In this brief introduction to the Buddha's thought I hope to give it a context showing how it was influenced by earlier ideas, whether by assimilating th or by reacting against them. I further hope to show that its power and co ence make it understandable that it had a great impact on human history. B shall also try to expound it in terms which allow readers to see that that thoug contains ambiguities, or possibilities of divergent interpretation, which exp how the later thinkers discussed in this volume could all claim, without palpable absurdity, to be following in the Buddha's foo
目次
Historical Setting 315 An institution founded on trial and error 316 Rebirth and karma 316 Escape from rebirth by gnosis 318 Being as against becoming 319 Apophasis 320 Pragmatism or practicality? 321 A Popperian approach 322 Skill in Means 322 Retrieving the Buddha's meaning from the context 323 The Buddha's view of language as conventional 324 Turning former practices into mere metaphors 325 Fire as the central metaphor of the soteriology 325 Suffering as burning 326 The five khandha 326 Fire as a model of reality 327 Fire in Vedic thought 328 Ethicising consciousness 329 Cognition 331 Impermanence and change 333 Causation 334 Summary: karma 335
