Evolution of Focus
Since its original founding, the identity and activities associated with the Buddhist society have changed significantly to reflect changing interests of its general membership. Originally a forum for academic and philosophical debate on issues treated in Buddhist literature, the society in its original form drew largely on students of the Oriental Studies tripos and related subjects with knowledge of languages the original texts, including Pali and Sanskrit. CUBS published a widely circulated journal, KALPA, to promote dialogue on topics raised.
In the 1970s, His Holiness the Dalai Lama became the society's Honorary President. Meditation as a form of training for spiritual and mental well-being received higher profile during this period, attracting many students to undertake meditative practice. Numerous meditation classes are now undertaken in Cambridge, allowing students to study under several Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions.
In recent years, racial composition of the society has changed considerably as a result of increasing proportion of foreign students admitted to the university. Students from Thailand, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries, as well as the People's Republic of China, now form a majority proportion of the membership. This has resulted in a greater emphasis placed on cultural and devotional practices associated with Buddhism.
Read more about this topic: Cambridge University Buddhist Society
Famous quotes containing the words evolution of, evolution and/or focus:
“Like Freud, Jung believes that the human mind contains archaic remnants, residues of the long history and evolution of mankind. In the unconscious, primordial “universally human images” lie dormant. Those primordial images are the most ancient, universal and “deep” thoughts of mankind. Since they embody feelings as much as thought, they are properly “thought feelings.” Where Freud postulates a mass psyche, Jung postulates a collective psyche.”
—Patrick Mullahy (b. 1912)
“By contrast with history, evolution is an unconscious process. Another, and perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that evolution is a natural process, history a human one.... Insofar as we treat man as a part of nature—for instance in a biological survey of evolution—we are precisely not treating him as a historical being. As a historically developing being, he is set over against nature, both as a knower and as a doer.”
—Owen Barfield (b. 1898)
“Why is it so difficult—so degradingly difficult—to bring the notion of Time into mental focus and keep it there for inspection? What an effort, what fumbling, what irritating fatigue!”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)