Literal means and hidden meanings : a new analysis of skillful means

Skillful means is usually used by scholars and Buddhists to denote the following simple idea: the Buddha skillfully adapted his teaching to the level of his audience.1 This very broad and somewhat oversimplified definition tries to incorporate the whole range of Buddhist views on the subject. However, it does not help to explain why there is an extensive use of the term in central Mahayana su tras while pre-Mahayana texts are almost completely silent on this issue. I suggest that skillful means has not always been an all-Buddhist concept; rather, it was developed by Mahayanists as a radical hermeneutic device. As such, skillful means is a provocative and sophisticated idea that served the purpose of advancing a new religious ideology in the face of an already established canonical knowledge. The Mahayana use of the concept exhibits an awareness, not found in pre-Mahayana thought, of a gap between what texts literally say and their hidden meaning

What kind of free will did the Buddha teach?

The modern version of the problem of free will is usually described as a collision between two beliefs: the belief that we are free to choose our actions and the belief that our actions are determined by prior necessary causes. Determinism—the view that events are determined by specific causes—makes most aspects of reality intelligible. It works quite well, for example, when explaining aspects of the natural world (quantum physics aside). When heat, fuel, and oxygen come together there is fire. There must be fire. To borrow a famous Buddhist simile, when a mango seed is given the right conditions, it will grow to become a mango tree. It cannot grow to be anything else. However, we do not usually think of agents as being caused in the same way. We tend to think that agents somehow transcend natural causation by their ability to choose freely. If we also think that agents are part of the natural order, we face a paradox. This is, in short, the problem of free will

Laboratory astrophysics under the ultraviolet, visible, and gravitational astrophysics research program: Oscillator strengths for ultraviolet atomic transitions

The conditions within astrophysical environments can be derived from observational data on atomic and molecular lines. For instance, the density and temperature of the gas are obtained from relative populations among energy levels. Information on populations comes about only when the correspondence between line strength and abundance is well determined. The conversion from line strength to abundance involves knowledge of meanlives and oscillator strengths. For many ultraviolet atomic transitions, unfortunately, the necessary data are either relatively imprecise or not available. Because of the need for more and better atomic oscillator strengths, our program was initiated. Through beam-foil spectroscopy, meanlives of ultraviolet atomic transitions are studied. In this technique, a nearly isotopically pure ion beam of the desired element is accelerated. The beam passes through a thin carbon foil (2 mg/cu cm), where neutralization, ionization, and excitation take place. The dominant process depends on the energy of the beam. Upon exiting the foil, the decay of excited states is monitored via single-photon-counting techniques. The resulting decay curve yields a meanlife. The oscillator strength is easily obtained from the meanlife when no other decay channels are presented. When other channels are present, additional measurements or theoretical calculations are performed in order to extract an oscillator strength. During the past year, three atomic systems have been studied experimentally and/or theoretically; they are Ar, I, Cl I, and N II. The results for the first two are important for studies of interstellar space, while the work on N II bears on processes occurring in planetary atmospheres

Revisiting the Chlorine Abundance in Diffuse Interstellar Clouds from Measurements with the Copernicus Satellite

We reanalyzed interstellar Cl I and Cl II spectra acquired with the Copernicus satellite. The directions for this study come from those of Crenny & Federman and sample the transition from atomic to molecular rich clouds where the unique chemistry leading to molecules containing chlorine is initiated. Our profile syntheses relied on up-to-date laboratory oscillator strengths and component structures derived from published high-resolution measurements of K I absorption that were supplemented with Ca II and Na I D results. We obtain self-consistent results for the Cl I lines at 1088, 1097, and 1347 A from which precise column densities are derived. The improved set of results reveals clearer correspondences with H2 and total hydrogen column densities. These linear relationships arise from rapid conversion of Cl^+ to Cl^0 in regions where H2 is present.Comment: 17 pp, 2 tables, and 3 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

