Ultimate Truth Research Articles

Depiction of Hindu Philosophical and Religious Notions in Dārā Shukoh’s Majma‘-ul-Baḥrain

The article focuses on Dārā Shukoh’s Majma‘-ul-Baḥrain (written, 1654–55), which is basically a comparative and systematic study of modes of Hindu thought and belief from the view point of Islamic Sufism. There is thus the need to establish the degree of authenticity achieved in Dārā Shukoh’s exploration of the different Hindu philosophical and religious beliefs, especially keeping in view his own preference for pantheistic aspects. This naturally involves also a partial re-exploration of the field in which Dārā Shukoh had sought what he deemed to be the ultimate truth.

STUDY OF PURUSH SIDDHANT WITH SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

The word “Purush" in its most social sense means man but in the aspect of Ayurveda, the term purush is repre- sented as atma or chetana dhatu (chetana-life and dhatu-element). The concept of the existence of atman (soul) is generally not accepted by modern science. According to Indian philosophy, the ultimate truth or absolute soul is one and he is Chetana (Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahm). Treatment of Panchmahabhut Sharir with presence of purush is known as Chikitsya Purush. Purush is supreme soul, pure conscious, unchanging, immortal neither birth nor death. It is essential for the creation of the universe and the living world. In the presence of purush gains knowledge through the mind. All the actions through karmendriyas, desire, pleasure, pain, life and death are per- formed. The purush (Kshetrajy) is lord of the house (Kshetra). The role of Purush in Srusti is laya & parlay which is the same as catalyst’s work in a reversible reaction. Keywords: Purush, Types, Karma Chikitsa, Chaturvinshatika, Rashi, Punarjanma

Spirituality and Ophthalmology

Religion/spirituality (R/S) is very important to most patients, with 84% of world’s population reporting a religious affiliation. Even those with no religion often report some level of spirituality, which may be defined as “the relationship or contact with a transcendent realm of reality [e.g., God, gods, spirits, deceased ancestors, etc.] that is considered sacred, the ultimate truth, or reality” (p.12).() Religion would be the “the institutional or communal aspect of spirituality, as a shared set of beliefs, experiences, and practices [...]

THE POET’S SCHOOL: UNDERLYING SCIENTIFIC VISION AND VALUES OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE

The Poet’s School, founded by Rabindranath Tagore way back in 1901in Santiniketan was not merely a fanciful idea. It was a rebellion against mechanical Colonial system of Education having an essence of indigenous Indian Culture. It was constructed upon a solid foundation of scientific principles of education for a joyful and fulfilling life in the abundance of nature. The school, over the years, has proved to be a laboratory for many kinds of experiments in natural settings to arrive at the ultimate truth. Breaking away from the rigid, stereotypical conventional mode of teaching and learning, the poet’s school has been a place for self-exploration through multifarious activities like Art, Craft, Music, Dance, Drama, Observation of Nature, Self-discipline and Social engagements apart from regular studies.

Introduction: The Fiction of History and the History of Fiction

The Portuguese writer often insisted upon the supremacy of fiction over all the other fields that use words in order to express (or validate) human existence. [...]even history turns out to be a creative transformation of the contingent world, proving that the entirety of reality is just a matter of perspective and that in the contemporary world there is no such thing as an ultimate truth. [...]once written, history (any history!) becomes, in a more or less obvious way, another fiction: after all, any objective fact is transformed by the historian's inherent subjectivity and altered through the process of selection (i.e. only the most significant events are thoroughly recorded, in order to enrich the final text - be it a historical document or not - with a logical organizing pattern). [...]many thanks to Ali Shehzad Zaidi, the editor of the journal, for his enduring friendship and frequent encouragement!) Jay and I had already worked together on various projects of this New York academic journal (and I'll resume to mention only two special issues that appeared since 2019, namely Latin American Fiction and Mirrors and Labyrinths in Literature) and I was glad to renew the experience, knowing Jay's extensive learning and his amazing ability to bring together different people and different views on world literature. All the authors included in this special issue meditated, directly or not, upon this relationship and tried to clarify the meanings of history and the importance of fiction in contemporary literature from their own point of view, thus offering our readers the possibility of a deeper understating of the world we live in and the challenges we have to face.

