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Changability of human nature in light of a value
Jelínek, Jakub ; Barabas, Marína (advisor) ; Holba, Jiří (referee)
This work presents the question whether our nature is changeable and deserves changing in the ethical sense, on the contrast of Kant's moral philosophy with Buddhist thinking. Kant's approach associates morality with pressure on desires (mainly speaking of inclinations - habitual sensuous desires) because it understands sensuality - where it places them - as given. Splitting a human being into reason (standing aside from causality) and sensuality is the cause why Kant's efforts to incorporate moral progress (towards "joyful fulfilling of one's duty") into his system fail, unless it is to undergo a radical reconstruction. However, the experience of craving shows its non-mechanical basis, the basis in understanding its object as of a value for us. The Buddhist account of non-self (similarly to Heidegger's thought that we at first understand ourselves wrongly as an entity that only occurs) problematises this understanding. The self-demarcation, which establishes craving means understanding oneself as an object, with which something can happen and which can have some attributes. But our experience of freedom shows, that our power to act is not a possibility of that sort. If we are able to recognize self-demarcation (selfishness) as a fallacy, it means that our nature is changeable. And because such...
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Western Buddhism. The Czech Republic
Honzík, Jan ; Holba, Jiří (advisor) ; Vojtíšek, Zdeněk (referee) ; Bělka, Luboš (referee)
UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE Fakulta humanitních studií Katedra Obecné antropologie Mgr. Jan Honzík BUDDHISMUS NA ZÁPADĚ ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA Disertační práce Školitel práce: PhDr. Jiří Holba, Ph.D. Praha 2014 Abstract This paper discusses Buddhism in the Czech Republic. It deals with Buddhism as a complex phenomenon consisiting of philosophical, religious, socio-cultural, psychological and ethical planes. These categories are related to the basic structures of human existence and therefore are subject to a science of humanity - anthropology. In this sense, the paper is presented as anthropological work. The first chapter, entitled "Buddhism from Buddha to the present" introduces the major Buddhist schools, their common resources, basic teachings, characteristics, specifics and development. Furthermore, the chapter describes the process of Buddhism establishing in the West up to the present and explores the fundamental features of contemporary Western Buddhism. The second chapter, entitled "Buddhism in the Czech Republic" deals with the history of Buddhism in the Czech Republic and maps the current Czech Buddhist scene. It provides an overview of Czech Buddhist groups, centers and charitable initiatives, looking into their values, practices, methods, regular activities and their relationship to the Buddhist...
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Early Buddhist Cosmology of the Pali canon
Horáček, Petr ; Holba, Jiří (advisor) ; Melnikova, Nora (referee)
This paper is focused on the early Buddhist cosmology. It briefly presents the general concepts of cosmology in Buddhism and the Pali Canon in order to better emphasize the characteristics of the primary text on which the work is based, namely the Agaññasutta of the Pali canon. The author takes into account other suttas of the Pali canon and secondary literature as well. The Agaññasutta represents one of the first cosmological texts of Buddhism and can therefore be considered as a very valuable source of information about the early cosmological ideas and the context in which these ideas were formed. It deals with the destruction of the world, its re-emergence, the emergence of creatures, human beings and social strata, the election of the first king and the establishment of the ascetic social groups. To gain a better orientation in the source material, the plot can be divided into the period until the development of human beings, the creation of social institutions with the election of the king and the emergence of alternative social institutions headed by a Buddhist monk. The main aim of the present paper is to show that the Agaññasutta contains the structure based on the necessity of the emergence of the human beings in their physical form and endowed with their moral faults, the society which...
