Budologijos raida kaip Rytų ir Vakarų kultūrų sąveikos atspindys

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Budizmas; Budologija; Hermeneutika; Kultūrų sąveikos; Kultūrų sąveikos atspindys; Rytai; Vakarai; Buddhism; Buddhist studies; Cultural interaction; East; Hermeneutics; Reflection of cultural interaction; West.

ENThe article deals with the problem of cross-cultural East-West relations from the point of view of the history of Buddhist studies in the West. The author points out that Buddhist studies have always reflected the dominating conceptual ideas and positions of every historical age of the West. An analysis of the main phases of the development of Buddhist studies reveals that the distinguishing feature of it was the comparison of Buddhism with Christianity, which was at that time the standard of religion and the essence of Western culture. The second aspect of this intercultural relation is faced in the field of Buddhist hermeneutics. The Buddhist discourse is always directed to the peculiar situation and toward the concrete person, and has two levels of interpretation: the literal (nitartha) and symbolic or hidden (neyartha). Such a hermeneutical pluralism of the Buddhist canon helps us to understand why Buddhist studies cannot be limited by philological methods of resarch only. The next problem is connected with applying to Buddhism the Western understanding of philosophy, its function, goals and methods. It leads to the secularisation of the main Buddhist ideas. We should understand that Buddhism is religion, philosophy, ethics and psychology as well, but on different levels. Summing up, we can say that the history of Buddhist studies reveals that in spite of radical changes in comparative studies, the East-West dialogue is still in the nascent stage and is carried out in the terms and conditions of the Western intellectual tradition. [From the publication]