Jang, Wang Shik.  “Two Types of Process Cosmology: Whitehead and Buddhism.”  The Journal of Whitehead Studies 1 (1998): 212-242.

Abstract

It has been pointed out that although there are many similarities between Mahayana Buddhism and Process Metaphysics, there are also significant discrepancies between them. This paper is an attempt to see those discrepancies from the perspective of cosmology. This means that in this paper, I will not only elucidate the characteristics of the two cosmologies, but also show how they can be compared and contrasted.

In fact it may be unreasonable to deal with cosmologies in this type of small paper. For a cosmology usually implies a system of thought in which the varieties of human experience can be analyzed. For this reason, it is quite natural for a good number of people to be warned about the unreasonableness of an attempt to discuss cosmology. Therefore, our discussion is to be restricted solely to the religious aspect of the two cosmologies, the aspects that have played an important role in their philosophy. In other words, since I believe that the two cosmologies have some commonality, in the sense that they have developed their philosophies in relationship with religious aspects, I will show how the religious aspect of their Cosmology have affected their understanding of human history, ethics and philosophy.

In this type of study, it is not easy to avoid the lure of measuring which cosmology is more appropriate or credible in producing their world-views. Therefore, although I will try to make a comparison between them as fairly as possible. I cannot help but evaluate a little critically the Buddhist cosmology form a Whiteheadian standpoint.

In this paper, therefore, I have made an effort to show not only how Whitehead's cosmology can shed some light on the clarification of Buddhist cosmology, but also how Buddhist cosmology can become a more appropriate type of cosmology with the help of Whitehead's cosmology.