Desire To Think

Tag: Buddhism

  • Haruki Murakami and Buddhist philosophy

    Haruki Murakami and Buddhist philosophy

    Over Christmas I read ‘The Wind-up Bird Chronicle’, a novel by Haruki Murakami, in the English translation by Jay Rubin.  The strange tale of the protagonist, named Toru Okada, seemed to have a loose affinity with concepts and themes from Buddhist philosophy, which I briefly sketch out here,  but whether or not this affinity is…

  • गुरु लक्ष्मीङ्कर​ की कहानी

    गुरु लक्ष्मीङ्कर​ की कहानी

    तिब्बत और भारत के सांस्कृतिक और ऐतिहासिक सम्बन्ध​ कई प्रकार के हैं |  अतीत में, बहुत सी भारतीय साहित्यिक और आध्यात्मिक शास्त्रों को तिब्बत भेजा गया था, और उनके तिब्बती भाषा अनुवाद भी किया गया था |  इनमें से बौद्ध ग्रन्थ हैं, जैसे के नागार्जुन, शान्त​रक्षित, और कमलशील के लेखन |  साथ ही व्याकरण के…

  • Thoughts on the film Memoria

    Thoughts on the film Memoria

    The film Memoria is highly unusual and intriguing, prompting me to reflect on how to make sense of what is actually happening in the film.  Rather giving any kind of comprehensive review or summary, however, I am just sharing here some of the workings of my own mind in response to the film.

  • India Report: the Tibet Debate

    India Report: the Tibet Debate

    India’s rapidly evolving relationships with its neighbouring countries have been much in the news lately. Readers will be aware of the many high-profile visits to Lhasa recently made by Indian scholars, and in particular the many trips by the former head of the elite Nalanda University, Śāntarakṣita.

  • Tantra at the British Museum

    Tantra at the British Museum

    A short review of the exhibition ‘Tantra: enlightenment to revolution’ which is currently on at the British Museum.

  • Some technological worldviews

    Some technological worldviews

    In our attempt to understand our universe and our place within it, thinkers of all periods and regions have deployed models borrowed from technological frameworks.

  • Chance events and Indian Philosophy

    Chance events and Indian Philosophy

    Encountering reality as radically singular, unique and ineffable

  • T.S. Eliot and Indian Philosophy

    T.S. Eliot — Wikimedia Commons (Octave.H) It is well-known that T.S. Eliot engaged deeply with Indian philosophy in ways which significantly influenced his worldview and his poetry. In fact,Eliot was a student of the eminent Sanskrit scholar Professor Charles Rockwell Lanman at Harvard University, and in fact Eliot’s PhD supervisor there, Josiah Royce, had also earlier learnt…

  • Fate and free will on the Silk Road

    Buddhist monks and philosophical concepts A depiction of the Chinese monk Xuanzang on his journey to India — Wikimedia Commons “On one hand, it’s nihilistic to think that every outcome is simply random. I have to believe that the world is better when we act morally, and that people who do good things deserve a somewhat better…