This article discusses the thought of the Czech Marxist philosopher, writer, and poet Egon Bondy (1930–2007) and his dialectical interpretation of Buddhist philosophy, which strongly influenced Bondy’s “nonsubstantial ontology” with its teaching about the Emptiness (śūnyatā) of all entities, the central concept in the philosophy of the Buddhist monk Nāgārjuna (ca 150–250 AD). The second, shorter part of the article outlines recent developments in the field of philosophy inspired by Marxism and Buddhism.
The article presents different attitudes of Buddhist ethics and onthology towards plants in the course of the long history of the Doctrine from its beginings to contemporary teachers. To demonstrate the broader context and trace possible sources of Buddhist thought on this matter, pre-Buddhist Indian traditions and Jainism are also discussed. The main aim is to tackle the question whether plants have been regarded as sentient beings or not. Thus, the article mainly deals with for this purpose the most relevant Buddhist texts, scholars and time periods, namely the ancient layers of the Pali Canon, Japanese esoteric schools (Tendai, Shingon) and contemporary \buddhist preachers. The answer is much more complex than might be expected and varies across texts and scholars. Its extreme poles of 1. a sharp rejection of plants as sentient beings, and 2. plants attaining the nirvana merely by completing the vegetation process are shown., Jakub Kocurek., and Obsahuje bibliografii