E-Learning Works - Exactly How Well Depends on its Unique Features and Barriers

Key Findings: E-learning is comparable to traditional teacher-led classroom instruction in terms of effectiveness. E-learning has specific features that may influence learning: content, immersion, interactivity, and communication. Barriers to e-learning adoption include fraud and cheating, digital divides and their impact on low income and underprepared students, and cost issues

E-Learning in Postsecondary Education

Over the past decade postsecondary education has been moving increasingly from the class room to online. During the fall 2010 term 31 percent of U.S. college students took at least one online course. The primary reasons for the growth of e-learning in the nation\u27s colleges and universities include the desire of those institutions to generate new revenue streams, improve access, and offer students greater scheduling flexibility. Yet the growth of e-learning has been accompanied by a continuing debate about its effectiveness and by the recognition that a number of barriers impede its widespread adoption in higher education

Self-Assessments of Knowledge: Where Do We Go From Here?

[Excerpt] In this paper, we argue that there remain several unanswered questions surrounding self-assessments of knowledge that must be addressed before we can reach a more definitive conclusion on the viability of these measures. The answers to these questions may provide further evidence that self-assessments should not be used as an indicator of learning or they may serve to qualify the conditions under which self-assessments can be used with reasonable confidence. In either case, addressing these issues is critical if work in this area is to influence how researchers and practitioners evaluate trainees’ learning

Does Industrialization = "Development"? The Effects of Industrialization on School Enrollment and Youth Employment in Indonesia

This study examines the relationship between rising manufacturing employment and school enrollment in Indonesia from 1985 to 1995, a time of rapid industrialization. In comparison with cross- national studies, this study has a larger sample size of regions, defines data more consistently, and conducts better checks for causality and specification. Overall, enrollment is slightly higher and youth labor force participation slightly lower in regions with more manufacturing. The causal links between manufacturing and enrollments remain unclear. At the household level, employment of adult females in manufacturing is associated with lower enrollment, higher labor force participation, and more household responsibilities for female youth.

A comparison of UV surface brightness and HI surface densities for spiral galaxies

Shaya and Federman (1987) suggested that the ambient ultraviolet flux at 1000 A permeating a spiral galaxy controls the neutral hydrogen (HI) surface density in the galaxy. They found that the atomic envelopes surrounding small molecular clouds, because of their great number, provide the major contribution to the HI surface density over the stellar disk. The increase in HI surface density with later Hubble types was ascribed to the stronger UV fields from more high-mass stars in later Hubble types. These hypotheses are based on the observations of nearby diffuse interstellar clouds, which show a sharp atomic-to-molecular transition (Savage et al. 1977), and on the theoretical framework introduced by Federman, Glassgold, and Kwan (1979). Atomic envelopes around interstellar clouds in the solar neighborhood arise when a steady state is reached between photodissociation of H2 and the formation of H2 on grains. The photodissociation process involves photons with wavelengths between 912 A and 1108 A. Shaya and Federman used H-alpha flux as an approximate measure for the far UV flux and made their comparisons based on averages over Hubble type. Here, researchers compare, on an individual basis, UV data obtained with space-borne and balloon-borne instruments for galaxies with measurements of HI surface density (Warmels 1988a, b). The comparisons substantiate the conclusion of Shaya and Federman that the far UV field controls the HI content of spiral galaxies

Industrialization and Infant Mortality

On average, infant mortality rates are lower in more industrialized nations, yet health and mortality worsened during early industrialization in some nations. This study examines the effects of growing manufacturing employment on infant mortality across 274 Indonesian districts from 1985 to 1995, a time of rapid industrialization. Compared with cross-national studies we have a larger sample size of regions, more consistent data definitions, and better checks for causality and specification. We can also explore the causal mechanisms underlying our correlations. Overall the results suggest manufacturing employment raised living standards, housing quality, and reduced cooking with wood and coal, which helped reduce infant mortality. At the same time, pollution from factories appears quite harmful to infants. The overall effect was slightly higher infant mortality in regions that experienced greater industrialization.Industrialization, infant mortality, Indonesia, pollution, indoor air pollution