Buddhist Philosophical Concepts - their relevance in modern times

About article – “Buddhism,  though initially came into bud as a religious institution, it took a  comprehensive profile along with its philosophy and long literary  heritage. It offers a storehouse of canonical texts, which though may  appear apparently as, prabhusaṃmita-upadeśa (commanding form of  teaching), includes, jātaka‟ and avadāna1, the two most popular  forms of Buddhist literary devices for imparting education to  pthag-jana-s, i.e. to common people. In other words it can be said  that those forms of literature paved the way towards the four  ultimate results, i.e. caturvarga even for alpadhī, i.e. people of  mediocre aptitude. Imparting knowledge through popular narrative  stories, though has a long literary heritage in India, it was most  effectively utilized by the Buddhists for expanding their  philosophical views and religious as well as ethical principles and  practices.”

The present paper humbly attempts to  prepare a collage of philosophical views, strewn in the Sanskrit  Buddhist Jātaka-s and Avadāna-s, which may be utilized in several  ways

About  Author - Assistant  Professor, Department of Sanskrit, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

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