When we talk about the first and last events in the Buddhist texts, we have to mention about the ... more When we talk about the first and last events in the Buddhist texts, we have to mention about the first sermon and the last word of the Buddha. The last word emphasized ‘heedfulness’ (appamadadhamma), which is taken as the heart of Buddhism. Thai people will celebrate Vesak Day in the coming month of May.
For Buddhism, we are friends in Dhamma (Sahadhammika), meaning we are similar with each other in ... more For Buddhism, we are friends in Dhamma (Sahadhammika), meaning we are similar with each other in terms of ‘Birth, Old Age, Sickness, and Death’, which is called in Thai, ‘Kird (jati=เกิด), Kae (jara=แก่), Jep (payadhi=เจ็บ), Tai (marana=ตาย)’. After ‘birth’ and before ‘death’, we as human beings have to experience ‘aging’ and ‘sickness’ unavoidably. When we read the Buddhist texts, Tipitakas, we found that the Buddha got Enlightenment of the Four Noble Truths or sometime known as Twofold Noble Truths. Let’s speak about two truths at first. The first truth is ‘suffering’ and another one is ‘the way out of suffering or nibbana’. Only these two things the Buddha taught. Let’s talk about ‘birth, aging, sickness, and death’ in the light of Fourfold Noble Truth. The Buddha says: “(1) The truth of life-as-suffering, which is consisted of birth (jati), aging or old age (jara), sickness (payadhi) and death (marana), so life is full of suffering, because of (2) Desire, which is the truth of the cause of suffering-life. (3) The Truth of Nibbana as the destruction of suffering-life of birth, aging, sickness, and death”, and (4) Eightfold Noble Path is the truth as the way (moderate way) leading to Nibbana, consisting of ‘right understanding, right thought (wisdom group)’, ‘right speech, right action, right livelihood (morality group)’, ‘right effort, right concentration and right mindfulness, (concentration group)’.
My attempt made in this paper is to answer two questions, namely, (1) Are there any prophecies re... more My attempt made in this paper is to answer two questions, namely, (1) Are there any prophecies recorded in your scripture? If so, what are they? AND (2) Is the evidence that makes the prophecy trustworthy recorded in your scripture? The Thai Buddhists are familiar with the term ‘Dipankara’. The present prince of Thailand has a son named ‘Dipankara’. This event can be traced back into the past of Buddhist history. In the Buddhist history, the prophecy could be understood very well in connection with the story of Buddha. The Buddhist scripture mentioned the story of Buddha named Dipankara. The Dipankara Buddha is remembered specially and held in high esteem for the reason that according to legend it was while Dipankara was the Buddha that Gautama Buddha was an ascetic named Sumedha and had made his vow to become Buddha.
My attempt is made in this paper, apart from answering two questions, namely, (1) Who did write ... more My attempt is made in this paper, apart from answering two questions, namely, (1) Who did write your Religious Scripture & when was your Religious Scripture written?, and (2) Although each faith has a series of holy books why is each one called upon one name?, is also to investigate the concept of gods in Early Buddhism as appeared in the Theravada Buddhist texts and the idea of gods according to the modern scholars, especially that of Buddhadasa Bhikku, the Buddhist monk scholar in Thailand, and to discuss three different opinions about the concept of Creator God in Buddhism. They are weak (inclusionist), strong (exclusionist), and moderate (pluralist) forms of opinions or thinkers. According to the weak form, there is the idea of God in Buddhism, for the strong form, the idea of God is not accepted by Buddhism, but the Moderate form would stand in between the opinions or thinkers of those two groups.
In Buddhism, the word ‘good’ is meant ‘perfection or fullness’ (punna) or ‘wholesomeness’ (kusala... more In Buddhism, the word ‘good’ is meant ‘perfection or fullness’ (punna) or ‘wholesomeness’ (kusala) of the human mind. The two terms are concerned with the doctrine of ‘action’ (kamma) and ‘consequence’ (vipaka). Goodness implies both cause and effect. A good cause gives rise to a good effect. The Buddha mentioned 4 criteria of “good action” (1) it does not harm oneself (2) it does not harm others, (3) it is acceptable by wise-men, and (4) it brings happiness to oneself or others. He also stated 4 criteria of “evil action” (1) it harms oneself, (2) it harms others, (2) it is blamed by the wise men, and (4) it brings suffering to oneself and others. (A.I 184-188).
In Thailand, five religions exist together, namely Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Si... more In Thailand, five religions exist together, namely Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism. In the minds of Thai people all religions are equally important in the sense that all religions teach people how to be good persons. When people become good, then they can co-exist with each other peacefully. In my paper, ‘goodness’ and ‘good person’ will be presented for mutual understanding among different religious followers.