Resurrection of the Self: A Comparative Thematic Study of Rumi’s Selected Poems and Hesse’s Siddhartha

This research aims to trace a journey towards spiritual development by underscoring different stages which are essential for a mystic to cover a long distance of spiritual development and reach his/her goal, i.e. self-fulfillment, a higher state of a man’s existence in which the Phenomenal Self immerses into the Divine Self. In order to chart out the stages of such a journey, this research does a thematic analysis of Hesse’s masterpiece, Siddhartha, and Rumi’s selected poems and draw parallels in the themes projected by both the writers. The objective of the study is to make inter-generic reading of the mystical texts and derive common features from them. The motive behind the selection of these texts is to highlight the phenomenon of resurrected self from two different perspectives i.e. Eastern Sufism and Western Mysticism and to merge them to propose a comprehensive perspective to understand the Divine. Taking inspiration from Fowler, we have categorized the spiritual journey into three stages which are labeled as The Childhood stage, The Adulthood stage and The Young stage.[1] At the first stage, a person remains focused on his/her selfish desires such as the desire to achieve reputation, honor and wealth which eventually leads him/her towards different recalcitrant feelings like jealousy, anger and hatred. At the second stage when a person becomes a little mature, s/he starts swimming against the current of naive attempts to attain happiness and struggles to find the eternal source of happiness and peace. At the third and the last stage, s/he achieves the ultimate source or truth of happiness and is considered as a divine source for others.

Eison, Monkan, and the cult of founders in medieval Japan: on the construction of narrative and material selves in East Asian Buddhism

ABSTRACT This article addresses the viability of constructions of a narrative self in light of the Buddhist doctrine of no-self by examining Eison (or Eizon; 1201–90), founder of the Shingon Ritsu movement; his grand-disciple Monkan (1278–1357); and their involvement in the cult of founders in medieval Japan. The article begins by briefly establishing Eison and Monkan’s significance, then looks at Steven Collins’s distinction between systematic and narrative thought in Pali Buddhism. I suggest that this distinction helps clarify the relationship between the self of narrativity and of conventional truth versus the no-self of ultimate truth in Buddhist traditions across times and regions. Then, using Eison, Monkan, and the medieval cult of founders as a case study, I argue that even among scholar-monks actively engaged in such systematic exposition as that related to notions of no-self, the exposition is embedded within a broader devotional framework in which tensions between no-self and a narrative self largely dissolve. I conclude by suggesting that notions of no-self posed little impediment to Eison and fellow monastics’ promotion of a cult of founders that glorifies particular narratively and materially constructed ‘selves.’

Enhancing the power of understanding

Power of understanding is a rewarding cognitive capacity required for all of us from early childhood to the highest level of intellectual settings. Among other things, the concept of understanding plays a vital role in education. When I was a second-year undergraduate, I was so curious to know why some of my colleagues could understand subjects much faster than the others, and this curiosity compelled me to research on how understanding manifests in our minds. My literature review revealed that the ultimate happiness/truth stated in Buddhism is a matter of understanding the world differently from the way we do it generally. Literature also showed that many people in Buddha’s time understood the ultimate truth while listening to the discourse of the Buddha. Those who could not understand a matter then and there had to develop certain cognitive skills through various cognitive tasks such as further listening, discussing, thinking, and meditating. This is equally applicable to our educational settings as well because some students understand the subject matter during the lecture itself, while the others need involve in additional reading activities, discussions, tutorial work, and so on.

DEHUMANIZATION IN SARAH KANE S POSTMODERN PLAYS

Postmodernism explores society’s perspective on stereotypes and ways in which cultural aspects evolve in a globalized world. It focuses on human experience in different forms by taking its motives from historical and societal issues. Postmodernism in drama is based on postmodern philosophy which originated in Europe in the twentieth century. Postmodern theatre, also known as the new theatre, is a reaction against modernist drama. It makes the audience question and evaluate the differences between reality and art. It dwells on the idea that there is no ultimate truth. Plays written in this mode of drama involve images and allusions, and the audience plays an important role, involving in the performance. Moreover, postmodernist drama is innovative in terms of its technique and in defying social conventions. This paper aims to discuss Sarah Kane’s plays Blasted, Phaedra’s Love, Crave, and 4.48 Psychosis as postmodern plays in relation to dehumanization employed as a recurrent theme in the plays. Violence, rapture, alienation, exploitation, and frustration are some of the themes Sarah Kane explores in the above-mentioned plays. This paper argues that Kane considers theatre an instrument to exhibit the ugly images of life. Kane’s plays portray hideousness of life in tandem with the use of postmodern theatrical elements.

