Paul Trafford's blog

Siam in the 16th and 17th Centuries: Encountering the French missions

2011-09-04T22:18:00.001+01:00

This opening paragraph comes from Relation du voyage de Mgr. de Béryte, vicaire apostolique du Royaume de la Cochinchine (Account of the Travels of The Mgr. [Bishop] of Beirut, Vicar Apostolic for the Kingdom of Cochinchina), compiled by Jacques de Bourges, published in 1666 and made available as a Google eBook.

Drawing on my schoolboy French, a translation might be:

I do not believe that there's a country in the world where one finds more religions and whose practice is more permitted than in Siam. Gentiles, Christians, and Muslims, who are all divided into different sects, are at complete liberty to follow such worship as seems best to them. The Portuguese, English, Dutch, Chinese, Laplanders, Peguans, along with people from Cambodia, Malacca, Cochinchina, Champa, and several other places on the Septentrion coast, all have established themselves in Siam. There are nearly two thousand Catholics, the majority Portuguese, who have come from various places in the East Indies, from which they were driven, and have taken refuge in Siam, where they have a separate district making up a suburb of the city...

Thailand's reputation for openness goes back a long way! Yet, I was still surprised by the plurality of the situation described here more than 300 years ago. Quite a distinguished case of 'multiculturalism' (about which contemporary discussions might suggest that it's a recent phenomenon!) What is not clear from this picture, though, is whether there developed much in the way of cultural exchange and integration among the communities. The compartmentalising suggests each group went its own way and the various accounts I've read so far seem to confirm this and they often relate complaints about each other and contrary points of view, especially among the Europeans.

I'm interested particularly in the East-West encounter, which in this period was concentrated in Ayutthaya, the old capital of what was then termed 'Siam' (which appears to have had external origins, which I may try to explain vis-a-vis 'Thai' and 'Tai' in another post). It was missionary zeal that drove much of the first two centuries of expeditions and settlements - and the religious institutions seemed often to be better informed and coordinated than the state-sponsored trading companies. Today the deep-rooted influence of the West is often characterised in terms of the material trappings of globalisation, but arguably more persistent effects are evident in the education system, where many schools still have a Christian foundation and this is more my focus here as I try to explore its origins and development in these early accounts.

This means having to keep practising my French language skills as most of the written accounts relate to the experiences of the French. Given this predominance of materials it's difficult to draw a non-partisan view. Among the French records, Martin's accounts are probably the most valuable for the meticulous attention to detail (recording a constant stream of news in the manner of a ledger, even leaving blanks as placeholders for figures that were still to be determined). However, his background and allegiances do colour his interpretation. There were a few other travellers who passed by without having involvement, one of whom was the German naturalist and physician, Engelbert Kaempfer - I look forward to reading his A Description of the Kingdom of Siam 1690 (Itineraria Asiatica: Thailand). At least the task is made somewhat easier by electronic publishing; in sponsoring large scale digitisation of old texts, Google has been providing marvellous support for this historical research.

Among the few scholars who appear to have studied the materials from this period in depth is Michael Smithies, a historian. He has published extensively and I've already availed myself of a copy of his book, A Resounding Failure: Martin and the French in Siam, 1672-93, published by Silkworm Books. The back cover summarises its importance: “François Martin, from his unique viewpoint as director of the French trading outpost at Pondichery, provides a careful analysis of the motives of the persons involved in the French colonizing venture.” And there were many players in this theatre!

Prof. Smithies original studies were in French and his teaching of French (and Indonesian) in Papua New Guinea earned him the honour of being received into the French Order of Academic Palms (I don't know the UK equivalent, but it's a notable decoration). In an interview for Bulletin No. 17 Amopa 79, 2005-6, he relates his career development. In particular, he joined the British Council in 1960 and was immediately sent “as a matter of urgency” to Thailand as Director of English studies. He recounts that he had to monitor the work of dozens of teachers, and assist in teaching at different universities in Bangkok. At that time my mother (then Fuengsin Sarayutpitag), recently graduated from Chulalongkorn University, was teaching English as a foreign language at the newly established Thonburi Technical College. She knew a "Mr. Smithies" and I expect it was the same man. It would be nice if this could be confirmed.

Whilst Smithies was familiarising himself with Thai culture (it was about 10 years later that he started to devote himself to scholarly research in this field), my mother was undertaking the complementary activity of delving into Western culture. And this is the general perspective that I'm trying to keep in mind as I look at this confluence, in which my mother was inextricably involved for the rest of her life.

The Far East continues to be a source of attraction for French missionaries, as evident in a trailer for a film 'Ad Vitam, La Grande Aventure des Missions Etrangères de Paris en Asie'. The excerpt includes a brief historical explanation by the archivist, Fr. Gerard Moussay, who describes the origins of M.E.P.: in the 16th and 17th Century the Vatican gave the kings of Spain and Portugal the right to nominate missionaries across the world, but with the kings becoming increasingly ineffective in carrying this out, bishops called Apostolic Vicars were appointed, the first two being Mgrs. François Pallu and Lambert de la Motte.

Regarding present day attitudes, Fr. Etcharren, Supérieur Général of MEP, emphasizes that being a missionary means carrying a message that's "not ours" and requires always humility. He offers us another glimpse into how the early period is viewed in a short speech he gave on a recent visit to Thailand (see another video), in which they celebrate 350 years in Ayutthaya. He recounts the arrival of the first missionaries in 1662:

Ce Lieu d'Ayutthaya a été dès le début d'abord un lieu de prière, de contemplation et de réflexion missionaire. Lorsque les missionnaires sont arrivés ici, ils ont commencés par faire une retraite et puis ensuite un synode de réflexion. Les valeurs qui ont émergé lors de ce synode d'Ayutthaya sont des valeurs missionaires qui sont toujours d'actualité.

In English (again I translate):

This place in Ayutthaya was from the outset firstly a place of prayer, contemplation and missionary reflection. When the missionaries arrived here, they began with a retreat followed by a synod of reflection. The values which have emerged from the synod of Ayutthaya are the missionary values which are still current [today].

This gives the impression that there has been continual activity, perhaps suggestive of serene and steady development, but it's not been like that historically because inevitably there has been a lot of political involvement.

From the accounts of de Bourges (cited above) and others, the Kingdom of Siam might have seemed an opportunity ripe for successful missionary endeavours. The French were certainly encouraged to invest a lot in developing their presence in the region; Martin relates in 1675 about Mgr. Pallu, Bishop of Helipolis:

This great prelate, whose probity and sanctity Europe, Asia and America admire, had embarked in Siam on a vessel of a private French merchant to go to Tonkin, to devote the rest of his strength to the conversion of the infidels. (II,13, translated by Smithies)

There were many 'gains' in some parts, but efforts were in vain in Siam (and Martin merely echoes the uncharitable remarks, which sound like those of a bad loser):

I also learnt from letters from Siam that the French Missionaries made many conversions in Tonkin and Cochinchina. Things were not the same in Siam, although this place was like an entrepot for the other missions and from where they were supplied with all essentials. This was attributed to the stupidity of the Siamese, a brutal people to whom one could not explain the mysteries of the Christian religion." (II, 86, translated by Smithies)

Even so, efforts gathered pace as we also learn from Martin that under Louis XIV, the French were by the mid 1680s emboldened to issue various demands to the Siamese king, Phra Narai, including his conversion from Buddhism to Christianity. The bishops attempted to win over the king through rational argumentation, but the king simply concluded that Christianity - alongside other religions - was basically good and he felt no need to change his own Buddhist affiliation.

Meanwhile, the French military presence continued to grow until it was all too much for some members of the Siamese court: in 1688 there was a revolution and the French were formally ejected under a treaty of 'honourable capitulation'. With a formal trade embargo then introduced and enforced for about 150 years, there was a lull in the nation's engagement with the West - we have to wait until King Rama IV before formal ties with these nations are resumed. However, I expect that smaller scale developments continued and it may be interesting to find out more about them.

Heart like a Crystal: Francisco de Osuna and the Tenth Recollection

2011-07-23T17:48:00.002+01:00

As part of my M.St. I carried out some research for an essay on a famous Spanish mystic and Doctor of the Catholic Church in: Visions Within: Spiritual Development and the Evolution of Imagery in Teresa of Ávila's The Interior Castle. Among the images that most caught my eye were descriptions of the interior of the heart, likened to a crystal, which is introduced at the start of her book:

I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions. (I,i,1)
... and in the centre and midst of them all is the chiefest mansion where the most secret things pass between God and the soul. (I,i,3)

In my brief analysis I mentioned the profound influence of Tercer Abecedario (Third Spiritual Alphabet), written by a near-contemporary, Fray Francisco de Osuna, who was born a couple of decades before St. Teresa. However, although I had learnt that he had used imagery, owing to time constraints I hadn't pursued this beyond a reference to fortification.

Yet the name of this Franciscan friar lodged in the back of my mind. A year later I was helping out on a Buddhist meditation retreat at the Ladywell Retreat and Spirituality Centre belonging to the Catholic order of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood. Whilst there I wandered into the library and I came across The Third Spiritual Alphabet, a translation into English by a Benedictine of Stanbrook (Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1931). I read a few paragraphs about the basic matter of personal conduct and was impressed by the sound practical advice, which seemed similar to advice for bhikkhus.

So I decided to look for a copy of this edition. It's not so easy to find, but fortunately I managed to trace one in a local shop, St Philips Books, St. Aldates, Oxford, and promptly went in person where it was duly found on a shelf, though somewhat tucked away. There is a more recent translation by the Paulist Press, New York, but I felt inclined to the earlier publication. One feature of the 1931 edition is that there are detailed footnotes that link this work with that of St. Teresa.

Yesterday, I took the Third Spiritual Alphabet with me on a ramble towards Chilswell, found a quiet spot and browsed. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the processes of recollection, especially where he writes in the Sixth Treatise:

There now remains only the tenth manner of re-collecting or gathering together God and the soul - the end for which it has aimed by all its recollection. This truly takes place when the divine Light infuses itself into the soul as into glass or crystal, sending forth as a Sun the rays of its love and grace that penetrate the heart after having first been received in the highest point of the spirit. This is followed by the most perfect recollection which unites and collects together God with the soul and the soul with God.

The footnote notes the relationship to St. Teresa's thoughts:

This passage is strongly suggestive of The Interior Castle: 'It is very important for us, sisters, that we should not consider our soul to be in darkness.' (Castle, vi, viii, 4). Like Osuna, S. Teresa compares God to the sun. This idea is maintained throughout the Castle. Speaking of the darkness of the crystal caused by sin, she writes: 'Notice that it is not the fountain and brilliant sun that lose their splendour and beauty, for they are placed in the very centre of the soul and cannot be deprived of their lustre. The soul is like a crystal in the sunshine over which a thick black cloth has been thrown, so that however brightly the sun may shine, the crystal can never reflect it (Castle, M. i, ch. ii, 3).

This observation has striking parallels with the Buddha's description of the mind's quality as pabhassara citta a Pali term meaning 'luminous' or 'brightly shining'. There is indeed a very brief sutta called the Pabhassara Sutta (A i. 10) which indicates the mind is actually inherently "luminous". A 20th Century meditation master, Phra Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera emphasizes this in his teachings, 'A Heart Released':

The mind is something more radiant than anything else can be, but because counterfeits — passing defilements — come and obscure it, it loses its radiance, like the sun when obscured by clouds. Don't go thinking that the sun goes after the clouds. Instead, the clouds come drifting along and obscure the sun.

Many Buddhist meditation methods make use of associations of clarity and luminosity to lead the mind towards purity. In the Dhammakaya tradition, we often use a crystal sphere. It's relatively easy to visualize and provides a focus in which to distil feelings, perceptions, mental recollections and consciousness. Placing this at the centre of the body is especially significant as it provides a gateway to the Middle Way. It's only the beginning of a long process leading to successively to great clarity and more refined forms of radiance, at each stage enabling the mind to identify and overcome subtler forms of defilement. The benefits of a crystal ball are further explained for practitioners.

There is growing contemporary interest in Christian mystics; it has notably opened up opportunities for fruitful dialogue among monastics of different religious traditions. Now the spheres of such meditative practices have been ostensibly widened into society more generally, particularly in academic circles. I am wondering whether the reflections of Fray Francisco de Osuna may be found to have relevance and to be a source of inspiration at The Cave of the Heart: Contemplation, Mindfulness and Social Renewal, a conference at St. Mary's University College in Twickenham.

Children's Dhamma: Kruba Srivichai

2011-07-21T17:17:00.007+01:00

I went to school in Birmingham between 1980 and 1987. Around that time, the Birmingham Buddhist Vihara published Children's Dhamma for younger members. Reflecting the multiple traditions, there were contributions from Zen and Tibetan practitioners as well as from Theravadins.

I would like to highlight an article from March 1984 written by my mother about Kruba Srivichai, a Thai monk, whose exemplary life she probably got to learn about whilst growing up in Thonburi. He may not be so well known now, so I reproduce what she wrote about him here. But this is just the first article - there was more to follow. I must have another delve into the family papers to see if I can find the sequel...

Kruba Srivichai

by Fuengsin Trafford

Kruba Srivichai was one of the most famous monks of Northern Thailand. He was an inspiration to many and was revered by thousands of monks, nuns and laymen, from cities, towns, villages and the hill-tribes. Under his guidance they came together and volunteered to rebuild, repair and restore many beautiful pagodas and temples and the roads leading to them.
They worked very hard and brought their own food. Some people gave money, food and transport. As a result of their good work magnificent ancient buildings and pagodas which had been destroyed in the war were restored to their former glory.
Kruba Srivichai's work can be found throughout the north in an area which at one time was known as "the Kingdom of Laannaa Thai".
This remarkable monk led a very holy life, and worked very hard for the Buddha-Dhamma, and he was a good example to many. In the eyes of his followers he had a kind of supernatural quality but this he always denied, saying he was just an ordinary monk. After his death his fame spread further and he was called the "Saint of Laannaa Thai".
Kruba Srivichai was born on the 11th. June 1878, (the Year of the Tiger), in a small village outside the Province of Lumpoon, called Baan Paang. He was the fourth child and had four brothers and sisters. His parents were poor and lived on a small farm which was surrounded by very high hills and thick forests. It was said that on the night just before he was born the bright moon was suddenly darkened by a cloud and there was thunder and lightening. There was also an earthquake which shook the family's cottage. In those days this was thought to be a very good omen for a saintly person's birth. The baby was given the name "Faa Hong" which means thunder.
At the age of seven Faa Hong was very good and quiet and did not enjoy playing with children of his own age. He was very kind, never harmed animals and looked after the family's buffaloes very well. Once he freed the fish which hie father had caught and kept in a jar of water. He showed deep compassion for every creature. He refused to eat meat and was content to have rice and a variety of chilli sauces for his meals. The young boy's favourite chore was to take the buffaloes to graze in a quiet and lonely field, he would then sit under a tree and contemplate. He loved to visit Wat Baan Paang, a local temple which was situated on the edge of a hill; the Abbot was called Kru Baa Kaat. According to his name he was a respected monk who had been studying and practising the Dhamma.
Faa Hong was set on going to school at Wat Baan Paang, the local education centre in those days. He was also inspired by the monk's behaviour and way of life. Having watched his brother's ordination he was even more impressed, and later asked his parents permission to be ordained. When he was asked why he wanted to become a monk, he said it was not because he wanted to run away from the hard life of a farmer, but that he wanted to study the Dhamma and gain merit for a better rebirth for his parents. His parents were very happy to hear this and granted his wish. So Faa Hong was ordained a Samanera (novice) when he was just eighteen years old.
The new Samanera worked very hard and studied the local alphabets which were written on palm leaves. He also studied Pali and Sanskrit so that he could read the scriptures.
Over a year later Samanera Faa Hong had mastered all the local languages and went on to study the Dhamma and Vipassana Meditation. Almost every day he went up to the top of the hill to sit in solitude surrounded by all kinds of plants and trees.
Two years passed and Samanera Faa Hong was twenty one years old. He was ordained a Bhikkhu and given the Pali name "Siri Vichyo". People prefered to call him "Phra (monk) Sri Vichai".
His teacher noticed the young monk's dedication and unblamable conduct and sent him to a superior teacher called "Kru Baa Upala" at Doi Tae to study meditation. It was the first time he had left home having a difficult journey on foot and by cart. It took several days to reach the temple although it was in the same province.
His new teacher was soon impressed with the young monk's excellent memory and undivided attention. One year later Phra Sri Vichai finished his studies and went back to Wat Baan Paang. By then his reputation for being a most worthy monk had spread. He ate only one meal a day and was a vegetarian.
Three years later the Abbot passed away and Phra Sri Vichai was appointed Abbot.
Baan Paang village was surrounded by many Hill Tribes, and they lived in the high hills and forests nearby. These people were very poor and badly needed medical care. Phra Sri Vichai had great compassion for them and wanted to teach them the Dhamma, and make them see how foolish it was to worship spirits, and took inspiration from the Buddha who used to travel to many places to teach all kinds of people. So Phra Sri Vichai went into the forests and hills to teach, spending a few days in each village. He also healed many people with herbal medicines. These people soon realised that his medicine was more help than the spirits. He spent a month amongst the tribes and soon mastered all their languages. More and more of the Hill Tribe people e.g. Maeu, Yau, Karen, Leesaw, etc. became Buddhists and the great monk's fame spread. Many people sent their sons to be ordained by him, and to stay at Wat Baan Paang and study the Dhamma. ---
--- to be continued.

A couple of others articles, with photos:

Phra Kruba Srivichai - article by Chiengmai Chimes relating his shrine.
Kruba Srivichai, Patron Saint of Chiang Mai compiled by Josh Scoggins

For further interesting articles for youngsters, please read Children's Dhamma Volume 4, No. 1. (scanned copy in PDF format).

On the Yanaka Heritage Trail

2011-07-17T18:10:00.004+01:00

I had a couple of free days whilst in Tokyo and was able to wander at leisure on the Sunday (3rd July). On browsing through the Lonely Planet guide to Tokyo, I found a section on walking tours that highlighted some earlier traditions and environs around Nippori, Yanaka and Ueno. So after breakfast I took the train on the JR Yamanote line towards Ueno. For convenience my academic hosts had suggested I use a SUICA charge card so that I didn't have to try and figure out fare stages indicated on the maps above the ticket vending machines. I found it convenient as it was accepted on all the train and metro services I used, but it doesn't provide discounts and so is not economical for large numbers of trips (see e.g. this helpful guide).

Still somewhat struggline with jetlag, I started dozing off on the train. Next thing I knew the train had stopped at Nishi Nippori so I jumped out of the carriage and exited the station, under the bridge and onto the western side. Once again I wasn't exactly sure of the route to take, so ambled along up an adjoining street:

According to a Japanese friend, the yellow sign means something like "Safety Street" - but we don't know if that's descriptive or prescriptive! Anyway, on I went and soon came to the corner of a park, which provides a pleasant natural environment with its shade very welcome at this time of the year.

This area is known for stray cats and we're not supposed to encourage them:

Perched on a small hill, Nippori and its surrounds have been attractive to settlers for many centuries. It's now a heritage trail, one of 23 designated historical walks in Tokyo.

Even today there are some good vantage points offering extensive views, which show carefully cultivated cultural areas merged into rambling urban landscapes:

The initial impression may be a bit disappointing - it may seem to lack overall planning (and made me wonder what kind of permission would be needed for development). However, on reading a little more about Tokyo's urban planning, I came across a plausible explanation which describes how the reconstruction of Tokyo after the Second World War was by necessity implemented at a neighbourhood level using the existing urban 'typology', covering the streets in rich areas and poor. Hence especially the populated inner city areas can appear as a whole rather higgledy-piggledy. I think this is conveyed well in a memo about urban development (Matias Echanove).

Along this trail one can find quite a number of temples and shrines dating to the Edo period and were (as far as I could make out) either Shinto or Buddhist. Many had connections with other more rural parts of the country, sometimes with connections to mountains. The following poster, for a Shinto shrine, is an example:

I know little about Shinto, and whilst sorting through my photos I've had to look things up. After a while I came to recognize a number of distinct features in common. For instance, in the poster you can see some jagged white strips of paper suspended from rope. You encounter these when passing through a Torii gate and shimenawa ring:

The zigzag strips of white paper are called shime 注連 or gohei, and symbolize purity. They look like lightning, which itself is regarded as holy (and, I expect, may be associated with insight). I saw some visual instructions as to the Shinto ritual for entering the gate: one passes through the ring three times - first moving round to the left, then the right, and then the left ring once more; at each stage, one bows before moving. Finally, one proceeds straight ahead to make an offering and a wish (for prosperity, health etc.). When making an offering one claps loudly to call the attention of the divine beings. There are many online sources of info on Shinto, such as a a shrine guide and Shinto symbols

Along the way, I bumped into two volunteers working on local history projects. They were carrying with them recording equipment and making a podcast for neoKITAKUMIN. Perhaps they interviewed someone at the 'Swiss chalet':

I then took a right turn down into Yanaka Ginza, a traditional shopping area with quite narrow streets.

Lots of little shops, many crafts on display, a good place for souvenirs

The dining places are unusual. I learnt via Google that the following is Iranian:

It was late morning, so I was actually having an iced coffee in a little cafe opposite. I had lunch later in an Indian restaurant owned by a friendly Nepali, who informed me he had arrived in Tokyo 16 years ago and now had 5 restaurants in the city. It had quite a mixed clientele:

Refreshed, I rejoined the trail and explored some Buddhist temples, including a few dedicated to Kannon Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Kuanyin):

Another Bodhisattva, who seemed to appear frequently was Jizo Bosatsu, who is especially a protector of infants. So parents traditionally make offerings for their own newly born.

Often there are 6 Jizo Bosatsus in a row, one for each of the realms of existence (often adorned with red children's garments, such as bibs).

Some of the wooden temple buildings - here at Kannon-ji temple - remind a little of structures in Thailand:

Not far away, outside another smaller temple, Choanji, I saw a peace pole with its message 'May Peace Prevail on Earth,' which originally came in an inspired moment to Masahisa Goi. They are now found all over the world and are very popular at interfaith gatherings.

It's not a large distance, but there are many interesting aspects, so it's best covered at a slow pace. I spent several hours in the area before accelerating towards Ueno and the Tokyo National Museum, to delve further into the cultural history of Japan.

A class in Game Theory for Management students

2011-07-16T19:20:00.003+01:00

My host, Prof. Yukari Shirota, had arranged that whilst at Gakushuin University I would give an undergraduate class in some topic of mathematics to students in the Department of Management. For such a one-off, I had a fairly free hand as to subject matter; what seemed to be considered most valuable for the students was the (rare) opportunity to hear a native speaker of English (though actually I'm ethnically less than half English).

I chose Game Theory, the subject made famous by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern in their landmark work, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. I first came across Game Theory whilst at secondary school. In fact I became quite engrossed, venturing into Birmingham Central library to conduct research for an extended essay on a typewriter [yes, it was a long time ago]! I was fascinated by its confluence of mathematics, economics and psychology; the last of these particularly intrigues me. On this occasion my main reference was Games, Theory and Applications (1st edition) by Lyn Thomas, which I used during my own undergraduate studies at Southampton University. For anyone wanting to further their study, I would strongly recommend a textbook like this.

Would you like to explore this topic in this slightly extended post?

Good! So on a Wednesday morning I gave a class in the Multimedia Mathematics series to about 25 4th year undergraduates, kindly assisted by Prof. Shirota who gave explanations (sometimes in English, sometimes in Japanese) and encouragement. Normally there would be hands-on for students, but things were kept simple so that I only had to give a presentation with software demonstrations. I read somewhere some statistic indicating that the Japanese have more slides per presentation than any other nation, so I armed myself with 70+ slides. That's excessive, probably more suitable for 2-3 classes, but I had only one at my disposal and I wanted to share sufficient material to give a reasonable feel of the mathematical methods involved, including inductive reasoning and aspects of probability. I also included quite a few pictures and came up with simple examples to show how many situations in life can be treated as a game - such as growing tomatoes or commuting.

At the same time it was important for me not to rush delivery - speaking more slowly than usual, there was no way I would cover all this material in one go, so I just used a selection of slides, starting with the main concepts and proceeding via a few hops to a couple of famous non-zero-sum case studies, the Prisoner's [really prisoners'] Dilemma and The Battle of the Sexes.

I also had another prop with me - some reasonably authentic-looking notes in Pounds Sterling (Casdon PlayCash that I bought from the local Boswells store). I used it as an ice-breaker:

An introduction to Game Theory

View more presentations from Paul Trafford

(Thanks to the American Mathematics Society for this idea, which I first saw on 'Who wants to be a mathematician?' roadshow).

Yes, a £1,000 giveaway! Except it was a bit credit-crunched: as only £937 cash was in the bank, I tried to explain that the British banks are struggling at the moment and a cheque could make up the remainder, £63.

The students were divided into 6 teams, A-F, one team per island, each with a representative. Each team was a 'player'. Teams had to choose a number N>=1; a team that picked the highest number would receive a share of £1000/N. This game had two rounds as follows:

Round 1 [slide 3 above]: no communication
We should have collected pieces of paper; as it was, numbers went something like: 20,50,80,100,50,52.
Team D won £10.
Round 2 [see slide 4]: communication allowed
Teams chatted about this and quite quickly came to a decision, yielding the optimal result: 1,1,1,1,1,1, so each team gained £1000/6!

I was struck by the smoothness in reaching this outcome (and lack of betrayal among the teams) and think this may reflect a general culture in Japan of collective action and perhaps conformity, something that has helped the country to become such a productive and powerful economy. Quite different from an individualistic view, where it would be seen as problematic. It was later related to me that when someone says, "Ne...?" ("Isn't that so?"), there is often a feeling of obligation to say, "Ne!" ("Yes, that's so."). This would tend to support a culture of opinion leaders and followers. Ne?

In terms of software demonstration, I used mainly two tools, both released under open source licenses. The first was Gambit, which is a dedicated Game Theory suite that provides for the analysis of non-zero-sum games in both normal and extensive form. It has options to carry out computation, particularly of Nash Equilibrium, though one of its current limitations is that it restricts itself to games where players have to choose their moves independently. The other tool was Maxima, a Computer Algebra System, which I used for the graphical visualisation of payoff regions. Maxima by itself has only a command line interface, but it can invoke gnuplot to render graphical output and there is a choice of graphical interfaces: in my case I ran wxMaxima. All these are bundled together in the distribution.

I find the topics of communication and cooperation to be of philosophical interest. A standard definition of a cooperative game is couched in terms of business contracts (in the UK we can think of the Co-op supermarket) and so in such games players are said to enter binding agreements. It is used accordingly as a basic binary categorization and its importance is evident in e.g. providing assurance for the mathematical calculations. However, it means communication becomes secondary and I'd argue that [human] communication is more fundamental - it's what made the huge difference in the giveaway of slides 3 and 4 and to my lay-person's thinking, co-operation was established through a collectively agreed strategy before it became binding. No ties are needed to work together! Communication doesn't imply cooperation, but it usually precedes it.

So, I should issue the caveat that my slides exhibit a natural personal bias to this voluntary sense of cooperation, illustrated, for example in the Battle of the Sexes, in which a young married couple have free time at the weekend for an outing. The only issue is that the husband prefers a sporting venue, whilst his wife prefers a concert (so the story goes), but the bottom line is that they'd both prefer to be together than go there separate ways - see slides 65-71.

In Gambit (using this source file), we can compute the Nash equilibrium points. If we assume x is the probability with which the husband choose the first venue and y is similarly the probability that the wife chooses the first venue, then the expected returns e1 and e2 are given respectively by:

e1(x,y)=5xy -4x -4y +4 - (eq1)
e2(x,y)=5xy -4x -4y +4 -(eq2)
where 0 <=x <=1, 0<= y <=1.

For minimax we set both of these equations to equal the value of the game. Gambit can do the calculation for us. The following screenshot shows the matrix used and underneath three equilibrium points.