It is said that the concept of ‘Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death’ is taken as the starting point... more It is said that the concept of ‘Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death’ is taken as the starting point of Buddhism. The Buddha says that ‘I teach only two things, namely suffering and its solution’ (S v 421). The above mentioned statement red thus: “He left the worldly life even his wife and son, wandering as an ascetic, for the purpose of finding some way of extinction of suffering in his life and fellow-beings.” It means that the Buddha perceived worldly life as suffering and religious life as way out of the suffering. It was narrated that while the Buddha was Siddhartha prince, he saw the four signs of aging man, sick man, dead man, and a monk, while he was visited a park. The 3 signs of aging, sickness, and death are taken as suffering, but the sign of monkhood or Nirvana is taken as the way out of the suffering.
Every corner of the world or in every country, mal-practice towards each other, and partiality am... more Every corner of the world or in every country, mal-practice towards each other, and partiality among fellow-beings in the family and society, and the exploitation of environment are occurring apparently, which finally will lead to the destruction of humankind. It is the time for all religions to come to work together in order to cultivate the antidotes of theses problems; we need to grow peace among different societies, nations and religions. My attempt is made in this paper to search for the Buddha’s teachings concerning peace as appeared in the Tipitaka and other commentaries for the youth.
An attempt is made in this paper to investigate the Therav2da methods of Interpretation on the Bu... more An attempt is made in this paper to investigate the Therav2da methods of Interpretation on the Buddhist scriptures. My thesis is that there is Hermeneutics in Buddhism. This Hermeneutics is called Gradual Path as is well known in Therav2da Buddhism. The ...
The religiously and culturally or traditionally pluralistic harmony and tolerance of Buddhists an... more The religiously and culturally or traditionally pluralistic harmony and tolerance of Buddhists and Muslims in the southern part of Thailand is the necessary condition for the ever lasting peace, for it is based on the mutual respect for the diversity of pluralistic harmony between two religions. Tolerance is the essential condition of harmony in Buddhism as well as in Islam. Tolerance as the essence of sustainable harmony can be conducted through the method of inter-religious dialogue of life. To solve the problem in the Deep South of Thailand, both Thai-Buddhists and Thai-Muslims and Thai-Malay-Muslims, who have been living there in the three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, for many decades, will have to build their trust through the dialogue of life through traditions or customs based on their religious doctrine of tolerance. Dialogue of life entails dialogue of action, religious doctrine and religious experiences.
My reason for doing a research on the topic: “An Analytical Study of Hermeneutics in the Theravad... more My reason for doing a research on the topic: “An Analytical Study of Hermeneutics in the Theravada Buddhist Texts”, is to search for hermeneutical theories in Buddhism for the purpose of solving the conflicts among religions in general and especially that of different Buddhist sects in particular due to their having different interpretations of the Buddha’s teachings (Buddhadhamma). And this research has altogether three objectives: (1) to analyze the general theories of Hermeneutics from the ancient to the contemporary periods, (2) to investigate the theories of Hermeneutics in Theravada Buddhism from the pre-commentaries to the post-commentaries, and (3) to compare and contrast the general Hermeneutics with the Buddhist Hermeneutics in order to apply those founded Hermeneutics to interpret the controversy in some issues of the Buddhist teaching. One of the research’s results is found that the general Hermeneutics, that originated from the god of messenger named Hermes, can be divided into 2 lines, one is ‘Religious Hermeneutics’, which is centered on ‘nine kinds of the Bible’s Hermeneutics’; and the other one is ‘Philosophical Hermeneutics’, which has the accepted start from the Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Hermeneutics onward. It is said that the Buddhist hermeneutical theory known as ‘Catupatisaraṇasutra’ could be compared with that of Schleiermacher’s. Hermeneutics in Buddhism is characterized as ‘Interaction-ism’, which is of ‘interpretation-explanation combined’ theory, and has been exemplified in the Nettipakarana text and in those of Thai Buddhist scholars, both monks and laymen, who trying to adopt the Buddhist hermeneutics to solve some controversial issues in Buddhism such as ‘Whether Nibbana be Self or Not-Self’. Further research result is found that the Hermeneutics could help support mutual understanding among religions better than the Aristotle’s logic, the witness of which is found in Buddhadadasa Bhikkhu’s hermeneutics as based on two kinds of language and that of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Hermeneutics, which has been concluded by David E. Klemm in a well-known phrase, ‘I understand You’.