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Self-immolation in Buddhism
Gossová, Markéta ; Zemánek, Marek (advisor) ; Holba, Jiří (referee)
The subject of this thesis is self-immolation in Buddhist countries. The author shows examples from both history and the present and interprets them as a ritualised pattern passed on from the fourth century until the present time, the continuity of which was based on literary tradition as well as on historical occurrences. She demonstrates that self-immolations in Vietnam and Tibet also follow the centuries long tradition and prove to have the same components. The author intends to answer the question of the origin of the tradition in Buddhism and its broad popularity compared to other forms of self-sacrifice. Reasons for self-immolations among the Buddhists might have been manyfold: to demonstrate their loyalty to the buddhist doctrine and the Buddha, to use it as means of attaining enlightment immediately or as a form of a political protest. All of the above can be understood as a sacrifice to the Three Jewels of Buddhism, i.e. the Buddha, the Drarma and the Sangha. The author also handles self-immolation in Buddhism as a question of ethics in order to present the problem in its completeness. In doing so, she concentrates on the point of view of the followers of Buddhism themselves. The phenomenon proves to have many forms and therefore even the Buddhists are nor united in their opinions....
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Western Buddhism. The Czech Republic
Honzík, Jan ; Holba, Jiří (advisor) ; Vojtíšek, Zdeněk (referee) ; Bělka, Luboš (referee)
UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE Fakulta humanitních studií Katedra Obecné antropologie Mgr. Jan Honzík BUDDHISMUS NA ZÁPADĚ ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA Disertační práce Školitel práce: PhDr. Jiří Holba, Ph.D. Praha 2014 Abstract This paper discusses Buddhism in the Czech Republic. It deals with Buddhism as a complex phenomenon consisiting of philosophical, religious, socio-cultural, psychological and ethical planes. These categories are related to the basic structures of human existence and therefore are subject to a science of humanity - anthropology. In this sense, the paper is presented as anthropological work. The first chapter, entitled "Buddhism from Buddha to the present" introduces the major Buddhist schools, their common resources, basic teachings, characteristics, specifics and development. Furthermore, the chapter describes the process of Buddhism establishing in the West up to the present and explores the fundamental features of contemporary Western Buddhism. The second chapter, entitled "Buddhism in the Czech Republic" deals with the history of Buddhism in the Czech Republic and maps the current Czech Buddhist scene. It provides an overview of Czech Buddhist groups, centers and charitable initiatives, looking into their values, practices, methods, regular activities and their relationship to the Buddhist...
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Buddhist mantra and the Heart Sūtra
Langrová, Eva ; Holba, Jiří (advisor) ; Chlup, Radek (referee)
The subject matter of religious language from the perspective of Religious studies is the chief schema of the thesis. It deals with concrete religious utterances, namely Buddhist mantras. The thesis outlines the context of their origin in Vedic religion and their subsequent development in Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism. It further examines the mantra both in Buddhist theory (the mantra in the text) and in Buddhist practice (the mantra in the ritual). The answer to the questions if the exact meaning of the individual mantras can be found and to what extent mantras are translatable from original Sanskrit is the primary aim of the thesis. Special attention is paid to the Heart Sutra, the crowning text of Mahayana Buddhism, and its final mantra gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. Key words: buddhism, Mahāyāna buddhism, the Heart Sūtra, mantra, ritual language
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Buddhism, Plants and Environmental Ethics
Kocurek, Jakub ; Holba, Jiří (advisor) ; Heřman, Robin (referee)
The thesis deals with the problem of Buddhist approach to plants through its history and all its lands. Scientific literature and translations of primary sources translated into western languages are the main sources I use. I particularly focus on the question whether Buddhism considers plants as sentient beings and ascribes them the ability to achieve enlightenment. I also deal with pre-Buddhist ideas concerning plants in each particular region. In the case of India I especially focus on Jainism, the historical companion of Buddhism. Furthermore, I put these facts into a broader frame of Buddhist environmental ethics and Buddhist treatment of the natural world. Thus, this paper should also contribute to the discussion about how ecological Buddhism is. In the pre-Buddhist India, plants were believed to be sentient beings and were involved in the cycle of rebirths. This view was accepted by Jains, but Buddhism chose another way. Whereas early parts of the Pali cannon contain rules prohibiting harming plants, later texts explicitly exclude them from the realm of sentience beings. The topic was further dealt mainly by Eastern Buddhism and, on the contrary, mainly overlooked in other regions. Eastern Buddhism, especially in Japan, again ascribed to plants the ability to attain Buddhahood. This doctrine...
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