Faculty of Divinity
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1807/4311
The Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College has offered theological education in the Anglican tradition for more than a century and a half. Today the Faculty adapts that ongoing tradition in creative ways to new intellectual, liturgical, spiritual and pastoral approaches, and new expressions of social justice and ecumenical co-operation, both locally and on a global scale.
This is a prototype collection only, not indicative of the breadth of scholarship represented in the College.
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Item Open Access Growing More Food Towards Nibbana in a DSB Cooperativa(2023-07-22) Mihita, Bhikkhu“Growing More Food Towards Nibbana in a DSB Cooperativa” is a socio-dynamic Model developed towards increased self-sufficiency in food by way of minimizing the challenges faced by a people of a given country in the face of increasing market prices and national shortages. But what is unique about the model is that the intended socio-economic prosperity comes to be associated with a moral and spiritual goal and dynamic, the combination captured in the motto, “Growing more food towards Nibbana”. The Buddhian guiding principles for the collective effort (cooperativa) are generosity (daana), self-discipline (seela) and mind cultivation (bhaavanaa) (DSB), towards a moral society as well. While the Model was introduced by the author in the context of Cuban society (July 2023), it would be equally valid for any Latin American country, or for that matter, any other tropical country around the globe, towards good health, individual happiness and the social good.Item Open Access You're What You Sense: A Buddhianscientific Dialogue on Mindbody(Pariyatti Publishing, 2024) Mihita, BhikkhuYou're What You Sense - A Buddhianscientific Dialogue on Mindbody, is a treatment on the complex topic of mindbody, as in Buddhian Abhidhamma ‘metaphysics’. Introducing the concept in a metaphor of a tree, with two branches, dealt with in detail are each – mind and body. As befitting the dialogue format of the book, each is presented in a theatrical model of a stage play, introducing the principal cast and supporting cast – on-stage and off-stage. If these are the common elements, ‘particulars’ are introduced as ‘alternate styles of performance’: skilled-unskilled in the mind domain, and femininity-masculinity in the body domain.Item Open Access Reflections: Early Multicultural Canada(2022) Sugunasiri, Suwanda H.J.This is the 2nd Edition (2022) of a collection of 60 ‘thought pieces’ of the author relating to Early Multicultural Canada. All but a few written for the Toronto Star or presented on CBC Metro Morning, they cover a range of topics: Buddhism, Economy, Language, Literature, Morality, Multiculturalism, Polity, Religion and Social Living. Selected and edited by the Family, it was published informally in 1996, marking the author’s 60th Birthday. The final item #60, “Who, Then, is a 'Canadian?'” and #22 “Let’s Help Christians Celebrate” have found their way to educational, religious and other publications.Item Open Access CittaDNA, Higgs Field and Psychomorphic Resonance Co-conditioning a Rebecoming in Sky-Heaven (a Buddhianscientific Exploration in Relation to Westernscience)(2025) Mihita, BhikkhuThe Buddhist Tricompendium is not short of examples of life in the Sky-Heaven, called Devas ‘shining ones’. This is one of the types of life a human could end up in following death. Such a life is characterized by the Buddha as an opapàtika ‘fallen near’, instantaneous (in a better rendering than ‘sudden’ as in the text below), and parentless, and hence called a ‘rebecoming’ (punabbbhava) and not ‘birth’ (jàti). So what then conditions such a Rebecoming? We posit three such. First, at the personal level, is CittaDNA, i.e., the exiting ‘exit citta’, or ‘exit consciousness’ (cuti citta), continuing on from the former lifetime, across a synapse. (See Mihita, forthcoming, Phenotype Devas in Sky-Heaven Paralleling Humans: a Buddhianscientific Excursion, this paper being a chapter.) The second is the Higgs Field, drawn from Physics, namely the physicality present everywhere in the universe. The third is Psychomorphic Resonance, an extension from morphic Resonance drawn upon Biology. Given that the paper seeks to put Buddhianscience in Westernscientific terms, also drawing upon Westernscience, it is sub-titled ‘A Buddhianscientific Exploration in Relation to Westernscience’. An annotation is available at the following link: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/127073Item Open Access Phenotype Devas