Mind, Text, and Reality in Buddhist Studies: Engaging the Scholarship of Rupert Gethin

Bringing together contributions from North America, UK, Europe and Asia into a single volume, this book advances scholarship in Buddhist studies and celebrates Rupert Gethin’s immense contribution to the field. Essays include explorations of Buddhist teachings, scriptural studies and cover the fields of research that engage Rupert Gethin’s scholarship: Buddhist cosmology, textual translations, Abhidharma and the interface between Buddhism and modern science.

Scholars address themes associated with Buddhist thought and practice, including philosophy of mind and the relationship between artificial intelligence and Buddhist ethics. Translations and analyses of a variety of written materials span several genres and ages: Gandhari manuscripts, Vinaya commentaries, Buddhist Sanskrit imagery and Tibetan translations of late Indian texts.

To acknowledge Rupert Gethin’s important and expansive contribution to the field of Abhidharma, the book offers explorations into Abhidharma terminology, its commentaries and texts associated with early Buddhist schools. The volume also highlights the intricacies of Abhidharma, the interplay of Buddhism and modern technology, and how language shared between Pali and Sanskrit illuminates Buddhist doctrines.

Paul Fuller is Lecturer in Buddhist Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Indaka Weerasekera is an independent scholar of Buddhist Studies.