Buddhist Studies Commons^™

Perpetual Change: Moving Beyond Object Dependent Identity, Lucas Waggoner

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

In this paper, I disassemble classical notions of identity, and propose a new mode of identity-creation through change itself. While static characteristics or categories are traditionally utilized in forming identities, the existence of change creates problems for maintaining them. Rather than continue following that same pattern of category formation, I argue that flux, and a history of changes a thing or being has undergone, can contain innately a sense of identity. I use the science fiction of Octavia Butler, the works of the Presocratic philosophers, Timothy Morton’s ecological philosophy, the communicative philosophy of Martin Buber, the writings of Hannah ...

From Indra’S Net To Internet: Communication, Technology, And The Evolution Of Buddhist Ideas, Daniel Veidlinger

UH Press Book Previews

In this sweeping and ambitious intellectual history, Daniel Veidlinger traces the affinity between Buddhist ideas and communications media back to the efflorescence of Buddhism in the Axial Age of the mid-first millennium BCE. He uses both communications theory and the idea of convergent evolution to show how Buddhism arose in the largely urban milieu of Axial Age northeastern India and spread rapidly along the transportation and trading nodes of the Silk Road, where it appealed to merchants and traders from a variety of backgrounds. Throughout, he compares early phases of Buddhism with contemporary developments in which rapid changes in patterns ...

Review Of Buddhism & Political Theory By Matthew J. Moore, Charles W. Wright

The Journal of Social Encounters

Buddhism & Political Theory, by Matthew J. Moore, proposes to extract a political theory from the Pali language texts of the Buddhist religious tradition that is palatable to Western academic sensibilities so that it might be ushered into the company of contemporary political and ethical philosophy. "Let me introduce you," the book in essence says to the world of Western philosophy, "to a long overlooked, unusual, and interesting perspective on political and ethical theory that you really ought to include in your conversations."

From The Mountains To The Cities: A History Of Buddhist Propagation In Modern Korea, Mark A. Nathan

UH Press Book Previews

At the start of the twentieth century, the Korean Buddhist tradition was arguably at the lowest point in its 1,500-year history in the peninsula. Discriminatory policies and punitive measures imposed on the monastic community during the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910) had severely weakened Buddhist institutions. Prior to 1895, monastics were prohibited by law from freely entering major cities and remained isolated in the mountains where most of the surviving temples and monasteries were located. In the coming decades, profound changes in Korean society and politics would present the Buddhist community with new opportunities to pursue meaningful reform. The central ...

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim ...

起死回生(Resuscitation): Japan's Search For Machines And Their Meanings, Justin Mcdonnell

Master's Projects and Capstones

Japan’s lost decade(s) ushered in a new era of economic and societal malaise, marked by a shrinking population, an increased proportion of elderly people, inequality, neo-nationalism(s), uncertainty, and isolation. This project seeks to understand how Japan is trying to address these issues and reconstruct itself from the lost decade(s) with the use of artificial intelligence (jinkou chihou) and robotics along with the societal implications of this technology. This interdisciplinary research utilizes innovative, historical narratives (Morris-Suzuki,1988, Hornyak 2006), and the socio-cultural milieu of Japan and its traditions (Allison 2013; Katsuno 2010) to further appreciate and acknowledge ...

A Meditation In Three Parts, Brent Nakamoto

Graduate School of Art Theses

I’m interested in the way we read images—they way we see through an image’s surface in order to perceive its illusion, in the same way that we see through words in order to understand their meaning. I’m interested in this relationship, in both images and texts, between surface, illusion, and meaning. In Buddhist philosophy, the source of suffering is in our attachments to the self-as-image. The function of Zen meditation practice is to bring attention to this process of perception and, in doing so, to help see through the illusions of self-hood and ground our understanding ...

Medieval Japanese Zen: Catalyst For Symbol System Formation, Kendall Ann Roper

Master's Theses and Capstone Projects

Post-modernism asserts that the world as we know it does not exist independently from the symbolic interpretations we formulate about it. This symbolic and ever unfolding interpretation of reality applies to our understanding of science as well as philosophy, to religion as well as art. In striving to describe religious experiences, various cultures have developed complex symbolic languages whose purpose is to reference a culturally understood version of sacred reality as presented through religion. Religions contribute to shaping these cultural perceptions of reality by utilizing symbolic acts, objects, events, qualities, or concepts to express otherwise inexpressible elements of a culture ...

Kreeft's "Between One Faith And Another: Engaging Conversations On The World's Great Religions" (, Elizabeth Pearson

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Thangka Painting: An Exploration Of Tibetan Buddhism Through Art, Hannah Slocumb

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Thangka painting is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist art form which depicts Buddhist deities. The deities must be made in very specific proportions, as it is believed that the deities can inhabit the paintings and thus the painting must be of the utmost beauty. Thangkas have a variety of uses, but they are mostly used as a means of gaining merit, in death rituals, during meditation, and in Buddhist ceremonies. In order to learn more about Tibetan Buddhism, I spent two and a half weeks studying thangka painting. I learned the entire process of creating a thangka, from the creation of ...