in Sky-Heaven Parallelling Humans under Genotype ‘Sentient-beings’(2024) Mihita, BhikkhuThis is a study on life in the Sky-Heaven, a whole new territory not much explored in Buddhianscientific literature. As in the title, Devas are characterized as a phenotype paralleling humans on earth. And this is under the genotype sattà, literally ‘state of being’. Each of humans and Devas shares a common characteristic, called ‘sentience’, i.e., having senses, not just 5 as in Westernscience, but a 6th, too. And this is the mind-sense, i.e., consciousness, the primary sense indeed, though listed as the sixth. This then is what makes both humans and Devas ‘sentient beings’, as in Buddhianscience. The confirmation comes from the Buddha himself, when he declares “[that] there is a spontaneous sentient being’ is a ‘correct view …, undistorted vision’”. Though the study is by no means comprehensive, and presented in bare bones, it hopefully provide a realistic understanding of the Devas, paralleling humans on earth. Encountered will also be new terminology, partly because the subject is in an area not familiar to the west. But it is also by way of retaining scientificity, specificity, brevity and objectivity, if also creativity, reflective of the Buddha’s own attempts and orientation. An annotation is available at the following link: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/127073Item Open Access Uncreated Grace in Richard Hooker, the Single Wall of Doctrine that divides us from Rome(2024-10-30) Neelands, DavidRichard Hooker consistently argued that there was one principal theological position that divided the consensus of the Church of England from Roman Catholic theologians, the "doctrine" of created grace. He himself was consistently observing that the divine offered us glimpses of glory in a variety of church activities, yet this did not amount to him as support for the erroneous theological position.Item Open Access Spirituality as Biological Internity in Evolutionary Efflorescence: A Buddhianscientific Explication(2024-10) Mihita, BhikkhuThis paper is an exploration of the 52 cetasikas ‘mental factors’, as in the Abhidhamma, both “associated with consciousness” as also “arise and cease” with consciousness, as comprehensively covered in the Abhidhammatthasangaha. But it is not a traditional Buddhist study. The approach here rather is to understand them collectively as the internity (ajjhattika) as in the Abhidhamma, this by way of understanding and explaining the complex concept of Spirituality, from the Buddhianscientific point of view. But given their internal nature of being a part of every sentient being, the writer comes to see them in Biological terms, seeing it in evolutionary terms, taking the study to Westernscience.Item Open Access Religion as Sociospirituality and Psychotherapy Towards Ethics, Civility and Good Health(2024-07) Mihita, BhikkhuThis paper seeks to help understand Religion from an atheistic point of view, drawing upon Buddhadhamma, namely the Teachings of the Buddha, with no belief in a Creator God. First a distinction is made between Spirituality and Religion, both associated with theism in the West, and shown to be not synonymous and identical. However, the paper then goes to point to the relationship between them, Religion characterized as a Sociospirituality, i.e., a social manifestation of Spirituality, and Spirituality characterized as an ‘internity’ (drawing upon a related paper). The main thrust of the article, however, is to point to the benefits of religion, to each and every individual, and hence society at large. Towards understanding this, we look at Religion from several perspectives – as Psychotherapy, Self-therapy, Moral Praxis, Ethics and Civility, towards personal good health and social calm. Though the case is made in relation to Buddhianscience, the point is made that the case equally applies to all religions, regardless of the belief system. The paper ends with an appeal to the academy to shed the scholar myth of Religion being moronic, associating it with the Right Brain hemisphere.Item Open Access Sinhala Short Story: Origins and Growth (1860-1960)(Nalanda Publishing Canada, 2024) Sugunasiri, SuwandaItem Open Access Buddha as Originator of the Embedded Story Genre(2024-09) Mihita, BhikkhuThis is a paper primarily based in the Buddha’s complex Discourse, Aggañña-sutta (Digha Nikaya 27) from a literary perspective, initially explored in relation to the Buddhist Jātaka ‘Birth stories’. Looked at in relation to the classical beast fable Pañcatantra in Sanskrit literature, what is seen is an embedded story genre. Exploring further, Buddha comes to be shown as