title: Buddhist ethics

text: "Sīla" is an internal, aware, and intentional ethical behavior, according to one's commitment to the path of liberation. It is an ethical compass within self and relationships, rather than what is associated with the English word "morality" (i.e., obedience, a sense of obligation, and external constraint).


title: Buddhist ethics

text: "Sīla" is one of the three practices foundational to Buddhism and the non-sectarian Vipassana movement; "sīla," "samādhi", and "paññā" as well as the Theravadin foundations of "sīla", "dāna", and "bhavana". It is also the second "pāramitā". "Sīla" is also wholehearted commitment to what is wholesome. Two aspects of "sīla" are essential to the training: right "performance" ("caritta"), and right "avoidance" ("varitta"). Honoring the precepts of "sīla" is considered a "great gift" (mahadana) to others, because it creates an atmosphere of trust, respect, and security. It means the practitioner poses no threat to another person's life, property, family, rights, or well-being.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Moral instructions are included in Buddhist scriptures or handed down through tradition. Most scholars of Buddhist ethics thus rely on the examination of Buddhist scriptures, and the use of anthropological evidence from traditional Buddhist societies, to justify claims about the nature of Buddhist ethics.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The source for the ethics of Buddhists around the world are the Three Jewels of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The Buddha is seen as the discoverer of liberating knowledge and hence the foremost teacher. The Dharma is both the teachings of the Buddha's path and the truths of these teachings. The Sangha is the community of noble ones (ariya), who practice the Dhamma and have attained some knowledge and can thus provide guidance and preserve the teachings. Having proper understanding of the teachings is vital for proper ethical conduct. The Buddha taught that right view was a necessary prerequisite for right conduct, sometimes also referred to as right intention.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: A central foundation for Buddhist morality is the law of karma and rebirth. The Buddha is recorded to have stated that right view consisted in believing that (among other things): "'there is fruit and ripening of deeds well done or ill done': what one does matters and has an effect on one’s future; 'there is this world, there is a world beyond': this world is not unreal, and one goes on to another world after death" (MN 117, Maha-cattarisaka Sutta).


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Karma is a word which literally means "action" and is seen as a natural law of the universe which manifests as cause and effect. In the Buddhist conception, Karma is a certain type of moral action which has moral consequences on the actor. The core of karma is the mental intention, and hence the Buddha stated ‘It is intention (cetana), O monks, that I call karma; having willed one acts through body, speech, or mind’ (AN 6.63). Therefore, accidentally hurting someone is not bad Karma, but having hurtful thoughts is. Buddhist ethics sees these patterns of motives and actions as conditioning future actions and circumstances – the fruit (Phala) of one's present actions, including the condition and place of the actor's future life circumstances (though these can also be influenced by other random factors). One's past actions are said to mold one's consciousness and to leave seeds (Bīja) which later ripen in the next life. The goal of Buddhist practice is generally to break the cycle, though one can also work for rebirth in a better condition through good deeds.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The root of one's intention is what conditions an action to be good or bad. There are three good roots (non-attachment, benevolence, and understanding) and three negative roots (greed, hatred and delusion). Actions which produce good outcomes are termed "merit" (puñña – fruitful, auspicious) and obtaining merit (good karma) is an important goal of lay Buddhist practice. The early Buddhist texts mention three 'bases for effecting karmic fruitfulness’ ("puñña-kiriya-vatthus"): giving (dana), moral virtue (sila) and meditation (bhāvanā). One's state of mind while performing good actions is seen as more important than the action itself. The Buddhist Sangha is seen as the most meritorious "field of merit". Negative actions accumulate bad karmic results, though one's regret and attempts to make up for it can ameliorate these results.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Four Noble Truths express one of the central Buddhist worldview which sees worldly existence as fundamentally unsatisfactory and stressful ("dukkha"). "Dukkha" is seen to arise from craving, and putting an end to craving can lead to liberation (Nirvana). The way to put an end to craving is by following the Noble Eightfold Path taught by the Buddha, which includes the ethical elements of right speech, right action and right livelihood. From the point of view of the Four Noble Truths, an action is seen as ethical if it is conductive to the elimination of "dukkha". Understanding the truth of "dukkha" in life allows one to analyze the factors for its arising, that is craving, and allows us to feel compassion and sympathy for others. Comparing oneself with others and then applying the Golden Rule is said to follow from this appreciation of "dukkha". From the Buddhist perspective, an act is also moral if it promotes spiritual development by conforming to the Eightfold Path and leading to Nirvana. In Mahayana Buddhism, an emphasis is made on the liberation of all beings and "bodhisattvas" are believed to work tirelessly for the liberation of all.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The foundation of Buddhist ethics for laypeople is The Five Precepts which are common to all Buddhist schools. The precepts or "five moral virtues" ("pañca-silani") are not commands but a set of voluntary commitments or guidelines, to help one live a life in which one is happy, without worries, and able to meditate well. The precepts are supposed to prevent suffering and to weaken the effects of greed, hatred and delusion. They were the basic moral instructions which the Buddha gave to laypeople and monks alike. Breaking one's sīla as pertains to sexual conduct introduces harmfulness towards one's practice or the practice of another person if it involves uncommitted relationship. When one "goes for refuge" to the Buddha's teachings one formally takes the five precepts, which are:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Buddhists often take the precepts in formal ceremonies with members of the monastic Sangha, though they can also be undertaken as private personal commitments. Keeping each precept is said to develop its opposite positive virtue. Abstaining from killing for example develops kindness and compassion, while abstaining from stealing develops non-attachment. The precepts have been connected with utilitarianist, deontological and virtue approaches to ethics. They have been compared with human rights because of their universal nature, and some scholars argue they can complement the concept of human rights.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Undertaking and upholding the five precepts is based on the principle of non-harming (Pāli and ). The Pali Canon recommends one to compare oneself with others, and on the basis of that, not to hurt others. Compassion and a belief in karmic retributionform the foundation of the precepts.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The first precept consists of a prohibition of killing, both humans and all animals. Scholars have interpreted Buddhist texts about the precepts as an opposition to and prohibition of capital punishment, suicide, abortion and euthanasia. The second precept prohibits theft. The third precept refers to adultery in all its forms, and has been defined by modern teachers with terms such as "sexual responsibility" and "long-term commitment". The fourth precept involves falsehood spoken or committed to by action, as well as malicious speech, harsh speech and gossip. The fifth precept prohibits intoxication through alcohol, drugs or other means. Early Buddhist texts nearly always condemn alcohol, and so do Chinese Buddhist post-canonical texts. In practice however, many lay Buddhists do not adhere to this precept and drinking is common in many Buddhist majority countries. Buddhist attitudes toward smoking differ per time and region, but are generally permissive. In modern times, traditional Buddhist countries have seen revival movements to promote the five precepts. As for the West, the precepts play a major role in Buddhist organizations.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: There is also a more strict set of precepts called the eight precepts which are taken at specific religious days or religious retreats. The eight precepts encourage further discipline and are modeled on the monastic code. In the eight precepts, the third precept on sexual misconduct is made more strict and becomes a precept of celibacy. The three additional rules of the Eight Precepts are:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Novice-monks use the ten precepts while fully ordained Buddhist monks also have a larger set of monastic precepts, called the Prātimokṣa (227 rules for monks in the Theravādin recension). Monks are supposed to be celibate and are also traditionally not allowed to touch money. The rules and code of conduct for monks and nuns is outlined in the Vinaya. The precise content of the scriptures on "vinaya" ("vinayapiṭaka") differ slightly according to different schools, and different schools or subschools set different standards for the degree of adherence to the "vinaya".


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In Mahayana Buddhism, another common set of moral guidelines are the Bodhisattva vows and the Bodhisattva Precepts or the "Ten Great Precepts". The Bodhisattva Precepts which is derived from the Mahayana Brahmajala Sutra include the Five precepts with some other additions such as the precept against slandering the Buddha's teachings. These exist above and beyond the existing monastic code, or lay follower precepts. The Brahmajala Sutra also includes a list of 48 minor precepts which prohibit the eating of meat, storing of weapons, teaching for the sake of profit, abandoning Mahayana teachings and teaching non Mahayana Dharma. These precepts have no parallel in Theravāda Buddhism.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Another common formulation of Buddhist ethical action in the early Buddhist texts is the "path of the ten good actions" or "ten skilled karma paths" ("Dasa Kusala Kammapatha") which are "in accordance with Dharma". These are divided into three bodily actions ("kaya kamma"), four verbal actions ("vaci kamma") and three mental actions ("mano kamma") all of which are said to cause "unskillful qualities to decline while skillful qualities grow". These ten paths are discussed in suttas such as Majjhima Nikaya MN 41 ("Sāleyyaka Sutta"), and MN 114:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Yet another common ethical list in the Pali tradition is the "ten bases of meritorious action" ("Dasa Puñña-kiriya Vatthu"). As noted by Nyanatiloka Thera, some texts (Itivuttaka 60) only mention three of these but later Pali commentaries expanded these to ten, and the list of ten is a popular list in Theravada countries. Ittivuttaka #60 says:“Bhikkhus, there are these three grounds for making merit. What three? The ground for making merit consisting in giving, the ground for making merit consisting in virtue, and the ground for making merit consisting in mind-development. These are the three.One should train in deeds of merit, that yield long-lasting happiness: Generosity, a balanced life, developing a loving mind. By cultivating these three things, deeds yielding happiness, the wise person is reborn in bliss, in an untroubled happy world.”According to Nyanatiloka, Digha Nikaya 30 also mentions several related meritorious behaviors. D.N. 30 mentions various exemplary meritorious actions done by the Buddha such as:"...good conduct by way of body, speech, giving and sharing, taking precepts, observing the sabbath, paying due respect to mother and father, ascetics and brahmins, honoring the elders in the family, and various other things pertaining to skillful behaviors.""Truth, principle, self-control, and restraint; giving, harmlessness, delighting in non-violence...""giving and helping others, kindly speech, and equal treatment, such action and conduct as brought people together..."The later expanded listing of ten bases is as follows:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Following the precepts is not the only dimension of Buddhist morality, there are also several important virtues, motivations and habits which are widely promoted by Buddhist texts and traditions. At the core of these virtues are the three roots of non-attachment (araga), benevolence (advesa), and understanding (amoha).


title: Buddhist ethics

text: One list of virtues which is widely promoted in Buddhism are the Pāramitās (perfections) – Dāna (generosity), Sīla (proper conduct), Nekkhamma (renunciation), Paññā (wisdom), Viriya (energy), Khanti (patience), Sacca (honesty), Adhiṭṭhāna (determination), Mettā (Good-Will), Upekkhā (equanimity).


