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Authentic Malleability: Zen Buddhism And The Justification Of Japanese Cultural Superiority During World War Ii, Pj Wise

Senior Theses

Throughout history, religious traditions have been mobilized to justify nationalist violence and claims to cultural superiority. In modern Japan, Buddhism underwent a dramatic transformation, becoming one of the most sophisticated ideological justifications for Japanese imperialism during World War II. How did Zen Buddhism come to justify Japanese claims of cultural superiority during the Pacific War? Examining Buddhist institutional practices, philosophical texts, and wartime propaganda from 1941-1945, this thesis analyzes three mechanisms through which Buddhism legitimized Japanese superiority: claims to spiritual supremacy through Zen philosophy, militarization of Buddhist practice, and use of Buddhism as cultural imperialism in occupied territories. I argue …

Hirarki Ruang Candi Kedaton Muara Jambi, Kirana Anindita Parama Putri

Multikultura

Kedaton Temple is one of the temples located in the Muara Jambi Temple Complex. Kedaton Temple, like most other temples in this temple complex, is composed of several rooms. Kedaton Temple in the Muara Jambi Temple Complex is considered the largest temple there. In addition, Kedaton Temple is composed of 14 rooms. The large number of rooms raises the question of how the existing spatial hierarchy is seen from the concept of Buddhist Cosmology. This research was conducted by conducting a literature study and analyzed using spatial analysis. The literature study was carried out by collecting sources such as books, …

The Coherence Of Navayāna Pragmatism: Ambedkar And The Pragmatist Reconstruction Of Buddhist Philosophy, Danish Hamid

Comparative Philosophy

This paper examines the philosophical coherence of B.R. Ambedkar’s reconstruction of his (Navayāna) Buddhism in relation to John Dewey’s pragmatism. Building on Scott Stroud’s reading of Ambedkar as a Deweyan Pragmatist (2017, 2023), it argues that Dewey’s evolutionary naturalism, his conception of growth, and pragmatic redefinition of concepts provide Ambedkar with the methodological tools for a naturalistic and socially reconstructive reinterpretation of Buddhist doctrines such as anicca (impermanence), dhamma (Buddha’s teaching), nirvāṇa (enlightenment), karuna (compassion), etc. Ambedkar transforms impermanence from a metaphysics of flux into an ethics of progressive growth, and recasts dhamma as a social morality grounded in fraternity …

Emptiness Is Enlightenment: Two Interpretations Of Nāgārjuna's Middle Way As Buddhist Soteriology, Isabella R. Sullivan

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the soteriological implications of Nāgārjuna’s doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā) as presented in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK), or Root Verses of the Middle Way. While Nāgārjuna’s radical denial of intrinsic existence (svabhāva) is widely recognized as a masterful critique of metaphysics, modern scholarship remains divided on whether this "right view" can sufficiently ground the Buddhist Path to Liberation. This project centers on a comparative analysis of two prominent modern interpretations: Jay Garfield’s semantic anti-dualism and Giuseppe Ferraro’s anti-metaphysical realism.

The inquiry evaluates these perspectives against the doctrinal frameworks of the Four Noble Truths, dependent …

Eastern Languages And Literature Research In Thailand : Past, Present, And Future Perspectives From 25 Years Of Research, Sansanee Ek-Atchariya, Somkiat Chawengkijwanich, Kanokwan Laohaburanakit Katagiri, Aroonwan Kongmebhol, Ruttapond Swanpitak, Sompornnuch Tansrisook, Pitchaya Vipaveenukul, Piyanuch Wiriyaenawat

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This study examines the evolution of Chinese, Japanese, and Pali and Sanskrit language and literature research in Thailand over the past 25 years (1998–2022). Drawing from research articles, theses, and academic journals, it highlights the unique strengths and trends of each field. Chinese research demonstrates dynamic growth, driven by applied linguistics and educational innovations. Japanese research shows steady development, focusing on education research and analyses of individual literary works. Pali and Sanskrit research excels in cultural preservation and religious studies, reflecting Thailand’s deep-rooted connections with ancient Indian traditions. This comparative analysis underscores the shared focus on applied research and localization …

