Digital Commons Network^™

Creolizing Modern Buddhism: A Reply To Yarran Hominh & A. Minh Nguyen, Evan Thompson

Comparative Philosophy

In reply to Hominh and Nguyen, I argue that “creolizing” methods in the study and practice of Buddhism should not be opposed to historicist and contextualist modes of investigation and understanding. Rather, historicism and contextualism can and should inform creolizing approaches.

Cosmopolitanism, Creolization, And Non-Exceptionalist Buddhist Modernisms: On Evan Thompson’S Why I Am Not A Buddhist, Yarran Hominh, A. Minh Nguyen

Comparative Philosophy

In his recent book, Why I Am Not a Buddhist, Evan Thompson argues that inter-tradition or cross-cultural philosophical dialogue ought to be governed by cosmopolitan conversational norms that do not subsume any one tradition’s deep commitments under those of any other tradition, but rather bring those commitments into the discussion so that they can be challenged and defended. He argues on this basis for the application of a deeply contextualist and historicist interpretive methodology to Buddhist texts, concepts, and theories in dialogue with philosophy and contemporary cognitive sciences. Buddhist modernism, in eschewing that deeply contextualist and historicist methodology, falls …

Appearance And Momentariness: The Nature Of Being Between Nāgārjuna, The Sarvāstivādins And Neo-Parmenidism, Federico Divino

Comparative Philosophy

In this article I will try to demonstrate the existence of points in common between the eternalist instances of Parmenidean philosophy and the Buddhist formulations made by some parts of the Abhidhamma, Nāgārjuna, and the Sarvāstivādins. These three philosophies have numerous points in common with Emanuele Severino’s formulations from the point of view of what is defined as neo-Parmenidism. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the points in common between these systems of thought are due to a basic affinity which, despite having led them to emphasize different themes, present similar reasoning and logical consequences, which allow …

Neither Buddhist Nor Taoist, But Both (And Even More): Exploring The ‘Hall Of Infinite Principle’ (Guangli Fotang): A Chinese Temple In The Romanian Capital, Serban Toader

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This ethnography regards the sole Chinese temple in the Romanian capital Bucharest, its people and activity, as well as the thinking that supports this new religious movement (Maitreya Great Tao,Mile Dadao 彌勒大道). It is common knowledge that Taoism, Budhism, and Confucianism appear, at least in the official discourse, as a braided rope of unified Chinese tradition, each of the three at the same time preserving their particular features. Nevertheless, Mile Dadao not only seems to implicitly unite the three traditions in one (to which other foreign or popular traditions may be added as well), but also aims to act as …

One Or None? Truth And Self-Transformation For Śaṅkara And Kamalaśīla, David Fiordalis

Faculty Publications

This article explores how two influential 8th-century Indian philosophers, Śaṅkara and Kamalaśīla, treat the threefold scheme of learning, reasoning, and meditation in their spiritual path philosophies. They have differing institutional and ontological commitments: the former, who helped establish Advaita Vedānta as the religious philosophy of an elite Hindu monastic tradition, affirms an unchanging “self” (ātman) identical to the “world-essence” (brahman); the latter, who played a significant role in the development of Buddhist monasticism in Tibet, denies both self and essence. Yet, they share a concern with questions of truth and the means by which someone could gain access to it, …

Sankyoku Magazine And The Invention Of The Shakuhachi As Religious Instrument In Early 20th-Century Japan, Matt Gillan

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The early 20^th century was a period in which understandings of music, religion, and the nation-state underwent rapid change in Japan. In this article I examine Japanese cultural discourse from the first decades of the 20^th century in which the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, was frequently portrayed as a religious instrument. In some cases, this discourse referenced pre-20^th century historical affiliations of the shakuhachi with the Fuke-sect, an organization that was loosely affiliated to Rinzai Zen Buddhism. But the article also explores how religio-musical discourse surrounding the shakuhachi intersected with developments in modern Japanese religious life, …

Jeal No. 173 Full Issue

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam: Kenneth Kazuo Tanaka

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Understanding Religious Tolerance In Yongchang, China, Liming Gao

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The formation of China is a process of national integration and a fusion of different beliefs. However, under Chairman Mao (1949-1976) and specifically during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), people were reeducated to focus on Communism and expel remnants of traditional Chinese culture including the various religions. Although, after the Cultural Revolution, China reinstated its policy of religious freedom, there were still strict laws against religion. Despite such circumstances, Chinese people still practice their religious beliefs. The Yongchang area, located in Gansu Province in the northwest of China is a typical region of Chinese culture. At the same time, compared to …

Boundary Crossing By A Community Of Practice: Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries Engage Science Education, Carol M. Worthman, Ann Cale Kruger, Cindy Achat-Mendes, Tashi Lhamo, Rinchen Wangyal, Gelek Gyatso, Kelsey M. Gray