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Four divine abidings (Brahmaviharas) are seen as central virtues and intentions in Buddhist ethics, psychology and meditation. The four divine abidings are good will, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. Developing these virtues through meditation and right action promotes happiness, generates good merit and trains the mind for ethical action.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: An important quality which supports right action is Heedfulness (Appamada), a combination of energy/effort (Viriya) and Mindfulness. Mindfulness is an alert presence of mind which allows one to be more aware of what is happening with one's intentional states. Heedfulness is aided by 'clear comprehension' or 'discrimination' (Sampajañña), which gives rise to moral knowledge of what is to be done. Another important supporting quality of Buddhist morality is Trust or Confidence in the teachings of the Buddha and in one's own ability to put them into practice. Wisdom and Understanding are seen as a prerequisite for acting morally. Having an understanding of the true nature of reality is seen as leading to ethical actions. Understanding the truth of not-self for example, allows one to become detached from selfish motivations and therefore allows one to be more altruistic. Having an understanding of the workings of the mind and of the law of karma also makes one less likely to perform an unethical action.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddha promoted ‘self-respect’ (Hri) and Regard for consequences (Apatrapya), as important virtues. Self-respect is what caused a person to avoid actions which were seen to harm one's integrity and Ottappa is an awareness of the effects of one's actions and sense of embarrassment before others.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Giving (Dāna) is seen as the beginning of virtue in Theravada Buddhism and as the basis for developing further on the path. In Buddhist countries, this is seen in the giving of alms to Buddhist monastics but also extends to generosity in general (towards family, friends, coworkers, guests, animals). Giving is said to make one happy, generate good merit as well as develop non-attachment, therefore it is not just good because it creates good karmic fruits, but it also develops one's spiritual qualities. In Buddhist thought, the cultivation of dana and ethical conduct will themselves refine consciousness to such a level that rebirth in one of the lower hells is unlikely, even if there is no further Buddhist practice. There is nothing improper or un-Buddhist about limiting one's aims to this level of attainment.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: An important value in Buddhist ethics is non-harming or non-violence (ahimsa) to all living creatures from the lowest insect to humans which is associated with the first precept of not killing. The Buddhist practice of this does not extend to the extremes exhibited by Jainism (in Buddhism, unintentional killing is not karmically bad), but from both the Buddhist and Jain perspectives, non-violence suggests an intimate involvement with, and relationship to, all living things.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddha also emphasized that ‘good friendship (Kalyāṇa-mittatā), good association, good intimacy’ was the whole, not the half of the holy life (SN 45.2). Developing strong friendships with good people on the spiritual path is seen as a key aspect of Buddhism and as a key way to support and grow in one's practice.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In Mahayana Buddhism, another important foundation for moral action is the Bodhisattva ideal. Bodhisattvas are beings which have chosen to work towards the salvation of all living beings. In Mahayana Buddhist texts, this path of great compassion is promoted as being superior to that of the Arhat because the Bodhisattva is seen as working for the benefit of all beings. A Bodhisattva is one who arouses a powerful emotion called Bodhicitta (mind of enlightenment) which is a mind which is oriented towards the awakening of oneself and all beings.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The first precept is the abstaining from the taking of life, and the Buddha clearly stated that the taking of human or animal life would lead to negative karmic consequences and was non conductive to liberation. Right livelihood includes not trading in weapons or in hunting and butchering animals. Various suttas state that one should always have a mind filled with compassion and loving kindness for all beings, this is to be extended to hurtful, evil people as in the case of Angulimala the murderer and to every kind of animal, even pests and vermin (monks are not allowed to kill any animal, for any reason). Buddhist teachings and institutions therefore tend to promote peace and compassion, acting as safe havens during times of conflict. In spite of this, some Buddhists, including monastics such as Japanese warrior monks have historically performed acts of violence. In China, the Shaolin Monastery developed a martial arts tradition to defend themselves from attack.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In Mahayana Buddhism, the concept of skillful means (upaya) has in some circumstances been used to excuse the act of killing, if it is being done for compassionate reasons. This form of "compassionate killing" is allowed by the "Upaya-kausalya sutra" and the "Maha-Upaya-kausalya sutra" only when it "follows from virtuous thought." Some texts acknowledge the negative karmic consequences of killing, and yet promote it out of compassion. The "Bodhisattva-bhumi", a key Mahayana text, states that if a Bodhisattva sees someone about to kill other Bodhisattvas, they may take it upon themselves to kill this murderer with the thought that:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: "If I take the life of this sentient being, I myself may be reborn as one of the creatures of hell. Better that I be reborn a creature of hell than that this living being, having committed a deed of immediate retribution, should go straight to hell."


title: Buddhist ethics

text: If then, the intention is purely to protect others from evil, the act of killing is sometimes seen as meritorious.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddhist analysis of conflict begins with the 'Three Poisons' of greed, hatred and delusion. Craving and attachment, the cause of suffering, is also the cause of conflict. Buddhist philosopher Shantideva states in his "Siksasamuccaya": "Wherever conflict arises among living creatures, the sense of possession is the cause". Craving for material resources as well as grasping to political or religious views is seen as a major source of war. One's attachment to self-identity, and identification with tribe, nation state or religion is also another root of human conflict according to Buddhism.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddha promoted non-violence in various ways, he encouraged his followers not to fight in wars and not to sell or trade weapons. The Buddha stated that in war, both victor and defeated suffer: "The victor begets enmity. The vanquished dwells in sorrow. The tranquil lives happily, abandoning both victory and defeat" (Dhammapada, 201). Buddhist philosopher Candrakīrti wrote that soldiery was not a respectable profession: "the sacrifice of life in battle should not be respected, since this is the basis for harmful actions." The Mahayana Brahmajala Sutra states that those who take the Bodhisattva vows should not take any part in war, watch a battle, procure or store weapons, praise or approve of killers and aid the killing of others in any way. In his Abhidharma-kosa, Vasubandhu writes that all soldiers in an army are guilty of the killing of the army, not just those who perform the actual killing. Modern Buddhist peace activists include The 14th Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sulak Sivaraksa, A. T. Ariyaratne, Preah Maha Ghosananda and Nichidatsu Fujii.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: While pacifism is the Buddhist ideal, Buddhist states and kingdoms have waged war throughout history and Buddhists have found ways to justify these conflicts. The 5th Dalai Lama who was installed as the head of Buddhism in Tibet by Gushri Khan after the Oirat invasion of Tibet (1635–1642), praised the acts of the Khan and said that he was an emanation of the great Bodhisattva Vajrapani. Under the fifth Dalai Lama and the powerful Gelug Regent Sonam Chophel (1595–1657), treasurer of the Ganden Palace, the Tibetan kingdom launched invasions of Bhutan (c. 1647, ending in failure) and Ladakh (c. 1679, which regained previously lost Tibetan territory) with Mongol aid.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Another example is that of Buddhist warrior monks in feudal Japan who sometimes committed organized acts of war, protecting their territories and attacking rival Buddhist sects. During the late Heian Period, the Tendai school was a particularly powerful sect, whose influential monasteries could wield armies of monks. A key text of this sect was the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, which contains passages allowing the use of violence for the defense of the Dharma. The Ashikaga period saw military conflict between the Tendai school, Jōdo Shinshū school and the Nichiren Buddhists. Zen Buddhism was influential among the samurai, and their Bushido code.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: During World War II almost all Japanese Buddhists temples (except the Soka Gakkai) strongly supported Japanese imperialism and militarization. The Japanese Pan-Buddhist Society (Myowa Kai) rejected criticism from Chinese Buddhists, stating that "We now have no choice but to exercise the benevolent forcefulness of 'killing one in order that many may live'" (issatsu tashō) and that the war was absolutely necessary to implement the dharma in Asia.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: There is no single Buddhist view concerning abortion, although traditional Buddhism rejects abortion because it involves the deliberate destroying of a human life and regards human life as starting at conception. Further, some Buddhist views can be interpreted as holding that life exists before conception because of the never ending cycle of life. The traditional Buddhist view of rebirth sees consciousness as present in the embryo at conception, not as developing over time. In the Vinaya (Theravada and Sarvastivada) then, the causing of an abortion is seen as an act of killing punishable by expulsion from the monastic Sangha. The Abhidharma-kosa states that 'life is there from the moment of conception and should not be disturbed for it has the right to live'.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: One of the reasons this is seen as an evil act is because a human rebirth is seen as a precious and unique opportunity to do good deeds and attain liberation. The Jataka stories contain tales of women who perform abortions being reborn in a hell. In the case where the mother's life is in jeopardy, many traditional Buddhists agree that abortion is permissible. This is the only legally permissible reason for abortion in Sri Lanka, and is also a view accepted in the Tibetan tradition, as argued by Ganden Tri Rinpoche. In the case of rape, however, most Buddhists argue that following an act of violence by allowing 'another kind of violence towards another individual' would not be ethical. Aborting a fetus that is malformed is also seen as immoral by most Buddhists.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Those practicing in Japan and the United States are said to be more tolerant of abortion than those who live elsewhere. In Japan, women sometimes participate in Mizuko kuyo (水子供養 — lit. Newborn Baby Memorial Service) after an induced abortion or an abortion as the result of a miscarriage; a similar Taiwanese ritual is called "yingling gongyang". In China abortion is also widely practiced, but in Tibet it is very rare. Thus while most Buddhists would agree that abortion is wrong, they are less likely to push for laws banning the practice. The Dalai Lama has said that abortion is "negative," but there are exceptions. He said, "I think abortion should be approved or disapproved according to each circumstance."


