Antoaneta Nikolova

The article is based on the postmodern understanding about the collapse of grand narratives (Lyotard). One of the most significant grand narratives is the narrative about unidirectionality and irreversibility of development. Part of the roots of this narrative can be found in the ancient Greek idea of the inevitability of fate, Ananke, seen primarily as a necessity. In parallel to the ancient Greek thought, however, philosophical ideas in Ancient India and China were also developed. Therefore, the ideas of karma in Ancient India and the related idea of svadharma, as well as the Chinese ideas of min, the will of Heaven, and of dao, the path as a reservoir of possibilities, are presented in comparative terms. The aim by highlighting these various options is to reveal the possibilities for different readings of the contemporary situation.

Resumen: Este artículo tiene el propósito de examinar el significado de lo sagrado en una religión como el Budismo, donde no hay una idea de Dios como tal o ningún ser sobrenatural. En cambio, hay prácticas íntimas elaboradas para lograr la iluminación. El artículo tiene dos partes. La primera analíza los lugares sagrados en el Budismo, considerando así dos conceptos importantes el samsara y el nirvana. En la segunda parte se trata de los lugares sagrados en el Budismo comparando dos estructuras espaciales: la estupa como representativa de una estructura vertical y el manadala como horizontal. Tomando como fundamento la yuxtaposición de estos, aparentemente, conceptos y estructuras opuestas, el artículo revela que en términos del Budismo lo verdaderamente sagrado es lo no-sagrado: este es un término que trasciende la oposición sagrado-profano y expresa la visión específica budista de la no-dualidad. Palabras claves: Budismo; sagrado-profano; no-dualidad.

The paper aims to examine the meaning of sacredness in such a religion as Buddhism where there is no idea of God or any supernatural being. Instead, there are elaborated inner practices for achieving enlightenment. The paper consists of two parts. The first one analyses the place of the sacred in Buddhism considering the two important concepts of samsara and nirvana. The second part discusses sacred places in Buddhism comparing two different space structures: stupa as representative for a vertical structure and mandala for a horizontal one. On the base of juxtaposing these seemingly opposite concepts and structures the paper reveals that in terms of Buddhism the real sacredness is non-sacredness: a term that transcends the opposition sacred-profane and expresses the specific Buddhist vision of non-duality.Key words: Buddhism; sacred-profane; non-duality.

The aim of the paper is to discusswhat concepts of far Eastern thought correspond to such concepts of the Western thought as “reality” and “reflection”. In order to answer this question the three main teachings of Chinese thought, Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, are briefly analysed. The conclusion is that Chinese thought reveals the world in terms of change, transformation and mutual dependence. Therefore, its aesthetics is not based on an opposition between some independent and objective reality and some independent subject reflecting it. Rather it is based on complementarity and mutual response of inner and outer, permanence and change, openness and closeness. Its main characteristics are mutuality and co-creation that transform both aspects of the process.