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

As a globalized world struggles with division and disinformation, engaging across difference has emerged as a major challenge to communication and collaborative action needed to address growing global challenges. As such, the initiative by Tibetan Buddhist leaders to incorporate western science in curricula for monastic education may serve as an important case study that illuminates the conditions and processes at work in genuine cultural outreach and exchange. That project, spearheaded in the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI), involves reaching out across two quite different communities of practice, Tibetan Buddhism and science, and the willingness and ability of individuals to cross the …

Delusional Mitigation In Religious And Psychological Forms Of Self-Cultivation: Buddhist And Clinical Insight On Delusional Symptomatology, Austin J. Avison

The Hilltop Review

This essay examines Buddhist forms of self-cultivation and development that enable a psychosocial capacity for emotional, cognitive, and behavioral adjustment by improving an individual's characteristic mode of interaction within the world. First, we will consider the religious form of self-cultivation seen in the context of Buddhism and its desire to remove delusional perspectives through developmental practices. In this, we will consider the cultivating function of clinical psychology through the therapeutic application of cognitive restructuring techniques as a form of cultivation. Next, considering psychological self-cultivation, training, development, and education concerning the treatment of schizophrenia and its characteristic criterion of delusions. Further, …

The Fall Of The Ikko Ikki: The Demise Of The Honganji In The Late Sengoku Period, Alexander M. Remington

Student Publications

During the late Sengoku Period Japan witnessed the fall of the Honganji, a sect of Pure Land Buddhism. The Honganji was a significant military, political, and economic power and commanded armies of commoners known as Ikko Ikki. The Honganji fell because it challenged the traditional social order of Japan, lacked unity, and stood against warlord Oda Nobunaga during his bid for hegemony. The fall of the Honganji resulted in consequential policies and impacted Japanese society going into the Tokugawa period.

Index To The Indian International Journal Of Buddhist Studies Vols 11-20 (2010-2019), Lalji Shravak

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

It presents the Index of the articles published in The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies, Volume Nos. 11 to 20 [From 2010 to 2019].

Reviews Of Rajesh Singh, _Periodisation Of Rock-Cut Monuments Of India_ And _Khīṅgīla Vs. Buddhist Caves_, Charles Willemen

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

No Abstract.

Review Of Shohei Ichimura, _The Canonical Book Of The Buddha's Lengthy Discourses_, Bhikkhu Analayo

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

no abstract

Note About Early Buddhist Schools, Charles Willemen

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

No abstract

Tsongkhapa As Dzokchenpa: Nyingma Discourses And Geluk Sources, Roger R. Jackson

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

Tsongkhapa as Dzokchenpa: Nyingma Discourses and Geluk Sources

Despite their frequent depiction as polar opposites, the Nyingma and Geluk tradiitons of Tibetan Buddhism have important and sometimes surprising points of connection. The focus of this article is the Geluk founder Tsongkhapa’s (1357–1419) relation to Nyingma teachers, doctrines, and practices. My more specific concern is to examine a particular, relatively long-standing Nyingma discourse suggesting that Tsongkhapa was a crypto-Dzokchenpa. The main “proof-text” for this claim is The Garland of Supreme Medicinal Nectar, which records questions about Dzokchen posed by Tsongkhapa to the buddha/bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi through the medium of his Nyingma …

The Vessantara Jātaka In The Maṇi Bka’ ’Bum And The Fifth Dalai Lama’S ’Khrung Rab, Tomoko Makidono

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

The Maṇi bka’ ’bum is a ‘‘revealed scripture’’ (gter ma) that claims to be a testament of the ancient Tibetan king Srong btsan sgam po, traditionally believed to have been an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the tutelary deity of Tibet. The Maṇi bka’ ’bum includes two narratives that resemble the Vessantara Jātaka, which has spread widely in Asia as a Buddhist tale about a former birth of the Śākyamuni Buddha as a generous prince called Vessantara, who gives away even his wife and children. The Maṇi bka’ ’bum contains stories of King Srong bstan sgam po’s …

Compassion And Merit In Early Buddhism With The Focus On The Aṅguttara Nikāya And The Ekottarika Āgama, Tse-Fu Kuan

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

Of the four Nikāyas in Pali and the four Āgamas in Chinese, the numerical collections, i.e. the Aṅguttara Nikāya and the Ekottarika Āgama, are the most adaptable and considerate of individual needs according to ancient Indian/Chinese and modern American monks. Therefore, these two collections contain a considerable proportion of suttas/sūtras that are closely connected with the notion of compassion (karuṇā/anukampā). These two collections include many suttas addressed to Buddhists dealing with the ethical and spiritual concerns of life within the world, and thus involves the issues of merit (puñña). In this study …

Śāntarakṣita And Kamalaśīla On The Advaita Vedanta Theory Of A Self, James Duerlinger, Binita Mehta, Siddharth Singh

