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| The Thought of Sangharakshita: A Critical Assessment | ||
| 作者 | Ellis, Robert M. (著) |
|---|---|
| 卷期 | Series Four |
| 出版日期 | 2020.10.07 |
| 頁次 | 268 |
| 出版者 | Equinox |
| 出版者網址 | https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/ |
| 出版地 | Sheffield, UK [謝菲爾德, 英國] |
| 資料類型 | 書籍=Book |
| 使用語言 | 英文=English |
| 附註項 | Robert M Ellis has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and a Cambridge BA in Oriental Studies and Theology. Originally from a Christian background, he spent about 20 years practising Buddhism, including as a member of the Triratna Order. However, he now describes himself as a Middle Way practitioner without exclusive loyalty to any one religious tradition. Over the last 20 years he has developed Middle Way Philosophy, initially in his Ph.D. thesis. This is best described as a practical and integrative philosophical approach, incorporating many elements not only from Buddhism but also from psychology, neuroscience, and other aspects of Western thought. In 2013 he founded the Middle Way Society (www.middlewaysociety.org) to develop and apply Middle Way Philosophy beyond the limitations of the Buddhist tradition, both in theory and practice. Robert has earned a living for more than 20 years as a teacher and tutor of philosophy and related subjects. He has previously published both academic and introductory books about Middle Way Philosophy, and recently a parallel book on Christianity, ‘The Christian Middle Way’. |
| 摘要 | Sangharakshita (1925-2018) was a Buddhist writer and teacher, founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community (previously FWBO). Apart from his practical achievements, Sangharakshita was an original thinker on the adaptation of Buddhism to modern conditions, an autodidact whose intellectual creativity was stimulated by both cross-cultural experience and practical contingency. His thinking is little known or appreciated outside the movement he founded, but over-dominant within it. This means that there is a shortage of balanced critical discussion of his work that finds any middle way between hagiography and dismissal. Sangharakshita has also been an object of controversy in recent years, but his more controversial views and actions need to be seen in proportion to the whole of his thinking. This book surveys Sangharakshita’s most important and original ideas with an eye that combines appreciation and critical awareness in equal measure. It celebrates Sangharakshita’s pioneering syntheses of Buddhist and Western ideas, but warns against the inconsistencies and dogmas that are also found in Sangharakshita’s work – dogmas whose negative practical effects can also be traced. |
| 目次 | Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1-17 This section gives the book context in the author’s experience, outlines Sangharakshita’s life, and explains the overall critical approach. Sangharakshita’s achievements were substantial: the founding of a successful Buddhist movement and the first major moves in adapting Buddhism to Western conditions. He was a highly creative figure and in some ways open to critical discussion, but weaker on adapting his ideas in response to feedback. The approach taken to critical assessment in the book is entirely practical – which in many ways means judging Sangharakshita’s thinking in terms of its own best features. Chapter 2 Making Buddhism Universal 18-71 This section focuses on the positive ways that Sangharakshita tried to relate Buddhism to key Western concepts: those of creativity, provisionality, integration, and individuality. These all connect aspects of Buddhism to Western practices in the arts, science, psychology and democracy. They can be connected together particularly through the concept of the Middle Way. Sangharakshita’s treatment of these themes helped Westerners to engage with Buddhism, but they also contain various limitations, inconsistencies and dogmatic assumptions. Chapter 3 Practice 72-122 One of the core strengths of the movement that Sangharakshita founded is its emphasis on practice, and its emphasis on the interconnections between elements of the Eightfold Path. Apart from meditation, Sangharakshita emphasised ethics, friendship, the development of social institutions, and the arts. He also insisted on the value of Buddhist ritual. All of these areas of practice have been of substantial practical help to Western Buddhists, but there are also various unnecessary dogmatic assumptions in his framing of them. Controversy has been particularly created by his ideas on ‘vertical friendship’ as a re-presentation of the guru-disciple relationship, and his limited emphasis on accountability in social institutions. Chapter 4 Interpreting Buddhist Tradition 123-166 Although Sangharakshita was always ready to interpret Buddhist teachings in ways that would he helpful to his audience, he also had a core commitment to it from an early age. This seems to have created a strong confirmation bias in which he was unwilling to entirely let go of Buddhist teachings regardless of the practical conflict they created. His doctrinal interpretations were also influenced by idealism and Platonism from Western philosophy. His interpretations of enlightenment, conditionality, karma and rebirth, the Buddha, the unity of Buddhism, faith and going for refuge are all examined here in an attempt to separate helpful from unhelpful assumptions. Chapter 5 Controversies 167-221 The aspects of Sangharakshita’s ideas that have caused most controversy are those that relate to his personal authority in the Order he founded, the use of his image, and his attitudes to feminism, single sex practice, families and sexual activity. In all of these areas this section tries to focus on Sangharakshita’s underlying assumptions, and assess how far they were responsible for unhelpful outcomes. The sexual abuse allegations are put in the context of his thought rather than judged on an individual basis. In many of these areas his odd mixture of traditionalism, Platonism, and bias towards promiscuity seem to have created serious conflict, although there are also a few genuine practical achievements. Chapter 6 Conclusion 222-241 This section briefly reviews the argument of the whole book in practical assessment of Sangharakshita’s thought, and anticipates a range of likely objections. The overall legacy of Sangharakshita is profoundly mixed, though also one of substantial achievement. It is one that is badly in need of continual but balanced critical analysis. End Matter Bibliography 242-246 Sangharakshita (1925-2018) was a Buddhist |
| ISBN | 9781781799291 (pbk); 9781781799307 (eb); 9781781799284 (hc) |
| 相關書評 | |
| 點閱次數 | 213 |
| 建檔日期 | 2022.12.23 |
| 更新日期 | 2022.12.23 |
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