Contents Page

(please make sure “java-scripting” is enabled in order for the tool-tips to function properly; mouse-hover on the yellow rectangular image to open; left-click on the image to hold).

• Richard’s Personal Web Page.

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• The Formation and Persistence of Social Identity.

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An Examen of “The Invention of ‘Heterosexuality’”.

(an essay by Brandon Ambrosino; 16 March 2017).

In mid-spring 2017 the BBC-Future website published a patently ill-researched four-part travesty of an essay wherein its author, basing his argument on two anomalous (obviously erroneous) dictionary definitions, proposed that heterosexuality [quote] “as a way of life” [unquote] may well die out long before men and women cease copulating with each other!
In the face of such risible absurdity an examen—as in a critical study of a writer’s work—was most certainly called for and the following exposé is not only highly entertaining but is quite instructive to boot.

Contents.

• An Examen of “The Invention of ‘Heterosexuality’” Part One.

• An Examen of “The Invention of ‘Heterosexuality’” Part Two.

• An Examen of “The Invention of ‘Heterosexuality’” Part Three.

• An Examen of “The Invention of ‘Heterosexuality’” Part Four.

• An Examen of “The Invention of ‘Heterosexuality’” Part Five.

• An Examen of “The Invention of ‘Heterosexuality’” Part Six.

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An Examen of “A (Forthcoming) Doctoral Dissertation”.

(by Abraham Vélez de Cea; early 2000)

Early in the year 2000 the “Buddhist Studies Review”, Vol. 17, No. 1., published an essay on pages 17-33, authored by Señor Abraham Vélez de Cea, which was therein depicted as being translated from his “(forthcoming) doctoral dissertation, ‘La filosofía del Buddha según los sermones Pali’ (Madrid)” (i.e., ‘The philosophy of the Buddha according to the Pali sermons’). As he made the Pāli sentence [quote] “pahāya vo gamissāmi kataṃme saraṇamattano” [endquote] central to his dissertation—a sentence uttered by the then-living sammāsambuddha three months prior to his anticipated anupādisesa parinibbāna and which is arguably one of the most significant sentences in the entire Pāli Canon as, containing three self-referential first-person pronouns, it unambiguously refers to a personal post-mortem refuge—it soon became apparent, upon accessing the by-then archived text circa December 2011, how an examen (as in a critical study of a writer’s work) would soon tease out many of the misconstruals which are rife in Pāli Studies.

The following exposé is not only instructive but is quite entertaining as well.

Contents.

An Examen of “A (Forthcoming) Doctoral Dissertation” Part One

An Examen of “A (Forthcoming) Doctoral Dissertation” Part Two

An Examen of “A (Forthcoming) Doctoral Dissertation” Part Three

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An Examen of “The Rise Of Buddhism” from the Church Quarterly Review (1882)
• Richard has dusted-off another of his Pāli-Studies compositions from 2011-2012, and brought it up to date with additional information gained in the meanwhile, making full use of mouse-hover tool-tips wherever appropriate, with a few signature flourishes sprinkled hither and thither.

The April-July 1882 issue of ‘The Church Quarterly Review’, Vol. 14, contained a lengthy article (pp. 88-107) entitled “The Rise of Buddhism” which began by observing how amongst the various forms of religions there was not one which showed a stronger claim to being made a subject of inquiry and reflection, nor one more fruitful in revelations, than Buddhism, and, further, how it should be a subject of uncommon interest to the thoughtful Christian—when he learns of its past conquests and appreciates the extent of its present sway (nearly five hundred millions of human beings, or about one-third of the human race, being its adherents)—as he will seek to know the secret of its power.

Written in the mid-Victorian Era, by an anonymous spokesperson for the High Church of England, the article serves as a vehicle for extolling the essential superiority of the high ideals an establishment monotheism purports to embody via presenting, as a foil, a professorially promulgated atheistic and nihilistic ‘Buddhism’ he found to be wanting in virtually every respect.

It is an article, in other words, simply begging an examen.

Contents.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part One.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Two.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Three.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Four.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Five.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Six.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Seven.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Eight.

• The Rise of Buddhism: Part Nine.

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• A Rather Quaint Clay-Pit Tale

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• Marvelling At How Well-Equipped Human Beings Are.

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• A Statement of Events Regarding the Psychotic Mental Disorder of Sapper Richard [redacted].

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