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2024

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Articles 1 - 19 of 19

Full-Text Articles in Buddhist Studies

Sacred Recitation Of The Tibetan Yungdrung Bön Tradition: The Kharnatsang Collection Of Skad And The Arrangement Of The Three Heart Mantras, Christiane Strothmann Oct 2024

Sacred Recitation Of The Tibetan Yungdrung Bön Tradition: The Kharnatsang Collection Of Skad And The Arrangement Of The Three Heart Mantras, Christiane Strothmann

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The digital age has long dawned in many of the Tibetan Monasteries in exile. Thus, the inclusion of internet platforms and the usage of digital communication technologies was naturally part of my ethnomusicological collaboration with the Tibetan Bön monastic chant leader and scholar Geshé Dawa Namgyal Kharnatsang on the sacred recitation of the Yungdrung Bön tradition of Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India. In this article I will offer insights into Kharnatsang’s and my motivation to develop a hybrid collaboration and discuss the role and impact of the digital technologies on the traditional chain of transmission. I will draw on two …


The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon: A Buddhist Reimagination Of The Classic Tale Of Zhou Chu, Henry C.H. Shiu Oct 2024

The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon: A Buddhist Reimagination Of The Classic Tale Of Zhou Chu, Henry C.H. Shiu

Journal of Religion & Film

This article examines the Buddhist inspirations underlying the contemporary reinterpretation of the classic, Zhou Chu Chu Sanhai (Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Scourges) in the Taiwanese film entitled The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon. Beyond the obvious reinterpretation of the “three scourges” in the original tale as the “three poisons” of greed, hatred, and delusion in the film, one also finds a deeper connection with the notion of “skillful means” (upāya-kauśalya) and the Parable of the Burning House in the Lotus Sūtra as well as the tension between established religious beliefs and new religious …


Zeami's Buddhism And Noh In Kurosawa's Ikiru, Ronald S. Green Oct 2024

Zeami's Buddhism And Noh In Kurosawa's Ikiru, Ronald S. Green

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper explores the influences of Noh drama theorist Zeami Motokiyo on Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru. While Kurosawa's adaptations of traditional Japanese arts are well documented, this study uniquely demonstrates how specific Noh aesthetics shaped this film. It analyzes how Kurosawa's direction of actor Takashi Shimura embodies Zeami's aesthetic principles of awareness of impermanence (mujō), profound mystery (yūgen), and no-mind (mushin), which are performative expressions of Buddhist philosophies. Kurosawa employs four methods developed by Zeami: the use of masks, sparseness in settings and costumes, singing, and the application of an …


The Provenance Of A Pali- And Thai-Language Manuscript At The Rollins College Library: A Buddhist Book Of Merit And Its Long Journey From Southeast Asia To America, Wenxian Zhang Oct 2024

The Provenance Of A Pali- And Thai-Language Manuscript At The Rollins College Library: A Buddhist Book Of Merit And Its Long Journey From Southeast Asia To America, Wenxian Zhang

Faculty Publications

Through researching the provenance of a Buddhist manuscript written in the Pali and Thai languages currently held at Rollins, this article seeks to answer the question of how a religious document created in Thailand ended up in a liberal arts college library in America. Regarded as an act of devotion by many Buddhist followers in Southeast Asia, the use of folding manuscripts (samut khoi) has been observed for centuries. The folding manuscripts served as handbooks and chanting manuals for Buddhist monks, who often recited in religious ceremonies while paying tributes to the deceased, with the hope of reincarnation in a …


Buddhism, Daoism, And Jeet Kune Do: A Contemporary Analysis Of Nondual Traditions In A New Age Martial Art, James H. Sutton Aug 2024

Buddhism, Daoism, And Jeet Kune Do: A Contemporary Analysis Of Nondual Traditions In A New Age Martial Art, James H. Sutton

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Traditional martial arts are known for their focus on spiritual cultivation through a combination of self-defense training and contemplative practices like meditation. Traditional martial art systems tend to utilize nondual traditions commonly associated with Buddhism and Daoism; however, modern martial art practices, particularly those of MMA, no longer place a strong emphasis on such traditions. In turn, this has led to the development of high-performance sport athletes who emphasize self-defense efficiency in combat (usually combat sports) over all other attributes while also mixing “arts” or “styles” as necessary for the individual’s own self growth. I dub these as “new age” …