The first of the equilibrium points are the respective the minimax strategies. But a value of 4/5 seems rather poor and would suggest - if the payoff matrix is a true reflection - that both 'battlers' will reason that settling on any venue would be better. Indeed, underneath are two other equilibrium points that return expected returns of 1 and 4 and vice versa.

However, the computation of individual points doesn't give a full picture. Just a few lines of Maxima instructions enables us to compute the region covered by all mixed strategies. It generates a 3D parametric plot, and we can initially set the z-axis to be constant, so with a bit of dexterity, you can rotate it to show the following:

The x and y-axes denote the respective expectations for husband and wife. I'm fascinated by the shape: the attentuation to the corners (1,4) and (4,1) - this particular graph reminds me of someone sitting in a hammock! Note that the point (4/5,4/5), which is the expected value of the game under minimax, lies a long way from those corners and it's also nested deeply in the region. It's certainly not on the boundary since in equations 1 and 2 above, if we set x=y=0.5, we get e1(x,y)=e2(x,y)=1.25.

It's a graph that assumes no cooperation, which is not a very optimistic view of a newly wed couple. We'd expect them to work something out in the form of a cooperative strategy, pure or mixed, so that whenever they have an outing they will go to one of these attractions together. If that's the case, then we can simplify the equations so that the (0,0) outcomes are factored out. The resulting graph is a line, the convex closure of the original region:

(Incidentally, I wonder if there is some metric indicating how far one is from cooperation in choosing minimax, perhaps defined in terms of the angle created by the expected returns with pairs of 'pure cooperative' vertices - the smaller the angle, the greater the missed opportunity for cooperation...?)

In the case of the Prisoner's Dilemma there is no minimax strategy. Geometrically, if you plot that graph you get a triangle, i.e. the set of points in Euclidean space is already convex.

Student Response and Feedback

In the event the class listened attentively and concentrated well. The opening game helped to stimulate interest, which they seemed to sustain for the duration. I was informed that they could understand most of what I said, which was a relief since preparing this class felt a bit like navigating in the dark. Certainly a few of the students gave responses that indicated they understood particular concepts. Although I didn't receive questions at the end (same kind of traditional response as Thai and other oriental students), facial expressions were not blank or bemused. This may have been helped in no small measure by Prof. Shirota, who produced (in one evening/night!) a translation into Japanese of some (possibly all?) of the slides. This would also encourage students in further reading and assist them in an assignment - a write-up about the Prisoner's Dilemma.

Whilst at Gakushuin, I also met Prof. Jun WAKO, who is a specialist in Game Theory. I hope he would approve of my presentation, but at least he may now have a few more enquiries from interested students...

Responses to the Japan Earthquake

2011-07-15T20:33:00.004+01:00

Ever since the earthquake struck off the East coast of Japan in March, thoughts have been with the people of Japan. Whilst the loss of thousands from the tsunami was already a great tragedy, the factor of uncertainty surrounding the problems precipitated at Fukushima nuclear power plant seem to have cast an even darker cloud.

From my remote vantage point in the UK I naturally wondered about the situation ahead of my visit in July. I didn't really consider the risk until a native resident in Tokyo warned me not to travel, citing various sources that indicated dangerously high levels of radiation. For me to cancel a one week visit whilst 30 million residents had to stay seemed somewhat selfish, but I felt obliged to undertake the research. So I set off trying to understand a bit of theory, with the aid of sites like the ABC's of Nuclear Science, dipping into radiation readings (sometimes accompanied by a chart on levels exposure), and periodic visits to some official sites such as The World Health Organisation's FAQ on Japan's nuclear concerns, the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice on travel to Japan, and similarly the US Department of State.

I dipped into the arguments and counter-arguments from nuclear analysts. Among those conveying considerable concern I found Greenpeace and Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds. I can't really assess his analysis, but he seems generally level-headed, particularly in the way he discussed the delapidated state of each reactor building. At least from this I could be informed about the main concerns: radiation leakage into water supplies (and hence the food chain) and the ingestion and inhalation of tiny radioactive 'hot particles' or 'fuel fleas' ejected into the atmosphere. For these to be valid concerns there would need to be reliable readings and research establishing the linkage in terms of carcinogenic effects. I couldn't find anything conclusive - both are subject to much debate - at least judging by one Google-chosen thread at the Department of Nuclear Engineering, UC Berkeley.

Having read, watched, and pondered, I cannot say I really know. In the event I assessed the severity of the situation as somewhat higher than TEPCO has described, but the risks for my particular visit as relatively low and I actually had some moral feeling that I should go. When I was in Japan I could see how deep the disaster has impacted on society: a particularly poignant aspect has been the departure en masse of people from overseas shortly after the disaster, which was regarded with sadness and disappointment. In practical terms, there's been huge changes in working practices: in order to reduce especially peak energy consumption employees are arriving at work earlier or working at the weekends, air conditioning units are being used sparingly, lifts are reduced in number, many services having to economise. In parallel to this, there is a huge amount of contingency planning - offices and meeting rooms are being cleared out and refurbished so as to install new safer furniture. Japanese people are already used to reconstructing and redefining, but the challenge of this disaster have been particularly severe.

Against this challenge, I would like to highlight the response from Prof. Shirota, the host for my research visit. In her home page for this year, she has written a message for her students, urging them to study hard in the safe environment of Gakushuin. On that page you can see as an immediate response, Prof Shirota is promoting a campaign to send salt supplies to horses abandoned in Minamisōma, Fukushima. In the long term, she is dedicating her life to education and research, motivated by the observation (to paraphrase), "Japan lacks natural resources; to recover from this catastrophe we can only enhance our human resources." I find this really admirable.

Facing life-critical moments become a matter of personal world-view or beliefs. For myself, I try to reflect on the law of Dependent Origination, which gives us karma and rebirth and Buddhist notions of protection. These are fundamentally internal methods of mind-heart development, which can maintain stillness and peace in the face of impermanence. But it may be harder than contingency planning as it needs constant practice.

Research Visit to Gakushuin University

2011-07-14T12:00:00.005+01:00

Located towards the northwest of central Tokyo, Gakushuin is a private academic corporation that comprises schools and colleges as well as a university that currently has 9000 students. It is famous in Japan because of its historical connections with the Imperial Court. When I arrived a couple of weeks ago, I found the Mejiro campus spacious and verdent, surprisingly so given its centrality; I was informed that among the universities inside the JR Yamanote loop, it's the second largest after the University of Tokyo.

The present campus, like much of Tokyo, has seen many changes, but among the modern blocks there still remain a few of the older buildings, a little over 100 years old:

The modern multi-storey block on the right (East building no. 1?) obviously offers more capacity, but in the distance are some well-maintained old classrooms, cherished by staff and students even today. To the left is the former library building, now housing the Museum of History, graced by a venerable old tree in front of a small pool and foundation:

However, I wasn't here to be a tourist (although during my week's stay I did have a chance to wander), but rather to explore aspects of e-learning. The opportunity had arisen following earlier exchanges of ideas in the UK: in 2005, Oxford University Computing Services (OUCS) received a visit from Professor Yukari Shirota of the Department of Management, Faculty Economics, Gakushuin University. I arranged for her to give a presentation on some interactive software she had developed that guided students through the study of some topics in mathematics. The system's architecture was based on solution plans to word problems and delivered using an intelligent agent (animated by the Microsoft wizard).

Prof. Shirota is a computer scientist of long-standing - for instance, she co-authored an introduction to UNIX in 1984. During the past decade, Prof. Shirota has been developing e-learning systems to aid in the teaching of mathematics to her Management students. Inspired by George Pólya, her research has been focused on problem solving, invoking techniques in A.I. and especially visualisation, to help make sense of how the formulae and equations are used in word problems in Economics. I was particularly struck by her idea that A.I. might be able replicate the rhythm of instruction from teacher to pupil, quite similar perhaps to the rhythm of communication between a mother and baby. I hadn't come across anything like this thinking in the UK.

More recently, Prof. Shirota's research has concerned the provision of integrated tools that enable academic staff to create a range of online materials to direct students step by step in tackling certain types of questions, particularly in the field of bond mathematics. These systems are typically Web applications with scripts that invoke computer algebra systems such as Maple and Maxima to deliver step by step instructions. Some recent examples of this work are evident in overview of activities for 2011.

With regard to the financial mathematics, Prof. Shirota and her colleagues have used a conceptual approach based on entity-relationship diagrams to relate variables to formulae and equations. So the tasks of understanding may be characterised by being able to visualise and understand this map and its relations. How may that process be best aided online? In its entirety, the complete diagram is too extensive and detailed to show all at once, so any online implementation will need navigation - to focus on particular formulae and relations, but also to 'zoom out' and see the model as a whole. So does this suggest navigating it like, say, Google Earth or some other way based more closely on the relationships?

It's in addressing these considerations that I have been offering some input with my background in mathematics, somewhat distant now, and more recently e-learning and Web development, gained mainly whilst in the Learning Technologies Group at OUCS. Determining effective solutions is a multi-faceted task: its design, especially in terms of user interface, should be soundly rooted in principles of cognition. As I am not trained in educational psychology, I have to deal more with the nuts and bolts of the learning context itself, primarily in terms of the current and emerging technologies. In this regard, I'd say that whilst the emphases in pedagogy vary from country to country, the predominance of personally own computing devices has presented new variables to factor into the education at all levels. It's particularly this phenomenon, which I tend to call mobile and ubiquitous computing, that I was encouraged to explore ahead of my visit in the form of a survey paper on e-learning systems for mathematics, with particular reference to business and economics.

To give some structure in this rather broad landscape, I initially made reference to some recent features of e-learning in the UK. There's a strong focus on learner-centred education; within that I'm particularly interested in processes of deep reflection, stemming from the RAMBLE project I led in mobile blogging and learning environments. I'm not sure about the merits of focusing so much on individual predispositions, but I felt that the work on open educational resources and podcasting as a delivery mechanism was a useful vehicle to illustrate how learning has emerged from being concentrated in a classroom or workshop and flowed out into less formal environments. It was with this image in mind that I developed a thread to show how computer assisted learning for mathematics has similarly emerged from the laboratory into the open and is now squarely aiming at handheld tablet and multi-touch devices.

The paper, whose full title is 'Ubiquitous e-Learning: Designing Web Systems for Economics and Business Mathematics', has been published in Gakushuin Economic papers and is now available online - in HTML and PDF formats.

Arrival in Japan

2011-07-14T11:52:00.002+01:00

This month I had the opportunity to spend a week in Tokyo (1-7 July), my first time in Japan. I came on a research visit kindly arranged by Professor Yukari Shirota at Gakushuin University. I'll describe the research aspect in a later post, but here I'll just share some initial impressions on my arrival.

Japan has a very distinct cultural identity; it's one of the few countries that retains - at least in many people's perception - a uniqueness that has persisted in spite of its immersion in modern industrialisation and particularly global markets and consumer products. It's famed for its etiquette and politeness and it was as though the whole trip was couched in such ethos from the moment I dropped off my bags at Heathrow, where I had a friendly conversation with the staff of Virgin Atlantic.

We know Japan as 'the land of the rising sun', which is a translation of Nippon. It is fitting in many ways; the heat and humidity in the summer months is quite palpable, certainly sub-tropical, feeling not much different from Thailand. (I feel sympapthy for 'cool biz' workers who have to trade in their jackets and ties for reduced air conditioning, with the government advising units to be set to a minimum temperature of 28 degrees. Even in a land used to construction and reconstruction, there's been a lot of discomforting changes, faced with admirable forbearance.) But it's particularly as the emergence of the hi-tech society, that the sun it such a resonant symbol. It wasn't long before I was struck by its manifestation in rail transport.

On arrival at Narita Airport, there are many options to proceed to the centre of Tokyo. With the aid of a Lonely Planet guide, I had perused various routes to my destination of Mejiro and settled on catching the fastest train service available, the Keisei Skyliner, which can whisk you into heart of the capital in under 40 minutes, followed by a trip on the circular JR Yamanote line. So after collecting my baggage (probably the shortest wait I've had), I bought a ticket for the Skyliner, complete with a seat reservation, another one for the local service, and made my way down to the platform. The train duly arrived:

As this is the terminus, the train is cleaned before boarding, but there is also a wait for something else: the repositioning of the seats. Just like synchronised swimmers, every passenger seat is rotated in unison, through 180 degrees to face the direction of travel. Once on the train, pre-recorded announcements are given in Japanese (in a singsong voice) and more regular US English. The driver(?) makes only occasional announcements to inform passengers of the location of toilets and where to find refreshments - not the buffet car, but vending machines!

My train was surprisingly not on time. There had been an incident on the line causing congestion, but I was in no hurry, and there was no visible response from the other passengers. I disembarked at Nippori station, (mis)fed my Skyliner ticket into a turnstile, plucked out the other ticket and after enunciating "Me-ji-ro" to a couple of station staff I found the right platform. Shortly before midday I emerged from Mejiro station, into broad daylight and my first steps on Tokyo soil outside the transport system!

Initially a little disorientated, I established my bearings once I spotted the Northwest entrance to Gakushuin University.

This made me feel I really had reached my destination. With the aid of a map and directions from the porter at the gate, I subsequently made my way to the Faculty of Economics, met Prof. Shirota, and was later shown to the guest accommodation.

Time for a bit of rest, before the preliminary discussions later that afternoon...

County Express interview with Fuengsin Trafford (1981)

2011-06-12T20:18:00.004+01:00

The Internet and, especially, the Web are enabling old lines of investigation to be reopened with possibilities of new finds - for all kinds of detectives, including biographers! In March 1981, Fuengsin (my mother) was interviewed for the County Express, which was published, as far as I can recall, in Stourbridge and Kidderminster. Jill Skelding was the reporter and she came round to our house with a photographer, Phil Loach; I can't remember them myself, so I expect it took place during the day whilst I was at school. The article was part of a series called Woman to Woman and this particular interview was entitled: Buddhism as a way of life. It was published on Friday 13th March 1981.

I thought that it would be a good time to reproduce the article online (I don't think the paper is in circulation under that name any more; it may have become Stourbridge News). We kept a few cuttings, but even if we had preserved them in mint condition, the newspaper medium meant that photographic reproduction was limited in quality. Fortunately, Google came to the rescue (again) and 30 years after the interview I was able to locate Phil, who is still in the photography business with The Silver Image. What's more he was able to send me a pretty good scan (a larger version of the one online). So the complete article is available to view.

Here I'd just like to highlight a few things my mother said.

It's really quite a typical piece - finding the mundane and profound in the everyday and the present moment. You get a taste of something unusual in the first two paragraphs, though it's definitely more mundane in flavour!

With an impressive Oriental family history spanning several centuries and an unusual childhood spent in Thailand, there's nothing Fuengsin likes better than to disappear to the depths of her kitchen and cook ... spotted dick steamed pudding!

Mrs. Fuengsin Trafford, who lives in West Hagley, came to England 17 years ago, in her mid-twenties, from her home town near Bangkok. She studied at London University - and soon found she had a weakness for English food.

The kitchen wasn't always frequented with such endeavour. One of my mother's childhood friends said that the two of them used to play cooking. I asked whether that was because in reality they didn't do any cooking and she nodded and grinned! In fact my father taught her some of the basics English cookery - there was little indication that she could later produce a cookery book! And as for her regard of the culinary offerings of this new land, the initial response was typically to bring out a tin of red chilli powder ... at breakfast!

There's a brief summary of how she came to the UK as a student, met my father, married, and settled in the UK. When she left Thailand in the early to mid 60s, Thonburi, where she grew up, was still separate from Bangkok on the other side of the Chao Phraya river and certainly was not so developed. We spent our first family holiday there in 1972, and there was a lot of change already by that time, but looking at photos from that period still shows many areas of fruit cultivation. Fuengsin did not return next to Thailand until after the interview, so she probably had nostalgic recollections in mind when she recalled:

"By that time my father had died, but my mother and Anthony got on remarkably well - the pace of life is so different out there, it's hard for anyone from the Western world to understand it immediately."

"The pace of life in Thailand is much slower than here in England - there just isn't much stress, or traffic come to think of it!"

Our next family trip was in 1988 and I think we all found the new Bangkok somewhat overwhelming.

The article then moves on to discuss my mother's Buddhist outlook, which is clearly the theme of the photograph, which shows her in a quite serious pose seated underneath three Buddha rupas. Fuengsin's characteristic directness is clearly recorded:

"Buddhism is something that has to be achieved by the individual - but once you have reached that point you will have enlightenment.

"It isn't a Sundays-only type of religion, and I know it's hard for people who know nothing of Buddhism to even to begin to understand what it's all about, but basically, no one can tell you how to practise Buddhism, it's something the individual must learn for him or herself.

"It has to come from inside a person, and it is a very personal thing - no one can help you with it, and you can only practise Buddhism though life itself.

"It is closely linked with meditation and when you meditate you look at a figure of a Buddha and bow - that way you are aiming to suppress your ego, and get rid of any pride. Once you are rid of that you are at one with the universe."

She had a very practical approach to Dhamma and these teachings are really core to the article, including the value of service. It's mentioned that Fuengsin taught English to Asian immigrants - I recall she said these were elderly Pakistani ladies and that she was a member of a volunteer group (she didn't even get her bus fare paid). I'm sure my mother would have had a quip about 'Big Society'!

The article concludes by switching back to food and more steamed puddings. I think my father and I must accept some responsibility for this - we created quite a demand for puddings and cakes!

You are welcome to read the interview ...

Bye bye Thinkpad (R51) Hello Thinkpad (Edge 13)

2011-04-02T12:00:00.007+01:00

[updated 10 April '11]

After almost 6 years, the LCD display on my IBM Thinkpad R51 has become faulty with thin coloured vertical lines, the hard disk is getting full and generally it's not as sprightly as it once was.

So I decided to replace it and as I've been generally impressed with the Thinkpad range, I've bought another one, though this time I'm much more on a budget. After reading a number of online reviews, I settled on a Thinkpad Edge 13, which balances reasonable screen size with portability, the latter particularly enhanced by processors that consume less power; I went with the AMD Turion II Neo K685 CPU as I felt I couldn't afford one with the Intel Core i3. I ordered directly through the online Lenovo store on St. Patrick's Day (for a 10% discount) and it was duly delivered by UPS within the advertised 1-2 weeks time slot. Some retailers were offering a cash-back deal that would make it cheaper, but it meant purchasing an external DVD writer, which would be surplus to my requirements. No, I didn't choose heatwave red or glossy options - the traditional boxy design would have been fine for me!

I opted for Windows 7 Professional, which allows me to run under XP mode software that I was using previously that's not supported by Windows 7. As this would run under in a virtual PC, I figured I probably would need 4GB to be comfortable, but I initially ordered just the minimal 2GB from Lenovo as extra memory seemed to be charged at something of a premium. I then turned to Crucial Memory (UK), but hit a slight snag. The first batches of Thinkpad Edge PCs had been shipped with an earlier versions of the AMD chipset and processor and so when I used their Memory Advisor Tool for the Edge 13, it only offered DDR2 RAM (and 4GB max). Checking the spec from the Lenovo site and elsewhere, I could establish that this machine comes with the AMD M780G chipset which supports DDR3 RAM, viz: 204-pin PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM. So on that basis I could find a suitable match and bought a 4GB module, part number CT51264BC1339. It was easy to install and has been accepted by the OS, which now reports 6GB of installed memory of which 5.75GB is usable (0.25GB gets swallowed up by the graphics card!)

First Impressions

I'm generally pleased with this new Thinkpad so far. It's still solid, has a streamlined yet familiar keyboard layout, a somewhat smaller form factor, lighter weight and much better battery life. So it makes it more practical to take with me, though it's some way from the Eee PCs I'm used to. :-) Anyway, last week I duly popped it in my work bag and kept it on during a two and a half hour meeting, for which I took the minutes, with reduced brightness, hardly any wifi. Afterwards 65% charge remained, which I thought was quite impressive. I do miss, however, having some indicator lights, particularly for hard disk and wireless connections. Sometimes, to check that something is happening I find myself listening for hard disk activity.

The OS looks okay and operates smoothly and I think the visual appearance and general look and feel of Windows 7 is better than XP. Here's a screenshot: in the background is a standard desktop theme of rotating scenes and in the foreground I'm running a virtual machine (see below).

As someone who does a lot of reading on screen, I find the widescreen display (WXGA or 1366*768) offers significant benefits over the R51's XGA (1024*768), particularly useful for comparing documents side by side. It reminds me of when the HP320LX offered 640*240 instead of the previous norm of 480*240 for handheld PCs - the limited height mattered surprisingly little.

In terms of software, one of the first sighs of relief was being able to use MozBackup to migrate my Thunderbird email accounts and preferences.

Curious about the performance, the Windows Experience Index, rating from 1.0 (lowest) to 7.9 (highest) indicates middling performance:

Processor Calculations per second: 4.8
Memory (RAM) Memory operations per second: 6.5
Graphics Desktop performance for Windows Aero: 3.3
Gaming graphics 3D business and gaming graphics performance: 5.1
Primary hard disk Disk data transfer rate: 5.9

Curiously, immediately after I upgraded to service pack 1, I was prompted to update the index and the memory operations per second increased to 7.0. However, after a further update it reverted to 6.5!

Virtualization

I have tended to run Windows as my day-to-day OS, but I also use Linux for system administration and Web development. This has usually led me to create a dual boot setup, but this time I am experimenting with running virtual machines. In fact I'm already running two systems and teetered on running a third!

My first VM was installed through necessity - a few years ago I bought a combined package of HP Deskjet 950C printer and HP Scanjet 5370C scanner, but it turns out that only the printer is supported in Windows 7. To solve this, I needed to run MS Virtual PC and install as a guest OS Windows XP (XP Mode). Even then, care is needed to ensure that when the scanner is plugged in as a USB device, it is duly attached under XP and not routed to Windows 7: when running XP Mode, along the top of the VM there is a row of menu items; click on the USB menu and attach the unidentified device corresponding to the scanner.

I installed the second VM by choice - looking to use it for web application development on a Linux platform and am hoping that it will be robust as well as offer reasonable performance. First up is VirtualBox, but waiting in the wings is VMWare Player, so how does it fare so far...? Well, installation of VirtualBox itself is nice and convenient. I like the way that it can grow to use the resources as required and can readily tweak the allocations of RAM and video RAM. So, I've dived in and installed Debian Lenny off DVD followed by an upgrade to Squeeze. I strongly recommend installing the Guest Additions since without them I was finding the mouse pointer control rather unpredictable.

The first real test was to install Web Mathematics Interactive 2 (WMI2), a computer algebra system with a very user-friendly calculator-style interface. On the Web site, PHP scripts take the input and issue Ajax calls that are communicated to Maxima, which handles all the calculations and returns output for display. The screenshot above shows it in action - rather than having to remember some markup language like TeX, you can build up formulae by hitting the buttons. The system checks your input as you go along. I downloaded the package from SourceForge and followed the instructions (just one thing to note: timeout is already included in the coreutils package).

There has been a lot of software and data to transfer, but I am gradually emerging from this liminal state of migration... :-)

Luang Ta Maha Boowa: A few reflections

2011-03-19T12:49:00.003Z

The forests of North-East Thailand have for many years been the training ground for bhikkhus undertaking dhutanga practices for the sake of following the Buddha’s escape from Samsara. These are continual practices, undertaken at every conscious moment, by day and by night, aiming at eliminating all defilements on the path to nibbana. On January 30th 2011, there was the passing of a well-known exponent, Venerable Acharn Maha Boowa Ñanasampanno, Abbot of Wat Pah Baan Taad , Udon Thani. Popularly revered as Luang Ta Maha Boowa, he was viewed by many as one who had achieved that goal of achieving what has to be done, attaining to arahantship.

Luang Ta Maha Boowa considered as his principal teacher, Luang Pu Mun Bhuridatta, under whose wise guidance he learnt directly and with full commitment the dhutanga practices. (Luang Phor is a respectful term of address for a revered father; Luang Pu and Luang Ta are similar, for grandparents). After the passing of Luang Pu Mun, Luang Ta continued to promote these teachings and wrote a number of books. These and much other background information have been published and are available from the monastery web site, www.luangta.com luangta.com, with indices in English and German.

I feel it’s important to have respect for those who practise sincerely and earnestly for the Buddha’s sake, as did Luang Ta. I’ve learnt this from my mother, Fuengsin Trafford, who, together with a friend from Bangkok, accompanied Jane Browne, one of his disciples on a visit to Wat Pah Baan Taad in 1972. There are many people who have had much closer contact than myself with Luang Ta and his Wat, but I’d still like offer a few reflections here on a few personal connections and influences.

Although the Wat was already expanding significantly by the turn of the ‘70s, at that time there were only a few tables for offering food to the monks, so there was ample opportunity to personally place offerings in the bowls of every bhikkhu as they processed by:

[Phra Maha Boowa being offered food by Jane Browne (far left), standing next to her are Fuengsin Trafford and, I understand, Dr. Pensri Makaranon. I’m unable to identify the other Sangha members].

On the back of this photo was written a simple description: คุณเจนกำลังตักบาตร ท่านอาจารย์มหาบัว ที่หน้าวัดป่าบ้านตาด จ.อุดร ประเทศไทย พ.ศ.15. Translated it reads: "Khun Jane is offering alms food to Tan Ajahn Maha Boowa. At the front of Wat Pah Baan Taad, Udon Province, Thailand, B.E. ‘15 [1972CE]." On the back of another photo, which showed the entrance to the Wat, my mother wrote about the trip in general: "An opportunity to go back and visit all the family in Thailand and to go and cultivate moral virtue [sīla] in Udon Province, Thailand (2515)." She already knew quite well about the Forest Tradition – in her account of Hampshire Buddhists in the late ‘60s she recounted seeing Phra Maha Boowa’s photograph on Mrs. Browne’s mantelpiece.

Luang Ta paid fulsome tribute to his teacher in various ways. One of which was write the life story of Luang Pu, which was first translated into English in 1982 with the title The Venerable Phra Acharn Mun Bhūridatta Thera Meditation Master by Mr. Siri Buddhasukh. I found this book fascinating and greatly inspiring. There are many wonderful accounts of specific obstacles that Luang Pu Mun confronted and overcame. I particularly enjoyed the encounter with a chief of terrestrial devas, who had taken a dark demon form. By the power of his Dhamma, Luang Pu converted his heart and the deva gave up terrorising and instead took refuge in the Triple Gem. Yet my abiding recollection is simply the descriptions of how the Acariya "kept pounding the defilements," bringing full mindfulness to everything that came into his awareness and discerning therein with razor sharpness. For him, "a split-second with mindfulness absent is enough to allow defilements to whisk back in again." This determined and uncompromising approach was a great source of encouragement for his disciples, to pursue the practise with great urgency and vigour to eliminate the causes of the human predicament.

The biography carried an open license, so anyone could copy it freely. In late 2001 I felt the desire to make this book available online. Co-incidentally, around that time I had some correspondence with Lee Yu Ban, a Buddhist in Malaysia. He told me about a Singaporean friend, Lee Chun, who was typing in the entire book and asked whether I’d like to help. So I got in touch with Mr. Lee and he explained that he and his wife, Lee Lin, were indeed starting the translation. We came to an agreement to share the workload and we proceeded to carry out scanning, OCR and proof-reading. For my portion I was given a great boost by Kalyanamitta Mananya Pattamasoontorn, who arranged for a copy of the book to be photocopied, which I could collect whilst I was in Thailand early in 2002. By spring the task had been completed and the result was a new PDF version.

Shortly afterwards another translation was provided by Tan Ajahn Dick Silaratano, available from the Wat’s Web site (book section), but I already found Mr. Buddhasukh’s translation very accessible.

Luang Ta also introduced in some of his other writings some of Luang Pu’s disciples, adding their experiences as sources of inspiration. This is especially the case in Paṭipadā or The mode of practice of Venerable Acharn Mun, a weighty tome, translated by Phra Ajahn Paññavaddho, his first Western disciple. I first picked up a copy at the Birmingham Buddhist Maha Vihara and then was surprised to be presented with another copy in Thailand – by Luang Phor Sanong Katapunnyo at Wat Sangathan, Nonthaburi.

