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The article analyzes the book "Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley" by T. S. Eliot. Topics discussed include combination of two distinct religious concepts, transmigration and faith; thought and practice, intellect and feeling, can cultivate the self and move the self to higher levels of understanding; and invocation of transmigration and degrees of reality demonstrates influence of Indian texts on the concept of upaya.

The purpose of this paper is to construct and critique the Dalai Lama's conception and practices related to dialogue. I shall attempt to construct his 'theory' by simultaneously looking at both his practice and his writings. I will then offer a critique of his views. I hope to be able to show that His Holiness offers a profound understanding of dialogue-which, if put into practice, offers a number of fruitful consequences. The central thesis of this paper is that one of the best ways to understand and make sense of the Dalai Lama's approach to dialogue is to see his beliefs and practices as particular instantiations of broader Buddhist teachings. In other words, one way of thinking about the Dalai Lama's approach to dialogue is to see his practices as instances of some basic Buddhist beliefs. Without going into an exhaustive account of these various beliefs, I want to suggest that four of them, in particular, are useful for understanding His Holiness's approach to dialogue. The four are: meditative practice, interdependent arising, compassion, and expedient or skillful means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an interpretation of Nāgārjuna's doctrine of the two truths that considers saṃvṛti and paramārtha-satya two visions of reality on which the Buddhas, for soteriological and pedagogical reasons, build teachings of two types: respectively in agreement with (for example, the teaching of the Four Noble Truths) or in contrast to (for example, the teaching of emptiness) the category of svabhāva. The early sections of the article show to what extent the various current interpretations of the Nāgārjunian doctrine of the dve satye-despite their sometimes even macroscopic differences-have a common tendency to consider the notion of śūnyatā as a teaching not based on, but equivalent to supreme truth. This equivalence-philologically questionable-leads to interpretative paths that prove inevitably aporetic: indeed, according to whether the interpretation of śūnyatā is 'metaphysical' or 'anti-metaphysical', it gives rise to readings of Nāgārjuna's thought incompatible, respectively, with anti-metaphysical and realistic types of verses traceable in the works of the author of the Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā (MMK). On the contrary, by giving more emphasis to the expression samupāśritya ('based on'), which recurs in MMK.24.8, and therefore, by epistemologically separating the notion of śūnyatā from the notion of paramārtha-satya (and of some of its conceptual equivalents such as nirvāṇa, tattva and dharmatā), we may obtain an interpretation-at once realistic and anti-metaphysical-of the theory of the two truths compatible with the vast majority (or even totality) of Nāgārjuna's verses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors respond to the criticisms made by author Brook Ziporyn against the context of the article "The Way of the Dialetheist: Contradictions in Buddhism." The authors address the question raised by Ziporyn about whether the contradictory statements in Mahayana literature are meant to be true statements or are meant as therapeutic upaya, based on the Tiantai theory point of view. They comment on Ziporyn's argument about ultimate truth, which they believe is identical to conventional truth.

The author comments on the context of the article "The Way of the Dialetheist: Contradictions in Buddhism," by Yasuo Deguchi, Jay L. Garfield and Graham Priest. The author expresses his views on suggestions involving paradoxical propositions in Mahayana Buddhist literature. The author also addresses some issues involving a new canon of truth or a revised conception of the definition of truth. He expresses his insights on the importance of understanding the roles of upaya in Buddhism.

This essay schematizes a range of possible Buddhist approaches to the issue of religious diversity in order to lay the groundwork for a constructive philosophy that will optimize an "abundance" model rather than a "scarcity" model for assessing the salvific efficacy of non-Buddhist beliefs and practices. By advocating the application of the Buddhist hermeneutical strategies of upacāra, neyārtha/nītārtha, and upāya to the interpretation of non-Buddhist texts, the analysis of religious traditions as dependently arising and historically variable rather than fixed, and modalization of the claim that there are diverse religious ends, the author argues for a nonhegemonic, open inclusivism in which it is possible to hope that non-Buddhist paths lead to salvation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relevance of the Buddhist term upāya, which refers to a strategic use of spiritual tradition, for Christian ecumenism. Topics include the notion that various Protestant denominations could contribute diverse aspects for a broader church unity, the notion that Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic churches are in communion with the one church, and the views of theologian Carl E. Braaten regarding church unity. It is said that the approach advocated recognizes the complexity of historical Christian traditions.

