This 1991 book provides a brief yet detailed account of the ideal way of life prescribed for Buddhist monks and nuns in the Pali texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism. The author describes the way in which the Buddha's disciples institutionalized his teachings about such things as food, dress, money, chastity, solitude and discipleship. This tradition represents an ideal of religious life that has been followed in South and Southeast Asia for over two thousand years. In previous writing on the early period of Buddhist monasticism, scholars have usually tried to give an historical account of the evolution of the monastic order, and so have seen the extant Vinaya texts as coming from distinct historical periods. This book takes a different approach by presenting a synchronic account, which allows the author to show that sources are in fact predominantly consistent and coherent.
People around the globe are becoming increasingly aware that our use of the land has an effect on the environment in which we live. Global warming is seen as a major threat to the well-being of the world's communities. Fear abounds, but does anyone really know what is going on? Will human activity make things worse? In this 1994 book, the author examines the relationship between society and climate change. With contributions from colleagues in the worst hit areas of the world, the author shows how some patterns of land use can make the problems worse; increasing the risk of droughts and associated food shortages. This book will help scientists and researchers assess our impact on the planet and consider our ability to respond to the consequences of future environmental change.
Blockchains are seen as a technology for the future, which reduce the cost of trust and revolutionize transactions between individuals, companies and governments. The sense of using blockchains is to minimize the probability of errors, successful frauds and paper-intensive processes. For these reasons, blockchains already have and will have a significant impact to the society and every day's life, especially in field of Machine to Machine (M2M) communications, which are one of the basic technologies for Internet of Things (IoT). Therefore, blockchains with their inherent property to provide security, privacy and decentralized operation are engine for todays and future reliable, autonomous and trusted IoT platforms. Specially, a disruptive role of ledger technologies in future smart personal mobility systems, which combine smart car industry, smart energy/smart cities will be explained in the book, considering its importance for development of new industrial and business models.
