Nesterkin S.P. The problem of determination of personality in Hindu spiritual and historical traditional

Abstract: Based on the Tibetan Buddhist scholastic literature, this article examines the approaches towards determination of personality in the Hindu Orthodox and non-Orthodox religious-philosophical schools. The work reviews the terms that serve as a personality marker (in the texts of sutra and schastra), as well as analyzed its main definitions. Significant attention is given to the analysis of the non-Buddhist views upon personality, as (1) constant, (2) single, and (3) independent. Argumentation of the Buddhists who criticized such views is revealed. The author determines that Buddhism in contradiction to the thesis of “heterodoxy” teachings regarding the presence of selfishness (Tibetan bdag) of personality, proposes the statement about in unselfishness (Tibetan bdag med), and provides analysis of interpretations of this notion in various Buddhist schools. This research in methodological aspect is built on the analysis of reference texts in the context of living philosophical-religious tradition of Buddhism. The conclusion is made that the denial of selfishness of personality in Buddhism must be understood on the context of polemic of Buddhism with the non-Buddhist religious-philosophical traditions. Objections of the Buddhists are aimed not against the personal principle as such, but rather erroneous in their opinion understanding of personality as the subject of liberation, developed in Orthodox and non-Orthodox Hindu spiritual traditions.

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