This article concerns itself with the Buddhist doctrine of upāya (“skilful means”). Rather than provide a historical analysis of the concept, this paper first of all outlines some of the presuppositions that affect both its working in a traditional Buddhist context and its interpretation in modern academic enquiry. It is argued that these contexts differ significantly and that they lead to quite different understandings of the role and function of the concept itself. Then, through reference to the Tibetan dGe lugs pa tradition and the background of Tibetan doxography, it is suggested that there are certain dangers in over-emphasizing the concept of upāya in isolation. Most notably, if the doctrine of upāya is simplistically posited as some sort of aphilosophical praxis against rational enquiry, then there is a danger of not taking the tradition's own scholastic endeavours seriously enough and downplaying the status of rational enquiry in the tradition itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a revised version of the author's contribution to the 2006 meeting of the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values in Driebergen, the Netherlands and is concerned with the need for continuing discussion about the identity of religious education. The article begins by arguing that, despite current criticisms, Smart's original intentions for phenomenological religious education were far from inappropriate for a critical religious education. It then attempts to introduce some fresh ideas about how we might understand the commonly used terms of learning about and from religion. It suggests that in learning about religion it is important to engage students with the soteriological dimensions of religious traditions. The article then goes on to offer a revised version of learning from religion based on the Mahayana Buddhist concept of upaya or 'skilful means'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to the reductionist and objectifying dualisms of scientific mechanism and authoritarian Christianity, Blake's work evokes a view of being in which "everything that lives is holy". In The Book of Thel (1799) this is exemplified in the representation of an ecologically interdependent Garden of speaking subjects. In this environment, the insubstantiality and impermanence of all subjectivity (which for Thel is a source of distress) is shown to be the necessary condition for love and reciprocity. This article is an appreciative reading of Thel in relation to the late modern predicament of eco-social crisis, and in conversation with (simultaneously deconstructive and affirmative) views of subjectivity and liberation in Mahayana Buddhism. My purpose is to represent it as what might be called a "teaching text" for contemporary readers with regard to both the dualisms of self versus nature which habitually carve up the nondual world, and the dualistic oppositions of absolutism versus relativism and essentialism versus nihilism. In the imaginative space of the Garden, the jewelled network of what in Buddhism are called emptiness (sunyata) and dependent arising (pratitya-samutpada) is recognised as an interdependent network of care; for the speaking plants and animals, no-self means selflessness; the radical insight into impermanence and interdependence is shown to be inseparable from love; wisdom and compassion are inextricable. Blake's metaphors for this are simple and instructive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the connection between the narrative strategies of the storytellers and the religious and moral messages contained within upaya-tales. Description of upaya tales; Upaya in Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism; Misdirection in upaya tales.

This paper argues that the belief in and reverence for superhuman beings cannot be understood as the chief distinguishing characteristic of religious phenomena. The consideration of Buddhism has always been central to the discussion of what religion is, and this paper focuses on the limitations of the human-superhuman dichotomy as it might be used to apply to Buddhist traditions. The argument makes three points: a) There are important sects of Buddhism that do not rely on reverence for superhuman beings, and the concept "superhuman" is difficult (if not impossible) to use in cross-cultural studies because of cultural variations in what it means to be human; b) the insistence that "philosophies" should be systematically distinguished from "religions" is arbitrary and culturally biased; and c) Buddhist doctrines that assert that reality is ultimately "nondual" provide the conceptual context for understanding superhuman beings in Mahayana, and this conceptuality is not consonant with superhuman definitions of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]