ABSTRACT
Williams James – physiologist, psychologist and philosopher – wrestled with the mind and its role in consciousness and experience. The charismatic Buddhist spokesman, Dharmapala, recalled attending a lecture of James’s at Harvard in December 1903 while visiting America. James was one of the earliest persons to bring Buddhism into the academic debate over what the term ‘religion’ can or should mean or involve. James approved of the Buddha teaching the Middle Way between severe ascetic mortification and wallowing materialism, and instead seeking ‘inner wisdom’. James looked inwards and outwards from the narrow ego-driven consciousness. He made frequent references to the subliminal ‘transmarginal’ forces of the subconscious. In terms of comparisons, James’s dynamic, flowing, relational view of ‘consciousness’ seems closer philosophically to Buddhism than to Hume. James distinguished ‘saintliness’, with its degree of moderation, from outright asceticism.
