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Podcast: Jan WesterhoffNāgārjuna's Madhyamaka:Some Philosophical Problems

The ancient Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna maintained that everything is empty of substance, that emptiness is itself empty, and that the very assertion of "emptiness" is empty too. According to the philosopher Jan Westerhoff, this position has certain philosophical problems.

In his lecture to the Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy ("Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka: Some Philosophical Problems"), Westerhoff argues for an interesting parallel between Madhyamaka and contemporary discussions of antirealism. It is his thesis that both schools of thought share a way of resolving their potential problems, if they adopt a radical view of language.

Jan Westerhoff is currently a research fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center here in New York City. He's also a lecturer in the philosophy department at the University of Durham (UK). He completed both his undergraduate and graduate work in philosophy at Cambridge University

Listen to audio podcast >>

See slides >>

News:Dalai Lama is Awarded Congressional Gold Medal

"U.S. Honor for Dalai Lama Angers China"
National Public Radio
"China Warns U.S. on Dalai Lama Trip"
The NY Times

Having just delivered three days of Buddhist teachings in New York City, the Dalai Lama-Tenzin Gyatso's next stop will be Washington D.C., where he will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor (the highest civilian honor in the US).

NPR's Morning Edition has reported that the Chinese government is protesting the award. In a similar report in today's New York Times, China has threatened that the award will have “an extremely serious impact” on relations between the U.S. and China. Zhang Qingli, Tibet’s Communist Party leader, apparently told reporters:

“We are furious. . . If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world.”

As NPR explained, this strong reaction is not surprising given the fact that this award is being given amidst an environment of political and social uncertainty in China.

According to NPR, the Communist Party Congress in Beijing is experiencing a bit of a "reshuffle." The country is also dealing with the social repercussions of a recent "flare-up of unrest" in Eastern Tibet. The incident occurred in August at the Litang Horse Festival (Western Sichuan province)--an annual event in which Tibetan "Khampa" horsemen engage in equestrian sport, and picnic with their families.

At this year's festival, a Tibetan nomad named Runggye Adak apparently scaled the stage and cried for the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. He was subsequently arrested and taken into custody. Such unrest, NPR reported, "comes as a shock to Beijing." But not to experts like Columbia's own, Professor Robbie Barnett. In a telephone interview with NPR, Barnett said:

"I think it is a big question for China that there seems to be a continuing inability to gauge how Tibetans think, and how to win them over," Barnett said. "[They need] to get over the idea that you can buy people's loyalty by improving the economy and improving cities and so on. It just isn't working out for them."

Sadly, this has all led to an increase in ethnic tensions between Tibetans and the Han Chinese.

While in Washington, the Dalai Lama will also be meeting with President Bush privately. Use the links below to read more, as well as listen to the Morning Edition episode in its entirety.

UPDATE

Oct 17
"Dalai Lama Is Honored on Capitol Hill" (NYT video) >>

Oct 18
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS video) >>

Notes:Peter Harvey's "Avoiding Unintended Harm to the Environment and the Buddhist Ethic of Intention"

By Wendi Adamek (Green Tara reporter-at-large)

Peter Harvey (University of Sunderland, Great Britain), an internationally respected scholar of early Buddhism, has recently published an article in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics that examines traditional Buddhist ethics in the context of contemporary social and environmental concerns.

Unlike writers who evoke Buddhism as an eco-friendly creed in a superficial manner, Harvey brings his nuanced readings of early Buddhist scriptures to bear on issues that early Buddhists never had to face. In the introduction to his essay, “Avoiding Unintended Harm to the Environment and the Buddhist Ethic of Intention,” he offers a key challenge to Buddhist scholars and environmentalists alike:

“Given our present knowledge, is environmental concern to be seen as morally obligatory for a Buddhist or only a voluntary positive action? Writers sometimes simply assume that Buddhist ethics are supportive of the full range of environmental concerns, but this needs to be critically argued.”

Read on to explore this fascinating and illuminating essay on Buddhist ethics and a full range of environmental concerns, from global warming to global whaling.

Click here to read article in full >>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wendi Adamek is chair of the Buddhist Studies Seminar and this blog's Green Tara Reporter-at-large. Wendi joined the Barnard Religion Department as Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions in the fall of 2001. She completed her doctorate at Stanford University in 1998, and specializes in medieval Chinese Buddhism. She is the author of The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan Text and its Contexts (Columbia University Press, 2007).
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Image credit: Francesca Galeazzi