These teachings often mention working with the citta, the mind-heart, as fundamental to developing understanding and concentration. Similarly, when reading one gains by reading with the citta. That way practice becomes reinforced as one receives theme and variation – if it is read only with the head, then it will appear that there is a great deal of repetition, boredom will ensue and the time wasted. Texts like this should not be read merely linearly; rather, consider the evolution of practice as a spiral; each time you are progressing you can understand the same facets in an increasingly refined way.

Legacy

When thinking about the Thai Forest Tradition, many Buddhists in the UK will call to mind Wat Amaravati and Luang Phor Chah, another disciple of Luang Pu Mun. However, the foundations of Wat Amaravati lie in the English Sangha Trust, and Wat Pah Baan Taad and Luang Phor Paññavaddho are part of that earlier history.

I would like to thank especially Jane Browne, a long-time lay supporter of the Thai Forest tradition, who was the one who originally lent me a copy of Luang Pu Mun’s biography. Her sustained dedication as a follower is evident in her essay, What is the goal of Buddhism?, where the interpretation of ancient texts comes alive through her relating them to the instructions of her teachers.

Ban Ki-moon's Cyril Foster Lecture in Oxford

2011-02-02T23:09:00.003Z

[updated 4 February]

This evening I went along to Oxford's Examination Schools to listen to H.E. Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, give a speech entitled 'Human Protection and the 21st Century United Nations' by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. This was for the annual Cyril Foster Lecture organised by the Department of Politics and International Relations. Mr. Ban Ki-moon was the 4th UN Secretary General to give this speech, in front of an audience of about 400 people (mainly students) in South Schools, plus an estimated 500+ in overflow rooms, who watched video transmissions on projector screens. I share here a few points that interested me and my response.

The UN Secretary-General was formally welcomed by Prof. Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor, who explained how Cyril Foster, a relatively humble owner of sweet shops, came to make a profound difference: having no dependents, he decided to give money to serve the cause of international peace, whence the lecture series was instituted in his name. Mr. Foster stipulated that every year a prominent figure working in this area should be invited to speak.

In delivering his contribution today, Ban Ki Moon conveyed enthusiasm and optimistic purposefulness. He had a ready smile and applauded the role that Oxford has been playing, graciously indicating his appreciation for being part of the Oxford community even for just the one day. With his office following him like a close shadow, events like this that allow him to expound his vision, must come as something of a welcome interlude! Even in the relative shelter of a university lecture, the office had the first say, as though tapping him on the shoulder. Thus as UN Secretary-General, he started by addressing the situation in Egypt, and reiterated the need for political change, echoing the phraseology "peaceful transition" used by President Obama, EU leaders and others, in calling for a process of democratisation that better respects the wishes of its people.

(I'm not trained in politics, but I have noticed this statement, like many other statements I hear, especially from Western leaders, seemed pervaded by an assumption that democracy is the de facto system of workable government. Is it? If Emperor Asoka were ruling a South Asian continent today how would he be viewed...? I don't know, but I suppose it depends on what we mean by freedom. In any case, those who have surveyed history and its ideas (see e.g. The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought, by Garry Trompf) probably have a more measured assessment about what has really worked. The title alone suggests that no particular system - at least not in the past few millennia - has been able to last. )

Mr Ban then proceed to embark on the speech itself, starting in touching fashion by sharing his own experiences in childhood, when his family suffered as a result of the Korean War. He described his sense of displacement during his studies, having to seek shelter outdoors, under trees when rains came. It was the United Nations who came to his rescue and his sense of gratitude is evidently deep. Yet, strangely, on this question of well-being I see these kinds of descriptions of homelessness are close to those for sramanas, those wanderers who have renounced the world in pursuit of the greatest happiness of all, the eradication of the real root of suffering...

The main substance of the speech was in three parts and conveyed a good sense of the scale and nature of the UN's operations, particularly the logistics. The first part was concerned with "fire fighting" - bringing humanitarian resources, expertise etc into desperate situations - and it's here that great progress has been made on the logistical front through the Central Emergency Response Fund. However, more important is prevention, which was the second main strand and here there was ample linkage between environmental devastation and human conflict. Putting resources into prevention is obviously going to be more efficient.

The third part seemed the one that was dearest to Mr. Ban, the operationalisation of human protection. Sovereignty should be respected, but carries a responsibility, a moral imperative, to protect its citizens and their human rights. In this connection we were informed about Responsibility To Protect, an emerging project that I think he greatly cherishes. These appear to be expressions of basic precepts - not to take life, not to take what is not yours etc.

Apart from his opening remarks about his upbringing it was only here that my mind was brought fo focus more on the individual personal situation. Whilst the general picture was admirable for having a compassionate and humanitarian outlook, I felt deeper meanings of human protection were left largely untouched. This is where I'm sure a Buddhist perspective can help: its focus is on intentional actions, where protection is fundamentally protection from various forms of suffering that arise from actions that are cloudy, i.e. born of greed, hatred and delusion. There are two watchwords (in Pali): hiri (moral shame), which is an internal sense of shame at the consequences of a misdeed; and ottapa, its external counterpart, the fear of consequences. These are true guardians of the world.

Whilst claiming not to be used to speak for more than 10 or 20 minutes at a time, Mr. Ban's hour-long speech flowed well and there were many who wanted to ask questions at the end. I think just three people had the chance; I was pleased that one was from the UN Association of the UK, who sought further guidance on how to support the 'operationalisation' of human protection. In his response, the UN Secretary-General acknowledged the key role that members play as instruments of change within societies. Continued focused involved seemed to be the message.

As for the other would-be questioners, the audience was promised use of the department's blog, Politics in Spires.

The session concluded with warm applause and friendly hand waves in return!

Transcript

The UN Web site now has a full transcript of the UN Secretary-General's speech.

A Wander around Chulalongkorn University

2011-01-16T20:03:00.003Z

In between conference preparation, pilgrimage, visits and general sight-seeing, I was given a special tour of Chulalongkorn University, by Khun Tewee, a long-time family friend who used to play with my mother as a child. Both of them had studied at Chula - Khun Tewee physical sciences and my mother (then Fuengsin Sarayutpitag) liberal arts. On this occasion I wanted just to get a feel for the environment, and see how much it resembled the scene depicted in group photos from the late 50s (my mother is standing, 5th from the left):

Chulalongkorn University occupies a privileged position in Thai history and culture. Even its Thai wording claims the linguistic distinction of having the word ‘university’ following the name: จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย [Chulalongkorn Mahawitthayalai] so it reads in the same order as in English, whereas all other universities would put Mahawitthayalai before the name.

The University has its roots as a civil service training school, founded during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) at the end of the 19th Century CE to help in Siam’s administration. It gradually expanded its remit and so emerged Chulalongkorn University, formally granted its new name and status in 1917, the first university to be established in Thailand. It is located fairly centrally in Pathum Wan district of Bangkok, with the nearest BTS station being National Stadium and occupies a rectangular plot of land plus a number of surrounding buildings.

When Khun Tewee proceeded to showed myself and one of her friends the central site, she led us first of all towards the original entrance across playing fields. There looking out from a raised platform were the University's two founders commemorated in a memorial statue:

Seated is King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) and standing beside him is King Vajiravudh (Rama VI). Whilst we were there, a couple of students were paying respects, lighting incense sticks. Nearby there were some elaborate floral kratongs, very likely student creations, now looking somewhat bereft after the Loy Kratong festival, but still nice and colourful.

Next we retraced some steps and approached some of the original buildings (or, at least, the oldest that are still standing). Particularly prominent is the main auditorium, where the conferral of degrees and other major ceremonies take place in a grand theatre:

We then carried on to the Faculty of Arts building, close by, and naturally I was keen to explore.

The first thing that struck my was the lightness of the building. By modern standards it doesn't have many floors, but as I wandered around, I could gaining a feeling of great solidity and substance, an imposing presence, with lofty spaces. It was a very distinguished environment and not hard to imagine students feeling like princes or princesses. Every angle seems to be pleasing architecturally, certainly worth protecting with the nagas!

The only disappointment was learning that these buildings are now used mainly for administration. So where do the Faculty of Arts students have their classes, if not in these buildings? Looking from the centre, there are new buildings dotted around:

The tall building in the distance is บรมราชกุมารี Borommarajakumari (Supreme Daughter of His Majesty the King), an epithet for HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who herself was a graduate from the Faculty of Arts in the 1970s (details in a biography). It is a multi-purpose building: as well as lecture spaces, there are exhibition areas and academic staff have rooms towards the top.

Inevitably a lot of change, but it seems to retain a distinguised ethos and it looks like the staff and students continue to build on the heritage. It still looks an attractive place to study.

Steam Train to Chachoengsao

2011-01-15T16:30:00.002Z

Saturday 4th December was a day for various modes of public transport. I caught the BTS sky train from Wong Wien Yai as far as Sala Daeng and then took the MRT underground to Hua Lamphong, where I met up with Khun Vasana and Khun Jamras, long-time family friends.

They had invited me to join them on a day trip to Chachoengsao, travelling there by train and then touring the area by coach. I arrived shortly after 7.30am and the station was buzzing. I cautiously grabbed something for breakfast (I say cautiously since from my experience of travelling with Thais, there’s usually a surplus of food!) Then we met up. Hua Lamphong is a big station, built in the early 20th century, apparently to an Italian design – see the station's Wikipedia entry for details.

On this occasion there were some exhibits on show to co-incide with celebrations for H.M. King Bhumipol’s birthday on the 5th. As we made our way down the platform, we passed some royal carriages. There seemed to be quite a lot of activity, with excitement among a large group, many wearing pink (the current colour for showing support for His Majesty). They were congregating around the train, chatting and clutching cameras.

Why the fuss? It was because the 8am departure this morning was not the usual diesel service, but a steam train! The train itself had many carriages. The tour that we had joined had been allocated three of them, towards the rear, leaving several carriages to the front – I think they were for employees of the State Railway of Thailand. When we pulled out, it became evident how many had come to wave us off, including members of the Government’s Transport Department. I though it would be fun to capture the departure on film:

The train puffed its way eastwards and throughout its ponderous progress amidst the urban sprawl, people watched on in fascination and amusement. Unlike the Skytrain, the railway lines cling to the ground and so they thread right through streets, across roads …

… and over canals …

Whereas in Britain, homes are kept at some distance from the railway track and - at least – people aren’t supposed to wander onto the track, these restrictions are not observed in Thailand:

Some people find this kind of sight discomforting – makeshift buildings of corrugated iron in such close proximity to the railway line indicate material poverty and invariably you come across stray cats and dogs. It’s a very common scene in Bangkok; it’s right next door to where my relatives live in Thonburi. Yet there’s still a sense of life and liveliness – opportunities for hawkers, space for games of football and so on – aided by the climate.

Chachoengsao lies about 50 miles to the East of Bangkok, but it took 2 hours to reach our destination, even though we were hauled by two locomotives. But no-one was complaining about the very leisurely journey! Eventually we arrived and hoards of people scrambled to the front to get a closer look of the locomotives.

The drivers seem to be getting younger every day…!

The trip continued with a tour of some impressive temples, starting with Wat Sothorn Wararam Woraviharn, said to be the oldest temple in the province. It is dedicated to Phra Phutthasothon or Luang Phor Sothon and visitors can go and pay respects in a new marble hall, whose construction was supported by the royal family, with HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn presiding over its consecration.

We proceeded to visit other temples, including Chinese temples, but there was one other that is immensely popular, Wat Saman Rattanaram, which is famous for its statue of Pink Ganesh in a reclining pose:

But the temple also had a very beautiful Buddha image in what I assume is the Uposatha Hall (uposatha is a Pali term designating holy observance, in which monastics intensify practice; ordinations and other important ceremonies take place in the Hall):

One of the last places we visited was a sand sculpture exhibition. I think it had originally been set up mainly by some Western artists, but since its establishment, many local Thai artists have got involved. The following sculpture shows Kuan Yin, a Bodhisattva embodying Compassion:

The wonderful thing about this tour was that at the end of the sight-seeing we could really look forward to the return journey as it was again steam-hauled! To round off a varied and enjoyable day, right towards the end of the visit, tour staff came round with souvenirs. I wonder what we might get in Britain? A badge perhaps? A golf cap (actually we were issued with Thai railway authority golf caps)...? For this tour to Chachoengsao we received an amulet of Luang Phor Sothon. :-)

Lucy Dunlap and the Founding of Satriwithaya School

2011-01-14T20:35:00.002Z

Whilst it is very well known that Somdet Ya, the Princess Mother was educated at Satriwithaya School (see also the Wikipedia entry, which Google can help a bit to translate), much less is known about its founder. Shortly after I came across the information in the Srinagarindra Museum that enabled me to establish that my grandmother had been a pupil there, I came across an article about the history of the school in the Education section of the Bangkok Post. It makes brief reference to its founding and then proceeds to offer a perspective that combines tradition with careful adaptation. I can see that the school is still highly regarded and a popular choice among parents.

But what piqued my interest was the very brief reference to the fact that it had a “Thai-American founder, Miss Lucy Dunlap, or ``Ma'am See'', who, we are informed, subsequently handed over the school to the Education Department. Who was Lucy Dunlap?

Once again I consulted Mr. Google, but there were very few matches returned. It seemed initially that there was no information available, but then I came across a link to the Wheaton College archives. The College contains in particular the Margaret and Kenneth P. Landon Papers. Margaret Landon is the author of Anna and the King of Siam, a work of fiction that has long been regarded in Thailand with some notoriety, but I won’t explain here.

As far as I can tell, all the authors in this archive were Presbyterian missionaries in SE Asia. Among the works (Box 196, Folder 17) is The Story of Lucy Dunlap by Margaret McCord. I had no idea about its format, publication status etc.; I then tried to search for this title in various library catalogues, but this was the only place I could see it referenced. So I filled in their online contact form, explained my interest from my grandmother's connection to the school and expected to come away empty handed ... Within a week, I received an email with an attachment – an archivist had very kindly scanned the document and sent me a PDF. It wasn’t very long, but I was still impressed at the service.

The document is a typed manuscript, 12 pages in length, dated August 1945, with a few corrections in ink. It starts with the heading Lucy Dunlap (Born 1869) and proceeds to describe in narrative form how the author came to meet Miss Dunlap in person and find out her story from missionaries. There’s a mixture of travelogue and second hand reports, laced with the author’s own interpretations, but the accounts of some key episodes sound true. One of these concerns the unusual circumstance’s behind the birth. Margaret McCord writes that a Dr. E. P. Dunlap was evangelising in Thailand (presumably in the late 1860s) and in the course of this missionary work came across a woman in prison, who was about to give birth. He asked for the woman to be released temporarily so the birth could take place with better care. When she gave birth to a girl, he and his wife subsequently offered to the mother to adopt her daughter, to which she agreed. Dr. and Mrs. Dunlap named the girl, Lucy.

We are informed that when Lucy was 9 years old she was taken to the U.S., where she continued her schooling, with training as a missionary, though it was not formally completed. She subsequently returned to Thailand in the 1890s and we learn that she was initially a teacher at Wang Lang School, but that didn’t work out. However, “next she was seen in charge of a small government school. However, this school did not continue long.” Since Lucy Dunlap’s subsequent work was in nursing and given the date, I guess this is a reference to Satriwithaya School.

I think this story is significant because it shows among other things the influence of Christian missionaries in the Thai education system, particularly in the 19th Century, a period in which the Thai monarchy consciously sought rapprochement with the various Western powers so as to ensure as best as they could the survival of Siam’s independence and furthermore prosperity, through the broadening of its culture. I think the story behind the founding of Satriwithaya School’s could be seen as indicative of the curious interplay that was taking place in those times. I wonder how much these undercurrents would have affected my grandmother and how much my mother knew about them...

Somboon Sarayutpitag and Satriwithaya School

2011-01-14T17:18:00.005Z

In recent trips to Thailand I’ve been learning how my maternal grandparents greatly valued education. I’m sure they were a strong influence on my mother, Ajahn Fuengsin, who acquired a lifelong interest in learning and transmitting her knowledge through teaching (Ajahn is a general prefix for an established teacher).

My grandfather had been awarded the title of 'Luang', so he was subsequently addressed as Capt. Luang Sarayutpitag (he had been a captain in the army). The distinctive Thai surname seems to have been spelt in more than one way; my cousins generally insist on สรายุธพิทักษ์ but there are several letters that can represent an ‘s’ sound and so sometimes it has been written ศรายุทธพิทักษ์ (with an opening ศ instead of ส). I expect that if one knows the roots of Thai language (Sanskrit, Pali and so on), then one can work out the appropriate letter, but I guess that might be like asking someone in the UK to distinguish between Greek and Latin etymology...

Anyway, prior to this visit, I had heard that my grandmother, Khun Yay Somboon Sarayutpitag, had attended the same school as the Somdet Ya, the Princess Mother (the mother to H.M. King Bumiphol). This school was called Satriwithaya School, a girl’s school in the heart of Bangkok. Some time last summer I started typing into Google สรายุธพิทักษ์ and ศรายุทธพิทักษ์. On entering the latter I came across the Web site of the Srinagarindra [Somdet Ya] museum, the museum of Satriwithaya School, set up in honour and memory of its most famous pupil. Google had spotted an occurrence of the name in the following paragraph:

สิ่งที่เป็นจุดเด่นของพิพิธภัณฑ์สมเด็จย่าคือ พระบรมฉายาลักษณ์ ที่มาของภาพเก่าอันทรงคุณค่าของสมเด็จย่า ส่วนหนึ่งมาจากศิษย์เก่าและครูเก่าเก็บไว้ และอีกส่วนหนึ่งได้ไปขอมาจากสำนักพระราชวัง หนึ่งในรูปภาพที่ทรงคุณค่าอย่างยิ่งคือภาพถ่ายหมู่ของนักเรียนชั้นมูลปีที่ หนึ่ง(ปัจจุบันคือระดับอนุบาล) ถ่ายวันที่ 9 มีนาคม ร.ศ.127 (พ.ศ.2451) สมเด็จพระศรีนครินทราบรมราชชนนี ครั้งยังทรงเป็น ด.ญ. สังวาลย์ โดยพระองค์ประทับในแถวกลาง เป็นลำดับที่ 3 จากซ้าย ซึ่งภาพต้นฉบับสีซีดจนอ่านตัวหนังสือบนแผ่นกระดานที่แขวนไว้ด้านหลังนัก เรียนไม่ออก ต้องใช้คำบรรยายที่เจ้าของภาพเขียนติดไว้ด้านหลังภาพ ภาพนี้ได้รับความอนุเคราะห์จากทายาทนางสมบุญ ศรายุทธพิทักษ์ ในภาพมี ด.ญ.สมบุญอยู่แถวหน้า ลำดับที่ 6 จากซ้าย ส่วนด้านขวาสุดคือครูทิม

My attempted translation is as follows:

A prominent feature of the Srinagarindra [Somdet Ya] museum is the Royal source of some valuable old pictures of the Princess Mother. One part comes from the collections of alumni and former teachers, and another has been requested from the Bureau of the Royal House. One exceedingly valuable picture is a group photograph of first year pre-elementary students (now equivalent to kindergarten) taken on the 9th of March R.E. (Ratanakosin Era) 127 (B.E. 2451). The Princess Mother [can be seen] at the time when she was still a girl, Miss Sangwan; Her Royal Highness is residing in the central row, 3rd from the left. As an original picture it is extremely faded to the extent that it is not possible to read the writing on the plate mounted on the board behind; it's necessary to use the description that the owner has attached on the back of the picture. This picture was received with the assistance of the descendants of Mrs. Somboon Sarayutpitag. In the picture Miss Somboon is in the front row, 6th from the left.

The next paragraph presents an invitation:

สำหรับ ผู้ที่อยากชมภาพนี้ มีภาพขยายใหญ่เกือบเท่าตัวจริงติดอยู่ในห้องเอลิซาเบธ ซึ่งเป็นห้องประชุมของโรงเรียน ห้องนี้มีขึ้นในช่วงที่ควีนเอลิซาเบธที่ 2 เสด็จมาที่โรงเรียนสตรีวิทยาในวันที่ 30 ตุลาคม พ.ศ.2539 เพื่อทอดพระเนตรกิจกรรมและนิทรรศการการป้องกันยาเสพติดในสถานศึกษา พระบรมฉายาลักษณ์สมเด็จพระราชินีนาถ เอลิซาเบธที่ 2 พร้อมพระปรมาภิไธยที่ได้รับพระราชทาน ขณะนี้อยู่ที่พิพิธภัณฑ์สมเด็จย่า

In approximate English:

For those who want to look at this picture, there is a near life-size enlargement on display in the Elizabeth room, which used to be the school assembly hall. This room was set up on the occasion of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Satriwithaya School on October 30 2539 to observe events and exhibitions relating to drug prevention in schools. The picture of Queen Elizabeth II, together with her signature, is in the Srinagarindra Museum.

I soon found a copy of the photograph online in the Wikipedia entry for the Princess Mother. However, having read the description above I thought, "I’d really like to see this picture for myself at the school!"

I was fortunate. I got in touch with my cousin, P’ Laem, and he made enquiries through an aunt who used to teach there. Soon arrangements were made and we went along to visit one Friday afternoon in late November. Designed around a courtyard, the buildings rise on three sides to several storeys, having expanded considerably since its foundation over a hundred years ago. When we arrived the school was still bustling with activity; at the entrance there was a large tree occasionally shedding its leaves under which a group of pupils was anticipating its every move ... and then a leaf would come sailing down and they’d try and catch it. Later when we left there were just two girls by the tree, still playing the same game!

On the left hand side as you enter there is a status to the Princess Mother:

The inscription says it is dedicated to สมเด็จพระศรีนครินทราบรมราชชนนี (Somdet Phra Srinagarindra Boromarajajonani), giving the dates she was alive (B.E. 2443 – 2538, i.e. 1900-1995CE). It was unveiled by สมเด็จพระเจ้าพี่นางเธอ เจ้าฟ้ากัลยาณิวัฒนา กรมหลวงนราธิวาสราชนครินทร์ (Somdet Phra Chao Phi Nang Thoe Chao Fa Galyani Vadhana Kromma Luang Narathiwat Ratchanakharin). This is the full title of HRH Princess Galyani, the elder sister to H.M. King Bhumipol. P’ Laem informed me that she took a great deal of interest in the Royal family history and was particularly interested in the school. The statue was unveiled in B.E. 2543 (2000 CE).

We were shown inside the museum by a librarian and directed to a number of books on the table. These contained further photographs and descriptions. We learnt that at the time that group photo was taken, Khun Yay Somboon was 14 years old and the eldest in the group. Afterwards we were led to the Queen Elizabeth Room, which now serves as the board room, where the enlargement has been placed on the wall. Here it is (clicking on it will take you to the version on Wikipedia):

This photo was taken in 1908, right towards the end of the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). Thailand's process of modernisation through especially European influences is evident in the uniform: you can see the children wearing the traditional jongraben, but also Western style shoes and socks!

Thailand’s tropical climate is very severe on paper, yet the photograph itself is in very good condition. How come? P’ Laem explained that Khun Yay Somboon had cherished this photograph very much and took special care of it. His parents had built their home very close to the grandparents’ house and P’ Laem’s room was almost opposite Khun Yay’s. He could see it hanging at the back of the room as Khun Yay emerged onto her balcony. The positioning was deliberate!

The Princess Mother subsequently went on to Chulalongkorn Hospital to study nursing. Khun Yay also had an opportunity to study there but declined, apparently afraid of the ghosts! Thai people are generally sensitive to spirits, but this response surprised me as she was certainly a strong character, as I hope to convey in a future post or two...

Wat Paknam Magazine from 2497 (1954)

2011-01-13T18:16:00.003Z

As mentioned previously, in my recent trip to Thailand I had been shown a number of printed items that were published by Wat Paknam in the 1950s. I was able to borrow any that I was interested in and quickly decided to buy a scanner. With the help of a friend, Khun Yuttana, who works in I.T. in Bangkok, I bought an Epson Perfection V33 scanner, which is based on CCD technology and makes a good attempt at capturing bulky objects. It also came bundled with a ‘lite’ version of Abbyy Finereader 9 that included Thai OCR, but it’s not really practical for older documents with faded print.

I partnered the scanner with my ubiquitous netbook as below:

The combination worked fine, but being pressed for time I cut some corners that probably reduced the quality of the results - I should have placed the scanner flush with the edge of the table and held the overhanging pages at 90 degrees. (It’s even trickier when there are mosquitoes milling about!)

You might wonder what is the item under the lid. At first glance I had expected a book or manual, but it turned out to be an annual produced by monks at Wat Paknam.

The English reads:

THE MAGAZINE
OF THE JUNIOR BHIKKHUS OF
WAT PAK NAM, PHASICHAREON
DHONBURI, THAILAND
For the year B.E. 2497. C.E. 1954

That's the easy bit and I also recognise the temple crest with its name underneath - วัดปากน้ำภาษีเจริญ ธนบุรี Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen, Thonburi. So far so good. However I usually struggle with Thai translation, especially if the fonts are stylised, as is the case for the larger lettering. So I shall have to ask some Thai friends for assistance.

One word that I can make out is โอปนยิโก. This, I’m quite sure, is the Thai phonetic spelling of a Pali term that is usually rendered in Roman script as opanayiko. It’s an important term that is included in daily recitation about the Dhamma, the second aspect of the Triple Gem (Svakhato bhagavata dhammo...), and is perhaps what we’re encouraged to recall. According to Pali-English dictionaries it is an adjective translated as “leading to” that, as here, is usually associated with the goal of nibbana. There is, though, perhaps a more specific sense that comes via another translation “leading onwards.” Given that the path is through meditation and it is “within this fathom long body” that we find deliverance, it then makes more sense to say “leading inwards” and this emphasizes the general process of internalising Dhamma. I think confidence in its proper translation depends on meditation experience.

The magazine is approximately US letter size and over 360 pages long – I guess this was a bumper edition given the arrival of the first Western ordinand, one who was particularly active that year. There’s a wide range of articles with plenty of photographs, reflecting the diverse activities, based mainly around scholarship and meditation. What is probably distinctive for that period is the fact that it contains substantial articles in English as well as Thai; and many of the photographs have labels in English, adding to the sense that this aimed to be an international publication.

The English language content includes the following:

A biography of Chao Khun Bhavanakosol Maha Thera by Kapilavaddho Bhikkhu (W. August Purfurst) [10 pages]
Article: ‘The Essence of the Dhamma’ by Kapilavaddho Bhikkhu (W. August Purfurst) – transcript of a lecture given at the Thai - Chine Pracha Association, on Saturday 2, October 1954 [14 pages] (This was likely organised with the assistance of Ajahn Gaew).
A Photographic record of Wat Paknam Bhasichareon, Dhonburi, Thailand [16 pages]
Article: ‘An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy’ - a transcript of a 2 day interview between Ven. Kapilavaddho and Robert Samek, Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law, Melbourne University and Ven. Kapilavaddho, 2-3 August 1954. This was “electronically recorded” – probably using audio tape recorder. Also included is a diagram of Dependent Origination, produced in 1950. [64 pages]

I would like all the articles to be shared online. It’s clear to me that there was every intention to distribute them, so I think it would be fair to do so, but I should seek permission first from Wat Paknam (and then give them due credit and links.)

Unfortunately, the results of my scans were rather mixed in quality. I’m sorry to say there are many pages where words at the margins have disappeared or are unreadable. Even so, with a bit of extra effort I think this may still be largely achievable or otherwise another attempt could be made at scanning.

Ajahn Gaew and the first Western Bhikkhus at Wat Paknam

2011-01-03T13:32:00.002Z

A few days after my pilgrimage to pay respects to the late Abbot of Wat Paknam, Chaokhun Phramongkolthepmuni, I went with my cousin, P' Laem, to visit the family home of one of his disciples, Ajahn Gaew.