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Buddhism understands life as being pervaded by Dukkha, as unsatisfactory and stressful. Ending one's life to escape present suffering is seen as futile because one will just be reborn again, and again. One of the three forms of craving is craving for annihilation (vibhava tanha), and this form of craving is the root of future suffering. Dying with an unwholesome and agitated state of mind is seen as leading to a bad rebirth, so suicide is seen as creating negative karma. Ending one's life is also seen as throwing away the precious opportunity to generate positive karma. While suicide does not seem to be interpreted as a breaking of the first precept (not killing other beings) it is still seen as a grave and unwholesome action.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In Theravada Buddhism, for a monk to praise the advantages of death, including simply telling a person of the miseries of life or the bliss of dying and going to heaven in such a way that he/she might feel inspired to commit suicide or simply pine away to death, is explicitly stated as a breach in one of highest vinaya codes regarding the prohibition of harming life, hence it will result in automatic expulsion from Sangha.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Buddhism sees the experience of dying as a very sensitive moment in one's spiritual life, because the quality of one's mind at the time of death is believed to condition one's future rebirth. The Buddhist ideal is to die in a calm but conscious state, while learning to let go. Dying consciously, without negative thoughts but rather joyously with good thoughts in mind is seen as a good transition into the next life. Chanting and reciting Buddhist texts is a common practice; in Tibet the Bardo Thodol is used to guide the dying to a good rebirth.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Traditional Buddhism would hold Euthanasia, where one brings about the death of a suffering patient (whether or not they desire this) so as to prevent further pain, as a breach of the first precept. The argument that such a killing is an act of compassion because it prevents suffering is unacceptable to traditional Buddhist theology because it is seen to be deeply rooted in delusion. This is because the suffering being who was euthanized would just end up being reborn and having to suffer due to their karma (even though not all suffering is due to karma), and hence killing them does not help them escape suffering. The Abhidharma-kosa clearly states that the killing of one's sick and aged parents is an act of delusion. The act of killing someone in the process of death also ruins their chance to mindfully experience pain and learn to let go of the body, hence desire for euthanasia would be a form of aversion to physical pain and a craving for non-becoming. According to Kalu Rinpoche however, choosing to be removed from life support is karmically neutral. The choice not to receive medical treatment when one is terminally ill is then not seen as morally reprehensible, as long as it does not arise from a feeling of aversion to life. This would also apply to not resuscitating a terminal patient.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: However, there are exceptions to the injunction against suicide. Several Pali suttas contain stories where self-euthanizing is not seen as unethical by the Buddha, showing that the issue is more complex. These exceptions, such as the story of the monk Channa and that of the monk Vakkali, typically deal with advanced Buddhist practitioners. In these exceptional cases, both Channa and Vakkali are both said to be enlightened arhats and euthanized themselves in a calm and detached state of mind.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In East-Asian and Tibetan Buddhism, the practice of Self-immolation developed. In China, the first recorded self-immolation was by the monk Fayu (d. 396). According to James A. Benn, this tended to be much more common during times of social and political turmoil and Buddhist persecution. It was often interpreted in Buddhist terms as a practice of heroic renunciation. This practice was widely publicized during the Vietnam war and have also continued as a form of protest by Tibetans against the Chinese government.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Buddhism places great emphasis on the sanctity of life and hence in theory forbids the death penalty. However, capital punishment has been used in most historically Buddhist states. The first of the Five Precepts (Panca-sila) is to abstain from destruction of life. Chapter 10 of the Dhammapada states:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Chapter 26, the final chapter of the Dhammapada, states "Him I call a brahmin who has put aside weapons and renounced violence toward all creatures. He neither kills nor helps others to kill". These sentences are interpreted by many Buddhists (especially in the West) as an injunction against supporting any legal measure which might lead to the death penalty. However, almost throughout history, countries where Buddhism has been the official religion (which have included most of the Far East and Indochina) have practiced the death penalty. One exception is the abolition of the death penalty by the Emperor Saga of Japan in 818. This lasted until 1165, although in private manors executions conducted as a form of retaliation continued to be performed.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Buddhism does not see humans as being in a special moral category over animals or as having any kind of God given dominion over them as Christianity does. Humans are seen as being more able to make moral choices, and this means that they should protect and be kind to animals who are also suffering beings who are living in samsara. Buddhism also sees humans as part of nature, not as separate from it. Thich Nhat Hanh summarizes the Buddhist view of harmony with nature thus:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: We classify other animals and living beings as nature, acting as if we ourselves are not part of it. Then we pose the question ‘How should we deal with Nature?’ We should deal with nature the way we should deal with ourselves! We should not harm ourselves; we should not harm nature...Human beings and nature are inseparable.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Early Buddhist monastics spent a lot of time in the forests, which was seen as an excellent place for meditation and this tradition continues to be practiced by the monks of the Thai Forest Tradition.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: There is a divergence of views within Buddhism on the need for vegetarianism, with some schools of Buddhism rejecting such a claimed need and with most Buddhists in fact eating meat. Many Mahayana Buddhists – especially the Chinese, Vietnamese and most Korean traditions – strongly oppose meat-eating on scriptural grounds.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The first precept of Buddhism focuses mainly on direct participation in the destruction of life. This is one reason that the Buddha made a distinction between killing animals and eating meat, and refused to introduce vegetarianism into monastic practice. While early Buddhist texts like the Pali Canon frown upon hunting, butchering, fishing and 'trading in flesh' (meat or livestock) as professions, they do not ban the act of eating meat. Direct participation also includes ordering or encouraging someone to kill an animal for you.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddhist king Ashoka promoted vegetarian diets and attempted to decrease the number of animals killed for food in his kingdom by introducing 'no slaughter days' during the year. He gave up hunting trips, banned the killing of specific animals and decreased the use of meat in the royal household. Ashoka even banned the killing of some vermin or pests. His example was followed by later Sri Lankan kings. One of Ashoka's rock edicts states:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Here (in my domain) no living beings are to be slaughtered or offered in sacrifice...Formerly, in the kitchen of Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, hundreds of thousands of animals were killed every day to make curry. But now with the writing of this Dhamma edict only three creatures, two peacocks and a deer are killed, and the deer not always. And in time, not even these three creatures will be killed.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Many Buddhists, especially in East Asia, believe that Buddhism advocates or promotes vegetarianism. While Buddhist theory tends to equate killing animals with killing people (and avoids the conclusion that killing can sometimes be ethical, e.g. defense of others), outside of the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and some Japanese monastic traditions, most Buddhists do eat meat in practice; there is however, a significant minority of Buddhist laypersons in the aforementioned traditions that maintain vegetarianism on a set schedule and a smaller minority who are full-time Buddhist vegetarians. There is some controversy surrounding whether or not the Buddha himself died from eating rancid pork. While most Chinese and Vietnamese monastics are vegetarian, vegetarian Tibetans are rare, due to the harsh Himalayan climate. Japanese lay people tend to eat meat, but monasteries tend to be vegetarian. The Dalai Lama, after contracting Hepatitis B, was advised by doctors to switch to a high animal-protein diet. The Dalai Lama eats vegetarian every second day, so he effectively eats a vegetarian diet for 6 months of the year. In the West, vegetarianism among Buddhists is also common.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In the Pali version of the Tripitaka, there are number of occasions in which the Buddha ate meat as well as recommending certain types of meat as a cure for medical conditions. On one occasion, a general sent a servant to purchase meat specifically to feed the Buddha. The Buddha declared that:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddha held that because the food is given by a donor with good intentions, a monk should accept this as long as it is pure in these three respects. To refuse the offering would deprive the donor of the positive karma that giving provides. Moreover, it would create a certain conceit in the monks who would now pick and choose what food to eat. The Buddha did state however that the donor does generate bad karma for himself by killing an animal. In Theravada Buddhist countries, most people do eat meat, however.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: While there is no mention of Buddha endorsing or repudiating vegetarianism in surviving portions of Pali Tripitaka and no Mahayana sutras explicitly declare that meat eating violates the first precept, certain Mahayana sutras vigorously and unreservedly denounce the eating of meat, mainly on the ground that such an act violates the bodhisattva's compassion. The sutras which inveigh against meat-eating include the Mahayana version of the "Nirvana Sutra," the "Shurangama Sutra," the "Brahmajala Sutra," the "Angulimaliya Sutra," the "Mahamegha Sutra," and the "Lankavatara Sutra," as well as the Buddha's comments on the negative karmic effects of meat consumption in the "Karma Sutra". In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which presents itself as the final elucidatory and definitive Mahayana teachings of the Buddha on the very eve of his death, the Buddha states that "the eating of meat extinguishes the seed of Great Kindness", adding that all and every kind of meat and fish consumption (even of animals found already dead) is prohibited by him. He specifically rejects the idea that monks who go out begging and receive meat from a donor should eat it: ". . . it should be rejected . . . I say that even meat, fish, game, dried hooves and scraps of meat left over by others constitutes an infraction . . . I teach the harm arising from meat-eating." The Buddha also predicts in this sutra that later monks will "hold spurious writings to be the authentic Dharma" and will concoct their own sutras and lyingly claim that the Buddha allows the eating of meat, whereas in fact he says he does not. A long passage in the Lankavatara Sutra shows the Buddha speaking out very forcefully against meat consumption and unequivocally in favor of vegetarianism, since the eating of the flesh of fellow sentient beings is said by him to be incompatible with the compassion that a Bodhisattva should strive to cultivate. In several other Mahayana scriptures, too (e.g., the Mahayana jatakas), the Buddha is seen clearly to indicate that meat-eating is undesirable and karmically unwholesome.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Forests and jungles represented the ideal dwelling place for early Buddhists, and many texts praise the forest life as being helpful to meditation. Monks are not allowed to cut down trees as per the Vinaya, and the planting of trees and plants is seen as karmically fruitful. Because of this, Buddhist monasteries are often small nature preserves within the modernizing states in East Asia. The species ficus religiosa is seen as auspicious, because it is the same kind of tree that the Buddha gained enlightenment under.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In Mahayana Buddhism, some teachings hold that trees and plants have Buddha nature. Kukai held that plants and trees, along with rocks and everything else, were manifestations of the 'One Mind' of Vairocana and Dogen held that plant life "was" Buddha nature.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In pre-modern times, environmental issues were not widely discussed, though Ashoka banned the burning of forests and promoted the planting of trees in his edicts. Bhikkhu Bodhi, an American Theravada monk, has been outspoken about the issue of environmental crisis. Bodhi holds that the root of the current ecological crisis is the belief that increased production and consumption to satisfy our material and sensual desires leads to well-being. The subjugation of nature is directly opposed to the Buddhist view of non-harming and dwelling in nature. Buddhist activists such as Ajahn Pongsak in Thailand and the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement have worked for reforestation and environmental protection. The Dalai Lama also professes the close relationship of human beings and nature, saying that since humans come from nature, there is no point in going against it. He advocates that a clean environment should be considered a basic human right and that it is our responsibility as humans to ensure that we do all we can to pass on a healthy world to those who come after us.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In pre-Buddhist Indian religion, women were seen as inferior and subservient to men. Buddha's teachings tended to promote gender equality as the Buddha held that women had the same spiritual capacities as men did. According to Isaline Blew Horner, women in Buddhist India: "commanded more respect and ranked as individuals. They enjoyed more independence, and a wider liberty to guide and follow their own lives." Buddha gave the same teachings to both sexes, praised various female lay disciples for their wisdom and allowed women to become monastics (Bhikkhunis) at a time when this was seen as scandalous in India, where men dominated the spiritual professions. The two chief female disciples of the Buddha were Khema and Uppalavanna. The Buddha taught that women had the same soteriological potential as men, and that gender had no influence on one's ability to advance spiritually to nirvana. In the early Buddhist texts, female enlightened Arhats are common. Buddhist nuns are however bound by an extra 8 precepts not applicable to Buddhist monks called The Eight Garudhammas. The authenticity of these rules is highly contested; they were supposedly added to the (bhikkhunis) Vinaya "to allow more acceptance" of a monastic Order for women, during the Buddha's time but can be interpreted as a form of gender discrimination. Alan Sponberg argues that the early Buddhist sangha sought social acceptance through 'institutional androcentrism' as it was dependent on material support from lay society. Because of this Sponberg concludes: "For all its commitment to inclusiveness at the doctrinal level, institutional Buddhism was not able to (or saw no reason to) challenge prevailing attitudes about gender roles in society."