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

In this article we assess Śāntarakṣita’s and Kamalaśīla’s critique of the Advaita Vedānta theory of self. We provide a translation of the verses 328-335 of the commentary titled Tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā, which was composed by Kamalaśīla on Śāntarakṣita’s Tattvasaṃgraha. We present Śāntarakṣita’s and Kamalaśīla’s views of a self and also explain the Advaita Vedānta theory based on the texts of Śaṅkara. It is concluded in the article that Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla failed to consider the most likely Advaitin replies to their objections, especially the reply that cognitions of objects are illusory rather than real modifications, since the critique assumed that …

Bhikṣuṇī Śailā’S Rebuttal Of Māra’S Substantialist View: The Chariot Simile In A Sūtra Quotation In The Abhidharmakośopāyikā-Ṭīkā, Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

This study takes up the first occurrence in Buddhist literature of an illustrative simile comparing the five aggregates (Sanskrit skandhas/Pali khandhas) to a chariot (ratha), found in an early discourse attested in different parallel versions (SN 5.10, SĀ 1202, SĀ2 218, Up 9014). It introduces and translates the version extant in the Abhidharmakośopāyikā-ṭīkā (Up 9014), and then comments on this initial formulation of the chariot simile in light of the ancient Indian background against which the early Buddhist texts and teachings emerged. The implications of the distinctive Buddhist use of the chariot imagery in this context appears to be less …

Vol. 21 Table Of Contents

The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

None.

Review: André Van Der Braak, Reimagining Zen In A Secular Age: Charles Taylor And Zen Buddhism In The West., James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Three Buddhist Distinctions Of Great Consequence For Cross-Cultural Philosophy Of Personal Identity, Antoine Panaïoti

Comparative Philosophy

This paper seeks to lay down the theoretical groundwork for the emergence of holistic cross-cultural philosophical investigations of personal identity ¾ investigations that approach the theoretical, phenomenological, psychological, and practical-ethical dimensions of selfhood as indissociable. My strategy is to discuss three closely connected conceptual distinctions that the Buddhist approach to personal identity urges us to draw, and a lucid understanding of which is essential for the emergence of appropriately comprehensive and thus genuinely cosmopolitan discussions at the cross-road between Western and Buddhist philosophical traditions. The first, primary distinction is that between the “visceral sense of self” (VSS) and the “substance …

In Search Of Buddhist Virtue: A Case For A Pluralist-Gradualist Moral Philosophy, Oren Hanner

Comparative Philosophy

Classical presentations of the Buddhist path prescribe the cultivation of various good qualities that are necessary for spiritual progress, from mindfulness (sati) and loving-kindness (metta) to faith (saddhā) and wisdom (paññā). Examining the way in which such qualities are described and classified in early Buddhism—with special reference to their treatment in the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification) by the fifth-century Buddhist thinker Buddhaghosa—the present article employs a comparative method in order to identify the Buddhist catalog of virtues. The first part sketches the characteristics of virtue as analyzed by neo-Aristotelian theories. …

Sharing Hearts: Buddhist Charity And Urbanization In Vietnam, Sara Ann Swenson

Dissertations - ALL

My dissertation analyzes how and why volunteers joined or established grassroots Buddhist charities in Ho Chi Minh City. I spoke with approximately 400 members of 25 charities, focusing on seven main groups that shared an overlapping network of volunteers. My research includes perspectives from demographic groups often excluded from positions of authority in institutionalized Buddhism and, in turn, Buddhist studies scholarship, such as low-income day laborers, elderly women, Buddhist nuns at peri-urban temples, and a lay community of queer "same-gender-loving" [đồng tính] men. Despite their marginalization from formal leadership in Vietnam's state-managed National Buddhist Sangha, volunteers claimed social and moral …

Lived Experience Of Buddhist Spiritual Caregivers From The Gilanadhamma Volunteer Group, Paveesuda Nutsathapana

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

No abstract provided.

Articulate Vol. Vi

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

Boundation & Bindās: Ambedkarite Youth In A Global Buddhist Movement, Mallory Jacklin Hennigar

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation I engage with the stories of young adult Indians from Scheduled Caste and Tribe and Other Backward Caste backgrounds who have come to study at Nagaloka Centre, a Buddhist training center in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Some of them are Ambedkarites or people who take Dr. B.R. Ambedkar – leader of the Dalit community and author of the Indian constitution – as their hero and exemplar. Some of them are Buddhists or people who follow the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha in one manner or another. Some of them are just young people in tough situations, seeking a way out. …

Boundation & Bindās: Ambedkarite Youth In A Global Buddhist Movement, Mallory Jacklin Hennigar

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation I engage with the stories of young adult Indians from Scheduled Caste and Tribe and Other Backward Caste backgrounds who have come to study at Nagaloka Centre, a Buddhist training center in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Some of them are Ambedkarites or people who take Dr. B.R. Ambedkar – leader of the Dalit community and author of the Indian constitution – as their hero and exemplar. Some of them are Buddhists or people who follow the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha in one manner or another. Some of them are just young people in tough situations, seeking a way out. …