20 (2/2024)

2024

Publication date: 12.12.2024

Description

The publication of this volume was financed by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków– Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and the Strategic Program Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.

Cover design: Karolina Witecka

Licence: CC BY

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Agata Świerzowska

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Bożena Prochwicz-Studnicka

Secretary Anna Kuchta

Additional redactors Renata Iwicka

Issue Editors dr hab. Joanna Grela, Przemysław Skrzyński

Issue content

Wstęp

Joanna Grela, Przemysław Skrzyński

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 7-9

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Articles

Kilka refleksji przy lekturze Suttanipāty

Marta Kudelska

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 11-25

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.014.20958

The main subject of the essay on Ireneusz Kania is to recall his great contribution to the study of Buddhism in Poland. First of all, late śruti texts, mainly the Upanishads, are compared with the oldest texts of early Buddhism, the suttas. Reading texts from these collections together gives a fuller, more multidimensional picture of the era than by analysing only Brahminical or Buddhist sources. The analysis of both groups of texts indicates evidence of mutual contacts. Ancient India 3rd–2nd century BC they were neither exclusively Brahminical nor exclusively Buddhist, but were an arena for mutual discussions, polemics, the exchange of thoughts, and the flow of ideas.

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Hermeneutyka buddyjska Ireneusza Kani

Beata Łazarz

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 27-42

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.015.20959

The article focuses on Ireneusz Kania’s translation work in relation to canonical texts of early Buddhism. Central to his work was the pursuit of truth about the world and humanity, the path to which, in his view, the teachings of Buddha pointed. The article outlines the basic assumptions underlying his approach to translation. These include, alongside drawing from the Western hermeneutics, convictions rooted in Buddhist teachings regarding the conventionality of language, translation as a path to unfolding wisdom, the inevitable transience of translations, and translations as a kind of Indra’s net, where successive versions are interconnected. In his opinion, translations, enabling exploration texts from different cultural and historical realities, can both inspire the quest for answers to fundamental questions and enable the recognition of one’s own intuitions and insights pertaining to the nature of reality.

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Podniebne pochówki. O wpływie buddyjskiej tradycji tantrycznej na tybetańskie zwyczaje funeralne

Olga Kadłuczka

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 43-58

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.016.20960

The presented article indicates the possible influence of Buddhism, specifically its Tantric tradition on Tibetan funeral rituals, focusing notably on the unique practice of Sky Burials. Buddhist teachings on embracing death as an integral part of existence, along with concept of active compassion towards all sentient beings and the understanding of emptiness (śūnyatā) of all phenomena, shaped Tibetan perspectives on death. Since recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in society’s openness to discussing the topic of death. Therefore, the aim of this analysis is to provide a deeper understanding of the philosophical and spiritual aspects influencing this ancient yet still relatively unknown ritual. By exploring religious and cultural practices, my interest lies in elucidating the interconnectedness of religious philosophy, rituals, and their influence on societal perceptions, particularly concerning the universal human experience of death. Moreover, my aim is to provide a detailed explanation of the underlying ideas behind the ritual, which, due to lack of understanding, is often misconceived as a barbaric custom among the peoples inhabiting Central Asia. I intend to demonstrate how the influence of Buddhist thought has transformed funeral ceremonies rooted in the ancient native traditions of the Tibetan Plateau, thus mitigating one of the most deeply ingrained cultural taboos – the widely understood taboo of death.

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Buddhist Hells. Two Interpretations

Stefan Sencerz

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 59-72

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.017.20961

In this essay, I explore how teachings about hell functions within Buddhist cosmology and how they were developed within various Buddhist monastic traditions. I discuss, in particular, two different possible interpretations of these teachings; a literal one and a metaphorical one. By pointing to some problems with literal (realist) interpretations of what hells are, the essay indirectly argues for a metaphorical one.

