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Colonel Olcott and his Buddhist Catechism The following essays are for free distribution only. You may print copies of these works for your personal use, provided you charge no fees for their distribution or use. Otherwise, all rights reserved. A copy of the free Adobe Reader may be required to read the pdf files available below. Note: Most of the Buddhist terms used in these essays are in their Pali form, e.g. metta, except where other forms are better known, e.g. nirvana, not nibbana, Dharma, not Dhamma.
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Buddhism and the Greeks by P. D. Ryan If a new way of life is to make itself at home in the West, it seems to me that it must pass through the gateway of ancient Greece and establish some sort of continuity with the Greek tradition and heritage, but for which the West and indeed the world today would be inconceivably different and immeasurably poorer. Buddhism has an open nature and accepts influences from all quarters. In the centuries after its inception it interacted with the Hellenism that Alexander the Great and his successors had introduced into India. Now, as the Wheel of Dharma turns in the West, it is well for western Buddhists to remember the Greek origins of their culture. If Buddhism is to be anything other than a superficial and transient phenomenon in our history we must re-establish contact with the deeper life of Europe, in which what may now truly be called the world-wide West originates. The ancient Greek and early Buddhist views of human nature and the good life are interesting to explore together, not least for the questions they raise relating to contemporary problems and concerns. In this essay I attempt such an exploration, using various celebrated sites in Greece as focuses for my thinking. Each site is considered in relation to one of the skandhas, the five constituents which make up the traditional Buddhist model of man..
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Page 1.
Preamble to an Empty Tomb 2.
Olympia: Body 3.
Dodona: Feelings 4.
Athens: Intellect 5.
Marathon: Activities
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Buddhism and the Erotic by P. D. Ryan Buddhism is sometimes seen as having two contrary attitudes to sexuality: one of disapproval on the part of the Theravada, and one of anomalous indulgence on the part of the Tantra. Here an attempt is made to show that this is an erroneous view. A major Pali text is presented as supremely positive in regard to sex, and the tantric tradition is claimed as being much more than an esoteric backwater: rather, as a development which has a universal significance for the sexual-spiritual concerns of our time.
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Buddhism and Freedom by P. D. Ryan 'Freedom' – 'vimutti' – is among the most used synonyms for 'nirvana' in the Buddhist scriptures. Elsewhere I have called freedom 'the reflex of nirvana in the world.' The way to nirvana is the Noble Eightfold Path, which here is examined in its three divisions, theoretical, social and spiritual. Bounded by the precepts of the Pañcasila, each division presents challenges and problems, and some of the major ones are addressed in this essay. The subject of freedom has been much discussed in the western intellectual tradition, but rarely with even a fleeting glance at Buddhism, of which freedom is the inspiration and the goal. Here an attempt is made to indicate the nature of the contribution which Buddhism might make towards enlarging the scope of the discourse.
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Borges and Buddhism by P. D. Ryan Towards the end of his long life the celebrated Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote a book about Buddhism, which he had studied for many years. That book is at the centre of this essay, which is mainly an appreciation of a remarkable artist who was also a thinker and a seeker after meaning; but it also raises some questions as to how he interprets certain aspects of the Dharma.
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Colonel Olcott and his Buddhist Catechism by P. D. Ryan This essay is a centennial tribute to a remarkable man and a small book of no little importance in the history of Buddhism.
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