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Reinterpreting Catuṣkoṭi In Contemporary Philosophy: Tensions Between Non-Classical Logic And East Asian Buddhist Soteriology, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This study aims to evaluate the reinterpretation of the concept of catuṣkoṭi (tetralemma) in contemporary philosophy, particularly within the discourse of non-classical logic, and to compare it with traditional interpretations found in East Asian Buddhism. The research addresses the tension between modern logical approaches—such as those proposing the addition of a fifth truth value (ineffability)—and soteriological frameworks within traditions like Mādhyamaka, which emphasise the function of liberating individuals from conceptual entanglements. This study employs qualitative methods, incorporating hermeneutic and comparative approaches, along with close textual analysis of classical primary sources, including the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, and the works of East Asian Buddhist …

Beyond The Battle: Historical, Religio-Philosophical, And Literary Depths Of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This paper argues that Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is not merely an animated cinematic phenomenon but a multifaceted narrative that intricately weaves together diverse elements of Japanese cultural heritage. It offers a unique lens through which to examine some of the complexities of Japan's sociocultural and philosophical landscapes and conversely, the impact of these on the film. It makes this argument in three sections: (1) The Importance of the Historical Setting in Demon Slayer, (2) Shintō, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, and (3) Relations to Antecedent Representations of Dreaming in Japanese Literature and Anime.

This article was …

Gomyō And Kūkai In Early-Heian Intra-Buddhist Conversations, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This paper is about the relationship between the famous Japanese esoteric Buddhist Kūkai and the less-famous Gomyō, who you've probably never heard of but maybe should have. My paper responds to the work of two recent scholars, Fujii Jun, who says that Kūkai was a Sanron (Japanese Mādhyamika) priest, and Matsumoto Gyoyu, who speculates about the origins of and thinking behind certain passages in Kūkai's Jūjūshinron. The paper points to the intellectual significance for Kūkai of his close relationship with Gomyō and other Yogācāra scholars of his day, and how this is reflected in the Jūjūshinron and Kūkai's thought broadly. …

Lives Of Hindu And Buddhist Saints, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

A study of lives of individuals related to Hinduism and Buddhism, who are alleged to be “saints” in stories, biographies and autobiographies. These life accounts are compared to archetypes found in canonical sources including the Ramayana, the Bhagavata Purana, and Buddhist Jataka. The class considers the genre of religious biography/hagiography in such terms as intended audience and practical usage of the texts. Students will examine stories about ancient and modern Hindus and Buddhists from India, China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and America.

Review Of Seeing Like The Buddha. Enlightenment Through Film By Francisca Cho, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Korean Contributions To Japanese Buddhism, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Indian Foundations And Chinese Developments Of The Buddha Dharma, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Teaching Zen's Ten Oxherding Pictures Through Leonard Cohen's "Ballad Of The Absent Mare", Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of Altered States: Buddhism And Psychedelic Spirituality In America By Douglas Osto, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Kuiji’S Analysis Of Individual Capacities For Enlightenment: Philosophical Foundations Of His Chinese Yogācāra Buddhist Tradition, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

According to Mahāyāna Buddhism as seen in the Lotus Sūtra and many other Buddhist texts revered in Chinese and other East Asian traditions, the Buddha used his insight into each individual’s capacity for understanding, to tailor his teachings about how they should proceed toward overcoming suffering. For this reason, the Buddha is sometimes called the Great Physician, having the ability to diagnose an individual’s case and prescribe a specific remedy. This is the Buddha’s skillful means or skill-in-means (upāya), his expertise in crafting a personal plan for liberation. Thus, the overall ethical imperative is the same regardless of an individual’s …

The Shingon Ajikan, Meditation On The Syllable ‘A’: An Analysis Of Components And Development, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This paper examines what has been described as the most basic and essential element of Kūkai’s (774-835) religio-philosophical system (Yamasaki 1988:190), meditation on the Sanskrit syllable ‘A’. According to Shingon Buddhist tradition, Kūkai introduced the meditation on the syllable ‘A’ (hereafter referred to as the Ajikan) into Japan in the early 9th century, at the time he transmitted the Shingon Dharma to that country from China. Materials clearly showing the origin and development of the Ajikan before Kūkai’s time have either not been discovered or have not been analyzed in relationship to the Ajikan. Indeed, some researchers have argued that …

Review Of Buddhist Responses To Globalization, Edited By Leah Kalmanson And James Mark Shields, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Buddhism In Korean Film During The Roh Regime (1988-1993), Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This article outlines and critically discusses South Korean Buddhist films made during the time of the Roh Tae-woo government (1988-1993), which can be called a semi-democratic and semi-dictatorial regime. This was a period of transition in film policy from the censorship of the earlier dictatorial regimes to the freedom of expression offered to directors by the later democratic administrations, unprecedented in Korean film history. During this period the technical skill of directors improved bringing about a corresponding improvement in the quality of Korean Buddhist films and thus international attention. Although the government allowed filmmakers considerably more freedom to express ideas …

East Asian Buddhism, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of A Cultural History Of Japanese Buddhism By Brian Ruppert And William E. Deal, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of Buddhism And American Cinema Edited By John Whalen-Bridge And Gary Storhoff, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Critical Buddhism: Engaging With Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Meditation In Buddhism And Hinduism - Classical And Modern Dhyāna And Yoga, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This course is an academic study of contemplative practices in two major Indian traditions: Buddhism and Hinduism. It focuses on texts dealing with bhavana (literally "cultivation" of the mind or heart), which is generally called "meditation" today. The course also surveys some of the modern developments of these practices inside and outside of India. Classical sources for meditative practices covered in the course include the Upaniṣads and early Buddhist sūtras, texts of the period of classical Yoga, and those of later Indian Tantrism. Using these texts, the course defines major categories of contemplative practices including meditation on syllables/sounds considered sacred …

Review Of Silver Screen Buddha: Buddhism In Asian And Western Film, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

For anyone interested in the growing study of Buddhism and film, I recommend Sharon A. Suh’s Silver Screen Buddha: Buddhism in Asian and Western Film. This is the third study in English related to this topic, all three of which have been published within the last year and a half. This attention corresponds to an increase in Buddhist film festivals, a rise in internet discussions and postings on the subject, and an expansion of university class offerings that deal with it. It has been said that 1998 marked the peak year for Hollywood releases with overt Buddhist themes, including Kundan …

Xuanzang’S Text Of Bodhisattva Precepts, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

A translation from the Chinese with annotations.

