Lopez Story Of Buddhism

Donald S. Lopex, Jr. Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chicago, USA The University of Chicago Press 2008 ; fester Einband / hard cover; Schutzumschlag / dust cover; 1. Ed. ISBN: 9780226493121
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Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present day, both Buddhists and admirers of Buddhism have proclaimed the compatibility of Buddhism and science. Their assertions have ranged from modest claims about the efficacy of meditation for mental health to grander declarations that the Buddha himself anticipated the theories of relativity, quantum physics and the big bang more than two millennia ago. In Buddhism and Science, Donald S. Lopez Jr. is less interested in evaluating the accuracy of such claims than in exploring how and why these two seemingly disparate modes of understanding the inner and outer universe have been so persistently linked. Lopez opens with an account of the rise and fall of Mount Meru, the great peak that stands at the center of the flat earth of Buddhist cosmography-and which was interpreted anew once it proved incompatible with modern geography. From there, he analyzes the way in which Buddhist concepts of spiritual nobility were enlisted to support the notorious science of race in the nineteenth century. Bringing the story to the present, Lopez explores the Dalai Lama's interest in scientific discoveries, as well as the implications of research on meditation for neuroscience. Lopez argues that by presenting an ancient Asian tradition as compatible with-and even anticipating-scientific discoveries, European enthusiasts and Asian elites have sidestepped the debates on the relevance of religion in the modern world that began in the nineteenth century and still flare today. As new discoveries continue to reshape our understanding of mind and matter, Buddhism and Science will be indispensable reading for those fascinated by religion, science, and their often vexed relation. Printed Pages: 278. First Edition New Hardcover 15 x 23 Cm; First Edition

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BIDERMAN, S. & SCHARFSTEIN, B. (eds.): Myths and Fictions, ISBN: 9004098380
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Leiden: E.J. Brill,1993. Orig. cloth binding. Dustjacket, vii,397 pp. Index. Myths and Fictions - the third in a series of books on comparative philosophy and religion - is a collection of original essays, none previously published, on the theory and the actuality of myths and fictions in the different cultures of the world. Through all the essays there runs the question of the relation of literal truth to truth conceived in other ways or dimensions. Taken as a whole, the book makes a serious attempt to get beyond the confines of any single culture and enter into the mythical imagination of the ancient Hindus, Chinese, Hebrews and Christians, and by this act of imagination to escape (in Italo Calvino's words) "the limited perspective of the individual ego, not only to enter into selves like our own but to give speech to that which has no language..." CONTENTS: I. Theoretical Considerations Shlomo Biderman & Ben-Ami Scharfstein, "Is it All Our Fancy?" Stanley Rosen, 'The Whole Story.' Eliot Deutsch, 'Truth and Mythology.' Lenn E. Goodman, 'Mythic Discourse.' Ben-Ami Scharfstein, 'How to Justify the Reductive Explanation of Myths.' Lawrence J. Hatab, 'Evolution and Creation: A Heideggerian Response.' Charles Crittenden, 'Myths, Stories and Existence: Spirituality Without Belief.' Peter J. McCormick, 'Fictions of Modernity: On the Views of Charles Taylor and Stephen Toulmin.' II: Historical dimensions Laurie L. Patton, 'Beyond the Myth of Origins: Narrative Philosophizing in Vedic Commentary.' Francisca Cho Bantly, 'Myth and Cosmology in the Book of Poetry.' Joseph Agassi, 'Halakhah and Aggadah.' John Addison Dally, 'Once More, with Feeling: Sex, Death and New Birth in the Gospel of John.' Donald S. Lopez, Jr., 'The Institution of Fiction in Mahayana Buddhism.' ISBN 9004098380

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