Avvai- An Epistemic Advantage

Tamil world always owe its tribute to Avvai for her scholarly contribution. Desire to do virtue is an iconic statement of this great personality who perceived to be an epistemic advantage. The purpose of this article is to examine her work as a children literary creator and to explore her cognitive success in terms of Educational Philosophy. Her literary contribution plays a major role in identifying the Tamil community as an epistemic community. The pattern of knowledge construction employed by Avvai enhances the individual to explore knowledge, to discover the ultimate truth and establishing virtue. This article is known for its analysis of the literary work and social dialogues chose to add Avvai’s commitment to establishing that education is a way to subdue the senses and achieve reality. This piece of research ignites a spark to future researcher to view Avvai as a social scientist rather than a Tamil scholar with reference to the normative principles established in her work.

Hermeneutische Überlegungen zu Heideggers schwarzen Heften und zum neudenken seines Denkwegs II.

"Hermeneutical Considerations on Heidegger’s Black Notebooks and on the Revisiting of his Path of Thinking II. Starting with preliminary philological-hermeneutical considerations concerning the way Heidegger’s Black Notebooks can and should be dealt with, as well as concerning the question of what tasks may be derived from them for future research, the paper attempts to discuss the Black Notebooks applying a variety of methods and approaches. Themes that are discussed at more or less length include: Time factor and the formulation of our task; explanation and understanding or the way a philosophical path should be approached and dealt with methodically (hermeneutically); the theme related to “Heidegger and anti-Semitism” and the question concerning individuality; prejudices from a hermeneutical perspective and the way to deal with them; relapses and their philosophical explanation; insufficient and exaggerated sensibility; Heidegger and Hegel; equivocality and the dark side of the “formal indication”; Lukács, Scheler and the devil; Heidegger’s great being-historical treatises and their greatness; suggestions for a reconsideration of Heidegger’s way of thinking. – One important hermeneutical claim brought to bear on the various discussions is this: just as it would be inappropriate in our dealing with Heidegger’s texts to disregard Heidegger’s own self-interpretations, it would be no less inappropriate to consider those self-interpretations – which themselves call for interpretation – as telling us the sole and ultimate truth. This second part of the paper dedicates special attention to the question of re-examining Heidegger’s whole philosophical itinerary in the light of the Black Notebooks. Keywords: hermeneutics, being, history, interpretation, individuality "

Hermeneutische Überlegungen zu Heideggers Schwarzen Heften und zum Neudenken Seines Denkwegs (I)

"Hermeneutical Considerations on Heidegger’s Black Notebooks and on the Revisit-ing of his Path of Thinking I. Starting with preliminary philological-hermeneutical considerations concerning the way Heidegger’s Black Notebooks can and should be dealt with, as well as concerning the question what tasks may be derived from them for future research, the paper attempts to discuss the Black Notebooks ap-plying a variety of methods and multiple approaches. Themes that are discussed at more or less length include: Time factor and the formulation of our task; explana-tion and understanding or the way a philosophical path should be approached and dealt with methodically (hermeneutically); the theme related to “Heidegger and anti-Semitism” and the question concerning individuality; prejudices from a her-meneutical perspective and the way to deal with them; relapses and their philo-sophical explanation; missing and increased sensibility; Heidegger and Hegel; equivocality and the dark side of the “formal indication”; Lukács, Scheler and the devil; Heidegger’s great being-historical treatises and their greatness; suggestions for a reconsideration of Heidegger’s way of thinking. -- One important hermeneu-tical claim brought to bear on the various discussions is this: just as it would be in-appropriate in our dealing with Heidegger’s texts to disregard Heidegger’s own self-interpretations, it would be no less inappropriate to consider those self-interpretations--which themselves call for interpretation--as telling us the sole and ultimate truth. Keywords: hermeneutics, being, history, interpretation, individuality "

The Relevance of Al-Ghazali’s Educational Views to the Contemporary System of Muslim education: Focus on Islamic Education in Uganda

Imam Al-Ghazali used a combination of the wisdom, exposure and experience he had acquired while running the Nizamiyyah colleges to contribute to the core of the theory knowledge, education and Islamic sciences. His ideas suggest that God is the primary source of knowledge and sense alone cannot deliver one to the ultimate truth. He categorised knowledge according to the needs of the society. Knowledge according to him should shape an individual and help him/her to interact with the creator and with the other existents. Knowledge should affect body and soul, mind and heart and ultimately deliver one to happiness here and in the hereafter. His views on the core values of Islam affecting both individuals and society can be employed in determining and redefining the philosophy of knowledge in our contemporary world. The brief on the philosophy of knowledge reflected in here as well as the method of teaching and instruction especially in the Islamic institutions is drawn from Al-Ghazali’s rich reservoir of experience. This literature can be used to develop teaching and learning models and polices in developing Islamic academic institutions especially in Uganda.