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The pre-Mahayana texts also state that while women can become Arhats, they cannot become a Samyaksambuddha (a Buddha who discovers the path by himself), Chakravartins (Wheel turning king), a Ruler of heaven, a Mara devil or a Brahama god.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Therigatha is a collection of poems from elder Buddhist nuns, and one of the earliest texts of women's literature. Another important text is the Therī-Apadāna, which collects the biographies of eminent nuns. One such verses are those of the nun Soma, who was tempted by Mara when traveling in the woods. Mara states that women are not intelligent enough to attain enlightenment, Soma replies with a verse which indicates the insignificance of gender to spirituality:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In Mahayana Buddhism, Bodhisattvas such as Tara and Guanyin are very popular female deities. Some Buddhist Tantric texts include female consorts for each heavenly Buddha or Bodhisattva. In these Tantric couples, the female symbolizes wisdom (prajna) and the male symbolizes skillful means (upaya). The union of these two qualities is often depicted as sexual union, known as yab-yum (father-mother).


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In East Asia, the idea of Buddha nature being inherent in all beings is taken to mean that, spiritually at least, the sexes are equal, and this is expressed by the Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala sutra. Based on this ideal of Buddha nature, the Chinese Chan (Zen) school emphasized the equality of the sexes. Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163) of the Chinese Linji school said of women in Buddhism: "For mastering the truth, it does not matter whether one is male or female, noble or base." The Japanese founder of Soto Zen, Dogen wrote: "If you wish to hear the Dharma and put an end to pain and turmoil, forget about such things as male and female. As long as delusions have not yet been eliminated, neither men nor women have eliminated them; when they are all eliminated and true reality is experienced, there is no distinction of male and female."


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The attitude of Buddhists towards gender has been varied throughout history as it has been influenced by each particular culture and belief system such as Confucianism (which sees women as subservient) and Hinduism. The Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa (5th century CE) for example, seems to have been influenced by his Brahmin background in stating that rebirth as a male is higher than rebirth as a female. Some Mahayana sutras such as the ‘Sutra on Changing the Female Sex’ and the ‘Questions of the Daughter Pure Faith’ also echo this idea. For various historical and cultural reasons such as wars and invasions, the orders of ordained Buddhist nuns disappeared or was never introduced in Southeast Asia and Tibet, though they slowly started being reintroduced by nuns such as Ayya Khema, Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, Tenzin Palmo and Thubten Chodron. Until very recently, China, Taiwan and Korea were the only places where fully ordained bhiksuni lineages still existed. An international conference of Buddhist nuns was held in February 1987 at Bodh Gaya and saw the formation of 'Sakyadhita' (Daughters of the Buddha) the International Association of Buddhist Women which focuses on helping Buddhist nuns throughout the world.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddha placed much importance on the cultivation of good will and compassion towards one's parents, spouse, friends and all other beings. Buddhism strongly values harmony in the family and community. Keeping the five precepts and having a generous attitude (Dana) is seen as the foundation for this harmony. An important text, seen as the lay people's Vinaya (code of conduct) is the Sigalovada Sutta which outlines wrong action and warns against the squandering of wealth. The Sigalovada Sutta outlines how a virtuous person "worships the six directions" which are parents (East), teachers (South), wife (West), and friends and colleagues (North), and the two vertical directions as: ascetics and Brahmins (Up) and the Servants (Down). The text elaborates on how to respect and support them, and how in turn the Six will return the kindness and support. The relationships are based on reciprocation, and it is understood one has no right to expect behavior from others unless one also performs good acts in their favor.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Parents for example, are to be respected and supported with the understanding that they are to have provided care and affection to oneself. In marriage, the sutta states that a householder should treat their wife by "being courteous to her, by not despising her, by being faithful to her, by handing over authority to her, by providing her with adornments." while in return the wife "performs her duties well, she is hospitable to relations and attendants, she is faithful, she protects what he brings, she is skilled and industrious in discharging her duties." The Buddha also stated that a wife and husband are to be each other's best friend (parama sakha). While monogamy is the predominant model for marriage, Buddhist societies have also practiced and accepted polygamy and polyandry. Buddhism sees marriage not as sacred but as a secular partnership and hence has no issue with divorce.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Third (or sometimes Fourth) of the Five Precepts of Buddhism states that one is to refrain from "sexual misconduct", which has various interpretations, but generally entails any sexual conduct which is harmful to others, such as rape, molestation and often adultery, although this depends on the local marriage and relationship customs. Buddhist monks and nuns of most traditions are not only expected to refrain from all sexual activity but also take vows of celibacy.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Among the Buddhist traditions there is a vast diversity of opinion about homosexuality, and in interpreting the precedents which define "sexual misconduct" generally. Though there is no explicit condemnation of homosexuality in Buddhist sutras, be it Theravada, Mahayana or Mantrayana, societal and community attitudes and the historical view of practitioners have established precedents. Some "sangha" equate homosexuality with scriptural sexual misconduct prohibited by the Five Precepts. Other "sangha" hold that if sexuality is compassionate and/or consensual and does not contravene vows, then there is no karmic infraction, irrespective of whether it is same-sex or not. Buddhist communities in Western states as well as in Japan generally tend to be accepting of homosexuality. In Japan, homosexual relations among Buddhist samurai and clergy were actually quite common. Male homosexuality between clergy was especially common in the Tantric Shingon school.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: According to the Pāli Canon & Āgama (the Early Buddhist scriptures), there is no saying that same or opposite gender relations have anything to do with sexual misconduct, and some Theravada monks express that same-gender relations do not violate the rule to avoid sexual misconduct, which means not having sex with someone underage (thus protected by their parents or guardians), someone betrothed or married and who have taken vows of religious celibacy.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Some later traditions, like Shantideva and Gampopa, feature restrictions on non-vaginal sex (including homosexuality). A medieval commentary of the Digha Nikaya mentions examples of immorality in society, and one of the examples is homosexuality, whereas this has no basis in the Sutta. Other Buddhist texts such as the Abhidharma-kosa and the Jataka tales make no mention of homosexuality in this regard. According to Jose Ignacio Cabezon, Buddhist cultures' attitudes towards homosexuality have generally been neutral.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: While both men and women can be ordained, hermaphrodites are not allowed by the Vinaya. According to the ancient texts this is because of the possibility that they will seduce monks or nuns.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Vinaya also prevents "pandakas" from becoming monastics, which have been defined as "without testicles" and generally referred to those who lacked the normal (usually physical) characteristics of maleness (in some cases it refers to women who lack the normal characteristics of femaleness). This rule was established by the Buddha after a pandaka monk broke the Vinaya precepts by having relations with others. Therefore, it seems that pandakas were initially allowed into the Sangha. Later Buddhist texts like the Milinda Panha and the Abhidharma-kosa see pandakas as being spiritually hindered by their sexuality and mental defilements.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Buddha's teachings to laypeople included advice on how to make their living and how to use their wealth. The Buddha considered the creation of wealth to be praiseworthy, so long as it was done morally, in accordance with right livelihood, one of the elements of the Noble Eightfold Path, and which refers to making one's living without killing, being complicit in the suffering of other beings (by selling weapons, poison, alcohol or flesh) or through lying, stealing or deceit.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Sigalovada Sutta states that a master should look after servants and employees by: "(1) by assigning them work according to their ability, (2) by supplying them with food and with wages, (3) by tending them in sickness, (4) by sharing with them any delicacies, (5) by granting them leave at times" (Digha Nikaya 31). Early Buddhist texts see success in work as aided by one's spiritual and moral qualities.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: In the Adiya Sutta the Buddha also outlined several ways in which people could put their 'righteously gained' wealth to use:


