The universalism and generosity of the lotus sutra: an emblematic reaction for a new world

The date of the Parinirva of the Buddha. Early Buddhism There is not a general agreement about the date of the Parinirva of the Buddha. There are on this respect many opinions accepted by diverse Buddhist communities and by diverse scholars. Each one of these opinions is based in traditions, arguments and texts, according to which the date of the Parinirv25a should be located between the years 368 and 965 before the beginning of the Common Era. This fact indicates the importance of the divergences regarding the matter. The great symposium celebrated at Göttingen in the year 1988, on The Dating of the Historical Buddha (whose Proceedings were published1 in three volumes with a total of one thousand two hundred pages), reached no positive result. As a work hypothesis we fix for the Parinirva circa 480 before the C.E., and, as there is a general acceptance that the Buddha lived for 80 years, we fix the date of his birth circa 560 before the C.E. During great part of His life of 80 years the Buddha was dedicated to the preaching of his Doctrine. We can give the name of “Early Buddhism” to that form of Buddhism as taught by the Buddha himself. This form is recorded in many of the texts written in Pli included in the Pli TipiakaFil: Tola, Fernando. Fundación Instituto de Estudios Budistas; ArgentinaFil: Dragonetti, Carmen Leonor. Fundación Instituto de Estudios Budistas; Argentin

A comparative Test of the Efficiency, focus and Learning Perspectives of Outsourcing

Despite the fact that vertical integration has been a key question of management studies for more than fifty years, we still do not have a unified, coherent view of outsourcing. In particular, multiple theoretical perspectives such as transaction cost economics, industrial organization, and strategy, could explain the outsourcing decision, but the implications of these different streams have neither been theoretically integrated, nor tested simultaneously. In an attempt to disentangle the various causes of outsourcing, we suggest three different rationales for outsourcing: cost reduction, focusing on core capabilities and importing knowledge into the firm. We develop several hypotheses, which we then test on secondary data on French small- and medium-sized enterprises. Results indicate that the learning rationale appears to be the strongest factor influencing the outsourcing decision. Some performance implications of this rationale are also suggested and tested.outsourcing; transaction cost economics; resource-based view; knowledge-based view

La génesis de los Universales en Prasastapada y la génesis de los Principia Prima y los Universales en Aristóteles

En este artículo los autores ofrecen un nuevo caso en soporte de su tesis concerniente a las frecuentes coincidencias temáticas en las Filosofías de la India y de Occidente, que ellos han desarrollado en especial en sus libros On the Myth of the Opposition between Indian Thought and Western Philosophy, Hildesheim: Olms Verlag, 2004, reseñado por Ernst Steinkellner en Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens Band XLVIII 2004, 224-225, y Yoga. Un Camino Místico Universal, Barcelona: Editorial Kairós, 2006. Dicha tesis apunta a lo que podríamos llamar una suerte de globalidad intrínseca del pensar filosófico, más allá de la cultura de que se trate. Praastapda (circa segunda mitad del siglo VII d.C.), en Praastapdabh=ya (llamado también Padrthadharmas{graha), Libro V: Smnyapadrthanirpaa, da dos descripciones de la génesis de los universales. Describe primeramente de una manera abstracta y concisa el proceso de surgimiento de todo smnya, “universal”, y después explica de una manera más concreta el surgimiento del universal inferior y del superior (satt, “la existencia”), a través de la reiteración de la percepción de objetos que presentan similares atributos y de la intervención del recuerdo de percepciones similares pasadas. Aristóteles (siglo IV a.C.), en Analytica Posteriora, Libro II, Capítulo XIX, y Temistio (circa 317-circa 387), en su comentario, explican a su vez el modo en que son aprehendidos los principios universales o premisas de la demostración (principia prima). Los autores de este artículo muestran cómo la descripción de Aristóteles y Temistio de la génesis de los principia prima y los universales concuerda de manera sorprendente con la de Praastapda concerniente a los universales.Fil: Tola, Fernando. Fundación Instituto de Estudios Budistas; ArgentinaFil: Dragonetti, Carmen Leonor. Fundación Instituto de Estudios Budistas; Argentin

Use of balloon catheter dilation vs. traditional endoscopic sinus surgery in management of light and severe chronic rhinosinusitis of the frontal sinus: a multicenter prospective randomized study

