The Silent Echo of the Law: Phenomenology and the Cosmology of Buddhism.

Abstract

The core argument I present here seeks to affirm the phenomenological insight that we have no reflexive access to the event of the law (Ljungstrom. 1997: 78). In this respect I proceed from Panu Minkkinen's observation that "in its everyday activities, Dasein is involved with available law continuously without being reflectively aware of it" (1996: 70). In order to retrace the event of the law in Sri Lanka to a primordial relationship of 'proximity' with the cosmology of Sinhalese Buddhism, I initially focus on the relationship between the ontological horizon of the Buddhist cosmos and Sinhalese Buddhist mythology. 1 As will become evident, this mythology is actively engaged with in the debates appertaining to the law on the recognition of language in Sri Lanka. I go on to argue that the ontological meaning of the Sinhalese Buddhist cosmos awaits arrival in the social, the legislation on language (The Official Language Bill) constituting one such event.