title: Buddhist ethics

text: The Buddha placed much emphasis on the virtue of giving and sharing, and hence the practice of donating and charity are central to Buddhist economic ethics. Even the poor are encouraged to share, because this brings about greater spiritual wealth: "If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would the stain of selfishness overcome their minds. Even if it were their last bite, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared, if there were someone to receive their gift." The modern growth of Engaged Buddhism has seen an emphasis on social work and charity. Buddhist aid and activist organizations include Buddhist Global Relief, Lotus Outreach, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Piyarra Kutta, International Network of Engaged Buddhists, The Tzu Chi Foundation, Nonviolent Peaceforce, and Zen Peacemakers.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Buddhist texts promote the building of public works which benefit the community and stories of Buddhist Kings like Ashoka are used as an example of lay people who promoted the public welfare by building hospitals and parks for the people. The Buddha's chief lay disciple, the rich merchant Anathapindika (‘Feeder of the Poor’) is also another example of a virtuous layperson who donated much of his wealth for the benefit of others and was thus known as the "foremost disciple in generosity". Early Buddhist texts do not disparage merchants and trade, but instead promote enterprise as long as it is done ethically and leads to the well-being of the community. The gold standard for rulers in Buddhism is the ideal wheel turning king, the Chakravartin. A Chakravartin is said to rule justly, giving to the needy and combating poverty so as to prevent social unrest. A Chakravartin does not fight wars for gain but only in defense of the kingdom, he accepts immigrants and refugees, and builds hospitals, parks, hostels, wells, canals and rest houses for the people and animals. Mahayana Buddhism maintains that lay Bodhisattvas should engage in social welfare activities for the good and safety of others. In the lands of Southern Buddhism, Buddhist monasteries often became places were the poor, destitute, orphaned, elderly can take shelter. Monasteries often provided education and took care of the sick, and therefore are also centers of social welfare for the poor.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: Robert Thurman, in his discussion of Nagarjuna's "Precious Garland Ratnavali" sees the Mahayana Buddhist tradition as politically supporting ‘a welfare state ...a rule of compassionate socialism’. Prominent Buddhist socialists include the 14th Dalai Lama, Buddhadasa, B. R. Ambedkar, U Nu, Girō Seno’o and Lin Qiuwu. Others such as Neville Karunatilake, E. F. Schumacher, Padmasiri De Silva, Prayudh Payutto and Sulak Sivaraksa have promoted a Buddhist economics that does not necessarily define itself as socialist but still offers a critique of modern consumer capitalism. E. F. Schumacher in his "Buddhist economics" (1973) wrote: "Buddhist economics must be very different from the economics of modern materialism, since the Buddhist sees the essence of civilisation not in a multiplication of human wants but in the purification of human character."


title: Buddhist ethics

text: While modern economics seeks to satisfy human desires, Buddhism seeks to reduce our desires and hence Buddhist economics would tend to promote a sense of anti-consumerism and simple living. In his "Buddhist Economics: A Middle Way for the Market Place", Prayudh Payutto writes that consumption is only a means to an end which is 'development of human potential' and 'well being within the individual, within society and within the environment'. From a Buddhist perspective then, 'Right consumption' is based on well-being while 'wrong consumption' is the need to 'satisfy the desire for pleasing sensations or ego-gratification'. Similarly, Sulak Sivaraksa argues that "the religion of consumerism emphasizes greed, hatred and delusion" which causes anxiety and that this must be countered with an ethic of satisfaction Modern attempts to practice Buddhist economics can be seen in the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement and in the Gross National Happiness economics of Bhutan.


title: Buddhist ethics

text: While Buddhism encourages wealth gained ethically, it sees greed and craving for riches as negative, and praises contentment as 'the greatest wealth'. Poverty and debt are seen as causes of suffering, immorality, and social unrest if they prevent one from having basic necessities and peace of mind. For laypeople, Buddhism promotes the middle way between a life of poverty and a materialistic or consumerist life in which one is always seeking to enrich oneself and to buy more things. For Buddhist laypersons then, to be Buddhist does not mean to reject all material things, but, according to Sizemore and Swearer: "it specifies an attitude to be cultivated and expressed in whatever material condition one finds oneself. To be non-attached is to possess and use material things but not to be possessed or used by them. Therefore, the idea of non-attachment applies all across Buddhist society, to laymen and monk alike."


title: Jason Holder

text: Jason Omar Holder (born 5 November 1991) is a Barbadian cricketer and the former captain of the West Indies cricket team. He is a right arm fast bowling all-rounder. Holder made his One Day International (ODI) debut in January 2013 and Test debut in June 2014. In June 2019, Holder played in his 100th ODI match for the West Indies, during the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In January 2019, he was ranked as the number one all rounder in the world according to the official ICC Test rankings. In August 2019, Cricket West Indies named him as the Test Player of the Year. Jason Holder is the first West Indies male player to take a hat-trick in T20i. As of March 2022, Holder is rated as the No.1 all-rounder in the world in the ICC Test all-rounder rankings.


title: Jason Holder

text: A couple of days after making his international debut in 2013, Holder was signed up by the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL auction, at his base price of $20,000. In 2014, Sunrisers bought him. He was also given a batting promotion by the Sunrisers Hyderabad, who sent him to bat ahead of all-rounders Karn Sharma and Parvez Rasool. In 2016 year auction, Kolkata Knight Riders bought him. Holder scored 22 runs at 5.50 and took 2 wickets at 51.50 in all those four matches he played. In 2020, he joined Sunrisers Hyderabad for IPL 2020 as a replacement for injured Mitchell Marsh. Northamptonshire County Cricket Club signed Holder for the 2019 County Season.


title: Jason Holder

text: The 29-year-old was relieved of his white-ball captaincy in 2019 and this year, Kraigg Brathwaite replaced him as the Test captain.


title: Jason Holder

text: In July 2020, he was named in the Barbados Royals formerly known as Barbados Tridents squad for the 2020 Caribbean Premier League.


title: Jason Holder

text: Holder made his ODI debut on 1 February 2013 against Australia. His first notable performance in the ODI format was in the first match against Pakistan in July 2013 where he picked up 4 for 13, although the performance was overshadowed by a seven wicket haul by Pakistan's Shahid Afridi, as West Indies were bowled out for 98. Holder delivered a strong all-round performance in the third ODI of the same series, when he, along with Kemar Roach, helped his team to a tie, scoring 19 not out off 9 deliveries. He made his T20I debut against New Zealand in January 2014, returning figures of 2–34 in 3 overs.


title: Jason Holder

text: After good performances in ODIs, Holder was selected for the Test squad in June 2014. He made his Test debut on 26 June 2014 against New Zealand. He did not take any wickets in the first innings, but bowled economically with four maidens. In the second innings, Holder took his maiden Test wicket by dismissing Ross Taylor for 16 runs. He completed the match with 2 for 50. Holder also scored 90 runs in the match, including his maiden Test fifty. However, West Indies lost the match by 53 runs.


title: Jason Holder

text: He was made the captain of the national team in ODI format by the West Indies Cricket Board selectors, after they sacked previous captain Dwayne Bravo. At 23 years, 72 days, he became the youngest ever West Indian captain. On 4 September 2015 he was named as the captain of the Test side for the tour to Sri Lanka. He became the second youngest test captain of all time for the West Indies and 15th youngest of all time for any Test Nation.


title: Jason Holder

text: He led his team to quarter finals of the 2015 World Cup where they lost to New Zealand. In the tournament, Holder scored two consecutive fifties, both in losing causes, against South Africa and then India. In the match against South Africa, Holder conceded 104 runs, which is second worst set of bowling figures in World Cups. He also scored a 26-ball 42 in their last match against New Zealand in the quarter final.


title: Jason Holder

text: In April 2015, he scored a maiden Test century against England to help secure a draw in the first Test.