BEGINNING OF THEOPOETICS: STENLEY HOPPER AND AMOS WILDER

Interpretations of biblical texts, with regard to the mythopoetic biblical worldview, can reveal greater social, political, cultural potential to find answers to challenges of modern society. Therefore, theopoetics becomes a desire to rethink traditional theology, which was able to hear everyone, and radically different one, where the building of confessional walls between church and society will become a platform for dialogue without fixed and ultimate truths available to knowledge or faith of individual denominations. But despite the solutions to the problems that theopoetics may offer, both Hopper and Wilder ask what tools can help us to work with such complex texts in order to obtain the most adequate interpretations, avoiding errors that only weaken Christian messages.

Sufi-Vedāntic Interactions and Literary Interconnections in the Gulzār-i ḥāl by Banwālīdās

Abstract This paper focuses on the Gulzār-i ḥāl by Banwālīdās (1662–3), a Persian adaptation of the Sanskrit allegorical drama Prabodhacandrodaya composed by Kṛṣṇamiśra (not long after 1065). It is also hypothesised that Banwālīdās may have used a Braj Bhāṣā version of the same text – by the poet Nanddās entitled Prabodhacandrodaya Nāṭaka (c. 1570) –, as intermediary with the original Sanskrit. Regardless of the source that our author used to realise his Gulzār-i ḥāl, the filter used to adapt Advaitic elements to the Islamic mystical context was the Waḥdat al-Wujūd (“Unity of Being”), or the tradition of mysticism that was heavily inspiring Sufi traditions of South Asia at that time. Moreover, a codicological analysis of the Gulzār-i ḥāl’s manuscript tradition has brought to light that both Hindu and Muslim readership received the text. In this paper, I will show that the interpretative engagement of Banwālīdās carried on a tradition of philosophical studies that did not consider Sufi and Vedāntic metaphysics as separated entities but as elements that – in dialogue with each other – searched for a common answer to the ultimate truth.

The quest for truth of Stephen Hawking

With his bestselling publication, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking introduced in 1988 a new genre by connecting modern science with the question of the existence of God. In the posthumous publication Brief Answers to the Big Questions, he continues with his quest for the ultimate truth. The current study presents a philosophical analysis of this search in terms of the classical philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas. Causality is the central concept employed by Hawking. However, its meaning, in the modern scientific and philosophical literature, is limited to temporal causality in contrast to the view of classical philosophy. Only the latter one accepts causality from outside space and time, with other words, a reality transcending the material world. In a quote presented in the discussion, Hawking defines himself as an atheist. After a careful reading of his writings, however, doubts arise about his unbelief.

Johan Galtung’s Broad Concepts of Violence and Peace – Laying the Foundation Stone for Peace Research

Johan Galtung is well known as a founding father of peace research. His broad concepts of violence and peace brought an academic breakthrough against the discipline of international relations. Accordingly, violence is the cause of a recently avoidable difference between actuality and potentiality. In his early writings, Galtung distinguished personal and structural violence, with the former corresponding to negative and the latter to positive peace. He later added a third cultural dimension. This led to a re-adjustment of the complete conceptual apparatus of what becomes manifest in a triangle and a stratum model. Points of criticism are related to theory building, concept construction and presumed political consequences. In some respects, however, these miss Galtung’s point, while in other respects they can be absorbed into the work itself. However, the oeuvre should not be misunderstood as ultimate truth. Nevertheless, it still provides an indispensable foil for all those who deal, academically or practically, with matters of peace.

