mind, manas, individual self, atman, affliction, klesa
Therefore, conceptual experience is severely flawed, firstly, because it is produced at the level of the limited individual self (atman), and, secondly, due to its fictitious character (vitatha).
Keywords: Buddhism, Vijñanavada, mental consciousness, manovijnana, operational consciousness, pravrtti vijnana, perception, concept, category.
Nevertheless, the school is able to claim the existence of a “truth”, even in the absence of an objective reality that could account for this “truth”. The truth of Vijñānavāda philosophy does not mean, in an Aristotelian or realistic manner, the concordance between subjective representation and objective reality but a mere consonance of the various subjective knowledge experiences. What determines such a truth are the so-called “shared” (sādhāraa) seeds (bīja) of experience, which inflict a certain degree of similarity to the experiences of various individual subjects. Hence, the truth has no cognitive value, being rather a state of Karmic tuning, i.e. the consonance of the experiences engendered by the “shared” part of the Karmic imprints of each individual being.
Keywords: Hinayana, Mahayana, Prajñaparamita, psychological analysis, metaphysics, voidness, ultimate reality "
major Mahāyāna Buddhist texts, usually ascribed to the Vijñānavāda tradition, but having the particularity that the passing from the Prajñāpāramitā tradition to the classical Vijñānavāda can be easily traced within the text.
The first of the five chapters of the book deals with metaphysical matters. It exposes the theory of the three levels of reality (the ultimate reality – parinispanna svabhāva, the conditional emanation – paratantra svabhāva and the illusory conceptual level – parikalpita svabhāva), featuring each of these levels as
a particular condition of consciousness. In its second part, the text aproaches one of the classical issues in Indian metaphysics, namely the way it is possible to defend the absolutely pure and blissful character of the ultimate reality in face of
the threat represented by its association with the worldly defilements. The solution found by the Vijñānavāda authors ascribes only an accidental character
(āgantuka) to the defilements, while the purity is said to be essential (svābhāvika). Several verses delineate the features of the ultimate reality, thus linking the text to the Prajñāpāramitā tradition.
Keywords: emptiness, fulfilled own-being, construction of that which was not, interdependent own-being, affliction, constructed own-being"
The second chapter deals with soteriological matters, being an analytical exposition of the path. The chapter shows the blending of Mahāyāna’s ontology
with the Abhidharmic phenomenological analysis, which is one of the definitory features of Vijñānavāda. It has a high level of technicality, being tributary to the very alambicated phenomenological classifications of the Abhidharmic masters.
Equally technical is the third chapter, dealing with different perspectives of considering the reality. It approaches a metaphysical issue, the reality (a properly Mahāyānist issue), by making use of some specifically Hīnayānist systems of
categories.
Keywords: obstructions, obstructions of the afflictions, obstructions of the knowable, afflictions, reality, self, object.
Discrimination between Middle and Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga), of Asanga, one of the main texts of the Vijñānavāda school of Buddhism. The fourth chapter discusses on the application of the antidotes (pratipakṣa), namely on the ways the various types of defilements entrapping a human being in the world are removed. Just like chapter II, this part is highly technical, making plenty of use of the alembicated phenomenological typologies of Abhidharma. It describes the
psychological cleansing of the individual, hence being a phenomenological analysis done in a specific Abhidharma terminology. The fifth chapter deals with a topic frequently encountered in the texts of Mahāyāna: the superiority of the
path exhorted by them, against the psychological path of Hīnayāna. The path of Mahāyāna is an absolute, an „unsurpassable” (ānuttarya) path, since it consists in
the highest realization, the dissolution of the individual in the ultimate reality.
Hence it goes much further than the path preached by Hīnayāna, consisting in a gradual psychological purification of the individual, until he reaches a rather negative condition, a condition devoid of any kind of experience and suffering.
Keywords: antidotes (pratipakṣa) adverse factors (vipakṣa), Abhidharma,
Mahāyāna, Hīnayāna, ultimate reality, transcendent insight (prajñā).
Within this context, the article particularly approaches issues such as the foetal condition (important for abortion related discussions), the after-life, the value and the meaning of human life.
The present article deals with two main classical writings on this topic: Maitreya-Upaniad and Jābāla-Upaniad, both of them being included, by the Brahmanical tradition, among the „Sanyāsa-Upaniads” (Upaniads of renunciation).