title: Jason Holder

text: Although West Indies lost many home and away series under Holder's captaincy, many former West Indian cricketers appreciated Holder's efforts as a captain because his team lacked experienced players such as Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels. The absence of these players was and still is because of an ongoing dispute between players and the West Indies Cricket Board.


title: Jason Holder

text: On 2 July 2017, Holder took his maiden ODI five-wicket haul (5/27), in a low scoring game against India. West Indies batted first and only scored 189 runs. To stay alive in the series, West Indies had to win the match. Holder handled his bowlers and himself very well in the match, and the West Indies won the match by 11 runs. For his good captaincy and impressive bowling performance, Holder was awarded the man of the match award.


title: Jason Holder

text: On 15 March 2018, Holder became the fastest player for the West Indies, in terms of matches, to score 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in ODIs (74). In October 2018, Cricket West Indies (CWI) awarded him a contract across all formats of cricket for the 2018–19 season. In the six Tests that Holder played that year, he made 336 runs at an average of 37.33 while also claiming 33 wickets at an average of 12.30, the best average by a fast bowler in more than 100 years. He made the Test Team announced at the ICC Awards for the year as the only West Indies player in the team.


title: Jason Holder

text: In January 2019, Holder scored his first double century in first-class cricket in his team's second innings of the First Test at home against England at the Kensington Oval, his home ground. He struck a 295-run partnership with Shane Dowrich for the eight wicket helping his team secure a lead of 627 runs over England. His 202 not out was the third-highest individual score by a number eight batsman in Tests. The West Indies went on to win the match by 381 runs, their greatest victory at home in terms of runs, and Holder was named man of the match. He occupied the top spot in the all-rounders rankings announced following the match, the first West Indies player since Garfield Sobers in 1974.


title: Jason Holder

text: In April 2019, he was named as the captain of the West Indies' squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 17 June 2019, in the match against Bangladesh, Holder played in his 100th ODI match. On 27 June 2019, in the match against India, Holder played in his 150th international match for the West Indies. On 1 July 2019, in the match against Sri Lanka, Holder became the first captain of the West Indies to take 100 wickets in ODIs. On 31 August 2019, in the second Test against India, Holder took his 100th wicket in Test cricket.


title: Jason Holder

text: In June 2020, Holder was named as the captain of the West Indies' Test squad, for their series against England. The Test series was originally scheduled to start in May 2020, but was moved back to July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Jason Holder

text: In September 2021, Holder was named as one of four reserve players in the West Indies cricket squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.


title: Jason Holder

text: In January 2022, Holder was named in the West Indies' squad for their T20I home series against England. In the fifth and final match to decide the series, Holder took five wickets for 27 runs, to take his first five-wicket haul in T20Is. Holder also became the first bowler for West Indies to take a hat-trick in T20Is. He also became the fourth bowler to take four wickets in four balls in T20Is. For his performance, he was awarded both Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards.


title: Jason Holder

text: Holder is a fan of Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur and in February 2022 became the brand ambassador for BookBarbados.com.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (; 18 March 1919 – 5 January 2001), usually cited as G. E. M. Anscombe or Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and ethics. She was a prominent figure of analytical Thomism, a Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe was a student of Ludwig Wittgenstein and became an authority on his work and edited and translated many books drawn from his writings, above all his "Philosophical Investigations". Anscombe's 1958 article "Modern Moral Philosophy" introduced the term "consequentialism" into the language of analytic philosophy, and had a seminal influence on contemporary virtue ethics. Her monograph "Intention" (1957) was described by Donald Davidson as "the most important treatment of action since Aristotle." The continuing philosophical interest in the concepts of intention, action, and practical reasoning can be said to have taken its main impetus from this work.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe was born to Gertrude Elizabeth (née Thomas) and Captain Allen Wells Anscombe, on 18 March 1919, in Limerick, Ireland, where her father had been stationed with the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the Irish War of Independence. Both her mother and father were involved with education. Her mother was a headmistress and her father went on to head the science and engineering side at


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe attended Sydenham High School and then, in 1937, went on to read "literae humaniores" ('Greats') at St Hugh's College, Oxford. She was awarded a Second Class in her honour moderations in 1939 and (albeit it with reservations on the part of her Ancient History examiners) a First in her degree finals in 1941.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: While still at Sydenham High School, Anscombe converted to the Catholic Church. During her first year at St Hugh's she was received into the church, and was a practising Catholic thereafter.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: In 1941 she married Peter Geach. Like her, Geach was a Catholic convert who became a student of Wittgenstein and a distinguished academic philosopher. Together they had three sons and four daughters.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: After graduating from Oxford, Anscombe was awarded a research fellowship for postgraduate study at Newnham College, Cambridge, from 1942 to 1945. Her purpose was to attend Ludwig Wittgenstein's lectures. Her interest in Wittgenstein's philosophy arose from reading the "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" as an undergraduate. She claimed to have conceived the idea of studying with Wittgenstein as soon as she opened the book in Blackwell's and read section 5.53, "Identity of object I express by identity of sign, and not by using a sign for identity. Difference of objects I express by difference of signs." She became an enthusiastic student, feeling that Wittgenstein's therapeutic method helped to free her from philosophical difficulties in ways that her training in traditional systematic philosophy could not. As she wrote:


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: After her fellowship at Cambridge ended, she was awarded a research fellowship at Somerville College, Oxford, but during the academic year of 1946/47, she continued to travel to Cambridge once a week to attend tutorials with Wittgenstein that were devoted mainly to the philosophy of religion. She became one of Wittgenstein's favourite students and one of his closest friends. Wittgenstein affectionately addressed her by the pet name "old man" – she being (according to Ray Monk) "an exception to his general dislike of academic women". His confidence in Anscombe's understanding of his perspective is shown by his choice of her as translator of his "Philosophical Investigations" (for which purpose he arranged for her to spend some time in Vienna to improve her German).


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe visited Wittgenstein many times after he left Cambridge in 1947, and travelled to Cambridge in April 1951 to visit him on his death bed. Wittgenstein named her, along with Rush Rhees and Georg Henrik von Wright, as his literary executor. After his death in 1951 she was responsible for editing, translating, and publishing many of Wittgenstein's manuscripts and notebooks.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe did not avoid controversy. As an undergraduate in 1939 she had publicly criticised Britain's entry into the Second World War. And, in 1956, while a research fellow, she unsuccessfully protested against Oxford granting an honorary degree to Harry S. Truman, whom she denounced as a mass murderer for his use of atomic bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She would further publicise her position in a (sometimes erroneously dated) pamphlet privately printed soon after Truman's nomination for the degree was approved. In the same she said she "should fear to go" to the Encaenia (the degree conferral ceremony) "in case God's patience suddenly ends." She would also court controversy with some of her colleagues by defending the Catholic Church's opposition to contraception. Later in life, she would be arrested protesting outside an abortion clinic, after abortion had been legalised in Great Britain (albeit with restrictions).


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Having remained at Somerville College since 1946, Anscombe was elected Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 1970, where she served until her retirement in 1986. She was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1967, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1979.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: In her later years, Anscombe suffered from heart disease, and was nearly killed in a car crash in 1996. She never fully recovered and she spent her last years in the care of her family in Cambridge. She died peacefully on 5 January 2001, aged 81, with her husband and four of their seven children at her hospital bedside just after praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary. Anscombe's "last intentional act was kissing Peter Geach," her husband of sixty years.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: She had not said where she was to be buried and the family chose what is now the Ascension Parish burial ground, as it was the nearest one to their home. There was some difficulty in getting a full-size plot, where she could be buried without being cremated first. This was not possible in the new part of the cemetery, so the site finally obtained – after negotiation with Ely diocesan authorities – was that of an old grave, corner-to-corner with the plot where Wittgenstein had been buried half a century before.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: As a young philosophy don, Anscombe acquired a reputation as a formidable debater. In 1948, she presented a paper at a meeting of Oxford's Socratic Club in which she disputed C. S. Lewis's argument that naturalism was self-refuting (found in the third chapter of the original publication of his book "Miracles"). Some associates of Lewis, primarily George Sayer and Derek Brewer, have remarked that Lewis lost the subsequent debate on her paper and that this loss was so humiliating that he abandoned theological argument and turned entirely to devotional writing and children's literature. This is a claim disputed by Walter Hooper and Anscombe's impression of the effect upon Lewis was somewhat different:


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: As a result of the debate, Lewis substantially rewrote chapter 3 of "Miracles" for the 1960 paperback edition.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Some of Anscombe's most frequently cited works are translations, editions, and expositions of the work of her teacher Ludwig Wittgenstein, including an influential exegesis of Wittgenstein's 1921 book, the "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus". This brought to the fore the importance of Gottlob Frege for Wittgenstein's thought and, partly on that basis, attacked "positivist" interpretations of the work. She co-edited his posthumous second book, "Philosophische Untersuchungen/Philosophical Investigations" (1953) with Rush Rhees. Her English translation of the book appeared simultaneously and remains standard. She went on to edit or co-edit several volumes of selections from his notebooks, (co-)translating many important works like "Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics" (1956) and Wittgenstein's "sustained treatment" of G. E. Moore's epistemology, "On Certainty" (1969).