Knowledge Landscape Of Philosophical Research In Thailand : Current State And Challenges, Sarinya Arunkhajornsak, Siraprapa Chavanayarn, Klairung Iso

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper explores the knowledge landscape of philosophical research in Thailand from 2012 to 2022. It identifies current research trends and demonstrates how previous studies in philosophy have contributed to intellectual thought toward fostering democratic citizenship within Thai society. Understanding these findings helps analyze the future direction of philosophical research in strengthening the vital roles of humanities education in Thailand. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section examines the status and trends of philosophical research in Thailand across three main areas of study: Western philosophy, Theravāda Buddhist philosophy, and Eastern philosophy. The second section examines the threats …

Mindfulness And Psychedelics: Rethinking The Fifth Precept, Ernesto Londono

Mindfulness Studies Theses

The fields of psychedelics and mindfulness have a long history of cross-pollination in the United States that dates to the counterculture movement in the 1960s. As the use of these mind-altering compounds in therapeutic and spiritual contexts has become less stigmatized and more popular in recent years, psychedelic retreats and therapies are once again drawing people who also value contemplative practices. This paper explores the historic and contemporary tension people with overlapping interests in mindfulness and psychedelics have faced as they interpreted the Fifth Precept, the Buddhist guideline that advises people to abstain from intoxicants. Taking stock of the history …

Sangha: Displacement And Memory In Nikkei Dena, Isabella Rae Uriu

Honors Theses

Sangha: Displacement and Memory in Nikkei Dena explores how layered displacements have shaped the Nikkei (Japanese-American) community in Altadena and Pasadena (Dena), CA, and how Nikkei resist forces of displacement and ‘unbelonging’ through cultural practice, community care, and memory-work at the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. This thesis argues that these practices of place-making build belonging and sustain the Nikkei community across displacement; particularly, the forced removal and incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, freeway displacement during the mid-century, and most recently, the 2025 Eaton Fire, which has displaced tens of thousands of Denans, including a small, but …

Making Three Dimensional Constellations, Larry Browning, Kay Cutler

Astronomy Activities

We look up at the night sky to find constellations or patterns in the stars and associate images and stories with these patterns to help remember the pattern and follow its motion through time. Often each culture has its own constellations with stories or folklore about each constellation.  These stories are a window into the experiences, activities, beliefs, and location of the people who named their culture’s star patterns.  Traditional star patterns are based on naked eye observations since these constellations were determined before telescopes or binoculars.

An Imperial Pivot: How The Qing Court Shaped The Kapāla And Its Global Value, Haiyi Wang

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This thesis examines the journey of the kapāla, a Tibetan Buddhist ritual skull cup, from a sacred implement to a global commodity. It argues that the modern identity, display, and commercial value of the kapāla in the Western world are not a natural extension of its original religious meaning but are fundamentally a product of its aesthetic and political re-creation by the Qing imperial court. This study posits the Qing court's intervention as the "decisive pivot" that systematically replaced the object's native "religious value system," based on ritual efficacy, with a new "imperial value system" rooted in craftsmanship, precious materials, …

The Use Of Mindfulness In Empirically Supported Treatments In Psychology, Timothy Stewart

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

After gaining popularity in the United States of America (USA) in the 1960s and 1970s, Buddhist mindfulness was introduced to clinical psychology and investigated for its potential psychological healing effects. In the years since, mindfulness has been widely used in empirically supported treatments (ESTs) in clinical psychology in the USA to treat a wide variety of psychological conditions and disorders. This dissertation examines and compares conceptualizations and implicit understandings of mindfulness in early (Theravāda) Buddhism and in ESTs in clinical psychology in the USA. Through textual narrative analysis of two Buddhist sutta and 10 clinical psychology journal articles, this study …

Formation-Based Analysis In Contemporary Saxophone Practice: A Case Study Of Ziwei Shi's The Blue Lotus Bloms, Jiageng Ren

