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The Five Niyāmas as Laws of Nature: an Assessment of Modern Western Interpretations of Theravāda Buddhist Doctrine |
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| Author |
Jones, Dhivan Thomas
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| Source |
Journal of Buddhist Ethics
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| Volume | v.19 |
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| Date | 2012 |
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| Pages | 545 - 582 |
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| Publisher | Department of History & Religious Studies Program , The Pennsylvania State University |
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| Publisher Url |
https://history.la.psu.edu/
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| Location | University Park, PA, US |
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| Content type | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Note | The Open University, UK. |
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| Abstract | Abstract
The doctrine of five niyāmas, or “orders of nature,” was introduced to Westerners by Mrs. Rhys Davids in her Buddhism of 1912. She writes that the list derives from Buddhaghosa’s commentaries, and that it synthesizes information from the piṭakas regarding cosmic order. Several Buddhist writers have taken up her exposition to present the Buddha’s teaching, including that of karma, as compatible with modern science. However, a close reading of the sources for the five niyāmas shows that they do not mean what Mrs. Rhys Davids says they mean. In their historical context they merely constitute a list of five ways in which things necessarily happen. Nevertheless, the value of her work is that she succeeded in presenting the Buddhist doctrine of dependent arising (paṭicca-samuppāda) as equivalent to Western scientific explanations of events. In conclusion, Western Buddhism, in need of a worked-out presentation of paṭicca-samuppāda, embraced her interpretation of the five niyāmas despite its inaccuracies.
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| Table of contents | The Doctrine of the Five Niyāmas 546
Niyāma in the Pāli Commentaries 555
The Five Niyāmas and Western Buddhism 567
Afterword: the Five Niyāmas in Later Abhidhamma Tradition 574
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| ISSN | 10769005 (E) |
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| Hits | 607 |
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| Created date | 2013.03.13 |
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| Modified date | 2017.07.13 |
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