Maitreya-Upaniad is a rare and, probably, the shortest version of the classical Maitr-UpaniIt takes a sheer anti-naturalistic stance along with expressing the longing for transcendence. King B¬hadratha, in spite of his royal condition, feels disgusted by whatever means human life and natural conditions and, consequently, decides to give up on everything and to engage on an ascetic path culminating in the ontological regression towards the source of all manifestation. The phases of the regression are depicted in quite an usual way, which mixes Sākhya elements with some concepts whose presence in a Brahmanical writing seems rather weird.
Jābāla-Upaniad is quite a heterogenous text, containing some proto-Tantric elements (mentions of pilgrimage places, interiorization of pilgrimage and of religious tokens, salvific formulae) and, in its second half, stipulations regarding the act of renunciation and the condition of the one who renounces. The text lays stress on the relation between renounciation and moral, social or religious regulations. Renunciation cancels all worldly obligations, all moral imperatives, leaving the one who embraces it in a state of total freedom. The hermit becomes like a „madman”, defying all worldly reasons and all worldly obligations, and freely roaming in a Universe that ceases to bind him in any way.
belonging to the line of the Sama-Veda.
The text demolishes all the religious claims of any
phenomenal condition, arguing that spiritual pre-eminence is
reached only through the direct realization of the ultimate reality
(Brahman) as own-identity (atman). The last paragraph of the
text offers a presentation of this ultimate reality and of the
condition reached by the one who gets dissolved into it.
Keywords: Indian religion, Brahmanism, Vajrasucika,
Upanisad, caste-system, Brahman, liberated one.
The manifestation of the Universe starts when consciousness gets, first of all, covered by ignorance and, consequently, loses its self-awareness. Instead of comprehending itself, the consciousness thus affected by ignorance starts projecting some successive layers of illusion which represent the personal identity wrongly assumed by consciousness and the experience of the Universe.
The article deals with the successive steps through which consciousness manifests the Universe. Starting with the causal body (kāraa arīra), where consciousness has been only dulled by ignorance (avidyā, ajñāna), the projection of the Universe takes more and more definite forms. It determines itself as an individual at the level of the subtle body (sūkma arīra), which is the psychic structure of the individual being. In its coarsest forms, it manifests as the gross body (sthūla arīra), the physical Universe, which is only a very dense, compact form of illusion. Materiality is nothing but a particularly opaque form of ignorance.
Thus, the Universe represents a cosmic expansion of the person, the consciousness which goes out of its own nature and, through the intermediary of the psychic structure, projects all forms of "materiality". Man and Universe can never be separated, both being only different layers of the manifestation of consciousness (cit).
Keywords: idealism, Hinduism, Vedānta, consciousness, illusion, microcosme.
The text interlaces the ancient cosmological and dynamic approach to reality, of Vedic influence, with more recent ontological and substantial approaches. Whether cosmological or ontological, all these approaches reveal the unity of reality (either functional either substantial).
The text takes over an ancient Vedic approach to reality, which considers food (anna) as the very essence of everything and reinterprets it in the new monist metaphysical context, presenting food as the substantiality of everything, as the universal ontological foundation.
Some paragraphs, such as I.iii.1-3, III.x.2-III.x.3, II.viii.1, offer an interesting approach to the ultimate reality; Brahman is presented under a dynamical, functional aspect, as the complementarity of the world processes or as the specific process of the elements of the Universe. Such an approach is rare in the Upanisads, which usually prefer a static, substantial ontology and not one of the process type.
A major contribution of the text is the depiction, in the paragraphs II.i-II.v and III.i-III.vi, of the ultimate reality (Brahman) as bliss (ananda). This could be considered as the “gospel” of Hinduism, bliss being stated as the fundamental condition of reality, the ultimate finality of everything.
The text also exposes a theory which would become classical in later Advaita Vedanta, namely the one regarding the five „sheaths” (kosa) of the reality. The difference between the way Taittiriya-Upanisad depicts reality and the way classical Advaita Vedanta does it lies in the fact that, for Taittiriya, bliss (ananda) is not the most subtle cover of the absolute, but is identical with the ultimate reality itself. Hence, the text is ontologically quite tolerant, avoiding a sheer delimitation between “real” (sat) and “illusory” (māyā), as later Advaita Vedānta would do, but seeing everything as real, in various degrees. Reality is therefore all-encompassing, only that in more or less diluted ways.
Keywords: Indian religion, Brahmanism, monism, unity, process, Taittiriya, Upanisad, bliss, ananda, sheath, kosa, food, anna.