Ajahn Gaew was my mother's primary meditation teacher of vijja dhammakaya (advanced meditation using the method of the Middle Way) and my mother had huge respect and admiration for him, being fulsome in her tribute at has passing. Now I had the opportunity to learn more about his legacy from some of his children. I am particularly grateful to his daughter, Khun Darunee, and his son, Khun Goo, for sharing recollections and materials with me relating to their father.

Ajahn Gaew had become a respected lay meditation teacher at Wat Paknam in the 1950s - certainly known, for instance, by the maechi I had visited only days earlier. Among his students were monks, nuns and lay people and he subsequently continued to give teachings for many years. In a manner that seemed to predict the interfaith work of my mother, his outlook was very broad in terms of building bridges. He was fluent in Chinese and helped the Wat by translating Dhamma teachings into Chinese for there was a significant Chinese community; he did a great deal to persuade them to support Wat Paknam and thereby share in meritorious deeds.

As he had knowledge of English, he got to know a Western ordinand by the name of William Purfurst, who took bhikkhu ordination as Kapilavaddho (among the various materials I was shown a signed photograph). As Khun Goo gradually produced various publications, it was evident that Ajahn Gaew had taken considerable interest in Venerable Kapilavaddho, echoing my mother's remark that Ajahn Gaew often described this monk's activities in detail. It didn't matter that Ajahn Gaew was a lay person - the circle of meditators would know each other. In fact Ajahn Gaew did later take bhikkhu ordination for a rains retreat before returning to take care of his family.

I hope to describe the various items in more detail in a separate post, but here I just mention one that particularly caught my eye: a booklet, in Thai and Chinese, presented at the bhikkhu ordination of the three Western disciples of Ven. Kapilavaddho:

An English translation:

The English Sangha Community

The Buddha Bhavana Association
A publication to commemorate the ordination ceremony of the English [ordinands]

We bow to offer respects to
Luang Phor Phramongolrajmuni
Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen, Thonburi

For distribution
Donated to
Those who come to share in the merit of the ordination ceremony.
10,000 copies.

This book contains quite a few photos of the Western disciples - including samanera ordinations and their arrival as a group at Don Muang Airport. I think most of the photos have already been circulated in other publications, but I hope to translate some of the text as this may provide further details that can help shed light on the activities at the time. The booklet also includes photos of the Chinese Association, including a group photo showing the Abbot welcoming visiting Chinese bhikshus (of the Mahayana tradition). These may be the same bhikshus who actually attended the ordination and remarked upon in the cine footage that was taken (with commentary by Kapilavaddho himself).

And so this little bit of history continues to unfold...

Orchids at the Rose Garden, Nakhon Pathom

2011-01-01T20:24:00.004Z

Allow me to welcome in the new year with some flowers!

The day after the Buddhism and Science conference at Mahidol University ended, I found myself back in Nakhon Pathom province as some relatives picked me up from Thonburi and drove me to a floral market at the The Rose Garden, which was host to an orchid festival.

It's a popular venue, where they they host competitions among flower growers as well as offering for sale a huge choice of exotic varieties. There's a slightly contrived effect to the location with occasional bird sounds playing underneath a net canopy, but even for someone like myself whose knowledge of flowers is minimal, it's a nice and colourful scene.

Shopping tip: If you're in Thailand looking for special orchids, worthy of gracing royal palaces, and happen to find yourself at a market like this then see if there is a stall belonging to Khun Oi who has a farm in Samut Sakhon. Here she is tending some that she had on display at the Rose Garden:

Khun Oi is recommended by my cousin, P' Yui, who has bought hundreds of flowers from her!

Whilst we were wandering around, a little convey of golf buggies drove past. At the front, alongside his driver, was Dr. Rapee Sakarit [sorry, not sure about the spelling], who is regarded as Thailand's leading authority on orchids - I see a biography is available, but it's only in Thai. I was told that Dr. Sakarit is now at least 90 years old, so the transportation was provided to help his mobility. He seemed to enjoy observing the various activities there.

It's not just local growers who exhibit at the Rose Garden. There are also international displays, also exuberant in colour and form.

This display is from Japan:

And this one is from Papua New Guinea:

I took some more orchid photos, but apologise in advance as there are few descriptions due to my floral ignorance!

Pilgrimage trail of Phramongkolthepmuni (Luang Pu Wat Paknam)

2010-12-19T16:10:00.005Z

On 19 November, exactly one month ago, I joined an informal pilgrimage organised by my temple friend, Kalyanamitra P' Jo. It was to visit the major sites associated with Bhikkhu Sodh Candasaro, widely known as the great meditation master, Luang Phor Wat Paknam (or Luang Pu Wat Paknam), who rediscovered the Dhammakaya method of meditation. (Luang Phor is a respecful term of address, something like "Revered Father"; Luang Pu simply extends by one generation: "Revered Grandfather").

I was picked up at my apartment along the Taksin Road, near to Wongwienyai. As it is in Thonburi, the first stop was arranged as Wat Paknam, which is only two or three miles away.

This wat continues to develop and on this occasion there was an exhibition of its history, centred around its most famous abbot. As is the general custom, we went up to pay respects to Luang Pu in his shrine room, where his body lies in state. I've been there quite a few times and on each occasion I've noticed people sitting in meditation around the edges; its atmosphere is conducive to focusing the mind.

Whilst there I was wondering if anyone might know about my mother or, at least, her teacher, Ajahn Gaew. After a while we found a maechi, who kindly received us in between her various other guests. She had been at the Wat for over 60 years and so was there at the time of the late abbot and knew about all the well-known teachers, including Khun Yay Jan and Ajahn Gaew. Despite her years, she had tremendous energy and I felt her meditation practice was highly developed.

Ever since Luang Phor Wat Paknam took charge and remained incumbent until his passing in 1959, the temple has flourished in various ways. In recent decades it has been under the direction of Somdet Phramaharajamongkolajarn, who has been particularly active in the field of education, but the temple still continues to promote the Dhammakaya method. The abbot has given a lot of support to programmes at Wat Phra Dhammakaya, including the annual rains retreat ordination, over which he presides.

We proceeded to Nakhon Pathom, famous for Phra Pathom Chedi (for which I've made notes from an earlier visit, but we were already running behind schedule, and needed some sustenance: next stop lunch! We made our way to the 'floating market' of Don Wai, a very popular destination with locals, which is usually exceedingly crowded at weekends. It's not really floating, but just looks over the river. The growing prominence of environmental concerns has been having an impact on festival celebrations: hence the following bio-degradable floats for the Loy Kratong festival, produced by a bakery:

We continued the pilgrimage to Wat Bot Bon Bangkuwien, the small temple where Luang Pu first attained to Dhammakaya. It's located in Nonthaburi. It's now quite well known, so is well maintained, but it is still takes a bit of effort to locate: one of my cousins and her husband live in Nonthaburi, not far away from this Wat, but they had never managed to find it until I assured them that it was nearby. I couldn't remember the route to direct them, but there was enough impetus for them to make a renewed effort and we could duly reach it safely.

Back to the present pilgrimage, the main chapel has an interesting array of Buddha rupas, conveying the sense of pervading all directions:

We paid respects, sat briefly in meditation, offered a garland, and continued on our way.

The next leg took us to Suphan Buri province and two sites. The first was Wat Songphinong (literally the temple of the two siblings), where the young man Sodh Mikaewnoi ordained as Bhikkhu Candasaro and so began his quest in earnest to search for the heart of the Buddha's teaching.

It's another flourishing temple with a new vihara and uposatha:

The temple itself is on a site that has Buddhist roots going back more than 1,000 years, with the ruibs of a Khmer chedi from around the 8th century - according to a study guide of the Central plain.

As previously, we paid respects, leaving a garland at the shrine of Luang Pu:

From Wat Songphinong it was a short hop to the birthplace of Luang Pu, though it required a bit of careful navigation as there was still quite a lot of flooding in the area:

Fortunately the waters had receded sufficiently to enable us to keep to our itinerary and after walking across some sandbags, we reached the memorial grounds of the birthplace. The Mikaewnoi family home has gone, but at that spot there is a candle or beacon situated at the centre of a circular pool, evoking the symbol of radiating light.

Nearby is another symbol, very familiar to meditators, that of a giant sphere:

Beyond the sphere lies the memorial hall, though it was not yet complete:

There was one other destination for us in Suphan Buri: Wat bangpla, Banglain, where Luang Pu first gave teachings on the Dhammakaya method. As with the other Wats, it appears to be prospering and retains a mixture of old and new

After 4 months there it was said that 3 monks and 4 lay people attained Dhammakaya and from there Candasaro Bhikkhu continued to spread the teaching and the tradition grew.

To complete the day, we proceeded to Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Pathum Thani, where I helped a monk practise his English, taking the opportunity to ask him a few questions that have arisen during the course of my academic studies.

I was ferried back to Thonburi and so ended a full and fulfilling day of pilgrimage in honour of a great meditation master, the founder of the present Dhammakaya tradition.

WCBS Paper on Sustainable Social Networking

2010-12-11T12:37:00.005Z

In addition to the invited plenary speeches, the 3rd World Conference on Buddhism and Science scheduled three tracks on the second afternoon (2 December), one for each theme (Buddhism + Natural Science / Cognitive Science / Social Science) with 4 presentations in each. The conference organisers very kindly gave me the opportunity to present a paper in the section on Buddhism and Social Science; it's only through the generous support they gave that I decided to make the journey to Thailand just a year after my last visit.

I was listed as the first speaker after lunch, something of a mixed blessing with feelings of gastronomic contentment and the body's tendency to want a siesta! Sectional presentations were given up on the 4th Floor in the College of Religious Studies, a building nicely designed around a quad, and for my talk I think there were 40-50 people who wandered in, including a substantial number of bhikkhus, sitting towards the front. Mahidol University has many members of the Sangha as students on its courses, a feature that makes me imagine scenes from Oxford's early days when it's academic spaces was full of monastics also.

The title of my paper was Supporting Kalyāṇamittatā Online: New Architectures for Sustainable Social Networking, a theme that I've had in mind for several years. In my blog post On 'Friends' and other associations, I had already proposed as core to new designs the implementation of multiple relationship types for making a connection - at present, the norm is just the one, 'friend', which places colleagues and closest family members in the same basket. The key inspiration is the Buddha's teachings in the Sigalovāda Sutta, guidance to the householder Sigala, on how to cultivate true friendship. How one behaves should depend on the kind of relationship that one has and the Buddha divides these into 6 separate categories, one category for each cardinal point (N,E,S and W) plus above and below. There's an excellent diagrammatic representation of this in Phrabhavanaviriyakhun's book, Man's Personal Transformation, enough to get my onto my feet to explain it!

[photo credit: Mananya Pattamasoontorn]

I tried to emphasize the contrast these 6 directions with the single direction operative in most social networking sites today. That's a rather parlous state of social affairs, is it not? (In fact I even received assistance from Matthew Kosuta, the chair of the session, who provided a further illustration of the blackboard.)

Furthermore, the Buddha gives advice on how to cultivate each type of relationship, which suggests in application that the services available for each relationship type should vary accordingly.

A copy of my slides below:

Supporting Kalyanamittata Online: New Architectures for Sustainable Social Networking

View more presentations from Paul Trafford.

In the Q&A and subsequent feedback, one question raised the underlying issue of control over online activities - there were several representatives of grassroots organisations who were concerned about being restricted in communications. My response was to suggest that it may depend upon how social networking sites are implemented - whether a single site [run by just one organisation] or distributed [in the manner of Diaspora]. Another key issue is the level of guidance - whilst most people that some is needed, there would be great resistance to any heavy-handedness whereby people are told what to do online, particularly in a way that takes away their freedom to choose.

I'm keen for the ideas to be shared, so I'm pleased that the paper itself is also available for download from the conference papers section (or a pre-formatted copy from my site). Please let me know if you have problems with access.

Interacting Processes at the 3rd World Conference on Buddhism and Science

2010-12-10T17:00:00.005Z

The deep yearning for knowledge, particularly solutions to the problem of suffering, are stimulating many kinds of dialogue, particularly between and among Buddhism and Science. Thus the 3rd World Conference on Buddhism and Science that took place 1-2 December 2010 at the College of Religious Studies at Mahidol University (Salaya), provided a good opportunity to facilitate such activity. A prime mover behind this kind of meeting space is Dr. Alan Wallace, who is actively promoting the scientific analysis of meditation and its benefits.

I was able to join this conference series for the first time and find out about some of the recent developments in this field and present ideas of my own. The 2 day event was compact, with about 20 speakers in all, allowing for closer discussions. In fact, quite a few of them can be seen on the following brightly-decorated open air shuttle bus (or 'rail car' as it's known locally)!

That was taken shortly before 7am on the first day.

The conference was formerly opened by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, who arrived right on schedule at 9am to give a supportive speech, highlighting the qualities of compassion and the importance of ethics for human well-being, an underlying goal for this conference. Her Royal Highness subsequently stayed on to listen to 4 keynote speakers (and meet them afterwards), taking notes at a desk placed close to the speakers. One of my cousins informed me that at the end of the year the Princess compiles a book from the notes taken, indicating considerable conscientiousness.

The presentations were very diverse, covering various aspects across the three themes of Buddhism and Natural Science, Buddhism and Cognitive Science, and Buddhism and Social Science. I'll only touch on a few here, but very conveniently a complete set of papers is available for download. Despite the diversity, there appeared to be some common patterns in much of the research articulated. The scene was very well set by a fluent presentation from Professor Denis Noble who gave a few notes, as it were, from his book, the Music of Life. I attempt to paraphrase what he said (I have studied very little biology!) As a systems biologist he emphasized interaction of processes as the characteristics of life, rather than any genetic code or other building blocks. For him, the human being needs to be treated as a whole, with no control centre; changes are effected in multiple directions, so you can't predict human behaviour by unravelling the human genome - such DNA provides only templates for proteins. This has led to reflections on the Buddhist concept of anatta, though I think it can only be properly understood through meditation at an advanced level.

Process-oriented views were repeatedly echoed by speakers in neurological reports, particularly neuroplasticity arising from meditation practice. Although it was observed that many presentations about science came from a particular Western epistemological perspective, at least the encounters with Buddhist teachings were generally encouraging more 'plasticity' in the research approaches. It is only early days. One speaker applauded the fact that in Thailand the integration of scientific methods with traditional Thai medicine is formally recognised at the national level, contrasting it with the rather constricted approaches in Britain and the United States - often treating symptoms, not causes. Some of what was presented I had heard before, particularly the work by Prof. Ian Stevenson at Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies, relating to recollections by children of previous lives. Whilst the evidence continues to accumulate and I've long been persuaded myself, I wonder how much traction they are getting in general amongst the skeptical elements in the scientific community?

I don't have much formal training in the sciences (apart from computer science), but I have been practising meditation for quite a while and keen to see it adopted universally. So I was very keen to hear Rasmus Hougaard of the Potential Project, which provides mind training (meditation) for corporations. This looks like a recipe for success that has the right ingrediences: a programme that draws multiple meditation traditions (including the Thai Forest Tradition of Ven. Ajahn Chah), teachers experienced in meditation and the corporate world, training that applies throughout the day in whatever activities are engaged, a language that business people can relate to and the development of local facilitators to ensure continuity of practice. One limitation still to be addressed, and an important one in view of increasing movements between jobs, is that of supporting someone when they leave the company. At present it seems they're on their own...

It was fitting then that we could join in two meditation sessions - both courtesy of the jovial Malcolm Huxter, who had previously been a bhikkhu. Coupled with monks chanting the metta sutta (and excellent food), the conference had a very pleasant feel, though some of the organisation was a bit 'just in time', which is not unusual for Thailand!

There was another personally significant aspect. In 1993, Fuengsin Trafford, my mother, had helped organise a joint conference on 'Death and Dying' between Mahidol University and Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. With her language skills (Thai and English), she was responsible for many of the communications; she also presented on Thai death rituals. So I was very pleased to be able to visit the College of Religious Studies at Mahidol, particularly to meet Dr. Pinit Ratanakul, who had been a member of the group visiting the UK.

For a cosmologist's perspective, you can read the thoughts of keynote speaker, Adam Frank, who writes on Buddhism And Science: Promise And Perils.

New PDFs for an Old Ph.D. in formal methods

2010-10-28T21:17:00.003+01:00

I completed my Ph.D. in 1997 on The Use of Formal Methods for Safety-Critical Systems. Happy to share the findings, I put copies of thesis online, but whilst LaTeX -> dvi -> postscript may have been routine practice for users of UNIX systems running X Windows, it was not very Web friendly for many others (much as Ghostview is good, it doesn't have such a popular appeal!) Finally I've got round to converting to PDFs and have added them to my PhD page. I tried a few years ago, but my initial attempts generated huge files and I couldn't work out why; fortunately ps2pdf.com's settings were far more reasonable and the entire thesis would almost fit on a 1.4MB floppy disk!

As to the subject matter, I was unable to progress the research as I wished; the small group at Kingston University soon petered out and there were relatively few openings elsewhere, so that's when I moved more towards I.T. from computer science (they are very different activities). In the '90s there were growing hopes that formal methods would gain a more general foothold, but when I glance at FM sites now, it seems their use remains very niche; references to LOTOS, the process algebra that I used to model a communications protocol for medical devices, point to materials that are rather old - the World-wide Environment for Learning LOTOS is indicative of this. There are still research activities, typically in compilation, but overall it's a bit surprising and disappointing. Yet given the greater computing power on tap, particularly cloud computing, perhaps this area may yet develop a lot further...?

Installing MySource Matrix on a Win XP Netbook (for evaluation)

2010-10-01T18:03:00.005+01:00

Among the crop of open source content management systems that are deployed at Oxford, I recently had my first encounter with MySource Matrix, developed by Squiz, which is released under GPL. I decided to take a closer look by installing it on a netbook running Windows XP Home, just to have a poke around. The official requirements are a UNIX-like operating system, but this is a Web application, so in principle I think it ought to work, just as I can be confident in installing WordPress or Drupal. This should be the case, even though MySource Matrix is definitely a more substantial proposition in that a default install seems to gives you 'the kitchen sink'. The following is a screenshot after I had created my first page:

As I couldn't find anyone else writing about it I thought I'd share an outline of the process I went through in case others would like to evaluate on this platform. I apologize in advance for not offering any support or follow-ups because I've since moved on/back to other systems for now, so for queries I think the best place would be the support forums.

Requirements

I carried out the installation at the beginning of September 2010, mainly following the steps in the installation guide provided by Squiz. The first thing that I'd stress is that it doesn't support the latest version of PHP. I really should have read the requirements more carefully as I did try 5.3.x and progressed only so far until I hit an issue reported on the forum. Afterwards I dropped back to version 5.2.14.

For the Web server I am running Apache 2.2 and this appears to be the recommended choice for working with the other components.

For the database back-end, MySQL is not supported, but there is a Windows distribution of the freely available PostgreSQL.

Installation

Apache (preliminary): A standard install should be fine as a basis to work with installing PHP and its libraries. For the Matrix config itself, see later.

PostgreSQL: For reference, I used Squiz's page on database installation. I installed Postgres 8.4.x using the Windows easy installer, accepting the defaults. Then for the installation of the Squiz database I used pgadmin, specifically pgAdmin III (v. 1.10.3). From the command line I issued the following commands to create two users: $ createuser -SRDU postgres matrix $ createuser -SRDU postgres matrix_secondary where -S: NOT a superuser, -R NOT allowed to create roles, -D NOT allowed to create databases, -U connect as username.

Then I created the database: $ createdb -U postgres -O matrix -E SQL_ASCII mysource_matrix, where -O owner, -E encoding. Note that it's important that the right template database is used — template0.

Comment: pgAdmin warns that storing data using the SQL_ASCII encoding means that the encoding is defined for 7 bit characters only. So it is dependent on the Web application to do the conversions (since content served to the Web is typically 8 bit UTF. I wonder if this is an indication of the longevity of the software...?

At some stage, you need to create the PLPGSQL language for Matrix. I did this in pgAdmin once I had run from the command line: C:\PostgreSQL\8.4\bin>createlang.exe -U postgres -d mysource_matrix plpgsql, but for a while I had some difficulties and needed some guidance.

PHP: When installing PHP (I did this via the MSI installer), I did the custom configuration to ensure support for PDO. There are other bits, like SMTP support, that should be included also, but selecting everything is not a good idea because, for instance, it will then expect that an Oracle client is installed. The most immportant of these is the PEAR Package Manager since MySource Matrix depends a lot on the additional PHP libraries that PEAR provides.

I actually did the PEAR installation separate from the main PHP installation, by running the gopear.php script from within a browser and subsequently installing packages through its Web front end. A lot of modules are needed and I'm not sure that my list is complete, but for what it's worth, here is a list of what I've installed so far from the channel pear.php.net: Archive_Tar, Auth_SASL, Cache_Lite, Config 1.10.11, Console_Getopt, HTML_Template_IT, HTTP, HTTP_Client, HTTP_Request, I18N, Image_Canvas, Image_Color, MIME_Type, Mail, Mail_Mime, Mail_Queue, Mail_mimeDecode, Math_BigInteger, Math_Stats, Net_SMTP, Net_Socket, Net_URL, Numbers_Roman, Numbers_Words, PEAR, PEAR_Frontend_Web, Structures_Graph, Text_Diff, Text_Highlighter, XML_HTMLSax, XML_Parser, XML_RPC, XML_Tree. Note that all these are marked 'stable' apart from Image_Canvas (alpha); Numbers_Words and PEAR_Frontend_Web (beta).

Basic Config Settings

With everything in place, I was ready to run the php install scripts. Here I emphasize that the PHP PDO and PDO_PGSQL modules must be installed for this to complete. For step 2, you need to ensure that there is the right access to Postgres. by editing pg_hba.conf to have lines roughly like:

host    all         all         your_local_IP/24          trust

Then at the end of running the script it should report at end: all secondary and tertiary user permissions fixed.

For step 3 I found I needed to specify a locale like: C:\www\home\websites\mysource_matrix>c:\PHP\php.exe install\compile_locale.php c:\www\home\websites\mysource_matrix --locale=en.

Apache (config for Matrix): a virtual host needs to be created, which for my setup of Apache is in conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf. I created a named virtual host for Matrix with the lines:

  NameVirtualHost site1.local
  NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1

(apparently using localhost won't be sufficient).

The installation directories are a matter of personal preference, but as I could see some long directory paths, I've set the Matrix Home directory to C:/www/home/. This allows a fairly close following of the suggested config for UNIX, though file paths still need to be edited to cater for Windows directories. The relevant virtual container starts:

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1>
 ServerName site1.local
 DocumentRoot "C:/www/home/websites/mysource_matrix/core/web"
 Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks

I also found that I needed to insert another alias into the Apache httpd.conf for asset_types: Alias /asset_types "C:/www/home/websites/mysource_matrix/data/public/asset_types" Alias / "C:/www/home/websites/mysource_matrix/core/web/index.php/"

I then followed a quick start guide and was able to complete the steps there.

Conclusion

Not a 5 minute install like WordPress, but it is fairly straightforward, at least in hindsight!

Textual origins of the Ten Good Deeds

2010-06-27T12:07:00.007+01:00

In the course of my investigations for the M.St. dissertation, I read from Richard Gombrich’s Precept and Practice, which provides much illumination into traditional Buddhist practices in Sri Lanka. He discusses in some detail Ten Good Deeds (Dasa kusala karma), which are still highly valued (see, for instance, the post on Contentment in the recluse life by Ven. Wellawatte Seelagawesi Thero and Rituals in the Theravada Tradition by Ven. Bhikkhu Praghyalok).

A list of the deeds is as follows (Pāli followed by English translation taken from Gombrich):

dāna — giving (material)
sīla — keeping morality (i.e. the precepts)
bhāvanā — meditating
patti[dāna] — giving (transferring) merit
pattānumodanā — rejoicing in (another's) merit
veyyāvacca — giving service
apacāya — showing respect
desanā — preaching
suta — listening to preaching
diṭṭhiju — right beliefs

[Note that these are distinct from the dasa kusala karma patha, Ten Good Paths of Action].

You may have noticed that there seems to be some variation and interchange: one sometimes sees dasa kusala karma and elsewhere dasa puñña karma - the former usually translated as ‘wholesome’ or ‘skilful’, whereas the latter are usually translated as ‘meritorious’. The use of ‘good’ seems to cover both cases reasonably well and one could argue that skilful implies meritorious and conversely. :-) However, whichever term you settle on, Prof. Gombrich indicated that the source of these good deeds had not been established in the academic literature.

It’s in such situations that the present crop of electronic tools is a real boon and since I’ve spent a lot of time composing phrases for search boxes, I thought I’d take a look. For searching the Pāli canon I used the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana (Sixth Council) Tipitaka CD (version 4), a digitised presentation of the Burmese canon. One thing I find particularly interesting and useful about this edition is that it has some underlying TEI text encoding, which should help in determining meanings.

And, sure enough, I found a listing in commentary to Abhidhamma, namely the Abhidhammasaṅgaho of Anuruddhacariya: Abhidhammatthavibhāvinīṭīkā: Section 5. Vīthimuttaparicchedavaṇṇanā: Kammacatukkavaṇṇanā: Verse 65.

65. Dīyati etenāti dānaṃ, pariccāgacetanā. Evaṃ sesesupi. Sīlatīti sīlaṃ, kāyavacīkammāni samādahati, sammā ṭhapetītyattho, sīlayati vā upadhāretīti sīlaṃ, upadhāraṇaṃ panettha kusalānaṃ adhiṭṭhānabhāvo. Tathā hi vuttaṃ ‘‘sīle patiṭṭhāyā’’tyādi (saṃ. ni. 1.23, 192). Bhāveti kusale dhamme āsevati vaḍḍheti etāyāti bhāvanā. Apacāyati pūjāvasena sāmīciṃ karoti etenāti apacāyanaṃ. Taṃtaṃkiccakaraṇe byāvaṭassa bhāvo veyyāvaccaṃ. Attano santāne nibbattā patti dīyati etenāti pattidānaṃ. Pattiṃ anumodati etāyāti pattānumodanā. Dhammaṃ suṇanti etenāti dhammassavanaṃ. Dhammaṃ desenti etāyāti dhammadesanā. Diṭṭhiyā ujukaraṇaṃ diṭṭhijukammaṃ.

I have very little idea about dating, but I understand this is only Medieval commentary.

However, on searching phrases taken from that text, I subsequently came across a verse in the Itivuttaka Atthakatha, specifically the commentary on the Puññakiriyavatthu sutta (Tikanipāto. Dutiyavaggo Puññakiriyavatthu suttavaṇṇanā), which includes a list of ten good deeds, though the term used here is puññakiriyavatthu. Kiriya is a special word, being the actions of an Ariyan being, that is of one who is assured of nibbāna. Such actions have no karmic fruit.

Anyway, there are certainly ten good deeds here – listed as three and then seven more:

Ekamekañcettha yathārahaṃ pubbabhāgato paṭṭhāya kāyena karontassa kāyakammaṃ hoti, tadatthaṃ vācaṃ nicchārentassa vacīkammaṃ, kāyaṅgaṃ vācaṅgañca acopetvā manasā cintentassa manokammaṃ. Annādīni dentassa cāpi ‘‘annadānādīni demī’’ti vā dānapāramiṃ āvajjetvā vā dānakāle dānamayaṃ puññakiriyavatthu hoti. Vattasīse ṭhatvā dadato sīlamayaṃ, khayato vayato kammato sammasanaṃ paṭṭhapetvā dadato bhāvanāmayaṃ puññakiriyavatthu hoti. Aparānipi satta puññakiriyavatthūni – apacitisahagataṃ puññakiriyavatthu veyyāvaccasahagataṃ pattianuppadānaṃ abbhanumodanaṃ desanāmayaṃ savanamayaṃ diṭṭhijugataṃ puññakiriyavatthūti. Saraṇagamanampi hi diṭṭhijugateneva saṅgayhati. Yaṃ panettha vattabbaṃ, taṃ parato āvi bhavissati.