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines contemporary saxophone repertoire through a formation-based analytical approach, using Ziwei Shi’s The Blue Lotus Blooms as a case study. It is organized into three parts. Part I establishes the conceptual and methodological framework by introducing the concept of “formation-based analysis,” positioning the “condition of musical formation” as its core. Further situating the study within scholarship on practice-based research, cross-cultural theory, and modernism/postmodernism. Part II provides a detailed analytical and performance-based investigation of the work, including the collaborative commissioning process, the application of Thaat as a pitch resource, the role of extended techniques and embodied endurance, and contrasting …

The Contributors, Contributors Contributors

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Contributors

Socrates And Early Buddhist Medical Ethics: Foundations Of Moral Reasoning In The Care Of Body And Mind, Chandima Gangodawila

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

While Buddhist traditions articulate a parallel moral vision in the early discourses of the Pāli Canon, Western traditions usually locate the roots of ethical reasoning in Socratic inquiry. Especially in their approaches to bodily care, spiritual well - being, and moral responsibility, this article contends that both Socratic and Early Buddhist ideas converge on fundamental principles in medical ethics. Through a comparative textual and philosophical study, the paper examines how Socratic dialectics and the Buddha's diagnostic approach to dissatisfa ction/ suffering (dukkha) both produce frameworks for ethical healthcare anchored in the development of virtue, wisdom, and care for the integrity …

Martial Arts Studies: A Commentary On The Exploration Of Consciousness In Modern Martial Arts, James H. Sutton

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The rapid globalization of martial arts has reconditioned how the beliefs, customs, and philosophies of traditionally based systems are interpreted and applied in modern practice. As contemporary scholarship struggles to accommodate the cultural histories, myths, and traditions that permeate the perception of martial arts in modern contexts, the focus of inquiry has shifted towards explaining cultural variations in practice rather than understanding the nature of self-awareness derived from self-practice. Consequently, the deeper meanings of martial arts as pathways to personal and transpersonal awareness are often invalidated in favor of objective and verifiable explications. In short, the role of consciousness is …

The Structuralist Semiotics Of Hidden Places, Alexander Shin

Episteme

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

New Appointments

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

The Earliest Documents In Old Javanese, Arlo Griffiths, Titi Surti Nastiti, Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This short contribution presents two recently discovered inscriptions from Central Java that are among the oldest documents in the Old Javanese language, namely a dated stone from Kesongo (685 Śaka/743 CE) and the Disunuh inscription (709 Śaka/787 CE). These two artefacts constitute new evidence that Old Javanese had become a written language in this part of Java already in the eighth century CE. Previously, the period of use of Old Javanese in epigraphy was reckoned to have begun in the ninth century, and in East Java, based on the Harinjing A inscription from Kediri, assumed to date to 726 Śaka/804 …

A Buddhist Critique Of Harmony, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

From Meditation To Magic: The Spectrum Of Buddhist Tourism In Thailand, Brooke Schedneck

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Buddhism can conjure distinctive ideas and images for different groups of people, especially travelers to a Buddhist majority country like Thailand. Discussing three different modes of Buddhist tourism— meditation, magic, and mega statues— this article illuminates the varieties of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Thailand. While foreign visitors from Western countries are assumed by Thai Buddhist practitioners to favor engagement with Buddhism related to meditation, Chinese and Thai Buddhists are seen to appreciate Buddhism for its magical protective powers. Chinese tourists in particular are now being targeted to purchase products and experiences related to mutelu, which is a term for objects …

Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy Through Buddhism, Teng-Kuan Ng

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Victor Fan, Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy through Buddhism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2022)

Culturally Sustaining Practices For Advanced Multilingual Adult Esol Students, Benjamin F. C. King

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

King, B. (2025)

Culturally Sustaining Practices for Advanced Multilingual Adult ESOL Students

Advanced multilingual ESOL learners need safe and positive learning environments that are responsive to their needs. This project seeks to answer how an adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) curriculum can be adapted using an emergent curriculum approach to be more culturally sustaining. As a white teacher with many privileges, I know the content and language skills I teach will never perfectly match the interests, desires and needs of all my students. Nonetheless, through the process of investigating culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP), I have identified …

