Being Human in a Buddhist World

Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies and associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, discusses her recent publication, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet.

David Eckel, Professor of Religion and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Religion at Boston University, and Mark D. Jordan, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Christian Thought at HDS, serve as respondents.

[sandragreen]

Just listening to Janet clears a path thru those sticky cobwebs (my cobwebs that is) ..what a treasure!

[fearless]

thanks so much for sharing the video. I look forward to reading this book in near future. On the other hand, seeing the title for the first time reminded me the words of my spiritual teacher: "All of the problems in our society stem from a lack of understanding, a fear of the unknown. When we challenge this ignorance through logic, through reasoning, through tapping into our boundless internal resources of wisdom and compassion, we manifest hope - not just for ourselves, but for our world. Understanding fear implies that we understand ourselves. If we understand fear, then we understand more about compassion, about what it means to be human." : )

[petagonkyi]

Third sex or Ma-Ning comes from Tibetan Grammar. Tibetan grammar was composed sometime in 8AD based on Panini's Sanskrit grammar. In Tibetan grammar, there are 5 sexes based on the tones, Pho(male), Mo( Female), Ma-Ning (neutral), Mosham and Shinto Mo (Very Female). There are two principal root texts for grammar and one exclusively deals with tones (sexes) of the alphabets.