Anātman & Lack: Between Nāgārjuna And Lacan, Carter Morris Jun 2024

Anātman & Lack: Between Nāgārjuna And Lacan, Carter Morris

The Confluence

The notion of the Self lies at the heart of subjectivity. This paper aims to analyze and compare two intellectual traditions that have their own subversive philosophies of the Self and subjectivity—these two traditions being Mādhyamaka Buddhism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Beginning with primers on both Nāgārjuna’s philosophy and Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory, this paper will discuss the comparative psychologies and philosophies of subjectivity presented by the ideas of non-Self and Lack, respectively. Also briefly compared are the implied metaphysics of both Śūnyatā and Lacanian Lack. An examination of these comparisons’ weaknesses follows along with some closing remarks.


Synesthetic Symbolism: Community Engagement With The Sacred At The Boudhanath Stupa, Madeleine E. Tevonian Jun 2024

Synesthetic Symbolism: Community Engagement With The Sacred At The Boudhanath Stupa, Madeleine E. Tevonian

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This paper is a discussion of the complex relationship between the Great Boudhanath Stupa in the Kathmandu Valley, and the diverse Buddhist community that surrounds it. I argue that liberative sense experience and movement-encoded cultural knowledge make the community of practitioners a part of the stupa—and thus necessary to any examination of it. My argument is contextualized by a background on stupas and etymology of several Sanskrit and Tibetan terms, and I utilize a framework of religious studies concepts of sacred space and pilgrimage as well as on-site anthropological fieldwork focusing on practitioners’ daily lives. I investigate how the stupa …


Buddhism In Thailand: Why Don’T The Youth Believe In Buddhism?, Nutnicha Teekatanasuk May 2024

Buddhism In Thailand: Why Don’T The Youth Believe In Buddhism?, Nutnicha Teekatanasuk

Master's Theses

In Thailand, Buddhism is now known as a Buddhist country. Almost 96% of people in Thailand believe in Buddhism but it is declining every single day. Technology has made many people change their minds and not believe in Buddhism. Surprisingly, people who have been involved in Buddhism since they were born don’t believe, especially the young generation. The number of believers is declining every single day and many people have changed their minds and don’t believe in Buddhism. Surprisingly, people who have been involved in Buddhism since they were born don’t believe anymore. This might be because of Thai monks’ …


, Lele Dai May 2024

, Lele Dai

Theses and Dissertations

LeLe Dai makes contingent participatory public interventions using sensory materials such as sound, flickering light, and water. This paper examines their works through the lens of Chinese character Jian (間), meaning “gap/slit/incision,” to investigate the concept of “in-betweenness.”


Houses Built For Gods: Articulations Of Urban Hokora In Kyoto, Steele Engelmann May 2024

Houses Built For Gods: Articulations Of Urban Hokora In Kyoto, Steele Engelmann

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Amidst the urban landscape of Kyoto, Japan, there are thousands of hokora, small neighborhood shrines. This study uses social theories of pilgrimage and space to examine the articulation of hokora, community, and personal desire. As sites of local pilgrimage, hokora form networks of communal, but also individual, aspirations across the urban spiritual landscape of the city. This thesis argues that communities are connected to the larger social structures of Kyoto through hokora. As such, neighborhoods are reproduced and displayed through their hokora’s entanglements with the urban, social, and religious landscapes of Kyoto. Therefore, this study deploys an ethnographic approach to …


Dispelling Delusion And Seeing Nature: A Comparative Analysis Of Lucretius’ _De Rerum Natura_ And Hui-Neng’S _Platform Sutra_, Isaac Raymond Apr 2024

Dispelling Delusion And Seeing Nature: A Comparative Analysis Of Lucretius’ _De Rerum Natura_ And Hui-Neng’S _Platform Sutra_, Isaac Raymond