Again, I don’t know about the date, but according to a Pali Text Society page (section on the Itivuttaka Commentary), this commentary is considered to have been authored by Dharma around the 6th century CE.

Note that a few of the words are slightly different, but the construct seems congruent with each pair having essentially the same meaning.

dāna : dāna — giving (material)
sīla : sīla — keeping morality (i.e. the precepts)
bhāvanā : bhāvanā — meditating
patti[dāna] : pattianuppadāna — giving (transferring) merit
pattānumodanā : abbhanumodana — rejoicing in (another's) merit
veyyāvacca : veyyāvacca — giving service
apacāya : apaciti — showing respect
desanā : desanā — preaching
suta : savana — listening to preaching
diṭṭhiju : diṭṭhiju — right beliefs

With an eye on electronic tools and exegesis, perhaps this is where semantic encoding would help – specifically marking up texts to show equivalence of meaning…? The assistance that could be provided is only at the very early stages!

Personal Diary Of Fuengsin Trafford - in 10 volumes!

2010-04-07T17:32:00.005+01:00

My mother, the late Fuengsin Trafford, kept a personal diary, covering the years B.E. 2512 to 2517 (1969 to 1974). At the start, my family was in Southampton (Alpine Close), and then we moved to Strood in Kent in 1970 when I was just a toddler, staying there until 1975. I don't know what prompted my mother to maintain the diary - whether it was something she chose to do to help her adjust to British life or whether she was following some advice from a friend.

The diary is mainly in Thai and occupies a varied collection of notebooks, ten in all, most of them fairly small (bit less than A5 in size). There's an entry for almost every day, sometimes running to only a few lines, at others to more than a couple of pages. I estimate that there are 1500-2000 pages in total, but I can barely make out any of my mother's handwriting. :-(

Yet I can extract some simple patterns because there are many names in English (most of which I can decipher, but not all!) These include circles of friends and places visited (many mention Strood, Chatham, and Rochester, all places in the Medway area that are collectively seeking city status). Also recorded are literary works that she enjoyed reading, including a succession of French novels: Préséances (Mauriac), Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), La Porte Étroite (André Gide), L’Assommoire (Zola) and unspecified works by Balzac and Flaubert. There are also contemporary events that hit the national and international headlines, which could be an interesting complement to her collection of scrapbooks.

But how am I going to be able to make more than superficial use? I would dearly like to be able to read the handwriting, but for the moment I am dependent on others and so I'm inviting a few Thai friends to transcribe small portions to gain a better idea of what my mother wrote. I hope that these samples will help me to be able to read on my own.

Even then as there's so much material I shall have to target particular portions for reading, transcribing and translating. I could choose passages where certain people are mentioned etc., but perhaps there are more ingenious ways of delving into the text. Any suggestions would be welcome...

Invitation to a Middle Way retreat in Surrey

2010-03-28T14:50:00.004+01:00

The UK has just welcomed the prospect of summer as it enters 'British Summer Time' - the clocks have just been set forward one hour ('spring forward ... fall behind' is how I remember it), which means that the evenings are extended bringing a greater opportunity to enjoy the natural environment after work :-)

This summer there's a special opportunity to learn meditation over a long weekend - a 4 day retreat (2-5 July 2010) organised by the Middle Way team, which has for several years successfully run meditation retreats for Westerners in Northern Thailand. I've been helping with its organisation: the location is the Ladywell Retreat centre, which was recommended by a friend, and I think it will be an excellent venue.

It's aimed primarily at those who have some experience of meditation, particularly in the dhammakaya tradition, but I think it's open to anyone who is in reasonably good health and keen to learn. For those who have continued practising since attending sessions organised by one of our temples, it will be a great opportunity to intensify the practice under the guidance of experienced monks. Even if you haven't been able to continue meditating or not as much as you would have liked, then this will be an excellent way of getting back into the practice, purifying and calming the mind, finding inner peace and giving you a firm basis for further spiritual development.

Interested? You can find out some details in an accompanying leaflet and obtain instructions on how to join from Wat Phra Dhammakaya (London) (Not many Thais have heard yet of Woking!)

UPDATE: Further details, including photos from the retreat centre, have been posted in the Wat's blog.

Translating Thai with help from electronic tools

2010-03-25T11:43:00.013Z

With the advent of various electronic tools translations from one language to another should be greatly facilitated, improved, and made faster. However, I’ve found the initial preparation is no trivial matter. Furthermore, as I hope to show, when it comes to attempting a reasonably reliable translation, you need to draw on your wits and whatever knowledge you’ve tucked away in the recesses of your memory – so having a good memory is a good start!

I’ll indicate some particular issues with respect to Thai, with a few comparisons with other languages. I make no claims about my general linguistic ability and with Thai I consider myself a novice both in speaking and writing, though I’m gradually acquiring more skills – without any language aids I would not be able to get very far at all! Even so, having heard my mother speak to me as a child, I have some sense of how Thai ‘sounds’ and its structure.

Assuming that an electronic document is available, like humans, automated assistants have to content with the following general problems:

There’s no punctuation in Thai – it means that there’s more effort required in parsing the text and, particularly chunking, working out where divisions lie between clauses and sentences. I’ve struggled with this and sometimes depend on the tools’ suggestions.
There are no tenses in Thai apart from a few designators (token words added in) – it’s not always obvious what mode of voice to use and if making an arbitrary choice, then consistency is needed across the text as a whole.
Phonetic transcriptions are helpful for aiding a quicker reading, but there’s no single standard – I think it’s partly because Thai is tonal, and Romanised phonetics either look clumsy or just omit the tones; it’s also partly because of the sound combinations, many of which could be transcribed in more than one way.

A Suite of Translation Tools

But let’s not be too pessimistic – as Benny the Irish polyglot would say, the language cup is half full! Having created an electronic document, perhaps via scanning, OCR, and manual corrections, it’s time to find the tools to help you read it!

When it comes to electronic assistants, the temptation is take the easiest route: locate one tool, preferably free and on the Web, and just use that. However, it’s essential to have at least a second opinion! The first electronic tool that I have used in earnest is Lingvosoft Talking Dictionary Thai to English, though the pronunciation even in the 2010 version is still only in English. :-( This is basically a large conventional dictionary with a simple interface – you type in your word letter by letter, and if you’re not sure of the ending, then it will list words that start with that combination. I originally bought the Windows CE version thinking that it would be handy to have with me on my travels in Thailand, but I’ve not really got used to inputting on a small screen.

I’ve found this the most useful tool amongst all those I’ve tried is Thai2English. There’s a version of the software is available on the Web site http://thai2english.com. I have purchased the full copy, though it should be noted that it only runs on Windows. You can see from exploring the Web site that it goes well beyond a simple dictionary and has quite an array of pedagogic building blocks that supports those who are learning Thai.

However, the first thing that can be done is to get a quick sense of what the text is about and it’s here that I’ve turned to the Web by uploading content into Google Translate. This free service, which has only been available since January 2009, provides a very convenient interface offering a number of ways to get content translated automatically – technically it’s called machine translation. You can enter text into the box, upload a document or enter the URL (Web address) of a page that you’d like translated. You specify what language to which you’d like it to be translated and then just press the [Translate] button. You can also bookmark combinations, e.g. Thai to English:
http://translate.google.com/?th&tl=en#
(For newcomers, you can get a flavour from a quick overview provided by Google, which covers a lot of ground in a little over a minute, but you can pause, rewind and replay to take it all in...)

Google Translate does set a limit of a few pages per go, so if you have more than a slender booklet, you’d need to repeat this process a number of times, but for most purposes I don’t think that’s going to be very troublesome.

TIP: When running MS Windows (XP), I notice that there’s much better support for Firefox than Internet Explorer, especially when copying from the browser Window into a Word Processor, even to MS Word, when I intuitively expect more information to be retained from IE.

An example

I’ll consider the title and opening paragraph from my mother’s article about her experience of the Hampshire Buddhist Society. The URL is: http://www.chezpaul.org.uk/fuengsin/dhamma/hants60s.htm.

Here is what Google currently makes of it (click on the image to see the full size version):

Room for improvement, yes? I think it’s quite instructive of the challenges facing language learners, so let’s take a closer look at this paragraph.

You can do this using the text box entry form or alternatively, you can actually enter the above URL into Google and ask for English to be returned. Wherever it encounters what it thinks is Thai, Google has a go at translating, so it generally leaves the English untouched, though not completely(!) In this interface, moving my mouse pointer over the translated title reveals the original Thai, ส่วนหนึ่งของชาวพุทธในอังกฤษ:

Here is the phonetic transcription provided by Thai2English:

Right at the start there’s a lot of scope for differing translations. Let’s compare what Google and I make of it. I’ll do this chunk by chunk:

Title:: ส่วนหนึ่งของชาวพุทธในอังกฤษ
Google’s English:: Part of the Buddhist in England.
Paul’s English:: Some Buddhists in England.

Comments:

With Thai, there is no written designation for plural – here Google has interpreted ชาวพุทธ (chaao put) as singular, but should it be in the plural?
It opens with a figure of speech ส่วนหนึ่ง (suan neung), a construct recognised by Thai2English:

Lingvosoft also lists it as a phrase:

However, it’s still grammatically correct to assume that the two words are distinct: ส่วน หนึ่ง. Then a whole host of meanings are possible for ส่วน, which could be one of a number of parts of speech. Lingvosoft indicates:

Adverb.: Apropos;
Conjunction.: As for, as to
Noun.: Fragment, denominator, form, lineament, member, part, portion, proportion, quota, region, section, segment, while, zone, bit, body
Preposition.: As of

Thus it could be translated: Concerning a Buddhist ... , i.e. about a [single] Buddhist’s experiences in the UK.

So I’ve had to weigh up these alternatives. How to home in on the right meaning? One approach I adopt is to shorten the phrase, which should draw on a larger statistical sample so that the translation is based on more occurrences. Thus I can try ส่วนหนึ่งของชาว (sùan nèung kŏng chaao). Google renders this as 'Part of the people.' This helps persuade me to settle on 'Some people' as the main sense. Yet even with some more pointers it’s still largely guesswork until I’ve had a native or fluent speaker to check it for me.

Having pondered enough over just the title, let’s move onto the first sentence(!)

Sentence 1

นับตั้งแต่ข้าพเจ้าออกจากบ้านเมืองมาอยู่ในประเทศอังกฤษเป็นเวลาเกือบ ๕ ปีไม่มีโอกาสไปวัดทำบุญตักบาตรและฟังพระธรรมเทศนา

Google:: Since I come from homes in the UK for nearly 5 years, no opportunity to measure merits, and put listening preaching.
PT:: Ever since I left my homeland to be in England nearly 5 years ago I have not had the opportunity to go to a temple to make merits, to put almsfood in a monk's bowl, or to listen to the Buddha's teachings.

Comments on Google’s effort:

The subject of the sentence almost gets lost at ไม่มี – literally ‘there wasn’t’, but in English it’s clearer to turn this into the first person
Google omits the translation of ไป วัด (go to the temple), yet it’s a very common activity.
There’s a lack of contextual awareness with “measure merits” – it just doesn’t make sense here!
Google translates ตักบาตร as just ‘put’, but it’s a construction, which Thai2English renders as “to put almsfood in a monk's bowl” and Lingvosoft offers: “give food offerings to a Buddhist monk.” Perhaps the latter is safer, but the former really conveys the Thai tradition!
The resulting sentence offered by Google is grammatically very poor. If you look at it, there’s a distinct absence of Buddhist-related vocabulary, which suggests a significant gap in the corpora (assuming it is using statistical methods).

Afterwards I made a few more stylistic changes such as changing ‘home’ to ‘homeland’ to emphasize the change in culture.

Sentence 2

ข้าพเจ้ายังมีความเลื่อมใสในพุทธธศาสนาอยู่เสมอ

Google:: I also have a sequin. Enter the Buddhist religious path always.
PT:: Yet I still have faith in the Buddha's teachings.

Comments:

Whereas Thai2English translates ความเลื่อมใส as a phrase meaning ‘faithfulness, believability, conviction’, Google errs in its chunking and decides to apply a full stop in the middle of a word, i.e. after ความเลื่อม which literally means ‘glossy things,’ hence ‘sequin’!
Google doesn’t retain a single voice – it jumps from first person indicative to imperative(?)
The phrase พุทธธศาสนา is just the Thai transcription from the Pali of Buddha Sasana, which just means ‘teachings of the Buddha’. Although ‘Buddhist religious path’ sounds okay, to use the word 'religious' arguably brings with it a lot of unnecessary cultural baggage.

Sentence 3 (first part)

ในยามว่างได้พยายามอ่านหนังสือเกี่ยวกับธรรมนั่งสมาธิวิปัสสนา

Google:: The guard was busy trying to read books about the fair. Insight meditation.
PT:: In my free time I am always trying to read books on Dhamma, sit and practise Vipassana meditation.

Comments

Google has split this into two sentences.
Google has not recognised that ยาม ว่าง is a phrase; Lingvosoft confirms that on it’s own ยาม means ‘gatekeeper, guardian, ...’, but Thai2English both defines it as ‘time; hour; period’ and groups this word with ว่าง (‘free, empty, vacant’)
Google renders ธรรม as ‘the fair’, but that’s completely out of context. Thai2English helpfully offers amongst others: ‘dharma’ or ‘[to be] natural, lawful, normal.
It has taken นั่ง สมาธิ วิปัสสนา as just the practice (noun) of insight meditation, rather than as a verb. I’ve emphasized the activity by a longer rendering.

Sentence 3 (second part)

และปฏิบัติธรรมเท่าที่สามารถจะทำได้ในใจนั้นเฝ้าแต่คิดว่าคงจะได้พบกับชาวพุทธเข้าสักวันหนึ่ง

Google:: and practice as they can do but keep in mind that think that would be found to be a Buddhist one day.
PT:: and practise the Dhamma to the best of my ability. I keep these in mind, thinking that I might yet some day get to meet with other Buddhists.

Comments:

I found this a difficult clause and am not really sure about the translation.
Google’s clause is all over the place
Google again fails to translate the key word of ธรรม

As you can see, at present Google’s rendering is very variable, not coherent, and doesn’t make much sense. It seems to chop up sentences and make clauses into short sentences, giving a staccato effect! I’m guessing that Thai is not one of its stronger languages.

Evaluation

I have found that the most helpful translation tool is Thai2English and I copy chunks of Thai there. It gives meanings and phonetic transcriptions word by word, together with help concerning Thai grammar. Occasionally it also fails to chunk correctly and sometimes lacks some vocabulary, but most of the time is does a good job so that where there are doubts or blank spaces, I have often found that there are typographical errors in the original text (or mistakes in the OCR/copy typing).

Google Translate is quick and useful for giving some features, but it’s not fit for translating anything substantial. I’ve found that close-reading is required, for which Thai2English, supplemented by another electronic dictionary – here Lingvosoft – is far more productive.

Whilst Google struggles to provide accurate translations, it does provide a very useful template structure for working on documents: it splits up translations into bite-sized segments of Thai followed by English. At the moment I don't pay too much attention to its translation, but retain it whilst I’m working since sometimes it does offer useful clues. I'm sure that it will improve quite rapidly as it's an important project for them.

At the end of the day the notice pinned onto the board would be: "All translations may be subject to change!"

Translating Thai: Some Experiences of Digitisation

2010-03-21T16:55:00.004Z

Is it possible to produce a reasonably accurate translation from Thai into English with only a basic knowledge of the language and the aid of electronic tools? I’m not going to make great claims as my experiences are from home-grown experimentation over a few months. However, having recently completed a few translations, I think there are promising signs. At least I’m quite satisfied with a translation of my mother's article concerning Buddhism in Hampshire in the '60s, which runs to about 2,000 words. So there may be some pointers that others find helpful.

Setting this post in the context of biographical research, I’ll first describe some broad considerations and then discuss digitisation (scanning and optical character recognition). One tip I’d offer is that there needs to be attention to detail – rough and ready methods won’t yield very much that's of value. Certainly, there’s been more involved than I anticipated!

I’ll start with a list of very basic questions - as much for my own benefit as anyone else’s :-)

What are you trying to learn? Why is it significant? Even when carrying out research entirely in one’s native language, time often forces choices with regard to the materials that you examine closely. If they are in a foreign language, then that imposes further constraints.
Is there anyone who can help? It may be that you can effectively form a team.
Of the materials available, which ones are going to shed most light in key areas?
Among these materials, which ones are amenable to analysis? Are they easy to access physically? Are they printed or hand-written?

All these points apply to any language, but then each language has further characteristics that can make the situation more or less difficult.

With regard to Thai, its alphabet (44 consonants and 28 vowel forms) is much more elaborate, particularly with the use of diacritics. Even Thais will tell you that looking up words in a dictionary can be quite a chore. Yet, if the letters are clearly formed then actually reading it is not so hard because it’s generally phonetic. As someone with a limited vocabulary, needing to look up many words, I soon decided that it’d be much more convenient to have an accurate transcription in electronic form so that I can use software-based dictionaries.

A note on reading handwriting

So what about Thai handwriting?! In the Thai education system, primary school children learn to write by copying individual Thai printed letters – I’ve seen one of my cousins do this repeatedly when she was 5 years old. When they leave primary school they then learn cursive script and that stage can mark a huge departure. It’s a similar approach as I learnt for English, but I don’t know whether children develop their own style or are guided to adopt one of a number of standard styles. I’ve shown sets of photos to relatives and friends with Thai writing on the back – quite often there is a struggle to read what’s written, so it appears to be no easier than English. It’s a daunting prospect, but assuming that the writing is consistent, then it becomes a question of recognising patterns and perhaps understanding its topology will help. So for a given author, it may suffice for someone to translate a sample for me and I can try to figure out the rest.

Anyway, at the moment I can’t read much beyond the printed word, which means I have to ask others to copy type what I can’t read. For general documents concerning work that’s quite feasible, at least for someone in Europe the costs of getting this done in Thailand are affordable. However, a biography containing personal items (which are often of greater interest) requires more care – until their contents are known they should be read only by people you can trust.

So in the remainder of what I share here I’ll confine my attention to printed documents as I indicate a methodology I’m adopting for their translation.

Copy type or scan for OCR?

Technology-assisted translations often start with flatbed scanners that can convert the physical page into an image that then gets ‘read’ using optical character recognition software (OCR). In theory, since the printed word generates letters uniformly, software can accurately interpret them. In practice, results are imperfect for most kinds of sources and can take longer than expected. It may be better simply to copy type.

So when should OCR be used? Whatever language you are trying to read, the utility depends upon the nature and condition of the original document – if it is a fragile pocket volume with hundreds of faded pages with tiny letters in an obscure font, then even if you manage to safely scan the page, you may find OCR yields very poor results.

However, this kind of discussion assumes that there actually is some decent software for any language, when in fact for languages that don’t use Roman script, the situation seems to be very varied...

Available OCR options for Thai (very few!)

For Thai the available options have been very few. On asking a few Thai friends, I drew only blanks and when I carried out a quick investigation it seemed that until only a few years ago, the options were not far out of the university laboratory and didn’t look very amenable. An example is NEC-0006 อ่านไทย เวอร์ชัน 2.5 (OCR), which is inexpensive, but it doesn’t get very good experience reports from a Thai OCR discussion thread..

The larger well-established commercial products such as Omnipage and Abbyy seemed for a long time to have ignored Thai until a couple of years ago when additional language support for Abbyy FineReader Pro was introduced for Thai in version 9. Trusting the claims of accuracy I took the plunge and bought a copy - quite an investment, even with an educational discount.

I’m glad I did as the results are generally good, although its accuracy is inferior to that for languages based on Roman script. For someone like me who types Thai very slowly it is a useful start, but unless the lettering in the documents is very clear so that the accuracy is close to 100%, its utility will fall away for anyone who can type reasonably quickly and accurately.

(In case you are wondering, there have been efforts to recognise handwriting, but it’s a much harder task – I was interested to note, though, that a fairly recent paper, Maximization of Mutual Information for Offline Thai Handwriting Recognition, in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, makes use of a toolit that is primarily used for speech recognition research. It prompts the question of the relationship of Thai speech to writing. From my very rudimentary knowledge of Thai linguistics I gather that it has roots in Sanskrit, where the letters of the alphabet are placed according to where in the throat/mouth/lips they are formed. Thai reflects this ordering quite substantially, though not completely.)

Undertaking the OCR.

I think getting the best results is an art and worth persevering to make improvements. For all but a few cases with one or two small documents, the whole scanning workflow ought to be considered as a successful process requires a good rhythm. Washington State Library has a useful checklist and there are some good tips on the OCR process provided by About.com. These cover physical aspects including the selection of the scanner itself, keeping it clean, the placement of the source document, the scan settings (resolution, colour contrast, expected language(s)), and how the scanned image is divided up for the actual process of scanning.

One particular aspect that many software packages provide is training. For text recognition this is basically the process of chopping up the scanned image into a sequence of glyphs (character elements) and assigning glyphs to character names – see e.g. Wikipedia for a detailed entry. As you feed in multiple samples and specify the assignments, it learns how particular characters should be interpreted. There’s a training tutorial for a software library called Gamera, which I found very helpful in explaining the concepts.

I’ve not yet used training, probably because I’ve been a bit lazy to make the effort to learn how to make it learn!

Finereader’s Thai OCR Performance and Correcting the OCR.

Here’s a sample of FineReader's output.

As you can see, it’s a long way from perfection! Here it obviously doesn’t handle the English. I actually set it to interpret everything as Thai – although I could have included English as an additional language, it seems to have a net effect of adversely affecting the Thai rendering, so since English is easy for me to recognise and type, I prefer to let it get that part wrong.

A Thai person might well be dissatisfied with the results, but overall I was quite happy given my very slow Thai typing speed. There were one or two characters that FineReader seemed to really struggle with, but correction was not difficult as the suggested match was often a character used here and not elsewhere – so I could do a ‘search and replace.’ More challenging was the handling of the small diacritical marks – in Thai they are all glyphs since they each contribute towards meaning, either as vowel sounds or tone marks. Instances where there are two such marks on a single letter are common and FineReader often struggled to pick out -่ ไม้เอก (mai ek) – it looks like a hyphen, but its placement varies a lot. If you look at the screenshot carefully, you can see that FineReader simply omits quite a few of these, perhaps because the original source document was not clear enough.

Even if you train an OCR package, there will still be imperfections, so the output needs to be corrected. This process is tedious, but helpful – not least in learning to read! It helps you to familiarise yourself with the alphabet and especially pay attention to the way letters are formed.

If you have a large screen, particularly with widescreen dimensions, then it’s probably easiest to use the scanned image, set the zoom as needed, and place it next to the OCR’ed version that you’re editing.

Conclusion

Although a quick and perfect system is far away, for printed texts a few OCR options are emerging that I find helpful in digitising printed Thai texts. Alternative suggestions are very welcome – I’m keen to improve what I’m doing, even though it’s already been quite an effort and I haven’t yet started talking about the translation itself...!

The Hampshire Buddhist Society in the late '60s

2010-02-23T20:58:00.003Z

I've recently started translating from Thai into English some documents authored by Fuengsin Trafford (formerly Sarayutpitag), my mother. I'm pleased to make available a draft of Some Buddhists in England, being a translation from the Thai of ส่วนหนึ่งของชาวพุทธในอังกฤษ.

The article describes the early days of the Hampshire Buddhist Society, which was founded in 1966. It organised some lectures at Southampton University, but it really developed at Crabwood Farmhouse, near Winchester, where core members of the Society met regularly. I found it particularly interesting to read about the format of the sessions since I attend a group in Oxford, where we follow a very similar procedure. This is no coincidence since our group used to be led by Freda Wint, who, I gather, was one of the early members of the Society. It's a wonderful feeling to know this sense of continuity.

I'll write separately about the process of translation itself, but just comment here that I think this would have been far more difficult for me even 5 years ago, but current electronic tools have really helped. However, I still need a Thai person to make corrections!

Golden Jubilee celebrations at KMUTT

2010-02-04T11:48:00.005Z

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the official founding of King Mongkut's University of Technology, Thonburi - it was established originally on 4 Feburary 1960 as Thonburi Technology Institute (TTI). It's now a substantial research-led University building up an international profile.

I've been fortunate to get in touch with the University as my mother used to work there as a lecturer in English. She would refer to her former place of work as "Bangmot," which is the colloquial shorthand and was one of the first members of staff, joining around the time it was founded - I'm currently trying to establish exactly when. The following photo was taken in 1964, when there was (as far as I know) just this two storey building!

The developments are extraordinary, so congratulations to the university on its achievements! I think my mother would have been delighted to see its progress.

The significance of Dhamma eye in Buddhavacana

2010-01-21T18:50:00.008Z

[updated: 22 January 2010]

In earlier drafts of my Master's dissertation I started exploring a number of avenues as I tried to trace the historical development of certain concepts insofar as they might have had a bearing on the understanding and practice of the Fifth Precept. Along the way I considered the concept of Buddhavacana in relation to what might be accepted as an utterance of the Buddha, but largely omitted my ideas owing to lack of space. So I would like to take the opportunity of sharing here an observation about this concept. It's a concept that's largely treated in Mahāyāna Buddhism, where using Sanskrit spellings is the usual convention and where discussion concerns Mahāyāna sūtras I'll use these spellings. However, I'm more at home with Pāli and as the discussion proceeds to draw on early canonical materials, I shall switch to mainly using the Pāli forms. I hope this doesn't cause much inconvenience.

In my dissertation I quoted the Pāli-English dictionary to translate the term vacana as 'speaking, utterance, word, bidding' (Rhys-Davids and Stede:1921-5). I made reference to investigations carried out almost 30 years ago by Graeme MacQueen (1981,1982), which has established itself as a key work in scholarly discussions about who and what the Buddha might have authorised as regards his teaching. Its currency, at least for the study of Mahāyāna, is evident from the way Paul Williams cites from it in the second edition of Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations.

The interpretation of Buddhavacana can vary according to whether it is regarded historically or ahistorically. Is it legitimate to trust more than what the historical Buddha Gotama (or Sakyamuni) is recorded as having taught? What about his disciples? Were they necessarily Arahants? Or is the criterion more on the speech itself? So is there an ongoing process of 'revelation'?

One of the initial clarifications MacQueen makes is that taking even the Pāli canon as the primary text Buddhavacana becomes not merely what the Buddha uttered, but also what some disciples uttered (1981:306). MacQueen then leads us into an analysis of pratibhāna ('inspired speech') and the other prati-bhā constructions (1981:310-314). He discerns two categories: “Someone is invited (usually by the Buddha) to have something 'occur' or 'be revealed' to him, whereupon he gives a doctrinal, prose discourse” (310) and “Something spontaneously 'occurs' or 'is revealed' to someone and he gives notice of this; after having been invited (usually by the Buddha) to give expression to his inspiration he gives a verse of praise” (311). Even with this latitude, MacQueen remarks towards the end of his first paper that the sūtra-piṭaka “was in fact established as a stable body of literature quite early” (315). In conclusion he states, “Hence it is fair to say that the concept of buddhavacana, historically understood, put strong limits on the contribution people's pratibhāna could make to the corpus of religious truth. By and large, then, the religious community did indeed see itself as belonging to a closed tradition.”

