Download or read book Family Matters in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms written by Shayne Clarke and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholarly and popular consensus has painted a picture of Indian Buddhist monasticism in which monks and nuns severed all ties with their families when they left home for the religious life. In this view, monks and nuns remained celibate, and those who faltered in their “vows” of monastic celibacy were immediately and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist Order. This romanticized image is based largely on the ascetic rhetoric of texts such as the Rhinoceros Horn Sutra. Through a study of Indian Buddhist law codes (vinaya), Shayne Clarke dehorns the rhinoceros, revealing that in their own legal narratives, far from renouncing familial ties, Indian Buddhist writers take for granted the fact that monks and nuns would remain in contact with their families. The vision of the monastic life that emerges from Clarke's close reading of monastic law codes challenges some of our most basic scholarly notions of what it meant to be a Buddhist monk or nun in India around the turn of the Common Era. Not only do we see thick narratives depicting monks and nuns continuing to interact and associate with their families, but some are described as leaving home for the religious life with their children, and some as married monastic couples. Clarke argues that renunciation with or as a family is tightly woven into the very fabric of Indian Buddhist renunciation and monasticisms. Surveying the still largely uncharted terrain of Indian Buddhist monastic law codes preserved in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese, Clarke provides a comprehensive, pan-Indian picture of Buddhist monastic attitudes toward family. Whereas scholars have often assumed that monastic Buddhism must be anti-familial, he demonstrates that these assumptions were clearly not shared by the authors/redactors of Indian Buddhist monastic law codes. In challenging us to reconsider some of our most cherished assumptions concerning Indian Buddhist monasticisms, he provides a basis to rethink later forms of Buddhist monasticism such as those found in Central Asia, Kaśmīr, Nepal, and Tibet not in terms of corruption and decline but of continuity and development of a monastic or renunciant ideal that we have yet to understand fully.
Download or read book Family Matters in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms written by Shayne Neil Clarke and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholarly and popular consensus has painted a picture of Indian Buddhist monasticism in which monks and nuns severed all ties with their families when they left home for the religious life. This romanticized image is based largely on the ascetic rhetoric of texts such as the Rhinoceros Horn Sutra . Through a study of Indian Buddhist law codes, Shayne Clarke reveals that in their own legal narratives, far from renouncing familial ties, Indian Buddhist writers take for granted the fact that monks and nuns would remain in contact with their families.
Download or read book Foucault Buddhism and Disciplinary Rules written by Malcolm Voyce and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book suggests that previous critiques of the rules of Buddhist monks (Vinaya) may now be reconsidered in order to deal with some of the assumptions concerning the legal nature of these rules and to provide a focus on how Vinaya texts may have actually operated in practice. Malcolm Voyce utilizes the work of Foucault and his notions of 'power' and 'subjectivity' in three ways. First, he examines The Buddha's role as a lawmaker to show how Buddhist texts were a form of lawmaking that had a diffused and lateral conception of authority. While lawmakers in some religious groups may be seen as authoritative, in the sense that leaders or founders were coercive or charismatic, the Buddhist concept of authority allows for a degree of freedom for the individual to shape or form themselves. Second, he shows that the confession ritual acted as a disciplinary measure to develop a unique sense of collective governance based on self regulation, self-governance and self-discipline. Third, he argues that while the Vinaya has been seen by some as a code or form of regulation that required obedience, the Vinaya had a double nature in that its rules could be transgressed and that offenders could be dealt with appropriately in particular situations. Voyce shows that the Vinaya was not an independent legal system, but that it was dependent on the Dharmaśāstra for some of its jurisprudential needs, and that it was not a form of customary law in the strict sense, but a wider system of jurisprudence linked to Dharmaśāstra principles and precepts.
Download or read book Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism written by José Ignacio Cabezón and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 631 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prolific scholar surveys classical Buddhism’s approach to sex, gender, and sexual orientation in this landmark volume. More than twenty-five years in the making, this detailed sourcebook on Buddhist understandings of sexuality, desire, ethics, and deviance in classical South Asia is filled with both engaging translations and original and provocative analysis. Jose Cabezon, the XIVth Dalai Lama Professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, marshals an incredible array of scriptures, legal and medical texts, and philosophical treatises, explaining the subtleties of this ancient literature in lucid prose. This work will be of immense interest not only to scholars of Buddhism and gender studies but also to lay readers who want to learn more about traditional Buddhist attitudes toward sex.