The first one deals with Brahmanic eschatology. It discusses the post-mortem fate of the soul, which can be either Pitryana (“the path of the fathers”), through which the soul continues its transmigration through the Universe, either Devayana (“the path of the gods”). Devayana is followed by those who reached the comprehension of Brahman and hence are liberated from the Universe, at their death returning to their ontological source, Brahman, the absolute reality.
The remaining three chapters expose a vitalist view of the Universe. The essence of the entire Universe is none else but the essence of life, namely breath (prana). The principle of life is the principle of everything; ultimately, everything reduces to life, to breath. Hence, life becomes the absolute reality, the all-encompassing principle.
Keywords: Kausitaki Brahmana Upanisad, Veda, Brahmanism, Indian religion, Sanskrit, vitalism, breath (prana).
Keywords: Indian religion, Brahmanism, Vajrasucika, Upanisad, caste-system, Brahman, liberated one.
At its climax, religion will be entirely dissolved in human culture, at a point where humanity will fully appropriate the unitary perspective of religion. Secularity is the ultimate destiny of religion, which tends to lose its separate identity through a total pervasion in the immanence.
Keywords: Friedrich Schleiermacher; Dietrich Bonhoeffer; liberal theology; natural religion; humanism; secularism.
Christianity is a mere confessional “option”, as valid as any other confessional choice. Nevertheless, Schleiermacher particularly extols the Christian formulation of religious experience, considering it as a higher form of development of the natural religious conscience. It is only due to this excellency of Christianity that he chose this confession. The traditional Christian exclusivism, which claims validity only for Christianity, is rejected by Schleiermacher, who considers it as an appropriate religious attitude, resulting from a misinterpretation of the religious excellency of this confession.
Keywords: Fr. Schleiermacher; Christianity; Enlightenment; natural religion; Liberal Protestantism; religious pluralism; inclusivism.
Therefore, spirituality is possible only in a pluralistic approach, that not only respects other religions but also grants them full validity. Spirituality should even be the most all-embracing human experience, in which all cultural manifestations find acceptance. Religious manifestations, under their unbound variety, are experienced as complementarities; in the brotherhood of all that exists, including all religions, is spiritual experience based.
Even if Schleiermacher operates a hierarchical systematization of the religious manifestations, according to this classification, even those standing on the lowest position have spiritual validity, only their way of expressing the spiritual experience being of a lower degree.
The major threat to spirituality is not pluralism, diversity, not even heresy, but the fundamentalist claims, according to which genuine spirituality is confined within the boundaries of one particular religion, the other religions being rejected. Fundamentalism, through its one-sidedness, threatens the very essence of religion, which is embracing the totality.
Religion/spirituality does not mean imposing a particular outlook against all diversity and multiplicity but, on the contrary, means submitting every particular outlook to plurality. Diversity and plurality prevail against any form of one-sidedness.
A restrictive religion, which draws sheer distinctions in the Universe, especially the distinction between “saved” and “lost”, between “spiritual” and “heretical”, is no religion at all but a mere unfortunate cultural attitude.
Keywords: religious pluralism, multiculturalism, inclusivism, fundamentalism, restrictivism, Friedrich Schleiermacher, liberal theology, Christian theology.
Through a scientist and phenomenological critical approach, he dismisses several major traditional Christian doctrines, such as Eschatology, all “sacred history”, many elements of Biblical cosmology, such as the doctrines about angels, devils, Satan or Hell.
Considered as the feeling of utter dependence of every finite being on the Infinite, religion necessarily embeds an attitude of absolute openness, seeing everything, including all faiths, as complementary within the all-encompassing unity. Hence, religious pluralism is not just a possible view, but it belongs to the very essence of religiosity.
Naturalismul religios al lui Schleiermacher consideră trăirea religioasă drept o experienţă firească, spontană, a tuturor oamenilor. Identitatea confesională este atribuită abia ulterior experienţei religiose ce ia naştere în mod natural. Confesiunea nu dă naştere experienţei religioase, ci doar structurează exprimarea experienţei pre-existente pe baza unor tipare culturale; în general, aceste tipare sunt constituite de exemplul extraordinar al unui anumit lider religios sau al unui eveniment excepţional. Chiar dacă este cultivată şi exprimată în conformitate cu un tipar comun, religia îşi păstrează enorma varietate, care coboară până la nivel individual. În majoritatea cazurilor, diferenţa dintre confesiunile religioase este datorată diferenţelor ce există între sistemele cosmologice înglobate de acestea. Progresul civilizaţiei nu a adus cu sine neapărat şi un progres al religiei înseşi, ci, mai degrabă, un progres în exprimarea religioasă.