However, with some of the early Mahāyāna sūtras, the interpretation was changed – “a closer look reveals a startling break with traditional Buddhism”(1982: 49). MacQueen analyses especially the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, “generally considered the earliest of the existing sūtras of the Perfection of Wisdom group and, in fact, one of the earliest of the existing sūtras we possess.” The very mention of perfect wisdom in the title indicates a new emphasis – the source of what the Buddha expressed, thereby legitimating further expression as long as it came from that source. MacQueen quotes the opening dialogue in which Venerable Subhuti advises Ven. Sariputra that “Whatever, Venerable Sariputra, the Lord's Disciples teach, all that is to be known as the Tathagatha's work” (49). MacQueen highlights that Subhuti thus gives voice to extended Buddhavacana and it comes from his own mind. As he notes, there is a process whereby what is authoritative is “not so much that which has been spoken by a particular individual at a particular time as it is that which is of the highest value from the religious point of view.” Such a view lends itself very much to an ahistorical interpretation of Buddhavacana (51). MacQueen goes on to present a broad twofold division between roughly faith-based and wisdom-based traditions, the latter of which is central to the Aṣṭasāhasrikā. where “The function of a Buddha is precisely to make known such [liberating] wisdom [or prajñāpāramitā] to others” (52).

Furthermore the importance of the wisdom is enforced by quotes indicating that the Buddha refused to appoint a successor saying that the dharma would succeed him, for which MacQueen gives several canonical references (53). One of these is the following: “And the Lord said to Ānanda: 'Ānanda, it may be that you will think: “The Teacher's instruction has ceased, now we have no teacher!” It should not be seen like this, Ānanda, for what I have taught and explained to you as Dhamma and discipline, will, at my passing, be your teacher” (DN II 154). This naturally and readily legitimises succession in a way that reduces the primacy of the historical context of the Buddha and all his disciples.

The key word here would appear to be Dharma, but rather than discussing this term, MacQueen just states: “the essence of Dharma is again liberating wisdom” and has a footnote referencing verses 460-4 of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā. Yet Dharma has many meanings in the canon – for instance, the Pāli-English Dictionary devotes four pages to its entry, so it's this term that I want to explore here.

In one sense Dharma may be maintained by the teachings that are kept through recitation and this appears to be the fundamental meaning with regards to transmission. The sūtra records that having stressed to Ānanda the importance of memorising this sūtra exactly word for word, the Buddha explains: “For as the dharma-body of the past, future and present Tathagatas is this dharma-text authoritative” (Verse 462 translated by Conze (1994: 267)).

(Now I switch to Pāli spellings :-).

The emphasis is on preserving the text, but the text serves only to point to that Dhamma, and not the basis of insight alone. If Dhamma is what needs to be preserved, then what is said about it in the canon to make it so special? Rather than talking about Dhamma as an object that has been produced, we can focus on the action or faculty of Dhamma realization; in terms of liberating wisdom, it makes sense therefore to specify these in terms of seeing. I'd suggest that such a Dhamma faculty is fittingly conveyed by the formula the “pure spotless Dhamma eye,” (viraja vītamala dhammacakkhu) which is the eye that can see things as they truly are. If one is to argue that inspired utterances are legitimate Buddhavacana, then this statement indicates some support for that Dhamma eye to be a necessary requirement.

So it's worth investigating this formula further. Such an attainment is characteristic of breakthrough as mentioned early on in the Vinaya accounts of the Mahāvagga (Great Division) with reference to the first lay disciple, Yasa in Mahāvagga 1.15 verse 9 (a passage that also includes the ubiquitous formula: "as if set upright something that had fallen; lit a lamp so that those with eyes might see shapes ...") It's mentioned further in many descriptions as the basis for subsequent progress to the eight Aryan states. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, a practitioner in the Therāvāda tradition, who himself addresses issues of authenticity and authority in ‘When you know for yourselves...' The Authenticity of the Pali Suttas, makes the statement:

“Traditionally, the texts state that uncertainty about the Dhamma ends only with the attainment of stream-entry, the first of the four levels of Awakening.”

Ven. Thanissaro has also written a two part article discussing stream entry, and indeed there's no mention of in the first part (before Stream Entry), which includes developing the Seven Factors of Awakening. However, in Part 2: Stream-entry and Beyond, Thanissaro indicates its profound significance:

“This standard formula — it is repeated throughout the Canon — may not seem that remarkable an insight. However, the texts make clear that this insight is not a matter of belief or contemplation, but of direct seeing.”

I think it adds weight to the value of the Dhamma eye (and the need to attain it). Another view echoes this, coming from my own tradition of Dhammakāya. This is what the founder, the late Chao Khun Phramonkgolthepmuni had to say on the matter:

“Now the virtues of the Sangha. The Order of disciples is twofold. That is, ordinary disciples, and Noble Ones. Ordinary disciples differ from the Noble Ones in that they do not possess the dhamma eye, which the Noble Ones do. Here, therefore, only the virtues of the Noble Ones are implied. There are four pairs, eight in all. The stream enterer path and fruit, the once-returner path and fruit, the non-returner path and fruit, the emancipated path and fruit.”

(from a book on his life and teachings by Terry Magness ).

It's echoed in contemporary teachings from the temple on the Four Noble Truths:

Such Buddhist nobles have overcome craving, even though some have not yet attained Nirvana - they have seen and known Nirvana via their Dhamma eye i.e. by meditational insight.

(The Buddha's First Teachings: The Cessation of Suffering by Phrabhavanaviriyakhun)

Are all utterances of equal value among those who hold the Dhamma eye? There might be different levels of response to this question. In terms of secular or historical authority, we might expect a process of 'graceful degradation' whereby the greatest authority (from whom there are no doubts about proclaiming Buddhavacana) are the utterances from a Buddha; these are followed by utterances of a Chief Disciple, then the Arahat in general, then Anāgāmi (Non-Returner), Sakadagami (Once Returner) and finally the Stream Enterer (Sotāpanna). Recall both lay and ordained can be members of the Āriya Sangha, though it's said that a lay person can't survive as an Arahat without ordaining very quickly.

If we assume the necessity of the Dhamma eye, then for the historical context we should consider questions regarding the sustenance of its practice. Did the Buddha make any remarks about its prosperity? If we consider this, then we may find a historical override to perpetual argumentation in the Buddha's prediction that his dispensation would be limited: “...now, Ānanda, the Brahma-faring will not last long, true dhamma will endure only for five hundred years.” (Vinaya: Culavagga X: I.6, I. Horner trans.). It is made in the context of the establishment of the bhikkhuni order and the recorded detrimental affect (halving the time of dispensation) grates against modern sensitivities, but it should not be dismissed out of hand as the account makes clear that gender is no barrier to attaining nibbāna.

What might the impact be on Buddhavacana? If this statement is true historically and we assume the necessity of "true dhamma" for the extensions to Buddhavacana, then it would appear to restrict such extensions to no later than the 1st century CE and it would imply a more conservative view of what constitutes early Buddhist texts. It would certainly negate assumptions that the transmission of any text per se legitimates or supports in perpetuity the extension of Buddhavacana.

However, this statement does not imply that henceforth there will be no new Buddhavacana. The statement about "true dhamma" is made only with respect to Buddha Gotama's dispensation since, at the very least, it is recorded that there is Buddha Metteya still to come in this world cycle, who in turn will set forth "true dhamma". But again, we may ask what is this "true dhamma"? Some scholars have interpreted this only as a historical material corpus of texts (transmitted orally or in written form). Yet I think it likely that the present canon is substantially a reliable record of what was originally said, so it seems unlikely to me that this is what the Buddha was referring to. A more pertinent interpretation in my view is that the Buddha is referring to dhamma practice, sublime practice, difficult to discern, that is essentially based on the Dhamma eye. Thus the statement is more fundamental: it states that the core of what he taught as practice (i.e. the 'Middle Way' etc.) would be lost.

At first glance, pondering the implications of this can be discouraging, but if we continue to focus on the faculty of the Dhamma eye in relation to "true dhamma", we can ask is it sufficient to proclaim Buddhavacana (as well as necessary)? If it is sufficient, then there arises the possibility of new Buddhavacana if the Dhamma eye is re-discovered without the historical material presence of a Buddha.

References

Rhys-Davids and Stede, Pāli-English Dictionary, Pali Text Society, 1921–5. [Available online at: http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/]
Conze, Edward trans. 1994[1973]. The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 lines [Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra], Sri Satguru Publications
MacQueen, Graeme. 1981. Inspired Speech in Early Mahāyāna Buddhism I. Religion 1981 vol. 11, Academic Press, 301-319
MacQueen, Graeme. 1982. Inspired Speech in Early Mahāyāna Buddhism II. Religion 1982 vol. 12, Academic Press, 49-65

Master's Dissertation on Buddhism: On the Fifth Precept as Avoiding Heedlessness

2010-01-02T18:57:00.005Z

สวัสดี ปี ใหม่! Even if you don't read Thai, I think you can guess this annual greeting. :-)

The customary celebrations have been accompanied by the usual over-celebrations with adverse consequences reported in familiar headlines such as Rising alcohol addiction costs 'could cripple the NHS'. So it may be an appropriate time to share some research into the Fifth Precept in Buddhism, which I undertook as part of my Master's in the Study of Religion.

Observing this precept is an undertaking to avoid intoxicants. So what was the original meaning of this precept? How is it interpreted today, particularly in social contexts? Do practitioners from different traditions have the same attitudes or are there variations? I explored these and other issues in my Master's dissertation on Avoiding pamāda: An analysis of the Fifth Precept as Social Protection in Contemporary Contexts with reference to the early Buddhist teachings. The exploration is essentially concerned with just the one Pali word, pamāda, which can be translated as 'heedlessness.'

As with my essays in Christianity, I was being a bit ambitious, perhaps trying to bite off more than I could properly chew. It's commonly known that there are variations, but I'm not aware of research that has shown this empirically. So I've made a little step in this direction by carrying out a survey, looking at people's understanding of the precept in theory and how they put it into practice in particular social scenarios. I wrote this up as a separate piece of work as it was too big to fit into the dissertation (but since all Master's work was marked anonymously, I had to make cryptic references so that the author of the dissertation wasn't made explicit).

I was able to establish with reasonable confidence that there were indeed variations in attitudes among practitioners in different traditions, so how did the variations arise? In my background reading I made use of quite a few Mahāyāna texts, especially those relating to the Bodhisattva ideal. Along the way, Graeme MacQueen's fascinating study of Buddhavacana prompted some reflections. Again, owing to space limitations, I couldn't write much about this in the dissertation, but at least there are some notes that I could write up at a later date.

Just one other observation. Although pamāda is most commonly connected with alcohol and mind-altering drugs, the Buddha indicated a more general scope in his guidance to avoid the intoxicated mind. I found this in the early texts when I came across the compound, jūtappamādaṭṭhānānuyoga, which I've translated as 'gambling, a yoke that is the cause of heedlessness.' I think it's apt to point to this now as I think it is this mentality that has contributed in no small measure to the global financial crisis where trading on the financial markets has been - as far as I can tell - a kind of gambling. The more I explore the texts, the more I see how fundamental heedfulness is to developing one's practice.

I hope the dissertation is interesting and helpful. Any feedback - comments, suggestions, critiques - would be welcome, either by email or as comments to this blog. I think there's a lot more research that could be pursued in this area, especially in relation to physical and mental health.

Recalling Memories through Pictures (using multimedia tools)

2009-12-30T12:24:00.007Z

The processes of contact, feelings, perception and memory are closely interlinked. They are mediated through our senses and for most people the sense that usually predominates is sight. So in trying to put together the early life of my mother, the late Fuengsin Trafford, it's been helpful to carry out interviews based on sets of photographs. I haven't done much planning really, but rather have made things up as I've gone along, working intuitively; it's only now I can see more of the methodology that I've actually followed! I'll report here on that methodology and also on some of the technical tools that I've used to assist me.

My mother left hundreds of photos, which I've tried to arrange in sets according to distinct periods: early childhood, University days, her first years of teaching and so on. I created an index for each set and have pencilled in an incrementing number on the back of each photo, so that they are uniquely identified and there's some order to them, though (as I later would frequently find out) it's not chronological! I then scanned in the photos at a fairly high resolution (on an HP Scanjet 5370C, quite old now) and saved the files using the index as part of the file name. Having done this for a fair proportion of the collection, I've put copies in many places - on laptop hard drives, an external backup disk and memory sticks.

However, merely creating an archive without any descriptions is not much use! For some while I had intended to ask relatives and friends of my mother to enlighten me as to the context and details concerning the photos. I was finally able to set off for my mini fieldwork earlier this month (December), with a copy of the photos on my netbook, an Eee PC. When I met the 'interviewees' in Thailand I recorded the conversations using a digital voice recorder, saving copies of the recordings as files on the netbook.

It was the first time I had properly used such a recording device and my experience of conducting interviews was minimal (though I once did an interview with a Big Issue seller as part of a one day digital video course). So earlier this year I explored the world of digital audio recorders (a process that's familiar for me as I've purchased quite a lot of electronic devices :-) I settled on an Olympus WS-110, which is a compact device, somewhat smaller and lighter than e.g. a Nokia 8210 mobile phone. I chose it based on reviews of its audio quality - good microphone and high quality sampling (see e.g. reviews on Amazon); file format wasn't a concern for me. These devices are evolving rapidly and already Olympus lists this as an archived product, which means you should be able to find it new at a very good price on ebay (which is where I purchased it). Operating the device was very simple.

Then the netbook would serve as a digital lightbox and a basic means of navigation - for a given photo set all the photos would be the same folder and I'd run a slideshow using the wonderful Irfanview! The major handicap with the netbook is the relatively small screen - in many cases I needed to zoom in (my audio recording has a lot of tapping sounds!) When I was in conversation, I'd start with a preamble about what I was intending to do and asked for permission (it's worth confirming this afterwards as well). Although sometimes you know that everyone is happy, it's a good habit to get into in case I go on to do academic fieldwork, which is something I am deliberating. My main role felt like being a catalyst, with some general encouragement and a few questions sprinkled here and there, to elicit a few more details. There's no doubt a large swathe of literature on conducting such interviews, but I didn't read any.

On my return to the UK it was time to transcribe what had been said. To facilitate this, I wanted to associate the audio with the respective pictures (a tradeoff of using a separate recording device rather than doing the recording directly on the netbook). The intended result would be a video consisting of the photos that I had shown with each photo accompanied by the respective audio commentary, i.e. the comments from friends and relatives.

The solution I adopted was to use a video editing tool, Windows Movie Maker (WMM for short), which comes part of the Windows operating system. I guess it is similar in functionality, if not in elegance, with Apple's iMovie. My familiarity with WMM is very limited, so it's probably best if I summarise. The basic idea is to create one WMM file for each interview (WMM only provides a single audio track) so that in any given interview when playing back you know what was said about a particular picture. Here's a screenshot:

There are basically three areas: top left is the collection of files that I used to create the composition - this is where you import the photos and the audio and in this case I could import audio straightaway without conversion as it was in WMA format. Top right is the playback for the composition as a whole. However, the work is carried out below in the storyboard/timeline, which consists of parallel tracks. All I used was the Video and Audio tracks, dragging and dropping photos from the collection area, moving them about until there was approximate synchronisation.

However, in writing a biography I need words as well as pictures! The next step in the process is thus transcription. The method I'm using here is to create a large table with the first column containing the photos, one photo per row. Each of the other columns are to record the transcription from a particular interview. With reference to the WMM files I'm transcribing what was said about a particular photo in the corresponding cell of the table. Again I'm not being particularly sophisticated about the implementation - it's one mammoth table in a MS Word document. As long as it works, it is okay. For a formal research project I expect this would be better implemented in a database.

Handwriting bonus!

There have been some nice extras in undertaking this exercise. My mother has penned in Thai many documents, including a diary over several years. It's one thing to learn how to read the printed word, but a further step to decipher Thai handwriting! With these compositions I have some samples here that have been read out (and with the aid of a dictionary I can slowly spell them out myself). To be systematic, for each letter I can build up a set of samples that I can use later on.

For a few hours of recording, there are many more in organising and interpreting, but I find it fun to do and along the way I learn a little more about Thai history generally. For anyone contemplating learning more about their own family history, I'd recommend this as a stimulating and informative exercise.

Acknowledgements

I mustn't forget to thank everyone who has kindly provided information in the December interviews, including: Pah Vasana, Khun Jamras, Pah Umpai, P' Laem, P' Darunee & her mother, Khun Chaiwat, P' Yui, P' Ead, Na Tewee, Na Tun, and Pah Jah. If I could contact all those my mother knew well, this list would be very long ...

Kanchanaburi Travelogue: A day trip by train

2009-12-27T16:07:00.003Z

Although I was visiting Thailand mainly to conduct family research, my exceedingly kind hosts, Khun Jamras and Pah Vasana, organised a couple of day trips and acted as excellent tour guides.

One of these outings was a day-long train tour into Kanchanaburi province, most famous abroad for its sad place in history as the scene in World War II of the "Death Railway" connecting Thailand with Burma. At that time Thailand was occupied by large numbers of Japanese soldiers - certainly hundreds of thousands - with many local conscripts and prisoners of war losing their lives in the railway's construction. It's most popularly commemorated in the film "The Bridge over the River Kwai" (it's actually Mae Nam K[h]wae, and its pronunciation rhymes with "air" instead of "eye") and in the town of Kanchanaburi two rivers Khwae Yai and Khwae Noi merge - the railway runs along side the latter.

As far as I can recall, I've only ever been there once, when I was just 4 years old. It seemed about time that I visited again - and by train, of course! The day's excursion, from Bangkok Hualampong right to the present end of the line, Nam Tok (for the Sai Yok Noi Waterfall), which according to the State Railway network map is a distance of about 120 miles from Bangkok, but I understand that during the war the line extended much further. There's a weekend special, costing a mere 100Baht, as listed in the State Railway of Thailand (look for Sai Yok Waterfal (waterfall is 'nam dok' in Thai). I think you can purchase tickets at most rail stations, but for some journeys, as with this one, you need to book quite well in advance - at least a week. This and other options for getting to Kanchanaburi are well covered in a detailed travel guide by Mark Smith.

We went for the 100 baht option ("3rd class") and with the wind blowing through the window and fans inside the carriage, there's no need for air conditioning. There are just two caveats: don't stick your head out even an inch when the train is moving, because there's a lot of bushes right next to the line; and when the sun shines, keep the window down, but pull down the metal grill(?) to keep the air flowing. Here's a view of our carriage (taken at Nakhon Pathom):

At this price, it's a bargain just to get there and back, but there's much more in the way of service. As usual, plenty of hawkers selling drinks (hot coffee early on and cold drinks later), and food to order - order in the morning, served in the afternoon; as well as various snacks. The average UK rail car cannot compete! But the real bonus was the rail conductor who strolled up and down the carriages with his megaphone announcing the sights left and right as we bowled along the line. With a ready smile he cracked lots of jokes, even for mundane situations, e.g. "No, don't get off here - only rabbits get off here!" He had a cartoon-like ubiquity, particularly at the end of the line: as people disembarked, he stuck his head out of a carriage and carried on making announcements through his megaphone! (You'll hear his voice in some of the video clips).

Hualompong is a terminus; trains emerge heading in a Northerly direction and those for the West go through two or three stations in the suburbs. We found it more convenient to get on at Bang Sue, remembering that there are two stations - one for trains destined for the South, the other for all other destinations! At least the train from Chiengmai was not going to stop here...

At shortly before 7am on Saturday 19th December we were on our way and raced along to Nakorn Pathom, about 40 miles down the line. It was a very brief stop, barely time to "Wai Phra Pathom Chedi" (pay homage to the Phra Pathom pagoda), though I have visited several times in the past, and have written a little illustrated guide to the chedi (from a visit in 1988).

Moving on from Nakorn Pathom we arrived at the most significant destination along the journey, the town of Kanchanaburi, where the train stopped to allow passengers to make their way to the now very familiar bridge:

This is not the original construction - this and a wooden one were subject to numerous bombing raids. About halfway along there's a boilerplate that has a date of 2491 B.E. (Buddhist Era), which in Thai convention would be the equivalent of 1948C.E.

With so many tourists, there's a danger of becoming insensitive to the wartime tragedy that took place. I think it depends a lot on whom you travel with and whether you can speak with a local person who has some connection. My father has been there in recent years and came back with a very touching account of reconciliation told him by a Thai lady who had set up a shrine for the victims. A now frail and elderly Japanese man, who as an interpreter/interrogator had been one of the officers meting out punishment, had been having nightmares ever since and was trying very hard to seek forgiveness and healing, visiting the site every year. There came a pivotal moment when he met one of those whom he tortured, a Scottish soldier. His nightmares suddenly vanished. My father is not sure of the names, but we think they could be Takashi Nagase and Ernest Gordon respectively.

The nature of our whistle-stop tour was such that this kind of encounter was not likely, but on our way back we did at least pay a brief visit to the war cemetary:

We then boarded the train again to continue our journey, the train first inching up to just short of the bridge before proceeding onwards:

From then on, the terrain became more hilly, with the train often hugging the hills following the snaking river. (The following composition includes film taken in each direction).

The train finally pulled into its destination at around midday. It's now very popular and from our lunch spot we could take in views of mountains on one side and the waterfall and streams on the other. We could also see an apparently new row of traders besides the road, near which dozens of motorcyclists had gathered and then made their urban roar on their various machines, leaving clouds of dust in their wake. That's typical of Thailand today.

Being not so long after the end of the rainy season, the waters were flowing quite freely, with plenty of people splashing about the in 'little waterfall,' but I just took a photo of the top of the waterfall, where no-one could climb up!

We had a stop of over 2 hours, but I was slow to note the other attractions nearby:

If I were to go again I'd aim to reach the Wang Badan cave - given that it's located a mile or so away and the climate is quite warm, I think I'd need to allow at least an hour to get there and back). Fortunately, there was another cave quite nearby, just beyond a ranger's station: taking the path up the slope, as shown in the photo, revealing the intertwining forest vegetation:

Just a few steps up to the entrance to the cave:

I imagine that for many centuries (before the arrival of trains) it was used by dhutanga bhikkhus, practising assiduously. It is now a shrine and still feels peaceful with a nice atmosphere, with plenty of sunlight coming through.

At 2pm the train returned to pick us up and it was time to make the journey home.

Parliament Session notes: Silicon Valley and the Partner City Process

2009-12-17T03:49:00.002Z

[Saturday Programme reference]

Interfaith activity has been considerable in the UK for quite some while, so could it host a future Parliament? I hope so, but what would it take? At the very least more visibility to the Parliament's Council; this session ('Developing an interreligious community: how Silicon Valley used the Partner City Process') presented an opportunity to learn how in particular to foster constructive engagement in metropolitan areas. If the volume of notes is anything to go by, I certainly found this session edifying. I'll try to indicate salient points.

Imagine you feel inspired with the Parliament concept and the mission of its Council, which is inter alia to foster engagement with world and guiding institutions; to achieve a more just, peaceful and sustainable world, through learning, cooperation, dialogue, engaged action on issues of mutual concern across … cultural and natural boundaries with a particularly focus on Metropolitan areas.

So how do you sell this to the city (or metropolitan area) in question? The presenters from Silicon Valley phrased it like this: what partner city process engagement can make possible.

The general theme (which seems worth repeating constantly) is that of cooperation: to work with other guiding institutions, i.e. especially, as it turned out, secular civic institutions. The Council was evidently impressed with these initiatives as they highlight their approach as exemplary, giving impetus to further initiatives. Here in Melbourne, the Parliament launched a broad-based initiative to stay connected to engage in initiatives when we return home, inviting direct participation with the Council's work – both individuals and communities – particularly through a new social networking site, PeaceNext (more about this, I hope, later).

There are some prerequisites before the Parliament will look favourably upon a city's proposition. First, dialogue must already be in place. The Partner Cities attribution is to a large extent recognizing what should already be vibrant inter-religious movements who have put together structures to work with guiding institutions..

In this respect, the Parliament will look at the diversity of organisations and the way they are functioning within this dialogue. Wider awareness appears essential (and, I think, the UK is very aware of this factor), as captured by the term glocalisation, a term that I first heard in the late 90's (with the refrain, “think global, act local!), but I suspect it's been around for a lot longer than that; indeed, one of the first online initiatives that showed promise for developing countries was glocal.org (on archive.org) , which connected church communities around the world, addressing c ommon issues. But I digress. Here Roman Robertson stressed that globalisation is not monolithic and does not necessarily lead to homogenisation since it is realized in local settings.

One fact that sprung out at meet was [in San Jose, I think] that there's no majority ethnic group, with recent statistics showing 40% White, 30% Asian, 30% Hispanic. At present there is no UK city in this position (all have white majorities), but there are two or three, including Leicester, that on current trends will be in this position within 10 or 20 years. Civic leaders from these UK cities may do well to learn some lessons (if they're not doing so already), but given the current economic climate they probably should do this mainly via online conference facilities etc.

For religious communities, there's evident a need to tell their story as a means to help establish their identity in a foreign land; local paper profiles local stories and many congregations have histories, all helping to weave the rich tapestry of the area. Local government analyses often support these and I expect there's a lot tucked away in libraries and municipal offices. But how to capture this diversity in the public square; how to create a unified identity made up of local voices? Some illustrations were provided through visual statements in the form of art and sculpture. More academic initiatives included a “Carry the vision” conference promoting the principle of non-violent actions “one person at a time..”

Strategically, it seems sensible to observe and understand how the Parliament operates. Members of Silicon Valley attended the Barcelona Parliament and on returned organised an event modelled on the Parliament with representatives from different traditions, reducing large number into small groups, all leading back to one common purpose. Goals were clearly articulated in terms of local benefits, sense of community, increased social cohesion bringing business, civic authorities and others together. The role of the organising committee was to act as facilitators.

So what does the process make possible what wasn't before...? (The presenters referred to guidelines from Parliament; on how to do case study; the parameters for presentation, stressing the need for a representative group.) There was a very positive attitude to newcomers: rather than taking away a piece of the pie, each group brings new inspiration, resources, c.reativity etc – so the pie expands (this image was also conveyed at the Coalition meeting I attended before the Parliament).

It appears to galvanise efforts to train ourselves, on leadership, organisation and facilitation; to develop networks, and work within the civil structures to whom we show worthiness to be involved for the common good. Whilst it may already exist within many and between some interfaith groups (and this I know is the case in many UK cities) the communication outside these networks is often poor and lacking coordination. These have to be made more effective to be treated seriously.

Partnership is seen as the hook. Some examples were given, including “The Beautiful Day” - practical work to fix people's homes … Such initiatives raise visibility and a point is reached where faith groups understand the importance of interfaith. [If this can be properly realized, I sense the initiatives will become self-sustaining]. Gitish Shah recounted how this was put into effect with a Jain centre which came to realize the importance of wider participation, hosting interfaith forums at temple. (In the UK, it's much more unusual for SE Asian communities to get involved in this way, though some such gatherings do take place – e.g. a gather at a Thai temple in Kings Bromley. Furthermore, faith communities need to cooperate since if it's just one community working unilaterally, there may be a questionmark [whether it's a request for particular help or whatever] whereas coming together gives combined strength, amplified voice and eliminates competition.

Moreover, for the civic leaders, talking to a broader base gives leverage and enhances profile, particularly with global links to other metropolitan areas, who are doing similar work [thereby creating a para-network].

In conclusion, there was a threefold recommendation:

catch the vision
commit to enter the process - take back to community,region and share
reach out to Council of Parliament

In the UK, interfaith has featured very prominently in civil society during the past decade, with excellent coordination through the Interfaith Network for the UK, but when I asked one member of the Council perceived there to be actually too many interfaith groups! So the coordination needs to really well demonstrated.

Researching a Thai Biography

2009-12-15T14:23:00.003Z

There's some interleaving in my blog posts at the moment: as well as sorting out notes from the Parliament, I'm currently gathering some information here in Thailand for a personal project: a biography of my mother, the late Fuengsin Trafford (the following photo of her is one of my favourites):

In my 10 day stopover on my way back from Melbourne to the UK, I've been showing old photographs like the one above to relatives and friends, seeking to learn more about her early life - her childhood, her university studies (and many outings) at Chulalongkorn and afterwards her time at the Thonburi Technical Institute, Bangmod (now King Mongkut University of Technology, Thonburi). I've been using a voice recorder and subsequently transferring the audio to my Eee PC: everything that has appeared online in the past couple of weeks or so has emanated from or been processed on this netbook, truly a travelling companion! (And I've been fortunate enough to have good Wifi access with reasonable broadband connections.

