The inspection of any of the ancient historical records discussed by Narayana Rao, Shulman and Subrahmanyam in Textures of Time (2001), reveals one extremely striking feature: most of these narratives are particularly comical…
Author: Samuel Buchoul
The idea of applying the composite anthropologico-historical theory of French philosopher René Girard (born 1923) to Indian society and its mythology is not a new project. The complex Indian civilization possesses undoubtedly certain historical features liable to a fruitful analysis through his theory…
In 1819, British poet John Keats (1795-1821) offered a new life to an old genre, the ode, with six pieces that would later become classics, and contribute to his fame: “Ode on Indolence,” “Ode on Melancholy,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode to Psyche,” “To Autumn” and finally, “Ode of Grecian Urn.”…
Reason and the Senses :
A Dialogue Between Buddhism and Christianity
— Introduction
According to the last censuses, Christianity is still the world’s largest population, counting more than two billion members and representing about one third of the global population. Christianity is still in a “good shape”, due to reinforced religious vigour in areas like Africa or South America…
Reason and the Senses :
A Dialogue Between Buddhism and Christianity
— Part 2
In the realm of metaphysics, compromises are difficult : Buddhism and Christianity are hardly reconcilable. The former generally rejected all notions of God or self, before turning, with Mahāyāna Buddhism, to a full-fledged doctrine of emptiness…
Reason and the Senses :
A Dialogue Between Buddhism and Christianity
— Part 3
It is not as a sensational or a sensible but as a sensuous matter that sexuality is an important question of philosophy. A tradition’s discourse on sexuality can reveal two almost radically opposite loci…
Reason and the Senses :
A Dialogue Between Buddhism and Christianity
— Part 4
Mystics do not inhabit the same location in Buddhism and in Christianity. In the former, they constitute the majority of the spiritual actors, since enlightenment is a process relying mostly on self-realisation….