Социально-экономическая реальность в субъективном измерении

All social and economic aspects of human life can be described by statistical data that claims to be objective. Still, people hold a distinctive view of the world, differing widely from the official one. Statistics is the key means to make management decisions. It helps to adopt a balanced and responsible approach to determining priorities for the social development strategy. However, those steps taken by the government that do not correspond with subjective perception and expectations might be insufficient to improve the lives of the people. Individuals act and react according to their own views. Their behavior is key to understanding crucial social issues; it is also a reference point for social policies which might be more accurate than objective criteria. Discrepancies between academic and ordinary cognition are attributed to limited objective (statistical) data as well as the specific nature of individual perception of reality. In the first part of this paper, based on the findings of international research and public opinion polls (ESS, Ipsos MORI, Perils of Perception), the authors establish that perceptions dominant in the public mind are misaligned compared to conventional statistical evaluation. They also analyze the scale of misalignment variations in several countries. The second and third parts of the article examine the reasons behind these discrepancies. Having scrutinized the statistical “objectivity” of social and economic phenomena such as inflation, unemployment, migration and their reflection in the public mind, the authors conclude that objective indicators are not the ultimate truth. Their impartiality is based on data acquisition and calculations detailed in the general theory of statistics as well as generalized conventional definitions. Although subjective variables have been introduced into this field in recent times, the vast majority of statistical indices have not taken public opinion into account. The reality, however, is more complex and multifaceted, it does not fit into levelized indicators. Conversely, subjective public views do not appear out of thin air. They are largely affected by the trust in government institutions, influenced by ideologies and systems of value and cemented by the views of a reference group and media. These findings might help to fine-tune social policies and explain voting behavior.

Ṣūfī Motifs in Ibrāhīm <i>Al</i>-Kōnī’s <i>The Fetishist</i>

In his The Fetishists, Ibrāhīm al-Kōnī uses Ṣūfī themes, motifs, language and symbols to present the legendary epic thought of the nature of life in the desert where he lived in his childhood and youth. His goal is to ask questions about the meaning of existence, human adventure, destiny, power and civilization through using the world of the Tuareg as an imaginary source of fiction. Al-Kōnī depicts the elements of the desert world, as if it were a mystical redeemer, with which he unites to reach the ultimate universal truth. What energizes the Ṣūfī context in the novel is the vital presence of Ṣūfī characters—dervishes, wanderers, disciples, saints and the various conflicts inflamed amongst individuals, groups, communities, philosophies, and cultures and between man and nature represented by the desert, sands, winds and droughts. Furthermore, in the manner of the Ṣūfī thinking, al-Kōnī manages to grant a living spirit to every element present in the desert, human and non-human, and animate and non-animate. All share in the construction of the soul of the world to attain through joint prayers the great universal truth of God. That is a major ingredient that goes into the fabric of Ṣūfī philosophy.

Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology

Cognition is not a process of mastering truths, i.e., grains of ultimate knowledge. Even in the details, cognition only allows us to get closer to the ultimate truth, not to reach it. Consequently, the real tool of knowledge is not a proof, but a presumption. The latter refers to a certain decision that was successfully established in the past in an appropriate context and therefore can be taken without additional proofs, though only in the absence of serious contradictory evidence. Two paradigms compete within the framework of modern evolutionary biology, i.e., the dominant cladistic paradigm and the often disregarded but indestructible phyletic paradigm, which grew from the traditional view on systematics and evolution. Cladistics corresponds to the genetic (=population-genetic, “synthetic”) theory of evolution, whereas phyletics corresponds to the holistic (=“epigenetic”) one. The cladistic paradigm seemingly offers a strict procedure of objective analysis, but its prerequisites, such as the mandatory dichotomy of a particular phylum combined with the simultaneous disappearance of an ancestor, which disregards the possibility of speciation without divergence, are hardly consistent with the real order of things, and unavoidable sources of subjectivity are also usually ignored. The holistic paradigm does not represent a less clear procedure, but a more complex protocol of analysis, since it not only recognizes the unavoidable elements of subjectivity but also explicitly introduces them into the research protocol as a choice between the conflicting presumptions. Phyletics, as part of the holistic paradigm, provides taxonomic and phylogenetic schemes that are stabler in the long run, and the holistic theory of evolution, together with the adaptive compromise metaphor derived from it, can explain many evolutionary phenomena that are incompatible with the genetic (“synthetic”) theory of evolution, such as the discrete nature of biological diversity, the fundamental nonuniformity of the evolutionary process, and the paradox of the inverse correlation between the evolutionary rate and level of organization, e.g., the highest and lowest rates of the evolution of large mammals and microorganisms, respectively.