Download or read book Engaging Buddhism written by Jay L. Garfield and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Articulating the basic metaphysical framework common to Buddhist traditions, this book explores questions in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, phenomenology, epistemology, the philosophy of language, and ethics as they are addressed in a variety of Asian Buddhist traditions. Focusing on philosophical problems, in each case the connections between Buddhist and contemporary Western debates are examined, as are the distinctive contributions the Buddhist tradition can make to Western discussions.
Download or read book Engaged Buddhism in the West written by Christopher S. Queen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engaged Buddhism is founded on the belief that genuine spiritual practice requires an active involvement in society. Engaged Buddhism in the West illuminates the evolution of this new chapter in the Buddhist tradition - including its history, leadership, and teachings - and addresses issues such as violence and peace, race and gender, homelessness, prisons, and the environment. Eighteen new studies explore the activism of renowned leaders and organizations, such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Bernard Glassman, Joanna Macy, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and the Free Tibet Movement, and the emergence of a new Buddhism in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia.
Download or read book Critical Buddhism written by Mr James Mark Shields and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-06-28 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the relative calm world of Japanese Buddhist scholarship was thrown into chaos with the publication of several works by Buddhist scholars Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shiro, dedicated to the promotion of something they called Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyo). In their quest to re-establish a "true" - rational, ethical and humanist - form of East Asian Buddhism, the Critical Buddhists undertook a radical deconstruction of historical and contemporary East Asian Buddhism, particularly Zen. While their controversial work has received some attention in English-language scholarship, this is the first book-length treatment of Critical Buddhism as both a philosophical and religious movement, where the lines between scholarship and practice blur. Providing a critical and constructive analysis of Critical Buddhism, particularly the epistemological categories of critica and topica, this book examines contemporary theories of knowledge and ethics in order to situate Critical Buddhism within modern Japanese and Buddhist thought as well as in relation to current trends in contemporary Western thought.
Download or read book The Buddha before Buddhism written by Gil Fronsdal and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2016-11-29 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This easy-to-understand translation of one of the earliest surviving Buddhist texts offers a pathway to awakening that is simple, straightforward, and free of religious doctrine One of the earliest of all Buddhist texts, the Atthakavagga, or “Book of Eights,” is a remarkable document, not only because it comes from the earliest strain of the literature—before the Buddha, as the title suggests, came to be thought of as a “Buddhist”—but also because its approach to awakening is so simple and free of adherence to any kind of ideology. Instead the Atthakavagga points to a direct and simple approach for attaining peace without requiring the adherence to doctrine. The value of the teachings it contains is not in the profundity of their philosophy or in their authority as scripture; rather, the value is found in the results they bring to those who live by them. Instead of doctrines to be believed, the “Book of Eights” describes means or practices for realizing peace. Gil Fronsdal’s rigorous translation with commentary reveals the text to be of interest not only to Buddhists, but also to the ever-growing demographic of spiritual-but-not-religious, who seek a spiritual life outside the structures of religion.
Download or read book Socially Engaged Buddhism written by Sallie B. King and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2009-01-19 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Socially Engaged Buddhism is an introduction to the contemporary movement of Buddhists, East and West, who actively engage with the problems of the world—social, political, economic, and environmental—on the basis of Buddhist ideas, values, and spirituality. Sallie B. King, one of North America’s foremost experts on the subject, identifies in accessible language the philosophical and ethical thinking behind the movement and examines how key principles such as karma, the Four Noble Truths, interdependence, nonharmfulness, and nonjudgmentalism relate to social engagement. Many people believe that Buddhists focus exclusively on spiritual attainment. Professor King examines why Engaged Buddhists involve themselves with the problems of the world and how they reconcile this involvement with the Buddhist teaching of nonattachment from worldly things. Engaged Buddhists, she answers, point out that because the root of human suffering is in the mind, not the world, the pursuit of enlightenment does not require a turning away from the world. Working to reduce suffering in humans, living things, and the planet is integral to spiritual practice and leads to selflessness and compassion. Socially Engaged Buddhism is a sustained reflection on social action as a form of spirituality expressed in acts of compassion, grassroots empowerment, nonjudgmentalism, and nonviolence. It offers an inspiring example of how one might work for solutions to the troubles that threaten the peace and well being of our planet and its people.
Download or read book Engaged Buddhism written by Bharati Puri and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume elaborates on, examines, and understands the Dalai Lama's thought on various current issues such as non-violence, human rights, and the political issue of the autonomy of Tibet. This is one of the first books - in spite of the range of books on the Dalai Lama-to actually seek out the conceptual foundations of his thought. The Dalai Lama's ethical teachings have gained worldwide recognition primarily because his actions and writings reflect a concern for combining ancient religious traditions with a contemporary political, social, and religious cause. His thought extends to the arena of international politics and human relations. By categorizing the Dalai Lama's thought under various headings and sub-themes, the book attempts to articulate and carry out an analysis of this thought. Allusions to other thinkers and writers have been made in order to draw parallels to the thought of the Dalai Lama. Such a comparative approach helps to bring out the significance of the eclectic dimensions of the Dalai Lama's thought. The author collates in this work perhaps the most comprehensive bibliography ever put together of the Dalai Lama's works. She also provides the entire transcription of an interview with the Dalai Lama which she conducted personally in August 2001.
