Study, Reflection, and Cultivation: Integrative Paths to Wisdom from Buddhist and Comparative Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue intends to elucidate the tensions between discourse and experience according to the threefold construct of wisdom as elaborated in the various sources and traditions of India, with an emphasis on Buddhism and its diffusion across Asia, in comparison with other philosophical and religious systems, and ultimately, with relevance to contemporary and scientific contexts.

In Buddhism, wisdom, as the “right view”, represents the eye or guiding principle of the path taught by the Buddha Śākyamuni. In itself, wisdom is conceived from early Buddhist sources to the later exegeses of Mahāyāna, according to three progressive stages: (1) The “wisdom born from study” (or “learning”; literally: “listening”) (Sanskrit: śrutamayī prajñā); (2) the “wisdom born from reflection” (or “thinking”, “reasoning”) (cintāmayī prajñā); (3) the “wisdom born from cultivation” (or “meditation”, “practice”) (bhāvanāmayī prajñā). Rather than opposing statically conceptuality and nonconceptuality, this threefold wisdom paradigm articulates them dynamically along the developmental process of self-transformation. Relying first on tradition, then on reason, and finally on direct perception, it links intergenerational transmission with personal rediscovery/re-actualization, possibly offering a middle path between cultural relativism and transcendentalism.

This Issue aims thus at for the first time constituting a collection of research papers on this threefold wisdom paradigm and related set of categories, starting from the larger context of Indian traditions where this wisdom model has also emerged (in the Upaniṣad-s, classical Yoga, Vedānta, etc.) and then specially focused on Buddhism, from early to later Indian sources, and following its diffusion, transcription/translation into various canonical languages (Pāli, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, etc.), and creative developments in South and South-East Asia, Central Asia and the Silk Road, East Asia, the Tibetan plateau, and the Himalayas. For traditions such as Chan/Sŏn/Zen 禪, Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen (rDzogs chen), it will be of special interest to examine how the longstanding opposition between gradual versus sudden awakening may be re-envisioned according to this threefold wisdom paradigm and the interrelated framework of view, meditation, conduct, and fruit.

From a comparative perspective, we would like also to welcome papers dealing with structural parallels in other traditions, such as the spiritual exercises of ancient Western philosophical schools, or in monotheistic religions, with, for example, the lectio divina (lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio) developed in Christian contemplative orders, etc. Ultimately, contemporary reflections and applications may investigate the current tensions between traditional transmission, scientific rationality, and meditative praxis; or, among others, the challenges of mindfully (re-)directing one’s attention in the digital age, from processing information to organizing knowledge, and from reflective knowledge to embodied wisdom.

References:

De Corte, E., and Fenstad, J. E. (Eds.). 2010. From Information to Knowledge; from Knowledge to Wisdom. London: Portland Press Ltd.

Deroche, Marc-Henri. 2021. Mindful wisdom: The path integrating memory, judgment, and attention. Asian Philosophy 31: 19-32, doi: 10.1080/09552367.2021.1875610.

Deroche, Marc-Henri. 2019. Buddhist Philosophy as a Way of Life: Perspectives on the Three Wisdoms from Tibet and Japan. In Reasons and Lives in Buddhist Traditions. Studies in Honor of Matthew Kapstein. Edited by Dan Arnold, Cécile Ducher, and Pierre-Julien Harter. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 277-90.

Eltschinger, Vincent. 2009. Studies in Dharmakīrti’s Religious Philosophy: 4. The cintāmayī prajñā. In Logic and Belief in Indian Philosophy. Edited by Piotr Balcerowicz. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 565–603.

Fiordalis, David V. 2018. Learning, Reasoning, Cultivating: The Practice of Wisdom in the Treasury of Abhidharma. In Buddhist Spiritual Practices. Thinking with Pierre Hadot on Buddhism, Philosophy, and the Path. Edited by D. Fiordalis. Berkeley: Mangalam Press, pp. 245-89.

Hadot, Pierre. 2002. What is Ancient Philosophy? (Qu’est-ce que la philosophie antique?) Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. First published 1995. 

Kapstein, Matthew T. 2001. Introduction: What is Buddhist Philosophy? In Reason’s Traces: Identity and Interpretation in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Thought. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 3-26.

Kapstein, Matthew T. 2013. 'Spiritual Exercise' and Buddhist Epistemologists in India and Tibet. In A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. Edited by Steven Emmanuel. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 270-89.

Dr. Marc-Henri Deroche
Guest Editor

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