When we talk about the first and last events in the Buddhist texts, we have to mention about the ... more When we talk about the first and last events in the Buddhist texts, we have to mention about the first sermon and the last word of the Buddha. The last word emphasized ‘heedfulness’ (appamadadhamma), which is taken as the heart of Buddhism. Thai people will celebrate Vesak Day in the coming month of May.
For Buddhism, we are friends in Dhamma (Sahadhammika), meaning we are similar with each other in ... more For Buddhism, we are friends in Dhamma (Sahadhammika), meaning we are similar with each other in terms of ‘Birth, Old Age, Sickness, and Death’, which is called in Thai, ‘Kird (jati=เกิด), Kae (jara=แก่), Jep (payadhi=เจ็บ), Tai (marana=ตาย)’. After ‘birth’ and before ‘death’, we as human beings have to experience ‘aging’ and ‘sickness’ unavoidably. When we read the Buddhist texts, Tipitakas, we found that the Buddha got Enlightenment of the Four Noble Truths or sometime known as Twofold Noble Truths. Let’s speak about two truths at first. The first truth is ‘suffering’ and another one is ‘the way out of suffering or nibbana’. Only these two things the Buddha taught. Let’s talk about ‘birth, aging, sickness, and death’ in the light of Fourfold Noble Truth. The Buddha says: “(1) The truth of life-as-suffering, which is consisted of birth (jati), aging or old age (jara), sickness (payadhi) and death (marana), so life is full of suffering, because of (2) Desire, which is the truth of the cause of suffering-life. (3) The Truth of Nibbana as the destruction of suffering-life of birth, aging, sickness, and death”, and (4) Eightfold Noble Path is the truth as the way (moderate way) leading to Nibbana, consisting of ‘right understanding, right thought (wisdom group)’, ‘right speech, right action, right livelihood (morality group)’, ‘right effort, right concentration and right mindfulness, (concentration group)’.
My attempt made in this paper is to answer two questions, namely, (1) Are there any prophecies re... more My attempt made in this paper is to answer two questions, namely, (1) Are there any prophecies recorded in your scripture? If so, what are they? AND (2) Is the evidence that makes the prophecy trustworthy recorded in your scripture? The Thai Buddhists are familiar with the term ‘Dipankara’. The present prince of Thailand has a son named ‘Dipankara’. This event can be traced back into the past of Buddhist history. In the Buddhist history, the prophecy could be understood very well in connection with the story of Buddha. The Buddhist scripture mentioned the story of Buddha named Dipankara. The Dipankara Buddha is remembered specially and held in high esteem for the reason that according to legend it was while Dipankara was the Buddha that Gautama Buddha was an ascetic named Sumedha and had made his vow to become Buddha.
My attempt is made in this paper, apart from answering two questions, namely, (1) Who did write ... more My attempt is made in this paper, apart from answering two questions, namely, (1) Who did write your Religious Scripture & when was your Religious Scripture written?, and (2) Although each faith has a series of holy books why is each one called upon one name?, is also to investigate the concept of gods in Early Buddhism as appeared in the Theravada Buddhist texts and the idea of gods according to the modern scholars, especially that of Buddhadasa Bhikku, the Buddhist monk scholar in Thailand, and to discuss three different opinions about the concept of Creator God in Buddhism. They are weak (inclusionist), strong (exclusionist), and moderate (pluralist) forms of opinions or thinkers. According to the weak form, there is the idea of God in Buddhism, for the strong form, the idea of God is not accepted by Buddhism, but the Moderate form would stand in between the opinions or thinkers of those two groups.
In Buddhism, the word ‘good’ is meant ‘perfection or fullness’ (punna) or ‘wholesomeness’ (kusala... more In Buddhism, the word ‘good’ is meant ‘perfection or fullness’ (punna) or ‘wholesomeness’ (kusala) of the human mind. The two terms are concerned with the doctrine of ‘action’ (kamma) and ‘consequence’ (vipaka). Goodness implies both cause and effect. A good cause gives rise to a good effect. The Buddha mentioned 4 criteria of “good action” (1) it does not harm oneself (2) it does not harm others, (3) it is acceptable by wise-men, and (4) it brings happiness to oneself or others. He also stated 4 criteria of “evil action” (1) it harms oneself, (2) it harms others, (2) it is blamed by the wise men, and (4) it brings suffering to oneself and others. (A.I 184-188).
