Paying Attention: An Examination of Attention and Empathy as They Relate to Buddhist Philosophy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The author makes effective use of the work of Garfield, Loy, and Damasio, but does not go much beyond what they have said there. Most importantly, author neglects an enormous amount of research on this precise topic. I note in particular Thich Nhat Hanh's work on interbeing, the Dalai Lama's Ethics for a New Millenium, Thubten Jinpa's book on compassion, Matthieu Ricard's book on compassion, recent books on Buddhist ethics by the Cowherds, Chirstopher Gowans, Jay Garfield, and Maria Heim the essays in Duckworth's and Gold's anthology on Śāntideva, work by Jake Davis, and a number of recent articles on mindfulness and ethics.

I recommend that the author dive into this literature, and then revise this essay in that light and resubmit.

Author Response

Thank you for the taking the time to review and provide feedback! In my resubmission, I have done my best to at least situate my argument in relation to some of the sources you suggested. However, due to the limitation of 10 days for revisions, I found it impossible to properly engage with all of the suggested sources. I recognize that there is an enormous amount of research on this topic; to do it all justice is far beyond the intended scope of the article. However, I found Thich Nhat Hanh’s work on interbeing, notions of ethics and emptiness by the Cowherds, Matthieu Ricard’s views on compassion and Jay Garfield’s examination of Śāntideva’s conception of mindfulness extremely helpful for the purposes of my argument at various points within the paper. However, I have only really scratched the surface of this literature due to time constraints; I intend to explore it further in future publications.

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a timely, well-researched, and clearly argued article that enriches the contemporary discourse around covid-19. It is also a fine example of engaged Buddhist philosophy. Precisely for that reason, some reference to the larger phenomenon of engaged Buddhism (even if only a paragraph, to situate this project even better and more clearly in its wider Buddhist context) is desirable, but I do not see this as preventing publication after this minor revision is made. 

Author Response

Thank you so much for the taking the time to review and provide feedback! In my resubmission, I have done my best to situate my argument more clearly in relation to the larger phenomenon of engaged Buddhism. I specifically state my position (I believe that social engagement is inherent in Buddhist tradition) in section 3.2 page 11. I have also incorporated other ideas related to engaged Buddhism - including Thich Nhat Hanh’s work on interbeing, notions of ethics and emptiness by the Cowherds, Matthieu Ricard’s views on compassion, and Jay Garfield’s examination of Śāntideva’s conception of mindfulness as central to leading an awakened life - throughout the paper to further situate my argument. However, I have only really scratched the surface of this literature due to time constraints; I intend to explore it further in future publications.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author has responded to my earlier critique and this paper is publishable as it now stands.