the ORIGINATOR of the embedded structure, the Pañcatantra of two centuries or so after the Buddha, as a culmination of the structure in Sanskrit literature.Item Open Access Fetters in Tatters towards Sotāpanna: ‘Body-is-me View’, ‘Still Thinking’ & ‘Shortchanging Sīla’(2024) Mihita, BhikkhuThe elimination of the first three (of ten) Fetters (saṃyojana) marks a Stream-entrant (sotāpanna) on the Buddhian Path to Liberation. This is a creative attempt at understanding what is meant by these three lower Fetters, namely, sakkāyadiṭṭhi, vicikiccā, sīlabbata parāmāsa, translating the Pali terms as “Body-is-me View,” “Still Thinking,” and “Shortchanging Sīla”. The non-standard translation is intended to help the reader understand the concepts, easier and better, by way of encouraging the undertaking of an effort to eliminate them towards Nibbāna.Item Open Access The authority of St. Augustine in the debates leading to the Lambeth Articles(2024) Neelands, DavidIn the troubles surrounding William Barrett and the composition of the Lambeth Articles, Archbishop Whitgift called on a number of theological advisers for opinions. A close study of the responses he received and his own position show that his own thinking changed somewhat on several of the topics at issue, and that he and his advisers were strongly influenced by the authority of St. Augustine as they interpreted his writings. This coloured their interpretation of the Articles finally produced. Although Richard Hooker was apparently not called upon to offer an opinion, he was quite familiar with some of the responses given to Archbishop Whitgift and his own developed position closely approximated the consensus that appears to have developed. The texts from Augustine and the consensus in this group of theologians, at once Conformist in polity, Reformed in conviction, and Patristic in inspiration, help illustrate Hooker’s special position in relation to contemporaries like William Perkins.Item Open Access The “deceit of the evil spirit” among the radicals, according to Richard Hooker(2024) Neelands, DavidPrevious papers have explored Hooker’s “two ways” of knowing, the discursive and the non-discursive, and have attempted to show that both are important, and in particular, that the discursive is not completely adequate. This paper turns to the question of distinguishing the convictions that come, through grace, through a discursive process that can be analyzed using classic analyses of modes of persuasion, deriving from Aristotle, to a non-discursive conviction of trust in God and hope. Hooker analyses this movement from the outer discursive to the inner non-discursive in an analysis of the rise of the faulty convictions of the fanatic and the revolutionary, in Geneva and potentially in England, through arrogant self-deceit, avoiding the grace offered to all.Item Open Access Buddha Builds House of Bhikkhunī Sāsana in a Piaget Stage-wise Model(2024-01) Mihita, BhikkhuDrawing upon Jean Piaget’s model, this article seeks to show how the ‘forward looking’ Buddha cautiously builds the ‘House of Bhikkhuni Sasana’ (my concept) over time. It also seeks to demolish the traditional view that it was Ananda who pushes the Buddha’s hands to ordain Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, but that it was the other way around. Drawing upon Noam Chomsky, it is shown that the largely misunderstood issue of women’s ordination will be seen in its reality when looked at the level of ‘deep structure’ level going beyond the ‘surface structure’ level. The historicity of the Garuka Dhamma is pointed to as well; i.e., handed down by the Buddha, and no later addition.Item Open Access ‘Mettaic-Ethnicity’: World Buddhism under One Umbrella in Canada - a Comparative Research Study(2023-08-29) Mihita, BhikkhuThis is a paper presented at the Eighth Biennial Conference of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, Montreal, Canada, October 17, 1985, based in a series of oral interviews conducted by the writer in the role of researcher for the Multicultural History Society of Ontario. Re-discovered recently among his archival material, it has been edited (2023) while the data remains untouched. So while the references may be dated (and the dates may need verification), the case made I believe still stands. The main contribution of the paper is that the Buddhist groups of varied ethnocultural backgrounds in Canada serve to provide a counter example to the scholarly theories how conflict is inherent in ethnic relations. For all the geoethnocultural changes made over time to the Buddhadhamma, the communities relate to each other in a ‘mettaic’, i.e., friendly, manner, respectful