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Medytacje tanatologiczne

Cezary Woźniak

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 73-86

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.018.20962

In 1927, Martin Heidegger published the treatise Being and Time, the significance of which went far beyond the realm of philosophy. This book was of fundamental importance for the constitution and development of contemporary philosophical thanatology. This article is devoted to the thanatological issues raised by Heidegger’s views, including the discussion with them undertaken by Jacques Derrida and Ray Brassier. The article discusses issues such as the aporia of death, the subject of death, forms of death, the essence and meaning of death, thanatological difference. It also raises the question: is “my death” possible?

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Arabic-English Code-switching in Discussing Religion: Evidence from the American University in Cairo

Małgorzata Kniaź

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 209-239

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.25.012.22875

The central problem this study addresses is the empirical disconnect between traditional linguistic ideology and the real-life practices of bilingual individuals when discussing religion in the Arab world. Current sociolinguistic literature lacks studies based on naturalistic conversational data that can definitively illustrate how highly educated Arab bilinguals reconcile the sacred role of Arabic with their personal dominance of English. This study investigates how Egyptian bilinguals use Arabic, English, and Arabic-English code-switching to discuss religion. The research is based on data from informal interviews with students from the American University in Cairo. The analysis uses quantitative methods to classify instances of CS according to Muysken’s typology (alternations, insertions, and discourse marker switching), with insertions further examined using the Matrix Language Frame model. The results indicate that (1) code choice regarding Islam is not topic-specific but depends on other extralinguistic and contextual factors. Religiosity appeared to be the least critical factor when not reinforced by a strong ideological attitude concerning Arabic; (2) Islam- and culture-related terms and phrases constitute the most distinct category of Arabic insertions. However, (3) Allāh and God-expressions are among the least switched categories. Instead of using Allāh, participants resorted to rabbina (our Lord) or God; (4) terms that appear equivalent exhibit meaning specialization in the bilingual repertoire. Dīn predominantly referred to Islam or Islamic tradition, while religion referred to religion in general, including Islam. Similarly, rabbina denoted only the Islamic God, while God referred to the Islamic God, God as a concept, or the object of faith; (5) English religion-related insertions were mostly limited to concepts with no exact Arabic equivalents and negative connotations in Arab culture, like atheism and agnosticism. The study highlights how code-switching in religious discourse is managed by complex pragmatic factors and an awareness of socio-cultural differences associated with the linguistic codes involved, leading to the functional and semantic specification of religious lexicon.

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Imaginatio Mundi

Motyw żałoby w wybranych opowieściach Komentarza do Dhammapady (Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā)

Joanna Gruszewska

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 87-101

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.019.20963

The text presents a translation of four stories from the Dhammapada Commentary (Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā), the themes of which are oriented around the motif of mourning after the death of loved ones: The Tale of Sumanā – commentary to verse 18, The Tale of Kisa Gotami (Kisāgotamī) – commentary to verse 114, The Tale of Queen Mallikā – commentary to verse 151 (fragment), The Tale of Visakha (Visākhā) – commentary to verse 213. The introduction discusses the relationship between the Dhammapada and its commentary, the characteristics of the commentary in Pali literature as a literary genre, and analyzes aspects of the presentation of mourning and the teaching on impermanence in the didactic dimension of the presented texts.

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Filozofia madhjamaki w Hymnie o Niepojętym (Acintya-stava) Nagardżuny

Krzysztof Jakubczak

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 103-124

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.020.20964

The text is divided into two parts. The first part is a reconstruction of the main issues of Madhyamaka philosophy present in Nāgārjuna’s Hymn to the Unthinkable One (Acintyastava). Particular emphasis is placed on issues that were not explicit in Nāgārjuna’s treatises. The most important one is the thetic moment of our experience, which is expressed by the term “obsession with reification” (bhāva-graha-grahāveśa). This is a natural tendency to attribute real existence to objects of consciousness, i.e. the tendency to hypostasize them (samāropa). The second part of the text is a translation of the Hymn of the Unthinkable One.