Considerată ca simţire a dependenţei absolute a oricărei entităţi finite faţă de Infinit, religia încorporează în mod necesar o atitudine de deschidere nelimitată,prin care toate, inclusiv toate confesiunile, sunt considerate ca găsindu-se într-o relaţie de complementaritate la nivelul unităţii ce înglobează totul. În consecinţă, pluralismul religios nu reprezintă doar un posibil punct de vedere, ci ceva ce ţine de esenţa însăşi a religiei.
The first topic the volume deals with is the apparition of the phenomenon of human individuation within the wide cosmic experience. It is approached by three of the papers. The first one investigates the apparition of the human phenomenon within the cosmic consciousness, apparition which alters the peaceful and neutral character of consciousness. Human states of awareness and their subjective contents are analyzed in the second article, while the third one deals with the relation of reciprocal dependence between the human and the cosmic phenomena.
The second part of the volume is focused on the deconstruction of “knowledge”, as a cognitive issue, and its reinterpretation as a mere subjective experience, as a “whim” of the individual consciousness. Starting with the most basic descriptions and until its higher forms, such as metaphysics and religion, knowledge is considered as a psychological “game”, stirred not by the contact with an objective reality, but by the karmic predispositions of its subject. All cognitive activity, all cognitive categories, including “truth”, are reduced to mere psychological issues, either individual or collective. Even when they are collective, being shared by more individuals controlled by similar karmic tendencies, mental constructions cannot overcome their subjective nature and lack of cognitive value. Truth is rather a matter of “tuning” the mental constructions than one of “knowing” something.
Eliberarea din drama auto-indusă are loc atunci când conştiinţa înţelege şi realizează în mod direct vacuitatea identităţii individuale şi caracterul beatific al realităţii.
Asanga, Madhyantavibhaga (Discriminarea între mijloc şi extreme)
Vasubandhu, Vijnaptimatratasiddhi (Stabilirea existenţei unice a ideaţiilor)
Vasubandhu, Trisvabhavanirdesa (Indicaţiile referitoare la cele trei naturi)
The cult of Zalmoxis prompted a moral and even ascetical life among its adepts and it created a community bound by relations of empathy and even brotherhood. The acceptance of Zalmoxis in the Thracian world led to the rejection of Dionysos and of his hedonistic cult, which was standing in opposition with the elevated spirituality of the worshippers of Zalmoxis.
Keywords : Zalmoxis, solar, cult of mysteries, Pitagora, ascetism, sensorial deprivation, immortality
The first five chapters don’t approach directly the topic of the cult of Zalmoxis; they rather deal with the very tight connexions between the Greek and the Thracian cultures. In the author’s view, the Thracian world represented the origin of many of the cultural and religious ideas of the Greeks. Constantin Daniel depicts Troja as a Thracian city and the Greek religious ideals as being inspired by the realities of the religious life of the Thracs. Hence, the Abioii, the Hyperboreans and the Agathyrses (according to C. Daniel, all these people being Thracians) and their communities are put forward as the models that inspired the Greeks in creating their own religious ideals. Later on, the author will avail of this eulogistic perspective upon the Thracian spirituality in order to justify the elevated, highly spiritual character of the cult of Zalmoxis.
Through his criticism upon causality, Hume proposes a much more modest epistemic and anthropological ideal: the cognitive function of knowledge is replaced by a rather instrumental function, deductive certainty is replaced by inductive probability, the claims of metaphysics to be able to discuss essence, substance or self are simply compromised, human rationality pales in front of instinctivity and naturalism. We cannot rationally understand the dynamics of the universe, we only instinctively anticipate it. The causal relationship does not represent "knowledge" so much, but only the mechanical exercise of a psychological instinct well tuned to reality, which manages to predict, in an irrational way, certain occurrences based on others.
Moreover, David Hume's analysis of causality is relevant from an anthropological point of view. Usually, reason and the ability to rationally understand the world have been identified as the essence of man; by questioning the status and the capacities of reason, Hume attempts a redefinition of human condition. Moreover, the psychological and instinctual standpoint from which Hume attempts the explanation of the causal relationship leads him, finally, to adopt a naturalistic position regarding the human being, which denies the existence of a fundamental differentiation between man and animal. Both human beings and animals use knowledge instrumentally, instinctually, without being able to give it a full rational foundation.
At its climax, religion will be entirely dissolved in human culture, at a point where humanity will fully appropriate the unitary perspective of religion. Secularity is the ultimate destiny of religion, which tends to lose its separate identity through a total pervasion in the immanence."