Buddhism, Uncertainty And Modernity In A Hometown In Heart, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

A Hometown in Heart (Maeumui gohyang, 1949), written by Ham Sedeok (1915-1950) and directed by Yun Yonggyu (b.1913), is said to be the first Korean Buddhist film. It depicts Buddhism in a remote mountain region without even electricity. The main character of the film, an orphaned child monk, must decide what to do with his life. This paper argues that the central aspect of the Buddhism-related symbols represent Korean tradition and that the supporting characters represent socio-political forces in post-liberation Korean society just after liberation, pulling the young generation of Koreans in various directions. In particular, the film centers on …

KūKai's Epitaph For Master Huiguo: An Introduction And Translation, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Modern Japanese Literature And Visual Culture: Constructions Of Religious And Historical Identity, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This course is a survey of modern Japanese literature and visual culture since the Meiji Restoration (1868). It focuses on constructions of identities within historical contexts. Our objective is to analyze ways in which writers and artists have positioned their subjects and re-imagined culture to create particular portrayals. The class examines a selection of shōsetsu (the Japanese novel) of Natsume Soseki, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Murakami Haruki, and Ogawa Yōko, films of Miyazaki Hayao, and important anime. The course promotes critical methodologies and interdisciplinary or comparative studies, combining, for example, literature with film, visual culture, gender studies, cultural history, Buddhist …

Xuanzang’S Manual For Conferring The Bodhisattva Precepts, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This is a translation of the Manual on the Procedures for Conferring the Bodhisattva Precepts (T.24.1499.1104c19- 1106b27) by Xuanzang (602-664) and the preface to it written by the monk Jingmai (T.24.1499.1106c3-29). Xuanzang was a Chinese monk and a translator of Buddhist scriptures. Although it is recorded that Xuanzang translated this manual in 649, he may have written it himself based on the Yoga-ca-- s rabhu-mi-s´astra in 100 fascicles. After travel through Central Asia and India from 629 (or 627?) to 645, he translated 75 Buddhist scriptures in 1,335 fascicles into Chinese, including a number of major Yoga-ca-ra Buddhist texts. He …

Farming Satori: Zen And The Naturalist Farmer Fukuoka Masanobu, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This paper looks at how Masanobu Fukuoka adopts Chan Buddhist philosophy in relation to his Zen natural farming method. To understand this, it examines the development in Chinese Buddhism that allowed and required Buddhist to farm, defining farming as Buddhist practice.The paper is organized as follows: I. Seeds in the Mahāyāna; II. Roots in Chan monastic regulations; III. Farming satori, Fukuoka’s writing on awakening.

Living In Peace: Insights From Buddhism, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of 1918 Shikoku Pilgrimage Of Takamure Itsue Translated By Susan Tennant, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This book is a collection of 105 short reflections and poems by Takamure Itsue (1894–1964) on her travels to and around Shikoku in 1918, when she was twenty-three years old. Each piece was published individually during her pilgrimage as a serial column in a Kyushu newspaper. They were compiled after her death and published as Musume Junreiki (1979). Although best known as a historian and feminist concerned with the education of women, she also wrote Gohenro (1938) and Henro to jinsei (1939), two additional books about her 1918 Shikoku pilgrimage.

Tweeting The Dalai Lama, Are Cell Phones Becoming The New Vajras?, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

On February 22, 2010 the Office of the 14th Dalai Lama joined the online microblogging site Twitter. Twitter is an internet based community, ranked the world’s third most used online social network by Compete.com. Members post messages called “tweets” that are displayed on to their profile pages and delivered to their subscribers, known as followers. The Dalai Lama reportedly joined Twitter after meeting the site’s founder, Evan Williams, although Mr. Williams posted on his own Twitter page that the Dalai Lama had laughed when he suggested the idea to him.1 However, the account may have been set up one week …

Shōnen Nyorai: How Tezuka Osamu Reimaged Buddha For Shōnen Manga, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This paper examines Tezuka Osamu’s (1928-89) retelling of the biography of the Buddha to appeal to readers of the shōnen genre of manga. Tezuka is a well-known Japanese manga writer and artist, cartoonist, animator, film producer, and activist. In 1972, he began a series of manga adventures in Japan titled Buddha (ブッダ). The series ran to 14 editions in that country, ending in 1983. Subsequently, it was translated and reproduced in eight editions worldwide. This critically acclaimed series, which won the Eisner Award in 2004 and 2005 and Harvey Awards the same years, is considered the last great work in …

Buddhist Roles In Peacemaking : How Buddhism Can Contribute To Sustainable Peace, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This volume is the fifth in a series about socially engaged Buddhism published by Blue Pine Books. The publisher adheres to high academic standards, requiring strict documentation of sources and coherence of ideas. Readers will find in these articles some of the best resources available for understanding socially engaged Buddhism and peacemaking. We live in a world of conflict. Even though theorists had believed scientific and technological advancement would end suffering, the applications of these developments had just as often perpetuated the problem. In contrast, Buddhism is widely thought of as a way of peace and tranquilly for individual practitioners. …