Today, one of my kalyanamittas, Khun Jo, took me to the National Library in Bangkok. My grandparents' home was formerly in Rajadamnoen, in the city centre, which became a target for British and American bombers in the Second World War. Many families moved across the Chao Phraya to Thonburi, though my grandparents may have moved a few years before as they were the first to arrive at what was then an orchard without any dwellings. I was looking for some background information and photographs from that time and in the short time we had we were able to find a book that specifically mentioned this movement from one side of the river to the other.

I feel there's a long way to go, not least to understand the geography - I recall two of my mother's friends taking her to a certain restaurant around a big roundabout; only today did I learn that this was in Rajadamnoen. Evidently there's much more for me to explore!

A brief retrospective on the 2009 Parliament of the World Religions

2009-12-14T09:49:00.004Z

I was hoping to be able to blog during the Parliament itself, but found there was too much going on to settle down to do much in the way of reflection and typing, so I'm submitting some retrospective posts. This first one is just to give an overall impression.

I attended the Cape Town Parliament in 1999 and it left an indelible impression – both the event itself and the spaces all around with many kinds of encounter. With thousands of participants, it's a major undertaking for the organisers (the Council) – on this occasion the printed A4 programme provides descriptions of many hundreds of presentations, workshops and performances and is 390 pages long!

It's perhaps an even greater undertaking for the hosts: Melbourne had the honour for 2009 and it demonstrated a major commitment – a very professional venue (Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre); backing from civic authorities; a harmonious multi-cultural society with sensitivity to historical contexts; and excellent hospitality exemplified (I think) in the homestay programme.

However, there wasn't much time for self-congratulation. Whereas 1999 had been an occasion for grand visions at the turn of a millennium, ten years later there was no escaping practical calls to action and entering the Exhibition Centre one would encounter every day an ecological message:

Here, though, many 'environments' were being tended, especially the inner environment, the heart. It's just the kind of issue – it was felt – where religions can offer more complete perspectives, which are rooted in whole mind or the heart-mind (a Buddhist term is citta). I also encountered quite a lot of synchronicity. Within minutes of stepping into the Convention Centre for the first time on the evening of the 3rd, I had seen two of the participants of the Coalition meeting, a group of from the Australia branch of Wat Phra Dhammkaya, who were running a couple of meditation sessions, and interfaith friends from Oxford, including Mary Braybrooke, who ran inter alia a session on attitudes to the elderly and dying (hope to write about it in another post). Here they are at their respective Parliament booths:

Participation takes many forms. the programmed sessions were opportunities to listen, hear; the other periods (sessions usually had 30 minute intervals) were opportunities for dialogue in small groups; I felt something akin to a wafting sensation as I wandered into art spaces, conversations etc. Conversations could be free-floating in undefined spaces, over lunch, in public gatherings off site, or a bit more structured, as at an official Parliament booth or open sessions. Whilst this 'collective effervescence' was quite energising, we were acutely aware that the real challenges remain in terms of application. In the closing plenary, His Holiness the Dalai Lama referred to Swami Vivekenanda in communicating the spirit beyond this event and over several days the Council advertised quite heavily a new social networking site, PeaceNext to facilitate this cooperation. It's a nice gesture, though is it sustainable given the plethora of more established sites ...?

I hope to share from the very small proportion of sessions I attended, but it may take me a while. So please wander over to the official Parliament site, where there's a lot of coverage, including audio-visual recordings, especially from the plenaries, though sessions were not generally recorded (this is partly reflecting the sensitivity of some of the topics under discussion).

Sky Train has arrived in Wongwien Yai!

2009-12-12T13:59:00.003Z

Today I had the joy of travelling on Bangkok's skytrain all the way from Mo Chit to Wongwien Yai, very near to where my cousins live. Here's a couple of photos taken nearby the station:

It's great news as previously to get across the river one had to choose between walking/ferry/motorbike/tuk-tuk, each of which had some inconvenience or extra cost. For several years the basic concrete structure had been in place, but there were doubts about whether this extension would be complete. Now it's operating, it's a real boon for residents in Thonburi and the maximum fare is still only 40 bahts. :-)

Working for inter-religious cooperation: observations from a coalition meeting,

2009-12-11T15:03:00.005Z

[update appended 4 Jan 2010]

On Tuesday 1st December I joined the second meeting of a coalition working on an initiative UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding and Cooperation for Peace held at the Holy Cross Retreat Centre in Templestowe, Melbourne.

I was there as a representative of the International Interfaith Centre. The IIC is not yet a member of the network, so I was invited along just as an observer.

The rationale for the decade (in simplistic terms) is the growing acceptance that religion has a significant impact on the major global issues today, particularly relating to the eradication of poverty and the environment. Whilst Europe may assert a secular view of life, the majority of the rest of the world gives a far higher priority to religion. The upshot of this is that the United Nations has hitherto tended to incorporate aspects of religion only under socio-economic umbrellas, regarding it, for instances, as a subset of culture, and as a result it seems that religious organisations generally have been kept at the periphery of its activities.

Yet many of these organisations are already very active in contributing to UN goals, so it seems sensible to support and add value what is already being done with the official approval of the UN, which can provide structures to help link the various organisations under its wide umbrella and guide the foci.

This is, as I understand it, the motivation for the coalition, and the meeting at the beginning of the month was to work through its goal, objectives, etc. so as to provide a convincing case of the need for such a decade. About 35-40 participants discussed the framework at length over a couple of days, with some absorbing sessions held in a delightful meeting room with large windows overlooking the grounds of the centre (the environment was very conducive).

The process seems well considered; the steering groups comprises some very experienced members, several of whom have worked for many years at the UN (and shared some glimpses into its internal workings, particular the characteristics of various committees). The steering group is very conscious of the need for broad representation and I felt it serves the interests of its member coalition very well - certainly everyone at the meeting expressed much appreciation for the work being put in, which (like most interfaith-related initiatives) has involved considerable personal commitment, much of it offered on a voluntary basis, with resources largely offered as gifts in kind.

Even as an observer, such gatherings prompt anyone who attends to reflect on what their organisation has to contribute. The more I thought about it, the more I felt the IIC was eminently suited to this kind of initiative. It has a history of cooperation, operating from the local, where for instance it has produced a Directory of Oxford Faith groups (I recall giving my personal copy to a very enthusiastic member of Oxford City Council), through interfaith education, including online studies (formerly with lectures) in coordination with Oxford University academics, through to the co-ordination of the International Interfaith Organisations network

Plenty of opportunity for input across a broad set of issues, though there were evidently some differences of opinion which I think will need addressing further, though they mainly concern what I'd regard as the finer detail. A particular issue is how to treat 'faith' vis-a-vis 'religion,' which is an old cookie! There is a term frequently used in the literature of 'Faith-based organisations,' but its definition is apparently of some concern and some would insist that the definitions come from the religious communities themselves, not sociologists. How important is to to resolve the linguistic semantics? Some would wish to be meticulous about the terms in the title, whilst others are less so and are content to assume that the descriptions will make clear the full scope and import. At some stage the steering committee will probably need to settle on some policy to be applied consistently.

I'd also like to see more visible input from academic institutions. Academic voices can be quite vocal and influential in high level political deliberations, so this experience should be tapped into.

At the end of the day, it is the member states who wlll have to make the decision on whether or not to proceed. The general strategy was expressed of putting it to these states how such a decade would help them to achieve their goals; as such religious communities return to a core responsibility of being of service. And seeing the very positive engagement among the various representatives at this meeting, was to me a good sign that such service would indeed be rendered.

Interfaith cooperation is already making important contributions; a UN Decade would amplify such contributions and so I hope it happens.

Update: UN Resolution

With some help from Stein Villumstad, I've since managed to navigate my way through the documentation of UN Resolutions for the 64th Session. The decade is mentioned in Press release GA/10900 concerning Resolution no. A/RES/64/81 discussing Draft A/64/L.15/Rev.1 + Add.1 (7 December 2009), where it says:

"Also adopted today were resolutions on the 2001-2010: ... the International Decade on a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World, 2001-2010; and a related text on the promotion of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, understanding and cooperation for peace. ... By a draft text on the Promotion of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, understanding and cooperation for peace (A/64/L.15/Rev.1), ... the Secretary-General would ... at its sixty-sixth session, to solicit States views on the possibility of proclaiming a United Nations decade for interreligious and intercultural dialogue and cooperation for peace."

No doubt updates will be made available on the initiative's Web site.

Orientation for a student pre Parliament of World Religions, Melbourne

2009-11-30T04:25:00.002Z

What has religious studies got to do with interfaith? If that question prompts blank looks or a state of denial, then for scholars of religion, I would recommend doing what I finally got round to doing on a plane - read Peggy Morgan's paper, 'The Study of Religions and Interfaith Encounter.' (in NUMEN, Vol. 42 (1995)). It's very timely, especially for myself with the prospect of the Parliament of the World Religions approaching very fast.

Morgan's paper (even though I'm blogging, I feel academic matters assert some formalities) was authored in 1993, the year that the International Interfaith Centre was co-founded by three organisations. In her second footnote, Morgan writes: “The International Interfaith Centre is intended to provide Westminster College with a research resource and has been set up jointly with the World Congress of Faiths and the International Association of Religious Freedom.” Her paper makes a number of references to the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, from which the present series, the Parliament of World Religions, is derived. It's very absorbing, the kind of paper that distils evidently many years of study and engagement with topic, offering various reflections that give shape to how the academic deliberations of and encounter with inter-faith can point to ways to that sharpen that encounter, make it become more (self-)aware of possible effects and contributions. It also gives some pointers as to what academics may usefully investigate, with some underlying directions. The suggestion is amply made that the tools offered by various disciplines – of anthropology, sociology and phenomenology – offer considerable potential to enhance interfaith very broadly.

My passage to this year's Parliament in Melbourne has been kindly sponsored by the IIC and as part of the deal I've been asked to write an article on interfaith developments, in quite broad terms. Given Morgan's article and my recent studies in religion, it seems appropriate to observe and try to survey and evaluate – in a very partial way – what's going on now and compare the situation with that of 15 years ago.

From a personal perspective, I tend to come in and out of these large gatherings (8,000 expected on this occasion), as my usual work is in academic IT. So I imagine that if you're an interfaith veteran, I may be repeating things in ways that have been far better expressed before. However, Morgan also raises questions about how one's personal background affects the nature of the study. So it may be interesting to see (for others to commnt on) how having had two parents practising devoutly their religions and having imbued me with both – something rare even in mixed marriages – may impact on my more academic writings.

From the other side, my personal practice means I can seek to validate what goes on among (amid the many lofty words of) the academics, according to my experience. From my time in Oxford's local interfaith scene (which usually means informal gatherings where there's food!) there's been more than a passing mention of indifference to Oxford University's academics, who are perceived as in their own self-created ivory tower. However, Morgan provides an excellent demonstration of thoughtful concern, dealing on the human level, yet subjecting her reflections to the particular rigours of academic analysis - though it's just one kind of rigorous analysis, I'd add. As a result, she comes up with very interesting and pertinent questions – asking the right questions and collecting quite a few in this paper. It's particularly some of these questions that I should try to keep in mind as I explore the Parliament (and other related gatherings).

Here are a few of the questions Morgan raises:

Academics in attendance of such meetings raises the question of identity and its relationship to the subject of study: “Are they there as members of a faith community, which many are, but which is not a requirement for research in the study of religions?” [This latter point about requirement can be challenged with regard to the quality of study – there's a whole raft of insider/outsider discussions with which I know Morgan is very familiar]. I like to consider: Who speaks for whom? When listening for whom are you listening?

Morgan asks further: “If they are there as academics first and foremost what relevance do such gatherings have to their academic work? Does participation in any way tinge the academic agenda with a kind of para-theology?” And Morgan is ready with some illustrations of this. Another question: “Does the agenda of interfaith work potentially cast a shadow over the shape of the study of religions in the same way that concerns of an individual religion might?” (We can consider, for example, how does a Divinity department deals with the study on World Religions). Further, “Is interfaith a kind of new religious movement?”

Not sure how far I'm going to get into this, but at least it could be useful to lay down some markers.

[sent from Federation Sq., Melbourne]

Three Essays in Christianity: Miracles, Meditation and Marriage

2009-11-05T09:47:00.003Z

Having finished the Master's, I'm now pleased to share some of my writings. Here I make available with very brief descriptions copies of the essays I submitted.

Religion and Healing: Miracles and the Shrine of St. Frideswide in the late Twelfth Century
I focus on two narratives penned by Prior Philip, the head of the monastery of St. Frideswide in the 1180s. Many miracles were claimed at that time around the translation of her purported relics, so the Prior crafted a vivid record so as to promote her name.
Visions Within: Spiritual Development and the Evolution of Imagery in Teresa of Àvila's The Interior Castle
I attempt to highlight and clarify different stages of the inner journey by reference to a number of different approaches to the identification and analysis of patterns in her imagery.
The Catholic Church and Inter-religious Marriages: Reflections on Pastoral Theology and Practice after Vatican II
Vatican II is famous for many efforts at modernisation of the Church's religious mission. It laid foundations for increased ecumenism, including the case of mixed marriages, where the non-Catholic party is a Christian of another denomination. However, what about marriages with non-Christians? Much depends on canon law...

Comments are welcome - you can post them on this blog.

Viva voce: a 20 minute examination of an Oxford tradition

2009-10-24T11:15:00.004+01:00

Oxford's examination system, like most aspects of the University, have a long history. This particular history is shaped by the viva voce (oral) examination, which I've been told used to be the main form of assessment. It still features quite prominently and the M.St. in the Study of Religion is no exception - all students have to be examined this way right at the end of the course and as with written papers the formal academic dress of subfusc is compulsory.

Perhaps more interestingly in terms of its ritual symbolism is the tradition of wearing carnations, which is actually optional. For a series of exams carnations are traditionally colour-coded and in gradation: for the first exam, it's white, for the last exam red, and for all others pink. Now for the moment let's assume an anthropological perspective: white often signifies purity and cleanliness - in this context the initiate (think tabula rasa) is like a newborn about to receive an impression as it undergoes a transition. In such a state the initiate is very open, exposed and often undergoing a process in a group where any distinguishing status they might have had before is removed - everyone is in the same boat. So it also conveys isolation and separateness from the rest of the world. Having undertaken the first exam, the transitioning is underway (towards a qualified status). One story goes that in days past the first carnation would then be dipped in red ink to become pink; subsequently it was further immersed and the colour deepened until red right through, symbolising the completion of the experience (and the taking of the final exam). Red is a symbol of life, vitality, coming to fruition.

What I've just written reflects the kind of approach that we studied in the M.St. and I'm sure that a great deal could be written in this vein - if you're keen, then you can explore the research of the likes of Victor Turner - see his chapter 'Betwixt and between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage' from The Forest of Symbols). My take is largely poetic license!

Anyway, all six of us from the M.St. course (Frances, Jeff, Tom, Tristan, Zahra and myself) duly turned up for the viva on Friday 2 October at Examination Schools and took our turns to field questions for just 20 minutes in front of a panel consisting of chair of examiners, a number of internal examiners, the external examiner and members of the examiners board. In our case, no fewer than six in all (so six examiners for six students!) These rooms are large and echoey and I could imagine familiar voices in animated discussion make the room reverberate! Perhaps that combative style of vigorous debate is the Oxford way, but I decided to take a softly softly approach.

One of the panel came to collect me and showed me to my chair, in front of a small desk bedecked with a bottle of water and glass. Before me were three clusters of desks and behind them the academics in their various gowns with the chair of the examiners directly opposite. If this formation is a centuries-old tradition then I can imagine in previous generations, when greater weight was placed on the viva, that sitting there might have felt like being marooned on a tiny island! I think that nowadays, at least for taught courses, a viva is usually an opportunity to improve one's grade, which removes a lot of pressure. I didn't feel nervous, perhaps because I've been doing regular meditation practice, and in fact the panellists created a generally supportive atmosphere. I've had a couple of other academic vivas and in comparison, this was probably the least intimidating of them.

However I really didn't know what my approach should have been and afterwards I couldn't tell how I fared! There's no guide to preparing for the vivas, just a few sentences that basically say that the questions are likely to concern the written papers and/or submissions (essays and dissertation), but the panel is at liberty to ask anything relating to the course. This might seem like they have carte blanche, but in practice the questions would be oriented, I expect, to drawing out more from the candidate that might have been communicated in the written work.

At least, that's how I might rationalise some of the questions that came my way, which were very general. One asked me something like: "What do you understand by mystical experience?" Now here is where I probably overdid the psychology as I knew my questioner's field was science and religion. So I immediately questioned the word "understand," which prompted a short response in which I was asked to "define 'mystical experience'" and I was subsequently asked to compare it with 'religious experience.' With St. Teresa of Avila in mind, the subject of one of my essays, I waffled on about depth [that was a suggestion given me], ineffability, problems of measurement (still thinking about the background of my questioner - but refrained from sharing thoughts from David Böhm's introduction to his Wholeness and the Implicate Order). Instead I threw in words like "numinous" and claiming people's differing horizons (earth, sky, outer space) making it difficult to compare etc. Towards the end I was asked for a definition of 'religion,' to which I claimed that no definition was adequate, citing one attributed to Durkheim "... beliefs and practices relating to sacred things", and indicating the limitation of 'things' when considering internal experience. I said it was better to look at characteristics and expressed appreciation for Ninian Smart's 7 Dimensions. When I offered to go through them, this particular thread was drawn immediately to a close!

Afterwards all the students gathered at Pizza Express and conversations ranged all over the place!

Postscript

It may surprise people to know that when Oxford students were asked to express an opinion on whether the wearing of subfusc should remain compulsory, they voted 4 to 1 in favour of retaining it. (At the time I was working at OUCS and I set up the voting system (a simple indicative poll) in WebLearn at the request of OUSU. Perhaps subsequently having to wear it myself was the result of this karma. :-).

Social SVG?

2009-10-05T17:29:00.005+01:00

A few years ago I was pondering whether SVG could allow more than text-oriented approaches to blogging.

I'm thinking about it again because:

more mobiles have touch screen devices encourage doodling
updated standard - SVG Tiny 1.2
better browser support for displaying and more recently editing SVG
Google Wave (and similar initatives) are presenting a more flexible messaging paradigm

SVG has been around a long time now, but in day-to-day online content-creation it remains rather hidden: whether sending an e-mail or contributing to social networking sites, it's generally text, photos and videos that are created and circulated, with other activities bolted on via apps.

And yet there's already software that makes it easy to draw, to doodle, and not consume lots of computing resources (disk space, processing power etc). Berners-Lee conceived a read/write Web, with his Amaya Web editor/browser having a toggle button between browse and edit. Now the latest version has a very nice SVG editor built-in. And gradually momentum has been building for mobile initiatives built on SVG, generally based on open standards, leading to solutions such as Ikivo.

It seems to me that the time is ripe for all kinds of SVG-based communications. With its graphical nature the replies could be more about editing the images you've been sent - so when you receive an SVG message, you can edit it and send it back. A simple example would be a game of Os and Xs, but it can apply to any scenario where people are sketching a design. It becomes even more attractive with multi-touch. For implementation purposes I guess you could have some form of version control both to make it more efficient and to support animations.

So basically this is aiming at a drawing equivalent/extension of SMS, blogs, twitter etc.

Google Wave is obviously developing messaging a great deal and no doubt can demonstrate its potential; already there are efforts to incorporate SVG as a gadget, such as Vidor Hokstad's Google Wave Gadget API Emulator. It reminds me of some promising CSCW research into shared authoring widgets/X Windows toolkits that I saw being carried out at Kingston University in the early to mid 90s by Maria Winnett, a former research colleague (can I say 'colleague'? We were actually we were a diverse group of PhD students sharing a research lab in the Sopwith Building). And it looks like there's been renewed interest that involves the mobile scenario.

However, SVG editing could be as ubiquitous as e-mail so should not be dependent on Google or any other single provider for a transport.

There must be a simpler more universal solution (perhaps there already is ...)

Avoiding 'Invisible Idiots' in the translation of Vatican documents

2009-10-04T15:07:00.004+01:00

The dust is just settling as this course comes to a conclusion. I have some time now to cast my mind back on some particular episodes as a student on this M.St. course.

One of the challenges I faced was finding tantalising references in footnotes, especially those which promised to provide some special insights or even definitive analysis by which to anchor an argument. To what lengths should one go to follow such references...?

Such was the case when I worked on my essay, The Catholic Church and Inter-religious Marriages: Reflections on Pastoral Theology and Practice after Vatican II. I was focusing mainly on those marriages where the non-Catholic party was not a Christian, for which there is a rather unfriendly formal term in Latin, disparitas cultus, though it is rendered more softly in English translation as "disparity of worship." The analysis depends on canon law and Bishop John McAreavey gives a good overview of the this and what it can mean in the parishes where there is an ecumenical union (i.e. marriage with another [baptised] Christian: Mixed Marriages: Conversations in Theology, Ecumenism, Canon Law and Pastoral Practice. In one of the footnotes he refers the reader for a comparative analysis of this case with that of disparity of worship: a paper by Urbano Navarrete, an expert in canon law, who, we are informed, has described this as "a symbiotic relationship."

That sounded intriguing! But the reference in question was an official Vatican publication: L'impedimento di "disparitas cultus" (Can 1086), a chapter in I Matrimonii Misti, a volume in juridicial studies from the Vatican Library. Dated 1998, it seemed fairly recent, but it was also in Italian. I've never learnt Italian...

Libraries at your service

Undaunted, I opened up a Web browser tab and pointed Firefox at Oxford's online library catalogue system. However, no trace of this chapter or volume in the Bodleian. I did find it on sale from a couple of Italian online book sellers, but it seemed an expensive route. So I trundled over to the Enquiries Desk at the Bod and asked about inter-library loans. According to COPAC, there was no copy available in the UK, so it would require an international inter-library loan. I was encouraged to get in touch directly with the Vatican. So I duly wandered over to the Vatican Web site, found its library, which is currently closed to members of the public. In any case, I filled in an online registration and found a way to submit a query. I received a prompt reply indicating that actually the the Vatican Library generally holds works of antiquity, at least the volume I requested was considered too recent.

Back I went to the Bod and steeled myself to request an international interlibrary loan. According to Worldcat, which can list libraries in order of proximity, there were several European libraries that had the title in stock. I cast my eye down the list and singled out a German library, the Bavarian State Library (positive discrimination - Germans are efficient!) And a few weeks later it arrived.

The Bodleian is a reference-only library, so any items acquired through inter-library loans are subject to these constraints. Furthermore, although I could take notes, I wasn't allowed to photocopy anything myself - that had to be done by the library staff and according to copyright law they could only do this for one chapter. Accordingly I requested the copying of Cardinal Navarrete's chapter, but I became interested in another chapter on pastoral issues - Matrimoni misti e problemi pastorali by Agostino Montan. This meant I had to take notes - in Italian - from a chapter of 30 pages! This is where I was confronted with not having learnt Italian. What to do? Fortunately, my situation wasn't desperate (timewise or linguistically). I had studied French, Spanish and Latin at secondary school and could gain the gist of a paragraph. From this I could see several sections that seemed particularly useful, including some stats about the religious make-up of marriages carried out in Rome, and some interesting pastoral initiatives in some Northern Italian towns and cities involving groups of couples getting together in marriage preparation. It was these that I copied - sloowly, word for word, like a boy in primary school!

In possession of one nicely produced scan of one chapter plus some notes from another, I now needed more accurate translation of the most relevant bits. I pinned up notices in College - Sai leggere l'italiano? and received a resounding zero responses. :-( I started asking any friends who had even dabbled in the language and was offered translations of selected passages at the rate of 1 word a minute! More promising was a kind offer of assistance from one of my father's polyglot friends from church, Tim O'Sullivan, who is competent in most European languages, who knowing my technological leanings offered a particular word of caution...

We may have the technology, but watch out for 'invisible idiots'!

Whilst trying to find a person who could help I was also exploring an automated technological solution. I first had to generate an electronic version of the texts that had been copied and transcribed and I was given a boost as the library-generated photo-copies were nicely done, clear and uniform, enabling very accurate optical character recognition (OCR) translations - even the footnotes were generally accurate, when all I needed really was the body text. Once in possession of an electronic copy I then proceeded to try machine translation, initially through Babelfish. Although I had used Babelfish quite often before for words or short phrases, I had not really tried far more substantial passages of text. Alas, in this case I found it seriously deficient and discounted this tool as an aid.

However, no online search is complete without Google ... and Google's offering impressed me immediately in being so accommodating, happy to consume large chunks of text and produce translations for the whole lot. More importantly, it was a world apart in quality. Why? I think there's a combination of reasons that make it a good match. It uses statistical methods, trained on large corpora of texts. The core texts in question (see e.g. Wikipedia for discussion) were UN documents - they are formal, rambling, extensive and translated into many languages. And Vatican documents are ... likewise! There are few colloquial idioms used. Even so, word combinations can be parsed and interpreted in so many different ways that it's easy to get the wrong end of the stick, as we might say.

Mr. O'Sullivan was keen to relate to me a story that he had heard in the 1960s concerning English-to-Russian translation (when we met it was topical coming shortly after Hilary Clinton 'pushed the wrong button' on a state visit, but at least both sides saw the funny side!). The story, which was probably very popular at the time of the Cold War, ran along the following lines: boffins produced a computer program into which you could input one or more words. Enter a single word and out popped the correct Russian equivalent and vice versa. However, they next tried "out of sight out of mind" and after a slight pause there emerged the Russian equivalent of "invisible idiot"! I gather that it is actually apocryphal, traceable to an earlier period in which scientists were speculating about possible issues - anyway John Hutchins debunks the myth and offers to explain what was actually going on. Even so, you can still catch out many tools by entering a phrase and translating it back again. This is where, I guess, statistical methods are very useful. In any case, where a translation looked odd in a particular context, I would break it up into smaller chunks and translate those separately, repeating the process until it became clearer or made sense.

At the end of the day I read closely perhaps a dozen pages and quoted from just a few paragraphs. That must seem a very poor rate of return on such efforts, but in this instance I'm going to claim it was how I got there that was more informative and entertaining!

TED Global and Oxford Locals

2009-07-25T11:24:00.002+01:00

Around lunchtime on Tuesday, whilst waiting with my shopping bags for the No. 6 bus in Magdalen Street, I saw a queue snaking its way around the bus stop, round the corner, all the way to the Oxford Playhouse. It was not hard to discover what this way about: some large name badges indicated this was the start of TED Global, a conference on 'Technology, Entertainment, Design.' I hope I don't stereotype it by saying that it sounded very Californian, but as I overheard people introduce themselves in the queue, the first place I heard mention was San Francisco.

It ran until yesterday (July 24th). On BBC Radio Oxford, Bill Heine mentioned it briefly in the evening after it had closed, wondering what it was about, and a journalist duly informed him of its broad and inspirational vision. Then it occurred to me that to really share the TED vision, next time they run it here they should have an outdoor session in which they hire the market area in Gloucester Green and engage people outside the theatre/college boxes. All the presenters could have their own stall; there'd probably be room for others. Oxford is very culturally diverse, I'm sure there'd be fruitful encounters and not a little serendipidity. :-)

An Index to Images in Teresa of Avila's 'The Interior Castle'

2009-04-10T15:24:00.003+01:00

St. Teresa of Avila's The Interior Castle is widely regarded as a masterpiece concerning mystical prayer. I chose it as the subject of one of my Master's essays because I was intrigued especially by its images, especially the crystalline appearance of the castle and the mansions, nested inside each other like a palmito shrub, such that as one progresses further and further inwards illumination increases until one reaches the source of brightness found at the very centre.