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: In 1978, Anscombe was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class for her work on Wittgenstein.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Her most important work is the monograph "Intention" (1957). Three volumes of collected papers were published in 1981: "From Parmenides to Wittgenstein"; "Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Mind"; and "Ethics, Religion and Politics". Another collection, "Human Life, Action and Ethics" appeared posthumously in 2005.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: The aim of "Intention" (1957) was to make plain the character of human action and will. Anscombe approaches the matter through the concept of "intention", which, as she notes, has three modes of appearance in our language:


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: She suggests that a true account must somehow connect these three uses of the concept, though later students of intention have sometimes denied this, and disputed some of the things she presupposes under the first and third headings. It is clear though that it is the second that is crucial to her main purpose, which is to comprehend the way in which human thought and understanding and conceptualisation relate to the "events in a man's history", or the goings on to which he is subject.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Rather than attempt to define intentions in abstraction from actions, thus taking the third heading first, Anscombe begins with the concept of an intentional action. This soon connected with the second heading. She says that what is up with a human being is an intentional action if the question "Why", taken in a certain sense (and evidently conceived as addressed to him), has application. An agent can answer the "why" question by giving a reason or purpose for her action. "To do Y" or "because I want to do Y" would be typical answers to this sort of "why?"; though they are not the only ones, they are crucial to the constitution of the phenomenon as a typical phenomenon of human life. The agent's answer helps supply the descriptions under which the action is intentional. Anscombe was the first to clearly spell out that actions are intentional under some descriptions and not others. In her famous example, a man's action (which we might observe as consisting in moving an arm up and down while holding a handle) may be intentional under the description "pumping water" but not under other descriptions such as "contracting these muscles", "tapping out this rhythm", and so on. This approach to action influenced Donald Davidson's theory, despite the fact that Davidson went on to argue for a causal theory of action that Anscombe never accepted.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: "Intention" (1957) is also the classic source for the idea that there is a difference in "direction of fit" between cognitive states like beliefs and conative states like desire. (A theme later taken up and discussed by John Searle.) Cognitive states describe the world and are causally derived from the facts or objects they depict. Conative states do not describe the world, but aim to bring something about in the world. Anscombe used the example of a shopping list to illustrate the difference. The list can be a straightforward observational report of what is actually bought (thereby acting like a cognitive state), or it can function as a conative state such as a command or desire, dictating what the agent should buy. If the agent fails to buy what is listed, we do not say that the list is untrue or incorrect; we say that the mistake is in the action, not the desire. According to Anscombe, this difference in direction of fit is a major difference between speculative knowledge (theoretical, empirical knowledge) and practical knowledge (knowledge of actions and morals). Whereas "speculative knowledge" is "derived from the objects known", practical knowledge is – in a phrase Anscombe lifts from Aquinas – "the cause of what it understands".


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe made great contributions to ethics as well as metaphysics. She is credited with having coined the term "consequentialism". In her 1958 essay "Modern Moral Philosophy", Anscombe wrote:


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: "Modern Moral Philosophy" is credited with reviving interest in and study of virtue ethics in Western academic philosophy.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: The Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford is named after her, and conducts bioethical research in the Catholic tradition.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe also introduced the idea of a set of facts being 'brute relative to' some fact. When a set of facts xyz stands in this relation to a fact A, they are a subset out of a range some subset among which holds if A holds. Thus if A is the fact that I have paid for something, the brute facts might be that I have handed him a cheque for a sum which he has named as the price for the goods, saying that this is the payment, or that I gave him some cash at the time that he gave me the goods. There tends, according to Anscombe, to be an institutional context which gives its point to the description 'A', but of which 'A' is not itself a description: that I have given someone a shilling is not a description of the institution of money or of the currency of the country. According to her, no brute facts "xyz" can generally be said to entail the fact "A" relative to which they are 'brute' except with the proviso "under normal circumstances", for "one cannot mention all the things that were not the case, which would have made a difference if they had been." A set of facts xyz ... may be brute relative to a fact A which itself is one of a set of facts ABC ... which is brute relative to some further fact W. Thus Anscombe's account is not of a distinct class of facts, to be distinguished from another class, 'institutional facts': the essential relation is that of a set of facts being 'brute relative to' some fact. Following Anscombe, John Searle derived another conception of 'brute facts' as non-mental facts to play the foundational role and generate similar hierarchies in his philosophical account of speech acts and institutional reality.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Her paper "The First Person" buttressed remarks by Wittgenstein (in his Lectures on "Private Experience") arguing for the now-notorious conclusion that the first-person pronoun, "I", does not refer to anything (not, e.g., to the speaker) because of its immunity from reference failure. Having shown by counter-example that 'I' does not refer to the body, Anscombe objected to the implied Cartesianism of its referring at all. Few people accept the conclusion – though the position was later adopted in a more radical form by David Lewis – but the paper was an important contribution to work on indexicals and self-consciousness that has been carried on by philosophers as varied as John Perry, Peter Strawson, David Kaplan, Gareth Evans, John McDowell, and Sebastian Rödl.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: In her article, “Causality and Determination”, regarding causality Anscombe defends two main ideas: that causal relations are perceivable, and that causation does not require a necessary connection and a universal generalization linking cause and effect. Regarding her idea that causal relations are perceivable, she believes that we perceive the causal relations between objects and events. This view is contrary to Hume’s belief, who believed that our knowledge and understanding of the world comes from experience, but that we cannot directly perceive the causal relations between objects and events.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: In defending her idea that causal relations are perceivable, Anscombe poses a question “How did we come by our primary knowledge of causality?”. She proposes two answers to this question:


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: In proposing her first answer, that by “learning to speak, we learned the linguistic representation and application of a host of causal concepts”, Anscombe thinks that by learning to speak we already have a linguistic representation of certain causal concepts and she gives an example of transitive verbs, such as scrape, push, carry, knock over.Example: I knocked over a vase of flowers.In proposing her second answer, that by observing some actions we can see causation, Anscombe thinks that we cannot ignore the fact that certain actions, which produced a certain event are possible to observe.Example: a cat spilled milkThe second idea that Anscombe defends in the article “Causality and Determination” is that causation requires neither a necessary connection nor a universal generalization linking cause and effect.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe thinks that it is assumed that causality is some kind of necessary connection, which is not true. This idea is found in Aristotle’s "Metaphysics" and also in Spinoza’s writing, and according to these views, the connection between cause and effect is some sort of logical connection. Empiricists (such as Hume) did not believe that causation is a necessary connection between events, but actually that these necessary connections are found in the human mind by the experience of constant conjunction.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Constant conjunction is an observation that two events go together: if there are two events such as A and B, and it is repeatedly observed that an event of type A is being followed by an event of type B, by observation it is possible to conclude that these two events go together. Empiricists believed that this necessary connection of two events going together does not exist, but our minds think that there is. Kant disagreed with Hume regarding causality and necessity and Kant believed that the concepts of both causality and necessity arise from the operations of our understanding (they arise entirely a priori as pure concepts, not from experience).


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: Anscombe does not believe that causation is identified with necessitation or with universal generalization. Regarding necessitation, she thinks that we can know that one thing caused another, without knowing any true law involving a necessary connection between events. Regarding universal generalization, Anscombe believes that making a large generalization has its dangers.Example: “Always, given an A, a B follows” Anscombe thinks that this is not always true and that each case is different.


title: G. E. M. Anscombe

text: The philosopher Candace Vogler says that Anscombe's "strength" is that "'when she is writing for [a] Catholic audience, she presumes they share certain fundamental beliefs,' but she is equally willing to write for people who do not share her assumptions." In 2010, philosopher Roger Scruton wrote that Anscombe was "perhaps the last great philosopher writing in English". Mary Warnock described her as "the undoubted giant among women philosophers" while John Haldane said she "certainly has a good claim to be the greatest woman philosopher of whom we know".


title: Luminous Productions

text: It was originally known as Business Division 2, which was the development team responsible for "Final Fantasy XV" and was one of 12 Business Divisions (internal development and production divisions) that Square Enix had at the time before the company consolidated its development divisions in 2020. The current name and development structure of the studio was formed on 27 March 2018 as an external company.


title: Luminous Productions

text: The aim of the company is to create new AAA video games for a global audience using Square Enix's proprietary Luminous Engine.


title: Luminous Productions

text: Luminous Productions was originally assembled from employees working on "Final Fantasy XV". While forming a new internal studio from existing ones is common worldwide, it is uncommon in Japan. Since the studio pulled in so many who were working on "Final Fantasy XV", Luminous Productions helped with the game alongside their new project. So many were taken from the internal development division Business Division 2 that created "Final Fantasy XV" that Square Enix stated that it functionally "no longer exists".


title: Luminous Productions

text: Its initial goal was to work on video games and "other entertainment content", but later that year the studio was refocused on just making games, causing to report a thirty-three million dollar loss for the half-year ending on September 30, 2018. The new studio's leader and "Final Fantasy XV" director Hajime Tabata left Luminous Productions and Square Enix around the same time, and planned future content for "Final Fantasy XV" was also cancelled. President of Square Enix Yosuke Matsuda clarified that the studio would be a "fusion of cutting-edge technology and art".


title: Luminous Productions

text: Resources shifted to the then-unannounced "Forspoken" (initially dubbed "Project Athia"), with the studio continuing to use the Luminous Engine. The games protagonist, Frey Holland (Ella Balinska), is a young woman who uses magical powers to survive in a fantasy world. According to director Takeshi Aramaki, the gameplay will be focused on terrain traversal speed and fluidity. Square Enix also described the game as a "narrative-driven adventure". It is to be released in 2023 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 5.


