This paper examines the Yiey Mao belief among the Khmer in Southern Vietnam as a vivid example of how an indigenous religion adapts and endures amid modernization and globalization. Drawing on the anthropology of religion (Geertz, Turner, Tambiah, Eliade), the study interprets Yiey Mao as a dynamic symbolic system that negotiates between tradition and modernity, the sacred and the secular,...
Abstract This paper begins with humanity's universal quest for ultimate truth and proposes four core criteria for its identification: logical consistency, practical verifiability, explanatory transcendence, and existential eternity. Using these criteria, it systematically examines the contributions and inherent limitations of theistic belief, modern science, and philosophical speculation in...
This article examines the cognitive theory expressed in early Buddhist Pāli sources by situating their analyses of perception, language, and meditative experience within a psychosemiotic framework. It argues that Buddhist thinkers conceived cognition as a stratified process emerging from the dynamic interaction between sensory and effectual domains, culminating in the semiotic determinations of...
This paper aims to provide an in-depth and detailed overview of the relationship between language and cognition in Pāli Buddhist texts. These reflections will touch on several fundamental themes, such as the role of signs in structuring cognitive processes and semiosis as a force linked to the proliferation of concepts and percepts, whose organization underlies the constitution of a shared and...
Daoist meditation has been less widely adopted than Buddhist meditation as a daily method for psychological regulation, partly due to the complexity of its underlying philosophical system. This study aims to explore how key Daoist meditation practices can be psychologized and adapted into a usable method for modern psychological training. A comparative analysis was conducted on classical Daoist...
Eduard von Hartmann was one of the most influential public philosophers of his era, known primarily through his Philosophy of the Unconscious. A conservative nationalist in politics, he positioned himself as a cultural and religious reformer and modernist advocate of a “religion of the future” of self-redemption (autosoterism), one that reconciled pessimism and a panpneumatic impersonal...
This chapter introduces the convergence of Sufi mysticism and Carl Gustav Jung’s analytical psychology, rooted in the author’s personal journey of spiritual and psychological exploration. While researching the Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Khan and his teachings, the author encountered interpersonal conflicts within the Sufi community, which prompted an investigation into Jung’s concept of the...
Introduction. This article analyzes the anthropological aspects of the teachings of the G. I. Gurdjieff and the Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky. Specifically, it examines the fundamental theses of both thinkers' about of human in comparison with similar concepts in Buddhism. Content. Analyzes the meaning of the central thesis in the anthropology of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky:...
This paper explores the transformative potential of contemplative environmental education in addressing the growing disconnection between humans and the natural world, particularly within K-12 education systems shaped by anthropocentric and capitalist paradigms. Modern schooling often frames nature as an object of study, rather than a sacred, living presence, contributing to ecological...
This article explores the intercultural philosophy of the Japanese monk Eihei Dōgen (1200–1253), who founded the Zen school during the Kamakura period (1192–1333). While developing Chan/Zen Buddhism in China, he wrote in colloquial Japanese, fully utilizing the resources of both Chinese and Japanese. As a philosopher, he distinguished himself with contributions to culture, religion, philosophy,...
Western psychology and psychiatry through the dissemination of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and subsequently informed a range of therapeutic models, including dialectical behavior therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Alongside this “first” mindfulness movement, growing societal concerns about conflict, competition, and violence stimulated scientific and clinical...
This article examines Tee Yod (Death Whisperer, 2023), a Thai horror film directed by Taweewat Watanawat, through the lens of Buddhist psychology of trauma. Departing from the conventions of the Nang Phi genre, Tee Yod reinterprets the ghost as a metaphor for intergenerational suffering and psychological distress within a Buddhist cosmological and moral framework. Drawing on Theravāda Buddhist...
The Noble Eightfold Path (Aṣṭāṅgika Mārga), a central Buddhist teaching, offers a structured path to enlightenment and inner peace. It is one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism, providing a systematic method of attaining wisdom, moral behavior, and mental self-control. It is a pragmatic manual for those who desire inner peace, self-transformation, and freedom from suffering. This study...
Buddhism holds that the self is a fabrication rather than an essential existence, and this idea of the self is closely connected to the concept of “no-self”. If I am not who I am, then who has been experiencing this moment, and suddenly everything becomes even more perplexing? In Buddhist teaching, the main tenet of mindfulness is that it is an essential precursor for approaching illumination,...
As artificial intelligence (AI) improves, current alignment strategies may falter in the face of unpredictable self-improvement and the sheer complexity of AI. Rather than trying to control behavior, we show how four principles from contemplative traditions can help intrinsically align (super) intelligence. First, mindfulness enables self-monitoring and recalibration of emergent subgoals....
Mindfulness-based interventions are gaining recognition as effective therapeutic tools for psychological distress in oncology. However, the widespread adoption of mindfulness in Western clinical contexts has raised ethical and philosophical concerns, particularly regarding the Westernisation and cultural appropriation of Buddhist wisdom. This paper examines the ethical implications of employing...
This study examines the concept of Nirvana in Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism through a qualitative comparative and interpretive approach. Using selected canonical and commentarial texts, including the Majjhima Nikaya, the Heart Sutra, and the Bardo Thodol, the paper analyzes how each tradition understands liberation, suffering, and ultimate reality. The findings indicate that...
While early Western scholarship often portrayed Buddhism as a rational philosophy emphasizing individual meditation and ethical discipline, contemporary research increasingly recognizes vocal practices including sutta recitation, paritta chanting, mantra repetition, and devotional invocation as crucial vehicles for transmitting doctrine, cultivating virtues, regulating mental states, and...
Western Buddhist scholarship and scientific psychology both emerged during the late Victorian era. Buddhism and scientific psychology have exerted mutual influences on each other since psychology’s inception. The Background and Context section of this entry explores how and why psychologists became interested in Buddhism, Buddhism’s history and core tenets, and Buddhism’s influence on...