Posts

Reformation of the Bhikkhusangha: Pandaka and the Bhikkhunisangha

Rouslan Stormoen Anway my take on pandaka is close to this > “Those who like men but dissimulate the fact maintain a manly appearance and earn their living as barbers or masseurs.” ( Kama Sutra 2.9.6) As I see it, the spirit of the rule is that men who like men and maintain masculine appearance shouldn't be ordained because like ubhatovyanjañaka this group would have attraction to a fellow monk. There is only an exception in the allowance for those male monks "in whom appear female characteristics" to live with the nuns essentially. I assume these feminine presenting monks who would have attraction to fellow monks and the allowance is to avoid expulsion. Now I think there is an interesting angle in that if monks in whom appear female characteristics were to "go live with the nuns" - it would legitimize the bhikkhunisangha and nobody would argue against them ordaining new bhikkhunis. As I see it, nowadays for a civilized institution entrusted with raising chil

Thesis: The Postmodern Razor - Epistemological Analysis Of The Early Buddhist Texts

Author: Rouslan Stian Stormoen, member of Buddhist Federation Of Norway (BFN). This blog post explores the application of epistemological razors to the early buddhist texts for analysis. 1. Problem Statement: In the landscape of philosophical and religious thought, there’s a recurring debate about the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity, as well as the nature of knowledge and truth. Traditional philosophical frameworks like Hume’s Guillotine and Kantian epistemology  have laid the groundwork for understanding this relationship. The emergence of radical postmodern thought further complicates the matters by challenging the very merit of looking for foundations of objectivity. Amidst this philosophical turmoil, there’s a need for a robust epistemological tool that can cut through the ambiguity and identify the fundamental flaws in various interpretations of reality. 2. Thesis Statement: The Postmodern Razor offers a powerful framework for evaluating philosophical and religio

Dhamma And The Current Political & Cultural Discourse

Greetings, I study the pali texts and feel it appropriate to explain how Dhamma fits into the current political & cultural discourse. In brief,  paraphrasing the philosophers as i understood it Here are crucial milestones which shaped the postmodern world  Kantian Philosophy Kant, in his "Critique of Reason", asserts that Logos can not know reality, for it's scope is limited to it’s own constructs. Kant states that one has to reject logic to make room for faith, because reasoning alone can not justify religion. This was a radical critique of logic, in western philosophy, nobody had popularized this general of an assertion before Kant. He reasoned that the mind can in principle only be oriented towards reconstruction of itself based on subjective conception & perception and so therefore knowledge is limited to the scope of feeling & perception. It follows therefore that knowledge itself is subjective in principle. It follows that minds can not align on matters