Honors Theses

Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura and Hui-neng’s Platform Sutra have never been compared in a scholarly context; as such, this paper builds a new bridge between Western and Eastern philosophical literature, examining language, narrative, ethics, teleology, theology, and departures from orthodox philosophies in order to synthesize a clear and complete view of the two works in dialogue. De Rerum Natura, or On the Nature of Things, is a first-century BC epic poem composed in Latin by Titus Lucretius Carus which explains Epicurean philosophy in great detail through verse. The Platform Sutra is an eighth-century AD Chinese Zen (Ch’an) Buddhist sermon, …


Agent Of Happiness, John C. Lyden Jan 2024

Agent Of Happiness, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Agent of Happiness (2024), directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó.


Associating Academic Identity With Language Socialization In Virtual Community: A Case Study Of A Chinese Graduate Student’S Learning Experiences In Religion Studies, Xiaolong Lu Jan 2024

Associating Academic Identity With Language Socialization In Virtual Community: A Case Study Of A Chinese Graduate Student’S Learning Experiences In Religion Studies, Xiaolong Lu

The Qualitative Report

This longitudinal case study explored the academic identity and language socialization of a Chinese graduate student enrolled in an online religion course at a U.S. university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected via online classroom observations, oral interviews, and artifacts. The theoretical framework was taken from language socialization and identity, together with positioning theory. The study differs from previous research, arguing that instead of language competence, the constructed academic identity is occasionally crucial for the successful academic discourse socialization of international students in bilingual and virtual settings. Moreover, the inclination toward interactive positioning between students and instructors can arise …


Cultural Erasure And Non-Violent Resistance In Tibet, Nikolina K. Klinkenberg Jan 2024

Cultural Erasure And Non-Violent Resistance In Tibet, Nikolina K. Klinkenberg

ENGS 15.11: Design and Education

This lesson uses lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities to encourage students to empathize with the Tibetan people and to think critically about responses to the Chinese Communist Party’s oppressive policies. The lesson begins with an overview of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan history since the Chinese invasion, and religious policy in China. Next, students actively interpret instances of self-immolation and analyze non-violent strategies for resolving conflict, connecting these subjects to their learning about Tibetan Buddhism and their prior knowledge of non-violent resistance. The lesson concludes with a reflection in which students connect the lesson’s topics to circumstances in their own lives.


Weaving Maṇḍalas With Jñāna: Shakya Chokden's Yogācāra-Based Approach To The Practice Of Guhyasamāja Tantra, Yaroslav Komarovski Jan 2024

Weaving Maṇḍalas With Jñāna: Shakya Chokden's Yogācāra-Based Approach To The Practice Of Guhyasamāja Tantra, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper explores Shakya Chokden’s approach to the philosophical dimensions of the tantric path. In particular, it explores how his philosophical ideas inform his interpretation of several stages of the Guhyasamāja practice with references to the generation stage (bskyed rim) and the completion stage (rdzogs rim). Shakya Chokden’s interpretive approach involves four interrelated points: all ultimate and relative phenomena are mind- made; tantric practice is based on the other-emptiness view of reality as jñāna; conceptuality envisioning tantric maṇḍalas is destroyed by—not transformed into—the non-conceptual jñāna manifesting them; and visions of maṇḍalas cultivated on the tantric …


The Material Life Of A Jiangyi (Taoist Priest Vestment) 18th C. To The Present, Lucinda Pelton Jan 2024

The Material Life Of A Jiangyi (Taoist Priest Vestment) 18th C. To The Present, Lucinda Pelton

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This presentation is an in-depth examination of an 18th century Taoist jiangyi from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It will begin with an explanation of how this garment functioned in Taoist practice, including the many spiritual motifs depicted on its surface. The presentation will then discuss the materials and techniques that make up the textile itself: coarse ramie lining, shell of orange-red silk, border of dark blue silk, and edging of white cotton. Its heavy embellishment includes gilded paper, textured silk threads, and threads made of peacock feathers, worked in a variety of techniques such as embroidery …