I'm using the English translation by E. Allison Peers, as published in the Spiritual Masters series by Sheed & Ward, 1974. It feels a very good translation, with helpful footnotes, but it has no index. As it is the images I'm particularly interested in, I've generated my own image index, far from complete, but it does at least give a sense of the variety and relative preponderance of certain themes. I'd be happy if others find it useful. (There is available online an alternative translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook that does have a general index and it's more useful in that it indicates Mansion number and chapter - I may edit the index here along these lines at some point.)

Index to Images

angels 81
animals 4, 10
apartments 89
arrow 124
basin 44,93,94
beauty 11,30
bee 8
bird 28
bite 15
black cloth 6
body 15,37,50,148
breast 45
bride 143
building 7,16,54
bullet 96
butterfly 53,54,124,136
camarin 89
castle 1,3,11,138,147
cellar 52
colours 9
conduit 36,43
court[yard] 3
creatures 3
cross 58
crucible 38
crystal 1,2,6
darkness 6,122-3,
diamond 1,2, 115
door 3,47,90,134
dove 143
drunk/intoxicated person 102
dust 10
exile 2
eyes 10
file 11
fire 77,106,124,125
food 54
fountains 36,44
fragrance 78
friend,companion 15,16,66,132
gold 38
gun 96
haven 103
heart 32
hedgehog 41
home 17
inhabitants 6,76
jewel (pearl etc) 48,97,114
king, majesty 1,2,86,138
letter 141
light 10,115,130,131,132,135
lightning 124
lover 15
mansion(s) 1,30,122
marriage,betrothal 86,90,130,134
mill 35
mirror 7
mother 45
movement 93,95,96
mulberry bush 53
neighbour 13
painting (Static and moving)115,118
palace 89,122
palmito 7,8
Passion 104,107
personnel (butlers, governors, stewards) 6
petition 143
engagement, pre-nuptials 64,65
refuse (rubbish) 44
relationship 123,140,146
reliquary 114
reptiles or lizards 3,49
road 26
room 8 ,132
sea 126
seal 57
shutters 132
silk 54
silkworm 53
slave 4
sound 11,76,79
spouse 76-
spring 6,36,44
stomach 148
storm 143
stream 6,136
sun, sunshine 6,7, 10, 115
tears 100
thirst 125
tortoise 41
treasure 4,48,90
tree 6,7
viper 15
visions 88
voice/words/locutions 79-85
wall 2
water 36,37,43,44,93,94, 125,126,136,143
wealth 21
window 135,
wound 77,124,127
youth or child 16, 21, 45

Update on the library waltz

2009-03-16T19:55:00.003Z

I had at the beginning of the spring term (Hilary) described my first term's experiences with the University libraries, including a summary per library of books borrowed or requested from stacks. Here's an update.

Theology 6
Harris Manchester College 3
Social Sciences 2
Social and Cultural Anthropology 4
Bodleian (ref. only) 2
Philosophy 1
History Faculty 4
St. Cross 1
Balfour 2
Radcliffe Science 1
Indian Institute: 3
Rothermere American Institute (ref. only): 1
Islamic Studies (ref. only): 1

(includes additional items from reference libraries)

Totals for two terms

Social and Cultural Anthropology 18
Theology 11
Social Sciences 9
Harris Manchester College 6
Bodleian 5 (may be more - can't remember!)
Oriental Institute 5
History Faculty 4
Balfour (Anthropology) 3
Indian Institute: 3
Radcliffe Science 3
Philosophy 1
St. Cross 1
Rothermere American Institute (ref. only): 1
Islamic Studies (ref. only): 1

I think it gives quite some indication as to the undertaking for anyone who would teach or even set up a religious studies subject area!

Encountering the Miracle Collection of St. Frideswide

2009-02-07T18:35:00.005Z

Another topic that I'm delving into for an essay takes us back to medieval times, specifically to the end of the 12th century. Here the focus of attention is a figure who actually lived in Anglo-Saxon times: St. Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford, but there's not much known about her: the academic literature indicates that there's no contemporary account; the earliest manuscripts concerning her life were written several hundred years later. (See e.g. a brief summary).

However, in 1180 there was a great ceremony to translate her purported bones to a new shrine, carried out under the direction of Prior Philip of the Augustinian Monastery of St. Frideswide. He left us with a record of miracles in a series of narratives, a little over 100 in total. They're written in Latin and apparently, unlike her life stories, there's no English translation available of the miracle collection apart from the odd passage and a few quotes.

At least the collection is available conveniently in printed form in the Acta Sanctorum (Acts of the Saints), which is a compendium of documents detailing the lives of saints, organised according to each saint's feast day. They were published by the Société des Bollandistes from 1643 till 1940 and are accessible online from various sites, I think. I made use of the Chadwyck-Healey database available on subscription. Frideswide's Feast Day is October 19th and the miracles are contained in an appendix. Hence the reference is: Acta Sanctorum. Oct. VIII (Main volume text) Dies Decimanona. De Sancta Frideswida Virgine, Patrona Oxoniensi in Anglia. Appendix ad Acta S. Frideswidae.

Prof. Henry Mayr-Harting and Dr. Simon Yarrow have explored this collection in book chapters ('Functions of a Twelfth Century Shrine' in 'Studies in Medieval History Presented to R.H.C. Davis' and in 'Saints and their Communities: Miracle Stories in Twelfth-century England' respectively), revealing some fascinating insights, especially in social and economic history. Yet, I think they may have only scratched the surface as a print-out of the collection runs to dozens of pages! It could be studied a great deal more, for further exploration into medieval life regarding the Church's relation to wider society - religious, social, economic etc.

So as a small contribution I am pleased to offer a translation of one of the narratives, aided especially by Whitaker's Words and a windows front-end called Latin Assistant. Many thanks to Joerg Friedrichs for looking over the translation and correcting a few things, but any remaining errors, awkwardness etc should be regarded as mine (I am only an amateur at this)! I'll reproduce the Latin and then present the translation underneath.

The Miracle Narrative

[9][Alteri puellulæ lumen oculorum restituitur.] Erat in eodem pago juvencula quædam Adelitia nomine, extra muros ejusdem pagi habitans h, quæ aliquanto tempore ante beatæ Virginis Translationem, tali correpta fuerat incommodo, quod ciliis oculorum nimio tumore depressis, præ nimia ciliorum gravedine nec oculos aperire, nec quicquam videre poterat. Mater itaque ejus filiæ, materna pietate compatiens, pro salute filiæ medicos consulit, frustra id modicum quod habebat in medicos expendens, languore jugiter ingravescente, et incommodo de die in diem in deterius vergente. Convolat demum mater ad divinæ miserationis asilum, per dies multos ad beatæ Virginis ecclesiam filiam ducens, et pro ejus salute devotissime supplicans. Nec tædium parit dilatio, spes diffidentiam relegat, perseverat impetendo fides, ut humani defectum auxilii divina suppleret potentia. Nec repulsum passa est devotio, desiderantem rei desideratæ consolatur effectus. Quippe feria quinta in Cœna Domini, antequam Missarum agerentur sollempnia, cum in oratione super beatæ Virginis sepulcrum juvencula prostrata persisteret, subito tota ciliorum gravedine tamquam manu scalpente detersa, tumor paulisper resedit, videndique perfecte recepit officium. Profluebat autem diutius ex oculis sanies, et non multo post interjecto tempore, sic divinæ manus beneficio curata est, ut in ea nulla prorsus ægritudinis pristinæ remanerent vestigia.

English Translation

There was in that municipality a certain young woman whose name was Adelitia, living beyond the walls of that municipality, who for some time before the Translation of the blessed Virgin, had been struck by such inconvenience with her eyelids shut from excessive swelling, and because of very great catarrh of the eyelids she couldn't open her eyes and hence she could not see anything. And so the daughter's mother, compassionate with maternal devotion, for the sake of her daughter's health consulted a doctor, spending that small amount she had in vain, as the feebleness was constantly growing more serious and the inconvenience was getting worse day by day, going downhill.

Finally, the mother had recourse to the asylum¹ of divine mercy, for many days taking her daughter to the church of the blessed Virgin, and praying most devoutly for her health. And the delay did not bring weariness, [for] hope eased the doubts, faith persisted by intense petitioning, so that divine power could make up for the inadequacy of human help. And her devotion was unyielding², as her longing for the [anticipated] outcome of her yearning had a consoling effect.

In fact, on Maundy Thursday, before the solemnities of the Mass were carried out, while the young girl lay prostrate in prayer over the tomb of the blessed Virgin, suddenly just as if all the catarrh of her eyelids was surgically removed by hand, the swelling shortly subsided, and she was re-installed into the capacity of seeing perfectly. Moreover, pus was continually flowing out of the eyes, and not much later, she was cured by the kindness of the divine hand, in such a way that there remained in her absolutely no vestiges of the original sickness.

Note

For asilum read asylum since a gad-fly doesn't make sense! (It was explained to me that the use of 'y' is uncommon and this was originally a Greek word).

Perhaps a community wiki would be a good way to enable much more of this collection to be translated?

Observations on EHRC report: some data on partnerships between Christians and non-Christians

2009-01-24T16:59:00.005Z

The Equality and Human Rights Commission published on Monday some research carried out By Essex University into UK ethnicity. The report by Lucinda Platt is entitled Ethnicity and Family: Relationships within and between ethnic groups: An analysis using the Labour Force Survey at the Institute for Social & Economic Research and featured quite prominently in an article on the BBC News Web site.

What the title and the BBC article doesn't make explicit is that this survey contained religious-related data. Since the beginning of this decade, the UK Government has been more active in including religion in demographic analyses - most notably including for the first time in the 2001 National Census a question about religious affiliation. Here, data is drawn from the Labour Force Survey, which is a quarterly longitudinal survey that involves about 60,000 households selected according to postcode - it's a good size, certainly good enough for considering Christian identity. For reference, you can take a look at some details about basic specification highlighting the questions on ethnicity and much more comprehensive treatment in the User Guide

As with the census, some attention is given to religion and in recent years there have been two questions. Using as a guide the [software] specification of the form used in 2008, the question is put as follows:

RELIGION

What is your religion even if you are not currently practising?

Christian
Buddhist
Hindu
Jewish
Muslim
Sikh
Any other religion
Or no religion at all

There are of course many other religions - MultiFaithNet, for example, adds Baha'i, Jainism and Zoroastrianism - but I guess the six listed are considered the most numerous. Also it is useful to distinguish between identity and practice, which is sometimes catered for in another question: Do you consider that you are actively practising your religion? However, it appears to have been only sporadically incorporated.

Why my interest? As part of my course in religious studies I'm intending to write an essay concerning the Catholic Church's attitudes, responses etc to Catholics marrying non-Catholics (such was the case of my parents) and am seeking to gain some idea of general trends to support my contention that this is an issue that needs addressing!

So what are the findings? First, I make a disclaimer that I'm not a statistician!

Tables 23 to 30 report on partnership patterns according to religious affiliation. If we concentrate on those who designated themselves as Christians, the pattern of data is as follows:

Percentage of Christian with no partner | Percentage of Christian-Christian partnerships | Percentage of Christian with a partner from a different religion.

Tables 25-30 are particularly interesting because they show figures by age bands, which can give some indication of trends. To keep things simple, I'll just confine our attention to percentage figures for Christian men who are in a couple [defined as cohabitees and legally married]:

Cohort aged 16-29:
88 (same religion) 12 (different religion)

Cohort aged 30-59:
95 (same religion) 5 (different religion)

Cohort aged 60+: 98 (same religion) 2 (different religion)

(Note that the sample sizes for 16-29 are much smaller than the other two, but still run into thousands.)

The demographic pattern seems pretty clear to me - for each successive generation, more and more of the couples where one partner is Christian are in partnerships with someone who is not baptised. As far as I know, there are only figures for denomination for Northern Ireland, so we can't find out from the original data any indication of what proportion of Christians here are Catholics, but given that the proportion of those in partnerships with those of another religion or none goes up several hundred percent when comparing the oldest to youngest cohort, it appears very significant and meriting attention of any large Christian denomination.

I expect that in future there'll be a lot more research delving into the UK's plural religious landscape!

Waltzing around the libraries

2009-01-15T11:25:00.006Z

It's Week 0, bringing very quickly the prospect of another term. I realize I've hardly posted anything at all about my course, so before I feel deluged with reading and essays, I'll offer a glimpse of what a day is like on my course (the M.St. in the Study of Religion). The main theme will be libraries.

This is a taught course, so I have tutorials, especially on the Nature of Religion. We've already received in advance a reading list for all the tutorial sessions this term, arranged week by week. Typically they consist of books and conference papers and the first port of call is the online library catalogue - the entrance is through SOLO, which is a kind of portal offering a number of services. The two that I use most are OLIS and Oxford e-Journals. OLIS has a remarkably high proportion of the millions of (physical) items catalogued; and with the e-Journals service, the University has subscriptions to many electronic editions of journals, all of which are now conveniently available through single sign-on.

So you can plan beforehand where you need to go to find X, Y and Z. (I think it would make a nice project in operational research / mobile learning to develop a tool where you could feed in a reading list, your travel preferences (foot, bike etc) and then out pops your itinerary... actually just these kinds of ideas have been bounced around in the Erewhon project ...)

There are some grand and elegant library spaces, but for myself, I prefer to borrow books to read in the comfort of my home, with a cup of tea. So on Monday, equipped with a reading list, scribbled with libraries and shelf numbers, I descended on the town, arriving first in the Social and Cultural Anthropology library (aka Tylor Library). It's a departmental library that sprawls across several rooms and a couple of floors - fairly typical arrangement. Like many (most?) departmental libraries, it opens its doors to graduate students from around the University. It has a photocopier, but its own card system - the Bodleian photocopy card doesn't work here.

After some copying and a book loan (concerning Hindu diaspora), I jogged down the Banbury Road to OUCS to join the meditation group there just before they got started. I'm very happy that they keep this going and allow me to join after I left the department. :-)

Then lunch in college (St. Cross), a bit of e-mail in the common room, and on into town. I tried to collect lecture lists for this term from OUP, but they were closed: a sign indicated "stock taking." Hmmm.. Subsequently I popped into Blackwells, made my way upstairs to the 2nd hand department and bought a copy of 'Teresa of Avila' ('Outstanding Christian Thinkers' series) by Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury. Now I can find out a bit more about the way he thinks.

Then on to the Social Sciences Library, which is in a modern building, with large rectangular floor areas. I found their photocopiers do accept Bodleian photocopy cards and so I copied an article from a journal on diaspora, this one focusing on Muslims in Ethiopia and Canada. Afterwards, coming across the science area, I made my final call at the Radcliffe Science Library and bumped into a neighbour from the Close, who has been doing research there for many years. We exchanged a few words about aspects of healing - I'm hoping to write an essay that will focus on this in the Medieval period in relation to the translation of St. Frideswide's purported relics. More large rectangular floor spaces. I had a reference to 'BP..' (Dewey Classifications system) but initially all I could find were letters near the end of the alphabet - plenty of familiar QAs (Mathematics). Eventually found 'Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe' right towards one corner.

Curious to see the spread of libraries, I've looked at the loans record for last term and come up with the following figures (apologies for the poor formatting, but I don't find it easy to control the styling in blogger):

Library
	Theology	Social and Cultural Anthro.	Oriental Institute	Social Sciences	Radcliffe Science	Balfour (Pitt Rivers)	Harris Manc. College
Subject Area
Nature of Religion	2	13		7	2		1
Buddhism	3	1	5			1	2
Total	5	14	5	7	2	1	3

Maybe a little surprising... Anyway, I hope to repeat this exercise at the end of this term.

Dr. Michael Nobel's commendation of inner peace at Wat Phra Dhammakaya

2008-10-16T21:07:00.004+01:00

Last Friday, 10th October 2008, I travelled down to the temple in Woking to join a special ceremony to commemorate the founder of the Dhammakaya tradition, the late Chao Khun Phra Mongkol Thepmuni, or Luang Pu Sodh, Abbot of Wat Paknam. The main ceremony was actually taking place at Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Thailand and marked by a ceremony to cast a statue in solid gold. This statue will be placed in his Memorial Hall, which I've had the good fortune to visit - it's designed in a way that can really help focus the mind on meditation. Nowadays technology makes live broadcasts/webcasts quite normal, so we could join in ... starting at 3.30am. :-)

In the afternoon (Thai time) I was delighted to see an appearance made by Dr. Michael Nobel, a great grand nephew of Alfred Nobel, who inaugurated the Nobel Foundation. He didn't just smile to the cameras, but proceeded to deliver a considerable speech strongly commending the universal value of meditation, praising especially the work of Ven. Dhammajayo Bhikkhu in promoting world peace through inner peace. It really was a wonderful speech and it gives me cause for great optimism. Please see the endorsement from his Peace for Africa site.

[13 July 2009]

Since writing the post, the following video of Dr. Nobel's speech has been released a Google video (The Endorsement of "World Peace through Inner Peace"):

Stepping into student life

2008-10-16T21:00:00.002+01:00

This morning I tasted student life proper as I attended some lectures in Oxford's Examination Schools (simply 'Schools' for short). Compared with lecture theatres and classrooms I've sat in at other places, this Victorian complex of rooms is distinctly grand - my first lecture was held in Room 1, up the stairs and in an imposing room with a high ceiling. The topic seemed fitting: A Christian Vision of Moral Life: its Elements and Architecture delivered by Prof. Nigel Biggar. This was followed by lectures in the Development of Christian Life and Thought and Introduction to Christian Doctrine.

I had subsequently had lunch with veteran interfaith friends, Sandy and David, in Vaults & Garden, sitting outside (somewhat cool now summer has gone!) I gazed towards the Radcliffe Camera and had a new feeling of connection, which surprised me. It seems I had finally made contact with the University in a way I never had previously whilst serving many academics and students in IT services. Indeed, in the last 2-3 weeks like thousands of other students, I have been engrossed in various inductions and many other activities that really are new experiences, though some experiences are echoes of earlier days - especially conversations at dining room tables!

It feels a great privilege.

A Grand Celebration of 100 Years of UK Sangha

2008-09-29T20:19:00.006+01:00

On Sunday 28 September, I had the pleasure of joining about 1,000 people in commemorating the early origins of the British Sangha, when most notably in 1908 Ven. Ananda Metteya (lay name Charles Henry Allan Bennet), a fully ordained bhikkhu, took up residence in a home in London.

The Sri Lankan community had been commemorating his efforts for many years, but it was only a couple of weeks ago that I heard about it. Not knowing much about Allan Bennet's life, I started reading the Wikipedia article and the links that led off, especially the moving biography by Elizabeth Harris. I realised that this was a very significant commemoration so I felt I ought to attend and yesterday I duly made my way, reading about Ven. Ananda Metteya and his work on the train.

This event was organised by the World Buddhist Foundation, a UK registered charity, based at the Kingsbury Vihara, under the management of Ven. Galayaye Piyadassi MBE. The Foundation aims to advance the Buddhist religion through education and training and religious activities right across society.

The celebration took place in Brent Town Hall, an area I had never visited (I've not been to Wembley stadium!) The event had 3 parts, starting with an exhibition on Ven. Ananda Metteya and the pioneers of Buddhism in the UK, together with some nice pictures from Sri Lanka (of course :-) I think anyone interested in the early history would have been fascinated by the various books, leaflets, letters and other items that were circulating a century or more ago. It was evident that a lot of effort had been put into even just gathering these items.

Next door there was in progress in the mid-afternoon the second component, which was a workshop, which I only hovered near for a few minutes, having arrived some time after it had started. It was good to see different traditions represented and in constructive dialogue, from SE Asian Sangha members to Western Buddhists, though the time allocated was short. Perhaps the Londoners have set up regular gatherings to continue the process?

The main session was in the evening and it was quite a spectacle! To herald the arrival of distinguised guests (included several MPs) there was the blowing of the conch and beating of drums followed by a procession of VIPs. The evening was honoured by several speechs from very senior monks, particularly by the Most Venerable Udugama Sri Buddharakkhita Ratanapalabhidana, the Supreme Patriarch of the Siyam Nikaya, Sri Lanka. (I take it that is the Supreme Patriarch for the country), who also invited all those who wished to take the 5 precepts. For one quite senior in years, his chanting rang clear and strong!

Many monastic speakers were magnanimous in honouring Ven. Ananda Metteya and there was also a video of his life, played to the sweet accompaniment of 'Claire de Lune,' highlighting the Sri Lankan connection, especially how he and a close friend Dr. Cassius Pereira, had supported Ven. Nyanaponika in his work. Two keynotes from Profs. Richard Gombrich and Ananda Guruge pondered the significance of 100 years of Buddhism in the UK, particularly as regards the scholarly heritage. There were also numerous tributes and homages through music and dance. Contributions came from SE Asia - e.g. Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand - but also families from Amaravati (Hemel Hempstead) sang three songs, all very harmoniously.

As we sat there, volunteers came round with bottles of water, sandwich boxes and cups of tea - service in situ!

I think the efforts of the Sri Lankan community are really praiseworthy - they have preserved and commemorated the Western Buddhist history in a very respectful and honourable way. One of the speakers observed that the media often pick up these kinds of Buddhist events if there is a famous personality involved - or else not such good news! In any case, I hope that their efforts on this occasion receive very broad and positive coverage irrespective of fame.

Our temple sent along Ven. Sarttra Thirapanyo, one of our bhikkhus from Wat Phra Dhammakaya (UK) (who has come here to teach meditation :-) and I think it may have conveyed to him a flavour of how things have been developing here. Actually, Thailand and Sri Lanka have long maintained mutually helpful relations - indeed the main Wat in Thailand has already been closely involved with Sangha organisations in Sri Lanka and this led to a special Universal Peace award for the Abbot, Ven. Dhammajayo Bhikkhu.

So best wishes for the next 100 years and beyond!

Weber's Sociology of Religion: Problems in the Methodology of Difference

2008-09-25T12:17:00.006+01:00

I have only initial impressions from reading a small fragment of Weber's work and a scholar's overview, but there are some issues which have emerged to do with his methodology and I think they are significant.

To paraphrase from my readings - Weber observed that in Protestantism, especially in Calvinism, there were beliefs and practices that had an important bearing on economic affairs; key was thrift, which was pleasing to God in that it reflected values that rejected this world and sought the divine. This led to the amassing of capital and the development of capital was a reflection of this process; it subsequently became something that was regarded as being of positive worth. This was a spark for Weber's main thesis that Protestant asceticism was a major factor that led to economic growth in Western Europe based on the 'spirit of capitalism.' Having written the early work 'The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism' Weber sought to investigate more deeply religious phenomena with respect to the social context and thus he spends quite some time developing his notions and analysis, especially - as reported in my previous post - of the 'ascetic' and 'mystic.' He establishes that this ethic in relation to its creating conditions for the spirit of capitalism contributes to Western Europe having a pre-eminent position in terms of capitalist development.

However, from reading the literature the analyses vary about what is unique, the extent to which the religious practises caused the spirit of capitalism - some muffle it and just refer to it as a 'factor', in which case what were the causes, were there any?! I guess also that the views have shifted over time! I wonder with so much ambiguity, how far can this work be fairly called scientific? In terms of being systematic, what do academics agree upon? I'll try to indicate some of this variability below

In trying to develop such a broad systematic treatment, Weber inevitably had to make quite a number of efficiency gains (to use economic parlance!) He had to make deliberate choices ranging from particularities in definitions (as in his treatment of 'asceticism' and 'mysticism') through to methods designed to extract distinctive features and marked results. (The particularity of the choices becomes obvious as I start reading a rather different book - 'The Idea of the Holy' by Rudolf Otto...)

One of Weber's fundamental tools was to isolate on the basis of difference and attempted to do this in a way that accounted for subjective individuality, whilst avoiding complexity. For this he formulated the notion of 'ideal type.' For analysis at a particular moment in time I think this seems reasonable, but problems crop up when you start moving forward along the timeline because becomes completeness becomes critical ... and I wonder whether this notion is really adequate when analysing collective social situations?

In discussions on Weber's treatment of difference there's quite a diversity of views! Some claim or assume that Weber chose to base this on John Stuart Mill's Method of Difference, which he defined in his book A System of Logic (1843)], see e.g. Benjamin Nelson (1973): "tells us plainly that he applying Mills 'Method of Difference' and, therefore, looking for the factor or chain of circumstances which helped to explain some unique outcome of a given experiment" [sorry, I only have a second hand reference (further commented on below)].

Certainly, Nelson makes reference to it a year later: "Weber does not deal here in detail with the problem in the logic of the method of differences which he knew from the discussion of John Stuart Mill." p.274 [Max Weber’s “Author’s Introduction’’ (1920): A Master Clue to his Main Aims in Sociological Inquiry 44(4): 269-278]. I think that sentence is ambiguous - ir could read as "... deal with the problem in the logic..." though I don't think that's what was meant!

In notes on Max Weber: On Capitalism, John Kilcullen, appears to consider that Weber was indeed trying to apply Mill's method of difference to show that religion can be isolated as the factor that distinguishes the development of modern capitalist Europe from its Asian counterparts. However, he goes on to say:

"But Mill would have been horrified at such a crude application of his method of difference. It overlooks his warning that 'consensus' means, in social inquiry, that major institutions in one social context cannot really be compared directly with, and pronounced to be similar to, the 'corresponding' institutions embedded in another social context. This is drawing lessons from history in just the way Mill warns against (e.g. Logic, Book 6, ch.10, para.4). ['On the Inverse Deductive, or Historical Method']"

I better just note the definition!

Definition: Method of difference

If an instance in which the phenomenon under investigation occurs, and an instance in which it does not occur, have every circumstance in common save one, that one occurring only in the former; the circumstance in which alone the two instances differ, is the effect, or the cause, or an indispensable part of the cause, of the phenomenon.
A B C D occur together with w x y z
B C D occur together with y w z
Therefore A is the cause, or the effect, or a part of the cause of x.

Again the problem is in knowing all the variables as well as the problem of abstraction indicated above.

However, it's argued against by others, including Stephen P. Turner [See The Search for a Methodology of Social Science: Durkheim, Weber, and the Nineteenth-Century Problem of Cause, Probability, and Action, Chapter 11, page 211 that Weber actually adopted an anti-Millian doctrine of cause. [I wonder why this book is so expensive - it doesn't help to promote a universal methodology!]

Returning to the comparison with Asian countries, what of the economic boom that developed there, especially in the second half of the 20th century in the 'Pacific tigers' such as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia? It might be described as conspicuously capitalist. What gave rise to this? If we take the basic assumption about the Protestant ethic was unique in fostering the 'spirit of capitalism' that lead to capitalist economies and that ethic was uniquely Western European, then applying crudely Mills 'method of difference' implies that Asian capitalist growth must have its roots in Western Europe and to be consistent with that view capitalism was 'exported' to such countries (e.g. through invasion) and only then could it lead to similar kinds of economic development. Weber apparently considered this view.

This thesis, particularly the 'spirit of capitalism' being uniquely Western European in origin has (not surprisingly) been challenged from the East! See e.g. 'Max Weber revisited: Some lessons from East Asian capitalistic development' [Volume 6, Number 2 / April, 1989, Asia Pacific Journal of Management], which specifically contests Weber's Weber's thesis of the incompatibility of the Confucian ethos and rational entrepreneurial capitalism. Randall Collins, 'An Asian Route to Capitalism: Religious Economy and the Origins of Self-Transforming Growth in Japan' [American Sociological Review, Vol. 62, No. 6 (Dec., 1997), pp. 843-865, Published by: American Sociological Association] proposes a model "in which the initial breakout from agrarian-coercive obstacles took place within the enclave of religious organizations, with monasteries acting as the first entrepreneurs. This model is illustrated by the case of Buddhism in late medieval Japan." I haven't read these to check the validity of their particular claims, but papers like this at the very least point to the need for a weaker hypothesis - that doesn't claim the uniqueness of Western European Protestant ethic as providing the conditions of economic capitalism - but rather expressed in terms of looser religious orientations or dispositions of mind that are perhaps culturally-independent.

I think I shall now move on from Weber to get some other perspectives.