Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

I. Scope
in his view, involves this problem: when
which
believe that “this is how reality works”,
you
require supernaturalistic explanations
you
as God or Karma, which dominates what
such
see as Christianity or Buddhism. Above
people
argues Batchelor, “secular Buddhism is
all,
to do, not to believe in” (Batchelor
something
in Tippett 2018).
quoted
is an increasingly popular conception
This
spirituality as something independent of
of
phenomena. Another popular
supernaturalistic
sees Buddhism as more of science
framing
philosophy, and less as religion. To the
and
that everyone is free to imagine their
extent
spiritual and religious dialogue, that is
own
what are the implications of this for
great—but
knowledge, and concepts such as faith,
religious
objectivity and neutrality? As a counter-
truth,
consider the views of Thupten Jinpa,
perspective
close aide and translator to the Dalai Lama.
a
terms: Thupten Jinpa
Search
the Dalai Lama
translating
people are … encountering a
“When
such as Tibetan Buddhism, it’s
tradition
different historically from, say, any of
very
monotheistic traditions that you see in
the
do we popularly conceive of the
How
between religion and politics?
relationship
may have heard phrases such as “religion
You
politics do not mix” or “the separation
and
church and state”—both of which align
of
the idea of secularism, a pillar of many
with
democracies. However, it would be
modern
to think that religion and politics are
naive
domains. Mahatma Gandhi stated
isolated
his autobiography (1927) that “those who
in
religion has nothing to do with politics
say
not know what religion is”. Religion and
do
powerfully intermix in ways that
politics
human life, for better or worse, such
affect
in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s
as
the Rohingyarefugee crisis of the early
and
West … where there has been a kind
the
gradual separation between spirituality
of
religion. And then you have science …
or
your understanding of the world is
where
on what you can directly perceive or
based
you can infer on the basis of … direct
what
… . So this kind of separation
experience
science and philosophy and
between
has not occurred in the context
spirituality
Tibetan tradition, Tibetan buddhism.
of
you cannot look at Tibetan Buddhism
…
say this is religion… you cannot
and
this is philosophy … nor can you say
say
is science. But within that tradition,
this
have all the elements. … So that
you
the training of a monk very, very
makes
because you have to … study
sophisticated,
these aspects, the relationship between
all
perception and the world, and the
our
between true knowledge and a
distinction
belief in assumption. You know, how
mere
a language in thought relate to the
does
reality?” (Jinpa quoted in Tippett
actual
2013)
to Jinpa, knowledge must be
According
into a holistic system, including
integrated
through meditation. This is radically
ethics,
from the disciplinary training of
different
century. The scholar Omid Safi, musing
21st
theentanglement of religion and politics,
on
was drawn … to the study of mystics because I was
I
out on politics, and wanted to lose myself in
burned
ethereal, eternal, sweet, and love-lled world [of]
the
mystics. . . . But my beloved mystics kept acting
the
and politically. Because they loved God, they
socially
God’s creation. . . . Many of them positioned
loved
as champions of the weak and the
themselves
and acted in a way that today we would
marginalized,
“speaking truth to power.” In their profoundly
call
society—and let us admit that ours today
hierarchical
still profoundly hierarchical—these mystics kept
is
reminding the rulers that it was God who was the
on
6
scientists and researchers.
I.3 Not only religion: The spiritual and
the political
wrotethe following.
ultimate King.
(Sa 2016)
142