International Conference on South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion (SSEASR)
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Item The Buddha, Martha Nussbaum and Sympathetic Imagination(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Sugunaseela Thero, YakkaduweThe ‘Sympathetic Imagination’ is introduced to the cultural literature in 90th decade by Martha Nussbaum, an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. To elucidating it further, according to Nussbaum, Sympathetic Imagination is “the possibility of an individual to lend ears for others, especially those who are of different genders, races, classes, religions and national origins”. Before 2500 years ago, the Buddha, the founder of Buddhist Philosophy, has taught and proclaimed this theory through many concepts. In Buddhism ‘Sympathetic Imagination’ is parallel to the concept of ‘Samānattatā’ (Impartiality, feeling towards others as towards oneself). For an instance, “attanaμ upamaμ katvā”, ‘putting oneself in another’s place’ which can be clarified as everybody should think about others. Among the special characteristics of the Buddha, ‘the Sympathetic Imagination’ is highlighted because he could convey properly his teaching to the people who are related to multi-cultures and religions, without any quarrel. When paying attention to the current social system not only in Sri Lanka but also in the world, it is clear that communities related to manifold cultures, races, classes, religions etc., are trying to illustrate that only their own view is the truth but others are false. Here, my chief endeavour is to discuss how far the ‘Sympathetic Imagination’ is discussed by Nussbaum and the Buddha and the issue I’m going to clarify is how far we are aware of Sympathetic Imagination and use it for the alleviation of social disorders and crimes. The conclusion I illustrate is ‘the doctrinal factors related to the Sympathetic Imagination in Buddhism are more helpful to make an interconnected peaceful world system. To prove this fact I use several texts of Martha Nussbaum and Buddhist canonical texts.Item Traditional Theravāda Theory on the Authenticity, Substantiality and Historicity of the Abhidhamma(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Sugunaseela Thero, YakkaduweThe traditional Thēravāda idea of the authority of Abhidhamma is none other than, ‘the Doctrine of Abhidhamma taught by the Buddha. Although it is so, there exist doubts about the authenticity of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka as genuine Buddha word. For instance, the early sect of the Sautrāntikās declared that, as their name indicates, ‘only Sutta and Vinaya as canonical but not the Abhidhamma’. As a whole, some scholars (including Thēravāda commentators) proclaim that the Abhidhamma was preached by the Buddha, some other people say it was not preached by the Buddha. Some scholars point out that the Abhidhamma was a system of knowledge developed and constructed by the disciples based on the teachings of the Buddha. By scrutinizing various facts, this paper proposes that that ‘the mere intention and willingness of Thēravādīns, regarding the historicity, authenticity and substantiality of Abhidhamma is, undoubtedly, ‘the Doctrine of Abhidhamma is realized and taught by the Buddha.