Getting Sick Where Karma Is Gravity: Disease In The Tibetan Perspective, Moreau Hadley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Karma is the Buddhist idea that our actions from current and previous lives affect our fortune in this life. In particular, if we suffer in the current life, it is due to negative action in the past. Likewise, if we prosper, it is due to past positive acts, such as compassion. The idea of karma extends to illness; in simplification, sickness is attributed to negative past action.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the belief of karmic disease in the Tibetan Buddhist community of Shangri-La. Although disease is often used as an example of karmic suffering, and there ...

Mapping Mindfulness In Digital Culture With Contemplative Leadership, Erin Sheehan

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

MAP Mindfulness is a project and organization founded by Sherri Henderson and Erin Sheehan, two recent Lesley University alumni from the Master of Arts in Mindfulness Studies program. They created MAP to serve two main purposes that they will share in this presentation. Their first aim is to curate a dynamic online community for mindfulness professionals to engage in dialogue and collaborative efforts in the emerging field of mindfulness. This group would bring an emphasis on research, ethical standards, and authentic practice.

Their second purpose is to continue their own work in what they call, “Digital Mindfulness.” Their graduate work ...

Monstrous Maternity: Folkloric Expressions Of The Feminine In Images Of The Ubume, Michaela Leah Prostak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubume is a ghost of Japanese folklore, once a living woman, who died during either pregnancy or childbirth. This thesis explores how the religious and secular developments of the ubume and related figures create a dichotomy of ideologies that both condemn and liberate women in their roles as mothers. Examples of literary and visual narratives of the ubume as well as the religious practices that were employed for maternity-related concerns are explored within their historical contexts in order to best understand what meaning they held for people at a given time and if that meaning has changed. These meanings ...

Visions Of Tibet, Paul K. Nietupski

2018 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Experiences Of Wildness And Value, Hannah G. Mclean

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Empty Cup: Tea, Mythos, And Initiation Through Emergent Ritual, Katherine C. West

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

West, Katherine Church, M.A., Summer 2018

Master of Arts in Fine Arts, Integrated Arts and Education

Abstract

In our increasingly fast paced and busy world, the cultural value placed in ritual and ceremony has been lost. Yet, cultures for centuries have known the importance of such initiations to both usher us into and through important passages that mark a new time in our lives by deepening our awareness of our own lives and an understanding of the collective human experience.

This paper documents a two part project, one is the creation of a Gypsy Caravan, explored through the process ...

Perennialism As Justification For The Appropriation Of Buddhist Meditation, Elizabeth L. Wilson

Religious Studies Graduate Theses & Dissertations

The Center for Action and Contemplation is a ministry that claims interreligious dialogue through the incorporation of Zen meditation. As two of the foundational teachers, Richard Rohr and James Finley explicitly link the practices of Catholic contemplation and Buddhist Meditation. In this thesis, I problematize Rohr’s claim of inclusivity, and by extension, the CAC’s claim of interreligious dialogue. Specifically, I claim that Rohr’s and Finley’s inclusion of Buddhist meditation alongside contemplative practice stems from their conflation of these religious concepts. This conflation is a product of their perennialist framework and, as I will illustrate, what they ...

Sensory Dots, No-Self, And Stream-Entry: The Significance Of Buddhist Contemplative Development For Transpersonal Studies, Charles D. Laughlin

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Based on the author’s nearly 50 years of meditation, it is observed that as a given alternative state is accessed and used over the span of years, experiences and capacities within that state are not merely static but may themselves shift as a practitioner develops neuropsychologically. An ethnographer using a substance within the context of a cultural practice may gain helpful direct insights into that cultural practice, but the researcher may fail to realize that the state attained by a novice may be substantively different from that gained by an elder or shaman with years of experience in the ...

Immanent Frames: Meiji New Buddhism And The 'Religious Secular', James Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

The secularization thesis, rooted in the idea that “modernity” brings with it the destruction—or, at least, the ruthless privatization—of religion, is clearly grounded in specific, often oversimplified, interpretations of Western historical developments since the eighteenth century. In this article, I use the case of the New Buddhist Fellowship (Shin Bukkyō Dōshikai 新仏教同志会) of the Meiji period (1868–1911) to query the category of the secular in the context of Japanese modernity. I argue that the New Buddhists, drawing on elements of classical and East Asian Buddhism as well as modern Western thought, promoted a resolutely social and this-worldly ...

Beginner's Mind, Martin L. Benson

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My art distills my relationship to spirituality, digital culture, and the practices and side-effects therein, into a simplified visual language. The work manifests in the form of paintings, drawings, and light sculptures. Meditation and mindfulness training are a large part of my influence and interests. I often wonder how mindfulness practice can be mirrored in my artwork, not only in my process for creating the work, but also with what the resulting imagery does for the viewer. My intention is to provide an art form that invites one to look and experience one’s own capacity to observe, without the ...