Univerzita Pardubice Fakulta filozofická

Univerzita Pardubice

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English

Publikace detail

New Insights into the debates between the Buddha and Brahmins

Autoři: Skopal Vilém

Rok: 2019

Druh publikace: ostatní - přednáška nebo poster

Strana od-do: nestránkováno

Tituly:

Jazyk	Název	Abstrakt	Klíčová slova
eng	New Insights into the debates between the Buddha and Brahmins	It is a prevalent opinion among scholars that Buddhism in its beginning opposed Brahmanism. There are several arguments supporting this understanding, namely Buddhist refusal of ritualism and gods of Brahmanism, denial of the idea of self, and, finally, establishing own Buddhist teachings such as transitoriness of all phenomena and emphasis on idea of retribution of actions. Despite the variety of these argument, they share one common feature: all of them suppose that the debates between Buddhism and Brahmanism were held on a theoretical level, debating doctrinal foundations and differences between the two. I will contest this understanding on the ground of Comparative science of cultures research programme. Using its theory on cultural differences I will claim that the prevailing opinion is founded on Western cultural understanding of the world and it says, therefore, more about the West than about the situation of ancient India. Moreover, I will outline another understanding using the same theory. In the next part I will test the theory by analysing Pali discourses where the Buddha debates with brahmins. Firstly, I will ask whether I can find a justification of the prevailing understanding, i.e. the Buddha’s refusal of brahmins, or whether I will be able to outline a new insight. Besides, I will focus on discourses concerning particular practices such as sacrifice and “way to brahma”. After this analysis I will be able to formulate the main claim of my paper: the Buddha did not fight brahmins on the theoretical level, but he discussed with them particular practices prevalent in his time. Hence, these debates could be understood as a part of discussions held by the thinkers of ancient India, instead of as a fight between two religions.