Apramāda’s Fifth Birthday

It is now five years since we began Apramāda. In that time, we have published many articles, as well as interviews. True, over the last year or so our publishing rate has slowed considerably. Much of what we wanted to say has been said, at least for the time being. For the foreseeable future, then, we expect our output to be more occasional. Still, the vein we have been mining is not exhausted yet. One theme on which we hope to publish soon is the controversial matter of gender diversity and gender medicine. Watch this space!

Meanwhile, we remain proud of our existing catalogue, and we will keep it available to you online. There are many articles, as well as interviews, which are well worth returning to. To list but a few, we urge you to revisit Vidyaruchi’s reflections on Sangharakshita’s magnum opus, ‘A Survey of Buddhism’, Ratnaguna’s series on ‘Arguing with the Buddha’, Achara’s treatise on the need to supplement a loving heart with a capable head, Subhamati’s Buddhist critique of ‘antiracism’, Subhuti’s insights into beauty, and my own examinations of the science and politics of climate anxiety.

At the same time, we welcome and invite new contributions from others who wish to publish articles in keeping with Apramāda’s purpose. That purpose, as we stated at the outset, is to bring Buddhist perspectives to bear on questions facing the world today. This includes explorations of philosophy, science, the arts and religion. It also includes helping Buddhist practitioners to cultivate ‘right view’ (samyak-dṛṣṭi) by freeing themselves from the trammels of wrong views.

In particular, we continue to recognise an acute need to examine views that predominate in the wider world today—views that are often rooted in political ideologies, and which we Western Buddhists may all too easily bring with us, unrecognised, into our understanding and practice of the Dharma. Thus, it is part of Apramāda’s purpose to cultivate truthfulness, associated with the use of reason and evidence, as a vital aspect of spiritual practice. Through that practice, we can hope to progress more steadily and directly towards the transcendence of all views.

Finally, I would like to thank those of you who have made regular donations. These have been very helpful in allowing us to maintain the Apramāda website.