of each other, liberation being in the hands of the individual. It is a similar attitude that the Buddhists have in relation to other religions. A novel theoretical contributions of the paper is that a religious community is treated as an ‘ ethnic’ community as in the sociological literature. The paper also provides the unintended benefit of historicity.Item Open Access Buddhianscience: Truth Yesterday, Truth Today, Truth Tomorrow(2023-08) Mihita, BhikkhuThis paper seeks to show how the label ‘Buddhism’ fails to capture the real nature of the Buddhadhamma, namely its scientificity, thus introducing the label Buddhianscience, paralleling Westernscience. Different from all other religions, Buddha teaches no Creator God or a soul. By way of support, the paper first shows how the Buddha’s foundational teachings of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble 8-fold Path were arrived at empirically, in a strict objectivity, and not speculatively or mythologically. Next showing how Buddhianscience comes to be confirmed by Westernscience, it shows further that the former is ahead of the latter in terms of understanding reality. Hence the title Buddhianscience: Truth Yesterday, Truth Today, Truth Tomorrow. While a Buddhian teaching of 2500 years has never proven wrong, it is in stark contrast to Westernscience in which Truth today turns Myth tomorrow with new discoveries.Item Open Access Sky as Heaven, but Temporary Abode, as in Buddhianscience(2023-03-10) Mihita, BhikkhuThis paper shows, first, how in the Buddhianscientificliterature, the sky comes to be the Heaven, but only as a temporary abode. Just as the earth is the home for not only Humans but Animals, too, each with six senses, and hence Sentient-beings, the Sky-Heaven comes to be home for another type of sentient being, namely the Devas, also constituted of senses. The paper posits each of them to be phenotypes under the genotype satto ‘sentient being’. Buddhianscience outlines four sky spheric levels, the spiritual level ofagiven Earth-being at the point of death determining in which of the four one wouldend up in. Intriguingly, in Westernscience,too, the sky sphere comes to be classified in terms of 4-5levels, by physical height and other characteristic features. The highest level in both analyses ironically comes to be called the ‘exosphere’. This then is a peek – a brief presentation arguing for the view.Item Open Access Mahapajapati ordained at Very First Entreaty, upasampada with Eight Principles of Respect(2023-02) Mihita, BhikkhuThis article seeks to show that Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī was ordained by the Buddha at the very first opportunity, and the Higher Ordination (upasmpadā) was given at Vesali, handing down the Eight Principles of Respect (aṭṭhagarukadhamma). Pointed out also are some erroneous readings of the text as well as dubious English translations.Item Open Access An Argument in Defence of a Strictly Scientific Study of Religion: The Controversy at Delphi(Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, 2021) Wiebe, DonaldThis is a descriptive account of the meeting of an extended Executive Committee of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) to discuss the Association's strengths and weaknesses and a critical evaluation of the decisions subsequently made by the Executive Committee that will radically transform the character and scientific objectives of the Association.Item Open Access Sarabhañña, an Esthetic Delivery of Dhamma: Origins and Structure(2021-12) Mihita, BhikkhuThis paper, on a topic last treated 100 years ago, seeks to explore a little-known and elusive style of chanting called Sarabhañña. Authorized by the Buddha by way adding some colour in presenting the Dhamma (= Teachings of the Buddha), it is in contrast to Gītassara. Made up of two parts, the Origins are traced to an encounter the Buddha has with a visiting monk of one year in the robes by the name Sona. While the initial enunciation comes to be by the monk, it is shown Canonically that it may well have been in a psychic transplant by the Buddha himself, rendering him the progenitor of the style. The enumeration of the Structure drawn upon the musical scale of 7 notes (septet in western / saptaka in Indic), it is shown how in the Sarabhañña chanting, however, it comes to be 2-notes plus a trill. Paritta ‘protection’ chanting, as recited by the Sinhala Theravada Sangha of Sri Lanka, is shown as the example par excellence, in a tradition introduced to the country in the 3rd c. BCE. The study is cross-disciplinary drawing upon Buddhianscience, Musicology, Linguistics, History and Parapsychology.