Buddhist Studies Commons^™

Cultural And Religious Perspectives On Suicide And Healing, Arielle Friedman

be Still

This essay is built off of a paper I wrote in a college global health course on culture and mental illness. I have always been fascinated by cultural interpretations of illness & believe that as a future physician, it is my responsibility to educate myself and others on the complex interplay between religious ideologies & recognition/management of biological disease in order to provide appropriate patient-centered care.

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 …

The Spiritual Migrants Of Sogenji: Notes Of Participant Observation In A Rinzai Zen Temple, Andrei-Razvan Coltea

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Anomie is a cultural pathology that is becoming chronic in the West, characterized by the erosion of values, disintegration and deregulation. Amongst its symptoms we find anxiety, isolation, depression, tribalism, incoherence and loss of meaning. Individuo-globalism is a new ideology that permeates the religious market created by globalisation, encouraging individuals to discover, nurture and express their ‘true self’. This new spirituality forms the background for a journey that our ‘heroes’, a handful of non-Japanese inhabitants of a Japanese Rinzai Zen monastery, have been undertaking for years in search of the philosopher’s stone that could cure anomie and its symptoms. At …

A Guide To Secondary Scholarship For Pure Land Buddhism Using Japanese Periodicals, Rebecca A. Stover

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This paper presents the process of locating Japanese language periodicals relating to Pure Land Buddhism and compiles a bibliography of open-access Japanese language sources for students in the process of Japanese Language acquisition. The paper attempts to scaffold the research process for students in the process of language acquisition and function as a guide to finding information.

In Defense Of Religion-Sport Separation In Coaching, Lou Matz

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

Can a coach rightfully integrate a religious orientation in their coaching in a public institution? In its recent Kennedy v Bremerton School District (2022) decision, the U.S. Supreme Court defended the educational value of players’ exposure to diverse expressive activities as a part of learning how to live in a pluralistic society. I contend that religion-sport separation is the most philosophically defensible position, based primarily on the problems with supernatural theism in religions like Christianity. Nonetheless, there is a form of religion-sport integration that is theoretically possible within my critique of theism which could strengthen the inner morality of sport. …

As Fewer Young Americans Say They Believe In God, A Look At Why So Many Have Abandoned Religion And What Motivates Others To Keep The Faith, Briana Ellis-Gibbs

Capstones

Generation Z, defined by the Pew Research Center as those born after 1997, is the least religious generation yet, according to a recent report from the American Survey Center. More than one-third of Generation Zers are religiously unaffiliated, along with 29 percent of Millenials, those born between 1981 and 1996. On the other hand, only 18 percent of baby boomers and 9 percent of the silent generation claim no religious affiliation.

Though overall, Americans' belief in God has hit an all-time low, from nearly 90 percent in 2017 to 81 percent this year, according to a new poll by Axios …

Prolegomena To A Buddhist(Ic) Critique Of Capitalism, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

Not even three decades removed from Francis Fukuyama’s post-Cold War proclamation of the “End of History,” the Western world is now undergoing a crisis of conscience – at the very least – with respect to both capitalism as an economic system and neoliberalism as its less-recognized but ever-present ideological foundation. The financial crisis of 2008, the subsequent Great Recession, the Occupy movement(s) of 2011, the 2016 challenge of self-styled Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, and growing anxiety about the fate of the planet, particularly among the young, have opened up new avenues of critique, and brought …

Ghosts’ Stories: Addictive Behaviors And Complicated Grief In George Saunders’ Lincoln In The Bardo, Jc Leishman

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

When experiencing the natural motions of the grieving process, some individuals encounter an inability to pass this process by a phenomenon known as complicated grief. To deal with the cyclical trauma this causes, the human mind seeks to engage in addictive behaviors (both substantive and behavioral) that work to artificially and momentarily circumvent grief. This process, as it appears in George Saunders' experimental novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, reveals a depth of commentary on human attachments and grieving processes through the lives and narratives of ghosts found in the bardo.

The Rise Of An Eco-Spiritual Imaginary: Ecology And Spirituality As Decolonial Protest In Contemporary Multi-Ethnic American Literature, Andrew Michael Spencer

English Theses and Dissertations

The Rise of an Eco-Spiritual Imaginary reveals a shared ecological aesthetic among contemporary U.S. ethnic writers whose novels communicate a decolonial spiritual reverence for the earth. This shared narrative focus challenges white settler colonial mythologies of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism to instantiate new ways of imagining community across socially constructed boundaries of time, space, nation, race, and species. The eco-spiritual imaginary—by which I mean a shared reverence for the ecological interconnection between all living beings—articulates a common biological origin and sacredness of all life that transcends racial difference while remaining grounded in local ethnicities and bioregions. The novelists representing …

Zen And The Art Of Resistance: Some Preliminary Notes, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

In the Western and oftentimes Asian imagination, Buddhism generally—and Zen more specifically—is understood as being resolutely disengaged, attaching itself to a form of awakening that is not only, as the classical phrase has it “beyond words and letters,” but in the modern summation by D. T. Suzuki, perfectly compatible with any and all forms of political and economic “dogmatism,” whether capitalist, communist, socialist, or fascist. Of course, as numerous scholars have shown over the past century, on the level of historical actuality, Buddhist and Zen teachers and institutions have long participated in (usually hegemonic) economic and political structures. 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, …