title: Luminous Productions

text: In 2018, preparations were made to launch a new game, and active development began in 2019. In September 2019, the team released a video called "Back Stage" on their website to demonstrate the work they were doing with an advanced form of ray tracing they call "path tracing". Several projects are in production, including research and engine development. In terms of the number of projects, we have several production lines in motion, including engine development and R&D. Of the 130 employees, approximately 20 are not Japanese, and the studio uses an in-house translator so that the studio can operate globally. A focus of the studio technologically is to not have in-game development and 3D cinematic teams working separately, but making a game that is entirely created in a cinematic mode.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Champion.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. He lost his title in the World Chess Championship 2006 against Vladimir Kramnik. He challenged Viswanathan Anand at the World Chess Championship 2010, losing 6½–5½. He won the 2005 Chess Oscar.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: He was ranked world number one from April 2006 to January 2007. He regained the top ranking in October 2008 until January 2010. His peak rating was 2816 in July 2015, placing him joint-tenth on the list of highest FIDE-rated players of all time.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov has competed at nine Chess Olympiads (1994–2000, 2008–2016), winning board one gold in 2014 and scoring best overall performance in 1994. He also won in Linares, Corus, Dortmund, Stavanger and Pearl Spring tournaments.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov was born in Ruse, Bulgaria. His father taught him to play chess at the age of eight. Topalov quickly established himself as a chess prodigy. At age 12, Topalov began working with Silvio Danailov, a relationship that continues today.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: In 1989 he won the World Under-14 Championship in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and in 1990 won the silver medal at the World Under-16 Championship in Singapore. He became a Grandmaster in 1992 and won in Terrassa. He shared first at the Budapest Zonal group B in 1993 but struggled at the Biel Interzonal, scoring 5.5/13. He made his Olympiad debut in Moscow 1994, leading Bulgaria to a fourth-place, defeating Garry Kasparov on board one.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Over the next ten years Topalov ascended the world chess rankings. He played in Linares 1994 (6½/13), Linares 1995 (8/13), Amsterdam 1995. In a strong run of tournament performances in 1996 he placed third at Wijk aan Zee, tied for first at Amsterdam, Vienna and Madrid, won outright at Novgorod and shared first in Dos Hermanas. As early as 1996, he was being invited to events for the world's elite such as Las Palmas (5/10), the first category 21 tournament, played in December 1996, with Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Karpov participating. The next year he won at Antwerp and Madrid.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov's loss to reigning Classical World Champion Garry Kasparov at the 1999 Corus chess tournament is generally hailed as one of the greatest games ever played. Kasparov later said, "He looked up. Perhaps there was a sign from above that Topalov would play a great game today. It takes two, you know, to do that."


title: Veselin Topalov

text: In the knockout tournaments for the FIDE World Chess Championship, he reached the last 16 in 1999, the quarter-finals in 2000, the final 16 in 2001, and the semifinals in the 2004 tournament. In 2002, he lost the final of the Dortmund Candidates Tournament (for the right to challenge for the rival Classical World Chess Championship) to Peter Leko.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov scored his first major success at Linares 2005, tying for first place with Garry Kasparov (though losing on tiebreak rules), and defeating Kasparov in the last round, in what was to be Kasparov's last tournament game before his retirement. He followed this up with a one-point victory at Mtel Masters. In 2006 he tied for first at Corus with Anand.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Based on his rating, Topalov was invited to the eight-player, double round-robin FIDE World Chess Championship in San Luis, Argentina, in September–October 2005. Scoring 6½/7 in the first cycle, Topalov had virtually clinched the tournament at the halfway mark, before drawing every game in the second cycle to win by 1½ points to become FIDE World Chess Champion. The average rating of the field in the championship was 2739, and Topalov's performance rating was 2890.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: On 16 April 2006, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced that a match between Classical and FIDE World Champions Kramnik and Topalov would be held in September–October 2006 to re-unify the Championships after thirteen years of separation. Kramnik defeated Topalov to become the first undisputed champion in thirteen years.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: On 28 September 2006, Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov published a press release, casting suspicion on Kramnik's behaviour during the games. The Bulgarian team made a public statement that Kramnik visited his private bathroom (the only place without any audio or video surveillance) unreasonably often, about fifty times per game (a number that FIDE officials later claimed to be exaggerated) and made the most significant decisions in the game in the bathroom.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: They also demanded that the organizers of the tournament allow journalists access to the surveillance video from Kramnik's room for games 1 through 4. The organizers made parts of the video available, explaining that other parts of it were missing due to technical issues. Danailov demanded to stop the use of private restrooms and bathrooms, and threatened to reconsider Topalov's participation in the match. The Appeals Committee that governed the match agreed, and ruled that the players' private restrooms should be closed and replaced with a shared one.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Kramnik refused to play game 5 and was forfeited. On 1 October, the restroom issue was resolved in Kramnik's favour and the Appeals Committee resigned and were replaced. The FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov decided that the current score of 3–2 should be preserved. He also indicated that this was not a compromise decision but his own. The match resumed on 2 October 2006.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: On 1 October, the Association of Chess Professionals released a statement denouncing Danailov for publicly accusing his opponent without evidence, and calling for him to be investigated by the FIDE Ethics Committee.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: On 3 October, Topalov said in a press conference, "I believe that his (Kramnik's) play is fair, and my decision to continue the match proves it". However, the next day, the crisis escalated, with Topalov's manager strongly implying that Kramnik was receiving computer assistance.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: On 14 December 2006, Topalov directly accused Kramnik of using computer assistance in their World Championship match. On 14 February 2007, Topalov's manager released pictures, purporting to show cables in the ceiling of a toilet used by Kramnik during the World Championship match in Elista. They were supposedly reported to the authorities, who Danailov claims suppressed the information. The Topalov team claims they were pressured by officials to keep their allegations quiet. On 29 July 2007, following a complaint by Kramnik's manager Carsten Hensel, the FIDE Ethics Commission sanctioned Topalov with "a severe reprimand" because of the accusations made in the interview of 14 December. According to the Ethics Commission, "these statements were clearly defamatory and damaged the honour of Mr. Vladimir Kramnik, harming his personal and professional reputation".


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Soon after losing the match, Topalov finished third of four players in Essent with only 2½/6, losing both games against Judit Polgár and one against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: In May 2006, Topalov defended his M-Tel Masters title, coming first with 6½/10, a half point ahead of Gata Kamsky.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: In January 2007, Topalov finished in joint first place at Corus along with Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: In May 2007, Topalov won the M-Tel Masters tournament for a third consecutive time with 5½/10, defeating then- leader Sasikiran in the final round.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov won the 14th Ciudad Dos Hermanas Rapid, 17–21 April 2008, defeating GM Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain 2½–1½ in the final match by winning the first game and drawing the remaining three.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: In September 2008, Topalov won the Bilbao 2008 tournament. Following this victory, he became the world number one on the official October 2008 ratings list. He also won the Pearl Spring event held in Nanjing as well as Villarobledo Chess Festival.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov lost his chance to compete in the 2007 world championship tournament when he lost the 2006 reunification match. Danailov expressed a desire for a rematch between Topalov and Kramnik, proposing a match in March 2007, though no such match took place. The issue was settled in June 2007, when Topalov and Kramnik were granted special privileges in the 2008–09 championship cycle. Topalov was given direct entry to a "Challenger Match" against the winner of the Chess World Cup 2007.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: The 2007 Chess World Cup was won by Gata Kamsky. The Challenger Match between Topalov and Kamsky took place in February 2009 in Sofia. Topalov won the match 4½–2½.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov won the 2010 Linares chess tournament held in February, defeating Boris Gelfand in the last round.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Before the 2010 World Chess Championship match with Veselin Topalov, Vishwanathan Anand, who had booked on the flight Frankfurt–Sofia on 16 April, was stranded due to the cancellation of all flights following the volcano ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull. Anand asked for a three-day postponement, which the Bulgarian organisers refused on 19 April. Anand eventually reached Sofia on 20 April, after a 40-hour road journey.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: The match consisted of 12 games. In Game 1, Topalov quickly defeated Anand in 30 moves, utilizing a very sharp line of attack that broke through Anand's Grunfeld Defence. It was revealed afterwards that Topalov had found the line during his opening preparation, with the help of a powerful supercomputer loaned to him by Bulgaria's Defense Department. Anand quickly responded with a win in Game 2, employing a novelty out of the Catalan Opening that was not easily recognized by computers at the time (15. Qa3!?, followed by 16. bxa3!). Anand would win again with the Catalan in Game 4, only to drop Game 8 and leave the score level once again. After 11 games the score was tied at 5½–5½. Anand won game 12 on the Black side of a Queen's Gambit Declined to win the game and the match. Topalov chose to accept a pawn sacrifice by Anand, hoping to force a result and avoid a rapid chess tiebreak round. But after Topalov's dubious 31st and 32nd moves, Anand used the sacrifice to obtain a strong attack against Topalov's relatively exposed king. Topalov subsequently resigned, allowing Anand to retain the World Championship.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: As runner-up in the World Chess Championship 2010, Topalov automatically qualified for the Candidates Matches for the World Chess Championship 2012, where he was the top seed. However, he lost to newly crowned U.S. champion Gata Kamsky in the quarterfinals. Later that year he won the King's Tournament in Romania.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: In April 2018, he participated in the fifth edition of Shamkir Chess, finishing eighth with a score of 4/9 (+2–3=4).


title: Veselin Topalov

text: Topalov has competed on first board at nine Chess Olympiads (1994-2000, 2008-2016), winning individual gold in 2014 and scoring best overall performance in 1994.


title: Veselin Topalov

text: On the way to winning M-Tel Masters in 2005, Topalov defeated former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov with the white pieces in a Queen's Indian Defense.


title: School (South Korean TV series)

text: School () is a South Korean anthology series created by the KBS Drama Production Group for KBS2. The first season premiered in 1999, and the series lasted for four straight years (until 2002). After a ten-year hiatus, the franchise rebooted with a new season in 2012 tiled as "School 2013". Since then 3 other series: "", "School 2017" and "School 2021" were launched.