พระพุทธเจ้าในวรรณกรรมของธรรมยุติกนิกาย พ.ศ. 2368-2455, อุทัย ปัดถาพิมพ์ Jan 2024

พระพุทธเจ้าในวรรณกรรมของธรรมยุติกนิกาย พ.ศ. 2368-2455, อุทัย ปัดถาพิมพ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

แนวคิดเกี่ยวกับพระพุทธเจ้ามีการปรับเปลี่ยนจากประเพณีพุทธศาสนาเดิมในยุคของธรรมยุติกนิกาย วิทยานิพนธ์นี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาการนำเสนอพระพุทธเจ้าและวิเคราะห์พัฒนาการ โดยศึกษาจากวรรณกรรมของคณะธรรมยุติกนิกายพ.ศ. 2368 - 2455 ผลการศึกษาพบว่า การนำเสนอพระพุทธเจ้าทั้งพระพุทธคุณและพุทธประวัติเป็นวรรณกรรมภาษาไทยที่ยังคงขนบการนำเสนอตามประเพณีพุทธศาสนา รูปแบบมีทั้งร้อยแก้วและร้อยกรอง แต่คัดสรรเนื้อหาที่นำเสนอ ยึดหลักเหตุผล วิเคราะห์วิพากษ์ด้วยมุมมองของผู้เขียน เน้นพระปัญญาของพระพุทธเจ้าเป็นพิเศษ ส่วนสำคัญที่แตกต่างจากประเพณี คือ วรรณกรรมช่วยสร้างความเข้าใจเกี่ยวกับพระพุทธเจ้าใหม่ คือทรงเป็นมนุษย์ธรรมดาทั้งขนาดพระวรกาย พุทธลักษณะ ประวัติความเป็นมา ยึดข้อมูลจากพระไตรปิฎกเป็นหลักในการศึกษาอย่างมีวิจารณญาณ ในขณะเดียวกันก็มีการอ้างถึงพระพุทธเจ้าในบทสวดของพิธีสงฆ์และพิธีกรรมอื่น ๆ นอกพุทธศาสนาให้ถูกตรงตามหลักการพุทธศาสนา แสดงให้เห็นถึงการปรับเปลี่ยนแนวคิดเกี่ยวกับพระพุทธเจ้าในวัฒนธรรมไทยให้เหมาะสม และสอดคล้องกับวิทยาศาสตร์ที่กำลังเข้ามามีอิทธิพลต่อสังคมไทยในยุคนั้น


Demonstration Of Nonviolence In Modern Day: Through The Lens Of Christianity, Jainism, Hinduism, And Buddhism, Lauren Mertz Jan 2024

Demonstration Of Nonviolence In Modern Day: Through The Lens Of Christianity, Jainism, Hinduism, And Buddhism, Lauren Mertz

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Throughout history, many groups of people have experimented with nonviolent demonstrations and concepts. Religions, countries, and a variety of movements have put the demonstration of nonviolence at the forefront of their reasoning and defenses. When people hear the word nonviolence, there is usually a person or idea that comes to mind. People in the United States often think of figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and his Civil Rights Movement demonstrations. This paper will provide a detailed literary and research analysis of the concept of nonviolence, demonstrating that it is more than just a Christian concept. I will look at …


From Mind Only To Buddha Only: Shakya Chokden’S Interpretation Of Tathāgatagarbha In Tantric Philosophy And Practice, Yaroslav Komarovski Jan 2024

From Mind Only To Buddha Only: Shakya Chokden’S Interpretation Of Tathāgatagarbha In Tantric Philosophy And Practice, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Shakya Chokden’s approach consists of reducing all phenomena to mind and its appearances, and then negating dualistic minds as illusory and nonexistent and establishing the non-dual jñāna transcending them as the only phenomenon existent in reality—the primordial tathāgatagarbha with all buddha-qualities complete. For him, this interpretation of tathāgatagarbha is indispensable for tantric contemplative practice and for explaining how and why that practice works. The initial identification of tathāgatagarbha as the primordially existent jñāna endowed with buddha-qualities serves as the foundation for conceptually envisioning deities of the ultimate body-maṇḍala and eventually, when enough clarity is achieved, directly perceiving them by jñāna …