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Historia utworzenia wspólnoty mniszek. Osiem twardych reguł – fragmenty Ćullawaggi Reguły dyscypliny zakonnej Kanonu Palijskiego

Joanna Gruszewska

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 125-136

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.021.20965

The text presents an explanation of the story of the creation of the female monastic community in Buddhism as presented in the Basket of Rules of Monastic Discipline (Vinayapiṭaka) in the Cullavagga, in the tenth part devoted to nuns (Bhikkhunīkkhandhaka). The introduction discusses the characters and motifs appearing in the text, analyzes the most important themes, and cites the most important contemporary interpretations of the story.

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Translation of The Sūtra on Three States of Mind (Toh 253)

Artur Przybysławski

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 137-142

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.022.20966

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The Translation of The Single Stanza (Toh 323) and The Four Stanzas (Toh 324)

Artur Przybysławski

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 143-147

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.023.20967

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Apteczka tybetańska

Medycyna tybetańska w zbiorach Muzeum Etnograficznego w Krakowie. Wprowadzenie

Eleonora Tenerowicz

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 149-156

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.025.20969

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Tibetan medicine in the collections of The Ethnographic Museum in Krakow

Ireneusz Kania

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 157-193

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.028.21227

The content of the article is a preliminary description of two exhibits from the field of Indo-Tibetan medicine, held by the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków. They come from the areas of Mongolia or Buryatia, from where they were brought by the famous researcher and traveller, J. Talko-Hryncewicz, as a result of his wanderings in those areas in the years 1903–1908.
They are: a collection of medicines (strictly speaking: raw materials for their preparation), consisting of several hundred samples, and a handwritten medical compendium in Tibetan.
This work provides a catalogue description of the collection, containing the Tibetan name of the appropriate medicine in Latin transliteration, its Latin name, possibly also Sanskrit and Polish, and a short description of the contents of the jars in which the samples are located. This is the first description of this kind in Polish and one of the few in world literature. In view of the fact that specialists of various fields are becoming increasingly interested in the still little-researched but extremely interesting concepts and achievements of traditional Tibetan medicine, and also the fact that our collection with its 277 exhibits is one of the leading ones in terms of numbers among similar collections in museums around the world (only twenty or so are known), it should be considered very valuable, and its study a scientific task of great importance. The same applies to the medical manual in Tibetan. It is a large handwritten book, whose author – the famous Mongolian scholar bLo bzang chos ´phel – lists dūrya sgnon po, probably written at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century, is a sui generis summary of the long development of Indo-Tibetan medicine, which is why it has a very high scientific value.
This work provides a description of the compendium and its detailed contents (chapter titles in Tibetan and translated into Polish). It is one of only a few similar descriptions existing in world Tibetological literature. One of the most important goals of this work is to interest specialists in various fields of science – ethnographers, historians and practitioners of medicine, pharmacologists – in Tibetan medicine.

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Dialogues and Diagnoses

Gość z innej planety

Jerzy Illg

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 195-201

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.026.20970

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Ireneusz Kania i „Eranos”

Tomasz Wiśniewski

The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture. New Series, 20 (2/2024), 2024, pp. 203-208

https://doi.org/10.4467/24506249PJ.24.027.20971

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Files to download

Editorial and Title Pages PDF Contents PDF Wstęp (Joanna Grela i Przemysław Skrzyński) PDF

Słowa kluczowe: Śruti, Pali canon, upanishad, sutta, early Buddhism, Buddhism, Theravada, Dhammapada, hermeneutics, manas, Tibet, Buddhism, Sky Burials, Buddhist tantra, funeral traditions, Buddhism, suffering, the path to liberation, six realms of existence, dukkha, death, aporia, thanatology, phenomenology, existence, thanatological difference, Dasein, Heidegger, Derrida, Brassier, Arabic, English, code-switching, religious terms, Islam, Allāh expressions, Dhammapada, Dhammapada Commentary, Buddhism, Buddhist literature, Pāli language, grief, Nāgārjuna, Madhyamaka, Catuḥstava, Acintyastava, philosophy, existence, equivalence of dependent arising and emptiness, thetic moment of experience, hypostasizing (samāropa), Buddhism, Buddhist nuns, Vinaya, women in Buddhism, Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī