Buddhist Studies Commons^™

Doing From Being: Creating Organizational Integrity Through Mindful Self-Leadership, Adam Stonebraker

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Mindfulness in the workplace is a subject that has seen significant growth in recent years. Mindfulness, which is rooted in ancient contemplative practice, has gained much traction among Western audiences over the last few decades. The application of Mindfulness practices is prevalent now in workplaces, where its efficacy has been well-documented, and impact has included the reduction of employee stress, increased productivity, and enhancement of one’s well-being.

The principles of mindfulness can be applied across disparate workplace settings and in nearly any situation to help bolster employees’ presence and focus in the day-to-day and retain them in the place of …

What Can Buddhist Artistic Traditions Learn From Christian Iconography, Jotipālo Bhikkhu

Obsculta

The three images included come from the author’s year-long residency at the Collegeville Institute.

Moving Through, Moving On: Examining The Life Well Lived Through The Lense Of Impermanence, Aidan O'Leary

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the themes from Walking Each Other Home, the work I choreographed as part of my graduation requirements in the Alonzo King Lines BFA Program at Dominican University. I begin by making the case for the academic discussion of dance, including barriers to the development of the field and my place in it. Asserting that dance is a subject of religious merit, I place my piece within a broader context of dance pieces that deal with topic and themes of myth and spiritual truth. I then give a brief overview of Buddhism, centering around the Four Noble Truths …

The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative: Rethinking Cross-Cultural Science And Teaching, Kelsey Marie Gray, Arri Eisen

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative was founded when the Dalai Lama invited Emory to develop and teach a comprehensive curriculum in modern science to Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns. The project was built to grow and nurture a two-way exchange between complementary systems of knowledge. In the 10 years since the first days of the pilot, the interactions between people and places and the scientific and learning processes have served as a platform for exploring teaching across cultures and enriching approaches to teaching and science more generally. As a result of these interactions, we expand our definition of inclusivity in the …

Seeing Like The Buddha: Enlightenment Through Film, Skyler Osburn

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Francisca Cho's Seeing Like the Buddha: Enlightenment through Film.

Theravāda “Missionary Activity”: Exploring The Secular Features Of Socio-Politics And Ethics, Christopher Scott Brugh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to comprehensively explore Theravāda missionary activity. The philological, textual, theoretical, and ethnographic methods used to investigate the historical, sociopolitical, religious, and ethical aspects of early Theravāda, the U.S. Vipassanā (Insight) meditation movement, and modern Burmese Theravāda revealed nuanced meanings in the descriptions of these adherents’ endeavors with respect to proselytizing, converting, and the concept of missionary religions. By exploring the secular features that contributed to their religious appearances, a more developed contextualization of Theravāda “activity” reshapes understandings of the larger concept of missionary religions. I argue that what has been maintained in the establishment …

A State Of Impermanence: Buddhism, Liberalism, And The Problem Of Politics, Cory Michael Sukala

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the relationship of Buddhist political thought and liberal political thought at the level of first principles. I will examine the tension created by the Buddhist view of political life as instrumental and secondary to man's being as a function of the transition of the Buddhist world into the sphere of Western political life, which views the role of politics as primary to man's nature. In Part I, this will be accomplished through a consideration of the origins of political life and the foundation of the political state in each tradition as viewed through the themes of human …

Islam And Buddhism: The Arabian Prequel?, Anna Akasoy

Publications and Research

Conventionally, the first Muslim-Buddhist encounters are thought to have taken place in the context of the Arab-Muslim expansions into eastern Iran in the mid-seventh century, the conquest of Sind in 711 and the rise of the Islamic empire. However, several theories promoted in academic and popular circles claim that Buddhists or other Indians were present in western Arabia at the eve of Islam and thus shaped the religious environment in which Muhammad’s movement emerged. This article offers a critical survey of the most prominent arguments adduced to support this view and discusses the underlying attitudes to the Islamic tradition, understood …

"Lucky" Charms, Bailey Swanson

Christian Studies Class Publications

Within Shinto and Buddhist folklore, many amulets deemed worthy of reverence have been discovered and used frequently. There are many forms of worship in the Japanese community - including portable, home, or shrine veneration. The omamori, Maneki-Neko (Beckoning Cat), ema, Omikuji, and numerous sacred animals are treated as sacred talisman, or as we may call them "lucky charms".

Review: Melissa Anne-Marie Curley, Pure Land, Real World: Modern Buddhism, Japanese Leftists, And The Utopian Imagination, James Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

How Hugging Mom Teaches Me The Meaning Of Love And Perhaps Beyond, Ethan Trinh

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Hugging mom is unconventional in a traditional Vietnamese family. I write this piece to articulate my thoughts to describe different ways to look at the meanings of hugging. During my writing process, I use a walking meditation as a Buddhist practice to calm my mind so that I can see my true self and a clearer picture of different layers of the act of hugging. I believe hegemonic gender roles and patriarchy happen everywhere in the world, not particularly in Vietnam. I do not plan to devalue my home country’s cultural values in this paper. This is not the purpose …

Recapture, Transparency, Negation And A Logic For The Catuṣkoṭi, Adrian Kreutz

Comparative Philosophy

The recent literature on Nāgārjuna’s catuṣkoṭi centres around Jay Garfield’s (2009) and Graham Priest’s (2010) interpretation. It is an open discussion to what extent their interpretation is an adequate model of the logic for the catuskoti, and the Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā. Priest and Garfield try to make sense of the contradictions within the catuskoti by appeal to a series of lattices – orderings of truth-values, supposed to model the path to enlightenment. They use Anderson & Belnaps's (1975) framework of First Degree Entailment. Cotnoir (2015) has argued that the lattices of Priest and Garfield …

Essay: “My Life In Buddhist Studies", James Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Prince ShōToku’S ShōMangyō-Gisho And Two Dunhuang Buddhist Manuscripts: A Debate Over Originality And Canonical Value, Mark Dennis

Manuscript Studies

This article investigates the relationship between two manuscript fragments discovered in Dunhuang, China referred to as Nai 93 and Tama 24, and the Shōmangyō-gisho, a Buddhist text written in classical Chinese attributed to Japan’s Prince Shōtoku (574-622). Shōtoku is remembered in Japanese history as the country’s first patriarch of Buddhism, revered for his patronage of the nascent faith and his great erudition. His studies under a Korean Buddhist monk led, according to early historical texts, to his composing the Shōmangyō-gisho and two other Buddhist commentaries that have been greatly valued throughout Japanese Buddhist history.

But the discovery of the Dunhuang …

The Blind Arhat And The Old Baby: Liberation By Wisdom, The Dry-Insight Practitioner, And The Pairing Of Calm And Insight, David V. Fiordalis

Faculty Publications

The distinction between “calm” (Pāli: samatha; Sanskrit: śamatha) and “insight” (P: vipassanā; Skt: vipaśyanā) is one of several ostensibly related dichotomies that have exerted a significant influence on classical and contemporary understandings of Buddhist practices, institutions, and history, as well as of the Buddhist path(s) to and conception(s) of awakening. However, scholars continue to debate whether Buddhists ever conceptualized two (or more) different paths or conceptions of this goal. Much of the debate has been based on the interpretation of doctrinal and theoretical materials. This essay takes as its starting point the concept of “liberation by …

Deities And Devotion In Mongolian Buddhist Art, Charles Mason, Andrew Near, Tom Wagner

Kruizenga Art Museum Exhibition Catalogs

Design by Tom Wagner. Produced by Storming the Castle Pictures (StCP) as a catalog for the Kruizenga Art Museum exhibition “Deities and Devotion in Mongolian Buddhist Art,” August 30 – December 14, 2019. Photographs, text and design copyright 2019 by Hope College and Tom Wagner. No reproduction or use of any material, in whole or in part, without the written permission of Hope College.

Medieval Khmer Society: The Life And Times Of Jayavarman Vii (Ca. 1120–1218), Paul K. Nietupski

2019 Faculty Bibliography

Jayavarman VII (ca. 1120–1218) is one of the best known Cambodian “Angkor” leaders, in part because he was able to unite the numerous small, fragmented Khmer Cambodian and Cham kingdoms of the day. He ruled his consolidated Khmer kingdom from 1181–1218, bringing the decentralized Khmer and Cham states together through political and military alliances. Religion, especially India-derived Brahmanism, or “Hinduism,” Mahāyāna Buddhism, and local Cambodian religion, was a key component of Khmer society. Over time different Khmer rulers endorsed one or more of the religious systems to their own advantage. Jayavarman VII was especially committed to Mahāyāna Buddhism, evidenced by …

Out Of The Shadows: Socially Engaged Buddhist Women, Karma Lekshe Tsomo Phd

Theology and Religious Studies: Faculty Scholarship

In this volume, stories about the experiences of women in remote regions like Mongolia and Zangskar appear alongside essays on philosophy and history. The fact that so many different voices are included and valued is profound testimony to Buddhist women’s diversity in terms of their educational background and approach to social concerns. It is an immense privilege to honor the hard work that these women are doing to benefit society, even against great odds. We are pleased to highlight these achievements, so that readers can learn more about the Buddhist traditions and the vibrant communities of Buddhist women practitioners around …

Mindful Of A Profit: A Critical Analysis Of Meditation Apps In The Context Of Neoliberalism And Western Constructions Of Religion., Kylie Gurewitz

Summer Research

This research focuses on the growing trend of meditation apps. Close analysis of three meditation apps (Headspace, Insight Timer, and Calm) reveals how meditation has been marketed as "secular" through a deliberate obfuscation of Buddhist origins. Additionally, the context and effects of neoliberal ideology and bio-morality are discussed.

Defining Choices Redefined: Heroic Life Narratives Of Taiwanese Buddhist Monastics, Hillary Crane

Faculty Publications

The Taiwanese Buddhist monastics in this study confront negative stereotypes that dominate within their wider societal context, and they challenge these stereotypes by positing counter-narratives. After exploring the monastics’ interest in proselytizing both to me and to a wider audience as a context that influences the interview encounter, this chapter focuses on the monastics’ response to negative stereotypes and their endeavors to craft a new, positive image of monastics. I argue that they employ the heroic trope of the da zhangfu (大丈夫, ‘great man’) to reconceive as heroic the life choices they have made that wider Taiwanese society characterizes as …