[Buddha-l] Re: Attan.com

[Joel Tatelman]

It's perhaps worth recalling that C.A.F. Rhys Davids, who did so much 
valuable philological and translation work in Pali, published, in her 
later years, a book dedicated to arguing for the reality and centrality 
of the soul in "original" Buddhist thought. Her opinion, too, was that 
later monk-dominated, ecclesiastical Buddhism "reified" the 
anatman/anatta doctrine and made it into the "no-soul" doctrine. I 
believe that a scholar by the name of Bhattacarya published a rather 
more scholarly book on this topic; I think it was in the late 1960s.

So, yeah, there's a history--not to mention the Pudgalavadins, whatever 
one may think of them--of people "within Buddhism" having trouble with 
the anatman doctrine.

Cheers,

Joel Tatelman.

On Nov 15, 2005, at 2:34 PM, Malcolm Dean wrote:

>>
>> This is Ken Wheeler's site. He is good friends with Zenmar aka Ardent
>> Hollingworth the founder and master debater of Dark Zen. Wheeler is a
>> self proclaimed "Doctor of Buddhology" and also goes by the Ven
>> Shakya Aryanatta (self ordained).
>>
>
> I'd like to parse the content of http://www.attan.com a little more
> before we dismiss the subject. This kind of source is sometimes useful
> in promoting further discovery, so, for those interested, let's
> explore. (Others may prefer to return to politics.):
>
> For example, the author claims that the earliest books are doctrinally
> distinct from those that follow (mainly, I gather, in his assertions
> regarding "soul"). Is this distinction generally agreed or not? Where
> are the dividing lines? Are there good books or papers on this topic?
>
> The author provides a lengthy list of quotations regarding "soul." Is
> his translation correct, or are there divergent opinions? If correct,
> how are we to understand a set of early writings which can be
> interpreted as diverging from later teachings?
>
> The author offers a low opinion of the PTS dictionary. Is he correct?
> If not, why not?
>
> The author provides a number of books in PDF form. Some are clearly
> Theosophical, others appear to be reference volumes or translations.
> What is the quality of these works and translations? Do any have
> interesting stories behind them?
>
> Beside the details provided about the author in the previous post,
> does anyone herein know him personally, or where he lives and what he
> does for a living?
>
> Malcolm Dean
>
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