Download or read book Why I Am Not a Buddhist written by Evan Thompson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A provocative essay challenging the idea of Buddhist exceptionalism, from one of the world's most widely respected philosophers and writers on Buddhism and science. Buddhism has become a uniquely favored religion in our modern age. A burgeoning number of books extol the scientifically proven benefits of meditation and mindfulness for everything ranging from business to romance. There are conferences, courses, and celebrities promoting the notion that Buddhism is spirituality for the rational; compatible with cutting-edge science; indeed, "a science of the mind." In this provocative book, Evan Thompson argues that this representation of Buddhism is false. In lucid and entertaining prose, Thompson dives deep into both Western and Buddhist philosophy to explain how the goals of science and religion are fundamentally different. Efforts to seek their unification are wrongheaded and promote mistaken ideas of both. He suggests cosmopolitanism instead, a worldview with deep roots in both Eastern and Western traditions. Smart, sympathetic, and intellectually ambitious, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in Buddhism's place in our world today."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Engaged Buddhism written by Christopher S. Queen and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive coverage of socially and politically engaged Buddhism in Asia, presenting the historical development and institutional forms of engaged Buddhism in the light of traditional Buddhist conceptions of morality, interdependence, and liberation.
Download or read book Creating the Universe written by Eric Huntington and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, 2018 Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize in the Indian Humanities Buddhist representations of the cosmos across nearly two thousand years of history in Tibet, Nepal, and India show that cosmology is a rich language for the expression of diverse religious ideas, with cosmological thinking at the center of Buddhist thought, art, and practice. In Creating the Universe, Eric Huntington presents examples of visual art and architecture, primary texts, ritual ideologies, and material practices—accompanied by extensive explanatory diagrams—to reveal the immense complexity of cosmological thinking in Himalayan Buddhism. Employing comparisons across function, medium, culture, and history, he exposes cosmology as a fundamental mode of engagement with numerous aspects of religion, from preliminary lessons to the highest rituals for enlightenment. This wide-ranging work will interest scholars and students of many fields, including Buddhist studies, religious studies, art history, and area studies. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/creating-the-universe
Download or read book Saving Buddhism written by Alicia Turner and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2014-10-31 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saving Buddhism explores the dissonance between the goals of the colonial state and the Buddhist worldview that animated Burmese Buddhism at the turn of the twentieth century. For many Burmese, the salient and ordering discourse was not nation or modernity but sāsana, the life of the Buddha’s teachings. Burmese Buddhists interpreted the political and social changes between 1890 and 1920 as signs that the Buddha’s sāsana was deteriorating. This fear of decline drove waves of activity and organizing to prevent the loss of the Buddha’s teachings. Burmese set out to save Buddhism, but achieved much more: they took advantage of the indeterminacy of the moment to challenge the colonial frameworks that were beginning to shape their world. Author Alicia Turner has examined thousands of rarely used sources-- newspapers and Buddhist journals, donation lists, and colonial reports—to trace three discourses set in motion by the colonial encounter: the evolving understanding of sāsana as an orienting framework for change, the adaptive modes of identity made possible in the moral community, and the ongoing definition of religion as a site of conflict and negotiation of autonomy. Beginning from an understanding that defining and redefining the boundaries of religion operated as a key technique of colonial power—shaping subjects through European categories and authorizing projects of colonial governmentality—she explores how Burmese Buddhists became actively engaged in defining and inflecting religion to shape their colonial situation and forward their own local projects. Saving Buddhism intervenes not just in scholarly conversations about religion and colonialism, but in theoretical work in religious studies on the categories of “religion” and “secular.” It contributes to ongoing studies of colonialism, nation, and identity in Southeast Asian studies by working to denaturalize nationalist histories. It also engages conversations on millennialism and the construction of identity in Buddhist studies by tracing the fluid nature of sāsana as a discourse. The layers of Buddhist history that emerge challenge us to see multiple modes of identity in colonial modernity and offer insights into the instabilities of categories we too often take for granted.
Download or read book Buddhism in the Modern World written by Steven Heine and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Buddhism has been characterized by an ongoing tension between attempts to preserve traditional ideals and modes of practice and the need to adapt to changing cultural conditions. Many developments in Buddhist history, such as the infusion of esoteric rituals, the rise of devotionalism and lay movements, and the assimilation of warrior practices, reflect the impact of widespread social changes on traditional religious structures. At the same time, Buddhism has been able to maintain its doctrinal purity to a remarkable degree. This volume explores how traditional Buddhist communities have responded to the challenges of modernity, such as science and technology, colonialism, and globalization. Editors Steven Heine and Charles S. Prebish have commissioned ten essays by leading scholars, each examining a particular traditional Buddhist school in its cultural context. The essays consider how the encounter with modernity has impacted the disciplinary, textual, ritual, devotional, practical, and socio-political traditions of Buddhist thought throughout Asia. Taken together, these essays reveal the diversity and vitality of contemporary Buddhism and offer a wide-ranging look at the way Buddhism interacts with the modern world.
