A Sisyphean Task: The Buddha’s Perseverance and Its Application to Religious Dialogue
Abstract
Sisyphus, a character in Greek mythology, symbolizes the power of perseverance, an aspect of human beings often chronicled and revered. The word “Sisyphean task”, as it became known, represents the struggle to perform a task that seems to be unattainable or never-ending. The Buddha himself also embodied the power of perseverance as he struggled through seemingly endless obstacles on the way to achieve enlightenment. Although the “Sisyphean task” requires physical effort, the most important requirement involves our mental state. If we can master the mind, then no obstacle, no matter how difficult, can be conquered. This essay examines examples of people who have possessed these traits.
Downloads
Issue
Section
License
Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright
By publishing in Prajñā Vihāra, the author agrees to transfer and assign to Assumption University of Thailand as the Publisher of the Journal, the copyright to the Article in any form, including any and all rights, interests and claims related to it.
The author does retain the following rights:
- The right to make further copies of the published article for their use in classroom teaching.
- The right to reuse all or part of the published article in a compilation of his or her own works or in textbooks of which they are the author or coauthor.
- The right to make copies of the published article for internal distribution within their academic institution.
- All proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.
- The Article is his or her original work, and has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
- It does not contain any matter that is obscene, libelous, or contrary to law.
- They have obtained the necessary license or written authority and paid any and all related fees for the use and reproduction of text, tables, illustrations and other copyrighted work from the owners of the intellectual property rights, and can furnish the Publisher copies of the license/written authority and proof of payment of related fees upon the signing of this Agreement.
- They have the consent of the Co-Authors of the article upon the signing of this Agreement.
- In the event that they intend to republish, reprint or translate all or part of the Article in other publications, they will secure the prior written permission from the journal Editor.
Prajñā Vihāra adopts the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) license