Review Of Victor Fan, “Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy Through Buddhism”, Teng-Kuan Ng

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This is a book review of Victor Fan, Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy through Buddhism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2022)

The Buddhist Recluse In The Late Heian (794–1185) And Early Kamakura (1185–1333) Periods As Seen Through Kamo-No-Chômei’S Hôjôki And The Poems Of Saigyô, Scott Lloyd

The Ozark Historical Review

Kamo-no-Chômei and Saigyô,two of Japan’s most well-known aesthete-recluses and open a window through their works not only into the life of the recluse as an individual but also into the broader culture. The following pages will attempt to shed light on the overall concept of reclusion and its importance by looking specifically at what they had to say about their own experiences: Saigyô through his collected poems, and Chômei through his seminal poetic essay Hôjôki “Ten-Foot- Square Hut”, written in 1212.

Merit Transference And The Paradox Of Merit Inflation, Matthew Hammerton

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Many religious traditions and ethical systems hold that individuals accrue merit through their good intentions, acts, and character, and demerit through their bad intentions, acts, and character. This merit and demerit, accumulated by individuals throughout their lives, gives each person a kind of ethical “score” that can determine what they deserve, and influence whether good or bad things happen to them (e.g., divine punishments and rewards, a favourable or unfavourable rebirth, etc.). In some traditions (most notably Buddhism, but also to a limited extent in Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity), “merit transference” is a feature of these merit-based ethical systems. This …

Dragon Guitars And Sexy Zombies: Tracing The Meta-Motion Of The Naga Motif In Northeast Thailand, Aaron Michael Stanley

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Abstract

This thesis traces the evolving symbolism of the Naga motif (a mythic water serpent) in Northeast Thailand through a framework I call meta-motion, which maps symbolic persistence of this cultural signifier and boundary marker across four cultural horizons—animist (Z), Hindu–Khmer (B), Buddhist (A), and modern/global (C). Like electrons in quantum super position, symbolic motifs circulate as overlapping “waves” of potential meaning and are concretized into cultural “particles” only when recruited for specific ritual, commercial, or political purposes. I add a bookend extension to Chang’s Hindu-Buddhist (B/A) typology with the addition of Horizons Z and C in order to make …

Buddhism For Thinkers, Chang-Seong Hong, Sun Kyeong Yu

MSU Authors Collection

This book is an introduction to Buddhist philosophy. It uses the methods of analytic philosophy to approach the major topics of Buddhism.

How Theravāda Buddhism Enriches The Language Of Thought Hypothesis: Beyond Syntax, Juanjuan Cheng, Sumanasara Sandamadulle

Comparative Philosophy

The Language of Thought Hypothesis (LOTH) posits that mental states operate through a language-like representational system physically implemented in the brain. However, this purely symbolic approach faces a significant limitation: certain mental phenomena—such as intuitions, emotions, and intentions—lack the syntactically compositional structure required by LOTH and therefore cannot be adequately explained within its symbolic framework. To address this theoretical challenge, we turn to Theravāda Buddhism (TB), an early Buddhist tradition that integrates rigorous philosophical inquiry with meditative practice. Remarkably, TB began to prefigure a solution to LOTH’s limitations over 2,300 years ago. Although LOTH and TB differ …

The Uses Of Dramaturgical Research In Cinematic Storytelling, Asset Design, And Adaptation In Animation, Delaney L. Walker

All Theses

“The Black Hair” is a creative project that explores the convergence of cinematic adaptation, dramaturgical research, and animation design in retelling a traditional Japanese short folktale from the Heian Era. Rooted in the practice of theatrical dramaturgy, this thesis advocates for a research-driven creative pipeline by developing a culturally respectful and historically grounded approach to developing cinematic storyboards. By thoroughly examining the chronicles of history and the sociocultural context, the project seeks to foster deeper cultural appreciation while reintroducing a lesser-known narrative to modern audiences through a visual medium. The project draws stylistic and narrative inspiration from iconic Japanese filmmakers …