OBJECTIVE: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) of the frontal sinus is a complex pathological condition and many surgical techniques were described to treat this area endoscopically, like traditional endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and balloon catheter dilation (BCD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We designed a multicenter prospective randomized study to assess the validity and safety of BCD vs. ESS in symptomatological chronic rhinosinusitis of the frontal sinus enrolling a population of 102 adult patients (64 men and 38 women; overall 148 frontal sinuses studied) with non-polypoid CRS. For a better evaluation of the disease, in our study we decided to analyze both radiological (Lund-McKay CT scoring modified by Zinreich) and symptomatological results (SNOT-20 questionnaire). We divided the population affected in two groups, one with light/mild frontal CRS and the other with moderate/severe frontal CRS, basing on radiological findings at Lund-MacKay modified by Zinreich score. Every group was divided in two subgroups, in one we used BCD and in the other we used traditional ESS. RESULTS: The current literature does not support the suggestion that indications for BCD and ESS are identical, and additional research is needed to determine the role for BCD in specific patient populations. The results showed a not statistically significative difference between BCD and conventional ESS of the frontal sinus in patients with light/mild CRS and in patients with moderate/severe CRS at Lund-Mackay modified by Zinreich score. The same not statistically significative difference was observed comparing the results of SNOT-20 questionnaire in the group of light/mild frontal chronic rhinosinusitis. However, we noticed a statistically significant better outcome of SNOT-20 score in patients with moderate/severe chronic rhinosinusitis that underwent BCD of frontal sinus compared to ESS. CONCLUSIONS: BCD and ESS are two alternative weapons in the baggage of every endoscopic surgeon, even because they present similar outcomes, safeness and effectiveness both in light/mild and moderate/severe chronic rhinosinusitis of the frontal sinus. An interesting result of our study was the statistically significant better outcome of SNOT-20 score in patients that underwent BCD of frontal sinus for a moderate/severe CRS, compared to those that underwent a traditional ESS

The Golden Millenium of indian Philosophy

Sin resume

La unificación de las instituciones upanishádicas Badarayana. El inicio de la escuela Vedanta

Badarayana compuso un comentario a la Upanishads formado por un conjunto de 555 aforismos, cuya interpretación está en el origen de las distintas escuelas del Vedanta. Este artículo presenta cinco de estas escuelas y sus diferentes comentarios al Maestro.Badarayan wrote a commentary on the Upanishads made up of a total of 555 aphorisms, whose interpretation gave rise to the different schools of the Vedanta. This article presents five of these schools and their commentaries on the Master's text

El mito de la oposición entre filosofía occidental y pensamiento de la India El Brahmanismo. Las Upanishads

El presente artículo forma parte de una serie de artículos cuyas tesis fundamentales son: 1. En la India existió filosofía; 2. Hasta el siglo XVII la India, Grecia y Europa desarrollaron los mismos temas filosóficos; 3. Hasta el siglo XVII las características culturales de la India, Grecia y Europa respecto de la racionalidad e irracionalidad fueron las mismas; y 4. La comparación entre el pensamiento indio y el pensamiento occidental debe tener como límite extremo el siglo XVII, en que la cultura occidental toma una forma novedosa y única debido a múltiples factores. El artículo se ocupa de dos doctrinas de las Upanishads: en primer lugar de la doctrina de Brahman/Atman, señalando la evolución semántica de ambos términos y las principales características de ambos conceptos; luego de la doctrina de las correspondencias entre el macrocosmo y el microcosmo. El artículo trae a colación doctrinas griegas y occidentales que presentan similitudes con las doctrinas indias estudiadas.The present article is part of a series of articles whose fundamental theses are: 1. Philosophy existed in India; 2. Until the XVIIth century India, Greece and Europe developed the same philosophical themes; 3. Until the XVIIth century the cultural characteristics regarding rationality and irrationality where the same in India and in the West; 4. The comparison between Indian and Western thought must have as its extreme limit the XVIIth century in which European culture adopts a novel and unique form due to several factors. The article deals with two doctrines of the Upanishads: firstly the doctrine of Brahman/Átman, indicating the semantic evolution of both words and the fundamental characteristics of both concepts; and the doctrine of the correspondences between the macrocosm and the microcosm. The article brings up Greek and Western doctrines which offer similitudes or points of contact with the mentioned Indian doctrines