Download or read book Bodhisattva 4 0 A Primer for Engaged Buddhists written by John H. Negru and published by Sumeru Press Incorporated. This book was released on 2019-09-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BODHISATTVA 4.0 is a collection of 108 simple conversation-starters about difficult questions on the inflection point of the fourth industrial revolution. Each topic is presented as a two-page spread that includes resources for further study. In total, the book contains more than 500 easily accessible online resources.
Download or read book Women and Buddhist Philosophy written by Jin Y. Park and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why and how do women engage with Buddhism and philosophy? The present volume aims to answer these questions by examining the life and philosophy of a Korean Zen Buddhist nun, Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971). The daughter of a pastor, Iryŏp began questioning Christian doctrine as a teenager. In a few years, she became increasingly involved in women’s movements in Korea, speaking against society’s control of female sexuality and demanding sexual freedom and free divorce for women. While in her late twenties, an existential turn in her thinking led Iryŏp to Buddhism; she eventually joined a monastery and went on to become a leading figure in the female monastic community until her death. After taking the tonsure, Iryŏp followed the advice of her teacher and stopped publishing for more than two decades. She returned to the world of letters in her sixties, using her strong, distinctive voice to address fundamental questions on the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the value of existence. In her writing, she frequently adopted an autobiographical style that combined her experiences with Buddhist teachings. Through a close analysis of Iryŏp’s story, Buddhist philosophy and practice in connection with East Asian new women’s movements, and continental philosophy, this volume offers a creative interpretation of Buddhism as both a philosophy and a religion actively engaged with lives as they are lived. It presents a fascinating narrative on how women connect with the world—whether through social issues such as gender inequality, a Buddhist worldview, or existential debates on human existence and provides readers with a new way of philosophizing that is transformative and deeply connected with everyday life. Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp will be of primary interest to scholars and students of Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative philosophy, and gender and Korean studies.
Download or read book Buddhish written by C. Pierce Salguero and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engaging, accessible introduction to Buddhism for those who are looking to explore a new spiritual tradition or understand the roots of their mindfulness practice. Are you curious about Buddhism but find yourself met with scholarly texts or high-minded moralizing every time you try to pick up a book about it? Well, if so, relax. This is no ordinary introduction to Buddhism; there are none of the saccharine platitudes and dense pontification that you may have come to expect. Buddhish is a readable introduction for complete newcomers that provides an objective, streamlined overview of the tradition—from unpacking the Four Noble Truths to understanding what “nirvana” actually means. For those who have already dipped their toes into the tradition through the practice of mindfulness or meditation, this guide will help you create a more well-rounded and informed experience by delving into the history of the Buddhist traditions that shape a mindful practice. Buddhist scholar Dr. Pierce Salguero analyzes the ideas and philosophy of the complex tradition through the eyes of both a critic and an admirer. He shares anecdotes from his time at a Thai monastery, stories from the years he spent living throughout Asia, and other personal experiences that have shaped his study of Buddhism. Through this guide, readers will have the opportunity to develop an approach to practice that is not quite Buddhist but Buddhish. Through engaging and lighthearted stories, Dr. Salguero breaks down 20 central principles of the tradition, including: • Awakening • Suffering • Doubt • Karma • Buddha Nature
Download or read book The Bodhisattva s Brain written by Owen Flanagan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-12 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating introduction to the intersection between religion, neuroscience, and moral philosophy asks: Can there be a Buddhism without karma, nirvana, and reincarnation that is compatible with the rest of knowledge? If we are material beings living in a material world—and all the scientific evidence suggests that we are—then we must find existential meaning, if there is such a thing, in this physical world. We must cast our lot with the natural rather than the supernatural. Many Westerners with spiritual (but not religious) inclinations are attracted to Buddhism—almost as a kind of moral-mental hygiene. But, as Owen Flanagan points out in The Bodhisattva's Brain, Buddhism is hardly naturalistic. In The Bodhisattva's Brain, Flanagan argues that it is possible to discover in Buddhism a rich, empirically responsible philosophy that could point us to one path of human flourishing. Some claim that neuroscience is in the process of validating Buddhism empirically, but Flanagan'’ naturalized Buddhism does not reduce itself to a brain scan showing happiness patterns. “Buddhism naturalized,” as Flanagan constructs it, offers instead a fully naturalistic and comprehensive philosophy, compatible with the rest of knowledge—a way of conceiving of the human predicament, of thinking about meaning for finite material beings living in a material world.
Download or read book Interbeing fourteen guidelines for engaged Buddhism written by Thich Nhat Hanh and published by . This book was released on 2003-03 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Foundations of Buddhism written by Rupert Gethin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998-07-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this introduction to the foundations of Buddhism, Rupert Gethin concentrates on the ideas and practices which constitute the common heritage of the different traditions of Buddhism (Thervada, Tibetan and Eastern) which exist in the world today.
