The World Buddhist University is announcing their monthly open forum speaker as follows :
Programme : WBU SUNDAY FORUM
Topic : The Earliest Texts Of The Pali Canon
Date & Time : December 6, 2552(2009), 12:00 – 13.30 : P.M.
Speaker : Dr. Peter Dennis Masefield
About the Topic :
The Earliest Texts Of The Pali Canon
The earliest texts of the Pali Canon, compiled by the Buddha’s contemporaries immediately following his death, reveal that in his own day the Buddha and his mission were regarded quite differently to the manner in which they are presented today. For far from being seen as one teaching a means to liberation open to all to follow, he was instead regarded—as is still the typical Indian guru—as one imparting liberating teachings only to those few whom he deemed capable of benefiting therefrom.
Such teachings were imparted through an oral progressive revelation, culminating in a vision of the goal, nirvana, being communicated to the convert, as a result of which the latter was not only severed from his past karma, both good and bad, but also spiritually reborn onto the supermundane path which, since it prevented further accumulation of karma, guaranteed attainment of liberation from rebirth.
To those deemed incapable of such attainment, a totally different teaching was given, encouraging the accumulation of good karma through cultic acts of charity to the Buddha and his chosen few, who now claimed to represent the true seat of the Vedic sacrifice and to be those through whom that sacrifice could alone acquire efficacy.
About the Speaker :
Name Peter Dennis Masefield, Address 38 Mansion, 25/2 Soi Sangchai, Sukhumvit38, Bangkok 10110. Telephone +662-381-7601 (mobile : +66-85-910-5865), E-mail-petermasefield@hotmail.com
Academic Qualifications (1) Doctor of Philosophy Degree, University of Lancaster, June 1980 Doctoral Dissertation : Thus They Once Heard-Oral Initiation in the Pali Nikayas
Supervisor : Professor Ninian Smart, University of Lancaster
External Examiner : Dr. Karel Werner, University of Durharn
Formerly published as : Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism
Hardback : George Allen & Unwin, 1986
Paperback : The Sri Lanka Institute of Traditional Studies, 1987
(2) Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours in Philosophy & Religious
Studies, University of Lancaster, July 1972
Location :
Location :
Meeting Room, the World Buddhist University, 3rd floor, WFB Headquarters Bldg., in Benjasiri Park, Sukhumvit 24, Bangkok, Time : 12.00-13.30 pm. All are welcome to join the programme free of charge. For more information, please call 02-258-0369 to -0373, fax 02-258-0372, or see www.wb-university.org.
The WBU shares the same building with the WFB (World Fellowship of Buddhists), and can be found by our maps below. It is on the third floor. The WBU is open most office hours, and the building can be entered from the rear of the building from the Soi. The front gate that faces the park is generally locked, but there is access to walk through to the rear.
click maps for larger view
were looking forward to attending this Sunday
Thank you, Phra Pandit, for your publicity with this event. It should be interesting.