The Missing Seminar
The Bodleian Curiosity
Introduction
In the archives of the Bodleian Library there exists a folder labelled only “Buddha—Misc.” Contained within is the following transcript, apparently of a panel convened in Oxford sometime in the interwar years. A typed list of participants accompanies the text, giving the impression of an authentic seminar, yet curiously there is no independent evidence that any of those named were ever present at such a gathering. The provenance of the document remains obscure, and its authenticity uncertain, yet it is reproduced here without alteration.
Transcript of Discussion: On the Buddha and His Teaching
Jonathan Hales
Let us be clear from the outset: the Buddha was no prophet, no mystic, but a man of unusual clarity of mind. He looked upon human suffering with the eyes of a rational moralist. When he spoke of “the end of suffering,” it was not to be found in celestial realms or metaphysical speculation, but in the tempering of desire, in ethical discipline, in the steady cultivation of reason. If one must compare him, let it be not with sages or saints, but with Socrates—another gadfly, another questioner, fearless in pursuit of truth by logic alone.
Amara Lightbourne
No. The Buddha was not some technician of the mind, ticking off items on a checklist. He was a radiant soul, a being who pierced the veil of illusion and opened himself to the infinite. His teaching is not dry psychology but the awakening of cosmic love. Sit in meditation, not like a scientist with a specimen, but like a lover reuniting with the Beloved. Nirvana is bliss, boundless and luminous, the return to the Source from which all beings come. The Buddha saw beyond the small prison of rational thought into a vastness of being. Nirvana is not mere moral restraint, but a flowering of consciousness, a transcendence of the ordinary.
Julius von Hartmann
That is precisely the problem: syrupy talk of “boundless bliss.” The Buddha was not a dreamer lost in cosmic vapours. He was a man of noble blood, a prince who renounced not out of weakness but out of strength. His path was one of discipline, of mastery. It was never meant for the masses but for the few strong enough to rise above mediocrity. He taught how to conquer the self, to become sovereign over one’s destiny. Nirvana is the serenity of the one who has triumphed over life’s restlessness, who stands apart, untouched by the chaos of the age.
Geshe Tenzin Dorje
A narrow vision. The Buddha did not turn away from the world but returned to it with a boundless compassion that extends across worlds. He is the Tathāgata, who has gone beyond yet is still present, guiding beings in countless realms. The transcendent guide whose compassion he manifests, not only as a historical sage, but as the eternal Buddha, the dharmakāya. To limit him to a mortal healer of minds is to miss his immeasurable vow to liberate all beings. His Awakening was not for himself alone, but for all. And Nirvana is not the cold extinguishing of desire, but the realisation of our own Buddha-nature, inseparable from all beings.
Venerable Ananda Sīla
If I may—his greatness lies in his humanity. He was not a god, not a spirit, not an abstraction, but a man who saw the futility of clinging. He showed the way by walking it, barefoot, without pretension. He renounced wealth, wandered in patched robes, and begged for his food. He was born in the forest, lived in the forest, and died in the forest. His teaching was simple and direct: abandon what is unwholesome, cultivate what is wholesome, purify the mind. His method was mindfulness, restraint, meditation. Nibbana (Nirvana) is the blowing out of the flames of greed, hatred, and delusion. It is peace, pure and simple — nothing more, nothing less.
Margaret Llewellyn-Smythe
I must object. Where in this shabby portrait is Gotama? Not a brahmin, not a pundit, not a ‘Wanderer’; a nobleman born and bred in the purple, whose teaching was philosophy of the highest order, not mere homily for peasants. It was a system as rigorous and elevated as that of Plato or Leibniz, a discourse for cultivated minds. Nirvana is not the mere cessation of craving, but the serenity of a life raised to its fullest moral and intellectual height.
Karl Weissmann
What high talk of nobility! The Buddha saw through that vanity. He saw that everything we cling to passes away, that life is fleeting and without foundation. He stripped away illusion until nothing was left but the raw fact of impermanence. His method was to face this void without turning aside, to live without consolation, without false hope. Nirvana is not bliss, not serenity, but freedom: the freedom of no longer hiding from the truth of nothingness.
Rachel Bloom
You are all missing the deeper point. The Buddha uncovered the mechanisms of the psyche long before modern science. Craving, aversion, delusion — these are nothing but the drives, the buried impulses that torment us. His method, meditation, is a form of analysis, letting the subconscious rise into awareness. Dreams, fantasies, obsessions — he showed how they shape our lives. Nirvana is the release from this inner bondage, the mind freed from its compulsions.
Adrian Scholtz
And what did he see in all this? That life is suffering, because of the blind will that drives us endlessly forward. The Buddha knew that existence itself is a wound. His method is renunciation, turning away from the world’s incessant striving. Nirvana is release, the sweet relief of no longer willing, no longer being compelled to exist.
List of Participants (as given in the typescript)
- Dr. Jonathan Hales, Lecturer in Comparative Religion, SOAS, University of London.
- Amara Lightbourne, Founder of the “Infinite Radiance Centre” in Glastonbury.
- Count Julius von Hartmann, Independent philosopher and essayist.
- Geshe Tenzin Dorje Tulku, Abbot of Namthong Monastery, Sikkim.
- Bhikkhu Ananda Sīla, senior monk of Amaravihāra Monastery, Gloucestershire.
- Professor Margaret Llewellyn-Smythe, President of the British Pali Society.
- Dr. Karl Weissmann, Lecturer in Existential Philosophy, University of Heidelberg.
- Dr. Rachel Bloom, Psychoanalyst, London.
- Professor Adrian Scholtz, Chair of Continental Philosophy, University of Vienna.