In Thailand, five religions exist together, namely Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Si... more In Thailand, five religions exist together, namely Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism. In the minds of Thai people all religions are equally important in the sense that all religions teach people how to be good persons. When people become good, then they can co-exist with each other peacefully. In my paper, ‘goodness’ and ‘good person’ will be presented for mutual understanding among different religious followers.
It is said that the concept of ‘Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death’ is taken as the starting point... more It is said that the concept of ‘Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death’ is taken as the starting point of Buddhism. The Buddha says that ‘I teach only two things, namely suffering and its solution’ (S v 421). The above mentioned statement red thus: “He left the worldly life even his wife and son, wandering as an ascetic, for the purpose of finding some way of extinction of suffering in his life and fellow-beings.” It means that the Buddha perceived worldly life as suffering and religious life as way out of the suffering. It was narrated that while the Buddha was Siddhartha prince, he saw the four signs of aging man, sick man, dead man, and a monk, while he was visited a park. The 3 signs of aging, sickness, and death are taken as suffering, but the sign of monkhood or Nirvana is taken as the way out of the suffering.
Every corner of the world or in every country, mal-practice towards each other, and partiality am... more Every corner of the world or in every country, mal-practice towards each other, and partiality among fellow-beings in the family and society, and the exploitation of environment are occurring apparently, which finally will lead to the destruction of humankind. It is the time for all religions to come to work together in order to cultivate the antidotes of theses problems; we need to grow peace among different societies, nations and religions. My attempt is made in this paper to search for the Buddha’s teachings concerning peace as appeared in the Tipitaka and other commentaries for the youth.
An attempt is made in this paper to investigate the Therav2da methods of Interpretation on the Bu... more An attempt is made in this paper to investigate the Therav2da methods of Interpretation on the Buddhist scriptures. My thesis is that there is Hermeneutics in Buddhism. This Hermeneutics is called Gradual Path as is well known in Therav2da Buddhism. The ...
The religiously and culturally or traditionally pluralistic harmony and tolerance of Buddhists an... more The religiously and culturally or traditionally pluralistic harmony and tolerance of Buddhists and Muslims in the southern part of Thailand is the necessary condition for the ever lasting peace, for it is based on the mutual respect for the diversity of pluralistic harmony between two religions. Tolerance is the essential condition of harmony in Buddhism as well as in Islam. Tolerance as the essence of sustainable harmony can be conducted through the method of inter-religious dialogue of life. To solve the problem in the Deep South of Thailand, both Thai-Buddhists and Thai-Muslims and Thai-Malay-Muslims, who have been living there in the three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, for many decades, will have to build their trust through the dialogue of life through traditions or customs based on their religious doctrine of tolerance. Dialogue of life entails dialogue of action, religious doctrine and religious experiences.
My reason for doing a research on the topic: “An Analytical Study of Hermeneutics in the Theravad... more My reason for doing a research on the topic: “An Analytical Study of Hermeneutics in the Theravada Buddhist Texts”, is to search for hermeneutical theories in Buddhism for the purpose of solving the conflicts among religions in general and especially that of different Buddhist sects in particular due to their having different interpretations of the Buddha’s teachings (Buddhadhamma). And this research has altogether three objectives: (1) to analyze the general theories of Hermeneutics from the ancient to the contemporary periods, (2) to investigate the theories of Hermeneutics in Theravada Buddhism from the pre-commentaries to the post-commentaries, and (3) to compare and contrast the general Hermeneutics with the Buddhist Hermeneutics in order to apply those founded Hermeneutics to interpret the controversy in some issues of the Buddhist teaching. One of the research’s results is found that the general Hermeneutics, that originated from the god of messenger named Hermes, can be divided into 2 lines, one is ‘Religious Hermeneutics’, which is centered on ‘nine kinds of the Bible’s Hermeneutics’; and the other one is ‘Philosophical Hermeneutics’, which has the accepted start from the Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Hermeneutics onward. It is said that the Buddhist hermeneutical theory known as ‘Catupatisaraṇasutra’ could be compared with that of Schleiermacher’s. Hermeneutics in Buddhism is characterized as ‘Interaction-ism’, which is of ‘interpretation-explanation combined’ theory, and has been exemplified in the Nettipakarana text and in those of Thai Buddhist scholars, both monks and laymen, who trying to adopt the Buddhist hermeneutics to solve some controversial issues in Buddhism such as ‘Whether Nibbana be Self or Not-Self’. Further research result is found that the Hermeneutics could help support mutual understanding among religions better than the Aristotle’s logic, the witness of which is found in Buddhadadasa Bhikkhu’s hermeneutics as based on two kinds of language and that of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Hermeneutics, which has been concluded by David E. Klemm in a well-known phrase, ‘I understand You’.