Righteous Remixes, Sacred Mashups: Rethinking Authority, Authenticity, And Originality In The Study Of Religion, Seth M. Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation sets out to place emergent theories of “remix” in conversation with scholarship exploring changes in the definitions and practices associated with the word “religion.” Through particular case studies, the dissertation analyzes the ways that certain contemporary creators, writers, and influencers have emerged as constructors of contemporary Buddhism. Specifically building upon the critiques of religion put forth by Jonathan Z. Smith, Russell T. McCutcheon, Brent Nongbri, Jane Iwamura, and others, I am concerned with how individuals who are not part of the religious studies scholarly community participate in the processes of constructing religion, and in this case, in constructing …

On What Is Real In Nāgārjuna’S “Middle Way”, Richard H. Jones

Comparative Philosophy

It has become popular to portray the Buddhist Nāgārjuna as an ontological nihilist, i.e., that he denies the reality of entities and does not postulate any further reality. A reading of his works does show that he rejects the self-existent reality of entities, but it also shows that he accepts a "that-ness" (tattva) to phenomenal reality that survives the denial of any distinct, self-contained entities. Thus, he is not a nihilist concerning what is real in the final analysis of things. How Nāgārjuna’s positions impact contemporary discussions of ontological nihilism and deflationism in Western philosophy is also discussed.

Examining Kamma/Karma Doctrine In The Buddhist Jātakas, Chandrabhan P. Yadav

Articles

Several scholars have seriously challenged the cherished egalitarian ethos of Buddhism after Ambedkar’s political as well as academic engagement with Buddhism. However, most have not explored Buddhist sources to examine the nitty gritty of the kamma/karma question.

Tathāgatagarbha And Ātman: Self Where There Is No-Self, Aaron Alexander Laughlin

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

No abstract provided.

The Benefits Of Past-Life Regression And Reincarnation, Taylor-Jo Russo

Student Publications

Reincarnation, or the belief in rebirth, is a fascinating belief that many cultures and different groups of people choose to subscribe to. While it typically accompanies various religions, the idea of reincarnation can be presented in other ways as well, such as regression therapy. Past-life regression therapy involves being hypnotized and recalling previous lives, memories, and information possible through levels of incarnations. Many therapists, psychologists, and even laymen attempt to use past-life regression therapy as a useful tool in overcoming anxieties, fears, dealing with every day concerns, and understanding phenomena. “Maintaining a critical eye but also an open mind. In …

Religion And The State: The Influence Of The Tokugawa On Religious Life, Thought, And Institutions, Savannah A. Labbe

Student Publications

This paper describes the influence of the Tokugawa government on religious life in Japan. It focuses on the religious traditions of Buddhism, Shintoism, and Neo-Confucianism and how the state used these religions to their advantage. The Tokugawa had strict control over all aspects of Japanese life including religion and this paper explores that.

The Last 100 Years At Beijing’S Tanzhe Buddhist Temple In Light Of Modern China’S Political And Religious Upheavals, Yuxi Yan

Senior Theses

In the last hundred years China has undergone massive cultural upheavals. In politics, the old imperial system gave way to Nationalism, then to strict Communism, and recently to a more moderated Communism that is trying to find a balance between state-controlled and free-market economies.

The cry, “destroy temples to build schools,” was first heard in 1898 as various forms of traditional Chinese religion were opposed by new agendas of modernization. For the next hundred years China witnessed what many historians believe to be the severest attack on religion in history. Ian Johnson writes: “Even before the Communist takeover in 1949, …

The Trees, My Lungs: Self Psychology And The Natural World At An American Buddhist Center, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

This study employs ethnographic field data to trace a dialogue between the self psychological concept of the selfobject and experiences regarding the concept of “interbeing” at a Vietnamese Buddhist monastery in the United States. The dialogue develops an understanding of human experiences with the nonhuman natural world which are tensive, liminal, and nondual. From the dialogue I find that the selfobject concept, when applied to this form of Buddhism, must be inclusive enough to embrace relationships with animals, stones, and other natural forms. The dialogue further delineates a self psychological methodology for examining religions in their interactions with natural forms.

Divergent Responses To The Human Predicament: A Case Study In New Comparativism, Mark Toole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The enterprise of comparison has been regarded by some as one of the most vital characteristics of a healthy academic study of religion. However, the failed legacy of Eliadian Comparativism has caused others to suggest that the art of comparison has not yet lived up to its promise. This study brings together the best tools of what the author calls "Smithian New Comparativism." In order to demonstrate concretely a rigorous and responsible critical comparative analysis, and to chart a course for future academically beneficial cross-cultural comparisons, this project presents a case study that compares two religious traditions' doctrinal responses to …

Love, Nancy M. Martin, Joseph Runzo

Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of The Prasada Complex And The Grace Of God, Jay R. Mccullough

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

A word or word group lifted from its context incurs the grave danger of a misunderstanding ranging from the greatest excess of analytical dismemberment to an overgenerous and all-inclusive synthesis which tends to rob it of any specific identity or meaning. Considered not only from within the body of textual material which may frame a particular word, but from the ground of these physical, mental and cultural needs which give it birth as well as the motivating force or forces which seem to endanger it, it may be possible to develop a better understanding of its varying harmonic nuances of …