The Compassionate Gift of Vice: Śāntideva on Gifts, Altruism, and Poverty

The Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker Śāntideva tells his audience to give out alcohol, weapons and sex for reasons of Buddhist compassion, though he repeatedly warns of the dangers of all these three. The article shows how Śāntideva resolves this issue: these gifts, and gifts in general, attract their recipients to the virtuous giver, in a way that helps the recipients to become more virtuous in the long run. As a consequence, Śāntideva does recommend the alleviation of poverty, but assigns it a much smaller significance than is usually supposed. His views run counter to many engaged Buddhist discussions of political action, and lend support to the “modernist” interpretation of engaged Buddhist practice

Visibility and the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture for analytic rank one

Let $E$ be an optimal elliptic curve over \Q of conductor $N$ having analytic rank one, i.e., such that the $L$-function $L_E(s)$ of $E$ vanishes to order one at $s=1$. Let $K$ be a quadratic imaginary field in which all the primes dividing $N$ split and such that the $L$-function of $E$ over $K$ vanishes to order one at $s=1$. Suppose there is another optimal elliptic curve over \Q of the same conductor $N$ whose Mordell-Weil rank is greater than one and whose associated newform is congruent to the newform associated to $E$ modulo an integer $r$. The theory of visibility then shows that under certain additional hypotheses, $r$ divides the order of the Shafarevich-Tate group of $E$ over $K$. We show that under somewhat similar hypotheses, $r$ divides the order of the Shafarevich-Tate group of $E$ over $K$. We show that under somewhat similar hypotheses, $r$ also divides the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer {\em conjectural} order of the Shafarevich-Tate group of $E$ over $K$, which provides new theoretical evidence for the second part of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture in the analytic rank one case

Building an application for the writing process

The idea that writing is a process and not a product is now generally accepted in writing education, but discussions of digital scholarly communication often neglect the idea, in theory and in practice. This thesis report introduces a Mac OS X software package to support the early stages of the writing process, called Brouillon. Brouillon’s features include: the concatenation of discrete note files into notebooks; notes appearing in multiple notebooks; note intake from mobile devices via Dropbox; and an open standard file format. The report also provides a model of the organization of products of the writing process, with a focus on Brouillon’s most unusual feature, multi-notebook notes. It discusses difficulties in implementation and identifies possibilities for future improvement

The Metaphysical Basis of Śāntideva's Ethics

Western Buddhists often believe and proclaim that metaphysical speculation is irrelevant to Buddhist ethics or practice. This view is problematic even with respect to early Buddhism, and cannot be sustained regarding later Indian Buddhists. In Śāntideva’s famous Bodhicaryāvatāra, multiple claims about the nature of reality are premises for conclusions about how human beings should act; that is, metaphysics logically entails ethics for Śāntideva, as it does for many Western philosophers. This article explores four key arguments that Śāntideva makes from metaphysics to ethics: actions are determined by their causes, and therefore we should not get angry; the body is reducible to its component parts, and therefore we should neither protect it nor lust after other bodies; the self is an illusion, and therefore we should be altruistic; all phenomena are empty, and therefore we should not be attached to them. The exploration of these arguments together shows us why metaphysical claims can matter a great deal for Buddhist ethics, practice and liberation

Manoeuvres for management of diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is the scourge of our times. Globally there are over 425 million diabetics which is projected to rise to 629 million by 2045, suffering devastating consequences resulting in significant morbidity and mortality.1-3Bringing blood sugars down can be challenging. Dietary control, lifestyle modifications and exercise can help but these can be difficult to implement.4 Medically, drugs are the usual method of bringing blood sugar levels under control but they come with their attendant risks and ongoing costs.5 Apart from drugs, the main arsenal against diabetes is exercise but due to one reason or another it is not very popular or practical. In the absence of antidiabetic medications and episodic exercises there seems to be no alternative left. So, when a person is unable to exercise or is not on hypoglycaemic agents, he is rendered defenceless against the deleterious effects of raised blood sugar levels. Regardless, muscles form the frontline defence against diabetes since muscles are the main modifiable factor in utilization of glucose by the body which they can do even in the absence of insulin.6,7 Hence, muscles need to be the first line agents to fight diabetes. However, the muscles need to be activated when the blood sugars are high, that is, within minutes or hours after meals rather than exercising in the morning or evening when the blood sugar may be relatively low. The question is ‘How do we get the muscles to start using up glucose right when it enters the blood stream?’ This is where the manoeuvres described below can help since these can be done almost anytime and anywhere. Following are the proposed manoeuvres:Calf contractions: Alternate contractions of calf muscles of each leg while sitting, giving a good squeeze to the calf muscles. Alternatively, one or both calves can be contracted and held for some time. This manoeuvre can be done even while lying in bed.Pectoral pressure: One or both pectorals can be contracted and held for 30-60 seconds-longer the better. The strength of contractions will depend on one’s motivation and ability. Alternatively, moderate contractions can be maintained for a longer duration.Shoulder squeezes: The back has some of the strongest muscles which can be used to ‘pulverise’ the sugars. In this method the person can sit slightly bent forwards and the shoulders are pulled back and held in that position for 30-60 seconds.These manoeuvres can be done either singly or combined with other manoeuvres described or with dietary modifications, regular exercises or medications for greater efficacy.Of course, like the antidiabetic medications, these manoeuvres need to be titrated, especially when combined with hypoglycaemic agents, otherwise they can lead to hypoglycaemia.8 Even without antidiabetic medication they have the ability to cause hypoglycaemia, if done excessively. Once the muscles get used to these manoeuvres it will be easier for them to use glucose and keep blood sugars down

The psychological consequences of internal migration

Little is known about the effects of migration and mental health in general, however even less is known about internal migration despite the fact that more persons move within their own countries. Population studies predict that there will be a continuous growth in both internal and international migration in the coming years. Within developing countries internal migration has important social and economic consequences. For this paper I use large representative sample of adults residing in Kathmandu, Nepal to investigate the utility of stress process model for understanding effects of migration. Because our sample contains both migrants and non-migrants, we are able to compare the importance of common and unique sources of stress and access to social support as they affect urban dwellers in general. Results show that migrants and non-migrants differ only slightly in socio-demographic makeup. Migrants face more chronic sources of stress and have more social support problems. However, eventful stress is the only direct predictor of distress for both migrants and non-migrants. Lower access to social support indirectly affects migrants’ distress