This book adds another perspective to Theravada scholarship by exploring various subtle Pali terms that seek to display the nuances of human motivation. Cetana is shown to the purposive impetus that links ethically good and bad attitudes of mind with corresponding acts of body, speech, and mind. The argument is made that Theravada does not posit a controlling will, but seeks to establish the possibility of changing attitudes, purposes, and acts through holistic methods of training. Theravada maintains that changes in attitude are possible because the mind has the capacity to observe its own processes of conditioning, and is able to greatly diversify its responses to its responses to its own concepts and to factors in its environment.

ISBN 13: 9788120833630

ISBN 10: 8120833635

Year: 2020

Pages etc.: xviii, 525p., gloss., bibl., ind., 23cm.

Binding: Hardbound

Subject(s): Buddhism