Delivering the last blade of grass: Aspects of the<i>bodhisattva</i>ideal in the Mahāyāna

Oldmeadow, Harry

doi:10.1080/09552369708575462

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The Discourses, IV:1) and of course by various religious systems. 6 For the Mahayana school, see Oldmeadow (1997), but similar ideas can certainly be found in Theravadan school as well (Brahm, 2006, p. 245); see also later in the text.…”

Section: From Intelligence To Wisdommentioning

confidence: 71%

Painful intelligence: What AI can tell us about human suffering

Hyvärinen¹

2022

Preprint

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This book uses the modern theory of artificial intelligence (AI) to understand human suffering or mental pain.Both humans and sophisticated AI agents process information about the world in order to achieve goals and obtain rewards, which is why AI can be used as a model of the human brain and mind. This book intends to make the theory accessible to a relatively general audience, requiring only some relevant scientific background.The book starts with the assumption that suffering is mainly caused by frustration. Frustration means the failure of an agent (whether AI or human) to achieve a goal or a reward it wanted or expected. Frustration is inevitable because of the overwhelming complexity of the world, limited computational resources, and scarcity of good data. In particular, such limitations imply that an agent acting in the real world must cope with uncontrollability, unpredictability, and uncertainty, which all lead to frustration.Fundamental in such modelling is the idea of learning, or adaptation to the environment. While AI uses machine learning, humans and animals adapt by a combination of evolutionary mechanisms and ordinary learning. Even frustration is fundamentally an error signal that the system uses for learning. This book explores various aspects and limitations of learning algorithms and their implications regarding suffering.At the end of the book, the computational theory is used to derive various interventions or training methods that will reduce suffering in humans. The amount of frustration is expressed by a simple equation which indicates how it can be reduced. The ensuing interventions are very similar to those proposed by Buddhist and Stoic philosophy, and include mindfulness meditation. Therefore, this book can be interpreted as an exposition of a computational theory justifying why such philosophies and meditation reduce human suffering.

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Section: From Intelligence To Wisdommentioning

confidence: 71%

Painful intelligence: What AI can tell us about human suffering

Hyvärinen¹

2022

Preprint

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“…“Great Vehicle”). For an overview of the polemics, see Oldmeadow (1997). For a Theravada response, see Ratnayaka (1985).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindfulness for teachers: notes toward a discursive cartography

Low

2019

HER

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Purpose For the interested teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher seeking an entry point into how mindfulness relates to teachers’ work, the burgeoning and divergent appeals for the relevance of mindfulness to teachers can be bewildering. The purpose of this paper is to offer teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers a conceptual framework for understanding the different orientations and sources of mindfulness as it has been recommended to teachers. Design/methodology/approach Using Foucault’s (1972) concept of “discursive formations” as a heuristic device, this paper argues that mindfulness as pitched to teachers can be helpfully understood as arising from three distinct orientations. Findings Statements about mindfulness and its relevance to teachers emerge from three distinct discursive formations – traditional, psychological and engaged – that each constitute the “problem” faced by teachers respectively as suffering, stress or alienation. Specific conceptions of mindfulness are then advanced as a solution to these problems by certain authoritative subjects and institutions in ways that are taken as legitimate within each discursive formation. Originality/value Apart from offering a historical and discursive mapping of the different discursive formations from which mindfulness is pitched to teachers, this paper also highlights how each of these orientations impies a normative view of what a teacher should be. Suggestions for further historical research are also offered along the lines of genealogy, epistemology and ontology.

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The Compatibility between Bodhisattva Compassion and ‘No-self’

Yao¹

2008

Asian Philosophy

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Delivering the last blade of grass: Aspects of thebodhisattvaideal in the Mahāyāna

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

Painful intelligence: What AI can tell us about human suffering

Painful intelligence: What AI can tell us about human suffering

Mindfulness for teachers: notes toward a discursive cartography

The Compatibility between Bodhisattva Compassion and ‘No-self’

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