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When we read the Buddhist texts, Tipitakas, we found that the Buddha got Enlightenment of the Four Noble Truths or sometime known as Twofold Noble Truths. Let’s speak about two truths at first. The first truth is ‘suffering’ and another one is ‘the way out of suffering or nibbana’. Only these two things the Buddha taught.
Let’s talk about ‘birth, aging, sickness, and death’ in the light of Fourfold Noble Truth. The Buddha says: “(1) The truth of life-as-suffering, which is consisted of birth (jati), aging or old age (jara), sickness (payadhi) and death (marana), so life is full of suffering, because of (2) Desire, which is the truth of the cause of suffering-life. (3) The Truth of Nibbana as the destruction of suffering-life of birth, aging, sickness, and death”, and (4) Eightfold Noble Path is the truth as the way (moderate way) leading to Nibbana, consisting of ‘right understanding, right thought (wisdom group)’, ‘right speech, right action, right livelihood (morality group)’, ‘right effort, right concentration and right mindfulness, (concentration group)’.
The Thai Buddhists are familiar with the term ‘Dipankara’. The present prince of Thailand has a son named ‘Dipankara’. This event can be traced back into the past of Buddhist history. In the Buddhist history, the prophecy could be understood very well in connection with the story of Buddha. The Buddhist scripture mentioned the story of Buddha named Dipankara.
The Dipankara Buddha is remembered specially and held in high esteem for the reason that according to legend it was while Dipankara was the Buddha that Gautama Buddha was an ascetic named Sumedha and had made his vow to become Buddha.
The Buddha mentioned 4 criteria of “good action” (1) it does not harm oneself (2) it does not harm others, (3) it is acceptable by wise-men, and (4) it brings happiness to oneself or others. He also stated 4 criteria of “evil action” (1) it harms oneself, (2) it harms others, (2) it is blamed by the wise men, and (4) it brings suffering to oneself and others. (A.I 184-188).
เสียศักดิ์สู้ประสงค์สิ่งรู้
เสียรู้เร่งดำรงความสัตย์ไว้นา
เสียสัตย์อย่าเสียสู้ ชีพม้วยมรณาฯ
Loose money but not dignity,
Loose dignity you can for knowledge,
Loose knowledge for the truth,
Loose your life but not the truth.
When we read the Buddhist texts, Tipitakas, we found that the Buddha got Enlightenment of the Four Noble Truths or sometime known as Twofold Noble Truths. Let’s speak about two truths at first. The first truth is ‘suffering’ and another one is ‘the way out of suffering or nibbana’. Only these two things the Buddha taught.
Let’s talk about ‘birth, aging, sickness, and death’ in the light of Fourfold Noble Truth. The Buddha says: “(1) The truth of life-as-suffering, which is consisted of birth (jati), aging or old age (jara), sickness (payadhi) and death (marana), so life is full of suffering, because of (2) Desire, which is the truth of the cause of suffering-life. (3) The Truth of Nibbana as the destruction of suffering-life of birth, aging, sickness, and death”, and (4) Eightfold Noble Path is the truth as the way (moderate way) leading to Nibbana, consisting of ‘right understanding, right thought (wisdom group)’, ‘right speech, right action, right livelihood (morality group)’, ‘right effort, right concentration and right mindfulness, (concentration group)’.
The Thai Buddhists are familiar with the term ‘Dipankara’. The present prince of Thailand has a son named ‘Dipankara’. This event can be traced back into the past of Buddhist history. In the Buddhist history, the prophecy could be understood very well in connection with the story of Buddha. The Buddhist scripture mentioned the story of Buddha named Dipankara.
The Dipankara Buddha is remembered specially and held in high esteem for the reason that according to legend it was while Dipankara was the Buddha that Gautama Buddha was an ascetic named Sumedha and had made his vow to become Buddha.
The Buddha mentioned 4 criteria of “good action” (1) it does not harm oneself (2) it does not harm others, (3) it is acceptable by wise-men, and (4) it brings happiness to oneself or others. He also stated 4 criteria of “evil action” (1) it harms oneself, (2) it harms others, (2) it is blamed by the wise men, and (4) it brings suffering to oneself and others. (A.I 184-188).
เสียศักดิ์สู้ประสงค์สิ่งรู้
เสียรู้เร่งดำรงความสัตย์ไว้นา
เสียสัตย์อย่าเสียสู้ ชีพม้วยมรณาฯ
Loose money but not dignity,
Loose dignity you can for knowledge,
Loose knowledge for the truth,
Loose your life but not the truth.