Philosophical Roots in Buddhism

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Buddhist philosophy is the branch of Eastern philosophy based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, a.k.a. Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563 BCE-c. 483 BCE). Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology. The original positive Buddhist contribution to the field of metaphysics is pratityasamutpada, which arises from the Buddhist critique of Indian theories of causality. It states that events are not predetermined, nor are they random, and it rejects notions of direct causation owing to the need for such theories in the Indian context to be undergirded by a substantialist metaphysics. Instead, it posits the arising of events under certain conditions which are inextricable, such that the units in question at no time have independent existence. Certain Buddhists (particularly in the modern West) hold to an interpretation of Buddhism that admits nothing of either the supernatural or divinity. In non-theistic views, realms and gods are viewed with a liberal dose of metaphor, as tools to understand aspects of Mind, and indeed this is supported by some sutras such as the Lankavatara Sutra. This book contains the fundamental and basic information of subject and the selection of contents makes it an appropriate textbook for the students.

Dr. Indra Narayan Singh, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Buddhist Studies Delhi University Since 1996, obtained his Doctorate on A Study of Universal Flux in Theravada Buddhism. Dr. Singh has published a number of articles and is a regular contributor to various journals and magazines of national and international repute. He has also edited the journals of Buddhist Studies. Vol. XX, December 2000

Particular points of Buddhist philosophizing have often been the subject of disputes between different schools of Buddhism. Metaphysical questions such as "Is there a god?" and "Does the soul (Atman) really exist?" have divided the Buddha's followers even during his own lifetime, and epistemological debates over the proper modes of evidence have always been lively in Buddhism.

Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology. The Buddha rejected certain precepts of Indian philosophy that were prominent during his lifetime. His general outlook has been described as empirical as opposed to ontological or metaphysical. The Buddha taught depend to ontological or metaphysical. The Buddha taught dependent origination as the correct paradigm for analyzing causality: Buddhists view it ns avoiding the two extremes of reification and nihilism.

The philosophical outlook of Earliest Buddhism was primarily negative, in the sense that it focused on what doctrines to reject more than on what doctrines to accept. This dimension has been preserved by the Madhyamaka school. It includes critical rejections of all views, which is a form of philosophy, but it is reluctant to posit its own. Only knowledge that is useful in achieving enlightenment is valued. The cycle of philosophical upheavals that in part drove the diversification of Buddhism into its many schools and sects only began once Buddhists began attempting to make explicit the implicit philosophy of the Buddha and the early Suttas.