Analayo - Talk and Personal history

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tom moylan, modified 4 Years ago at 7/26/19 3:22 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 7/26/19 3:05 AM

Analayo - Talk and Personal history

Posts: 896 Join Date: 3/7/11 Recent Posts
Howdy friends,
I am fascinated with venerable Analayo and his approach to buddhist scholarship.  Anyone who has read any of his work senses his adherance to rationality, detail and thoroughness in his research.

I am almost done listening to  this discussion and talk from him which I find really interesting, especially his biographical revelations.

I hope you enjoy it too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLT63llyQgI&list=PLxT5mtQbbbI97PNJMkm_DFp3XNjH2lMiu
Z , modified 4 Years ago at 7/26/19 12:45 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 7/26/19 12:40 PM

RE: Analayo - Talk and Personal history

Posts: 201 Join Date: 3/16/18 Recent Posts
I recently read much of Analayo's book Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research and also came away quite impressed. I imagine his detailed, academic approach to the subject will help many of those coming from conventional scientific models open up to a teaching that is often a total non-starter in the practice. 

The book itself features an exploration of the traditional teachings of Buddhist rebirth, a mountain of anecdotal evidence from Near Death Experiences and many reports of children's recollections of past lives. He spends most of the latter half of the book intricately documenting one particular case of "Xenoglossia" and past-life recollection, that of a Sri Lankan boy named Dhammaruwan. 

Not sure where you are located, but Analayo is currently living at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and leading a few classes this fall 
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tom moylan, modified 4 Years ago at 7/28/19 5:06 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 7/28/19 5:06 AM

RE: Analayo - Talk and Personal history

Posts: 896 Join Date: 3/7/11 Recent Posts
i am in southern germany.

re: near death experiences, i read Plato's "The Myth of Er" recently and some of the commentaries on it.

It is about a soldier who was killed in battle and as the bodies were rounded up for burning the corpse gatherers were astonished to find him not even a little decomposed.  they threw him on the fire pile anyway which snapped him out of whatever state he was in...and he told a remarkable story of "the afterlife".

Really excellent and a simple search will locate it quickly.

I also remember in one of Joseph Goldsteins' talks that he played an old scratchy recording of a three year old chanting suttas in an unknown takt, rythym and language...which turned out to be Pali.  Pretty cool stuff.  Analayo also mentions Ian Stevenson, now deceased, who did some very hard science research on past life experiences.  His research was done before the internet was available.

Since the widespread advancement of life saving resusitation techniques the numbers of NDEs (near death experiences) have also radically increased.  I remember investigating this years ago and finding only scant reports on it but now there are literally millions of cases.

cheers

tom
Z , modified 4 Years ago at 7/28/19 9:56 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 7/28/19 9:56 AM

RE: Analayo - Talk and Personal history

Posts: 201 Join Date: 3/16/18 Recent Posts
I also remember in one of Joseph Goldsteins' talks that he played an old scratchy recording of a three year old chanting suttas in an unknown takt, rythym and language...which turned out to be Pali.  Pretty cool stuff.  Analayo also mentions Ian Stevenson, now deceased, who did some very hard science research on past life experiences.  His research was done before the internet was available.

This is the case of Dhammaruwan, which Analayo spends most of the book discussing. He goes into great detail with the linguistics of historical Pali to demonstrate that there's basically no conceivable way that the tape is a hoax or that Dhammaruwan could have picked up this style of chanting from a contemporary source. Very cool stuff. 

The book mentions that Dhammaruwan was ordained at Bhavana Society by Bhante Gunaratana and lived there for some time, not sure what he is up to these days. 
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Nicky, modified 4 Years ago at 2/22/20 3:33 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/22/20 3:32 AM

RE: Analayo - Talk and Personal history

Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent Posts
tom moylan:
 Anyone who has read any of his work senses his adherance to rationality, detail and thoroughness in his research.


Actually, i regarded it as the complete opposite. 
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JohnM, modified 4 Years ago at 2/22/20 5:36 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 2/22/20 5:36 PM

RE: Analayo - Talk and Personal history

Posts: 87 Join Date: 1/7/18 Recent Posts
Nicky, could you provide details? Walk us through your thinking.

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