Download or read book New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism written by Hwansoo Ilmee Kim and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2022-12-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism moves beyond nationalistic, modernist, and ethnocentric historiographies of modern Korean Buddhism by carefully examining individuals' lived experiences, the institutional dimensions of Korean Buddhism, and its place in transnational conversations. Drawing upon rich archives as well as historical, anthropological, and literary approaches, the book examines four themes that have gained attention in recent years: perennial existential concerns and the persistent relevance of religious practice; the role of female Buddhists; clerical marriage and scandals; and engagement with secular society. The book reveals the limits of metanarratives, such as those of colonialism, nationalism, and modernity, in understanding the complex and contested identities of both monastics and laity, thus demanding that we diversify the methods by which we articulate the history of modern Korean Buddhism.
Download or read book The Notion of Solitude in Pali Buddhist Literature written by Indaka Nishan Weerasekera and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-05-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring how notions of solitude in Pali literature are encompassed in various literary forms, such as stock formulae, poetry, narrative, and imagery, this book includes close analysis of some of the most famous Buddhist verses about solitary practice. Indaka Nishan Weerasekera considers how solitude is valued as one significant aspect of the Buddhist path, including how the imagery of landscape, especially the forest, serves to both inspire solitary practice as well as functions as a metaphor for meditation. The author employs a cross-section of primary sources to explore the practical and psychological aspects of solitude in relation to Buddhist meditation, as well as relational/attitudinal concepts such as renunciation or desirelessness, independence, and self-reliance. This 'lonely' aspect of the Buddhist path sits alongside the 'communal' aspect of the Buddhist teachings. Together, they serve to maintain monastic harmony, while the 'social' aspect preserves monastic relations with wider society.
Download or read book Women in Early Indian Buddhism written by Alice Collett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-20 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The path of practice as taught in ancient India by Gotama Buddha was open to both women and men. The texts of early Indian Buddhism show that women were lay followers of the Buddha and were also granted the right to ordain and become nuns. Certain women were known as influential teachers of men and women alike and considered experts in certain aspects of Gotama's dhamma. For this to occur in an ancient religion practiced within traditional societies is really quite extraordinary. This is apparent especially in light of the continued problems experienced by practitioners of many religions today involved in challenging instilled norms and practices and conferring the status of any high office upon women. In this collection, Alice Collett brings together a sampling of the plethora of Buddhist texts from early Indian Buddhism in which women figure centrally. It is true that there are negative conceptualizations of and attitudes towards women expressed in early Buddhist texts, but for so many texts concerning women to have been composed, collated and preserved is worthy of note. The simple fact that the Buddhist textual record names so many nuns and laywomen, and preserves biographies of them, attests to a relatively positive situation for women at that time. With the possible exception of the reverence accorded Egyptian queens, there is no textual record of named women from an ancient civilization that comes close to that of early Indian Buddhism. This volume offers comparative study of texts in five different languages - Gandhari, Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Sinhala. Each chapter is a study and translation, with some chapters focusing more on translation and some more on comparisons between parallel and similar texts, whilst others are more discursive and thematic.
Download or read book Buddhism in Court written by Cuilan Liu and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhism in Court is the first English language study of the legal interaction between Buddhism and the state in China. It uncovers a long-overlooked Buddhist campaign for clerical legal privileges that aimed to make ordained Buddhist monks and nuns immune from facing trials and punishment in the state court.
Download or read book Primary Sources and Asian Pasts written by Peter C. Bisschop and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-11-09 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This conference volume unites a wide range of scholars working in the fields of history, archaeology, religion, art, and philology in an effort to explore new perspectives and methods in the study of primary sources from premodern South and Southeast Asia. The contributions engage with primary sources (including texts, images, material artefacts, monuments, as well as archaeological sites and landscapes) and draw needed attention to highly adaptable, innovative, and dynamic modes of cultural production within traditional idioms. The volume works to develop categories of historical analysis that cross disciplinary boundaries and represent a wide variety of methodological concerns. By revisiting premodern sources, Asia Beyond Boundaries also addresses critical issues of temporality and periodization that attend established categories in Asian Studies, such as the “Classical Age” or the “Gupta Period”. This volume represents the culmination of the European Research Council (ERC) Synergy project Asia Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State, a research consortium of the British Museum, the British Library and the School of Oriental and African Studies, in partnership with Leiden University.
Download or read book Jewels Jewelry and Other Shiny Things in the Buddhist Imaginary written by Vanessa R. Sasson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renunciation is a core value in the Buddhist tradition, but Buddhism is not necessarily austere. Jewels—along with heavenly flowers, rays of rainbow light, and dazzling deities—shape the literature and the material reality of the tradition. They decorate temples, fill reliquaries, are used as metaphors, and sprout out of imagined Buddha fields. Moreover, jewels reflect a particular type of currency often used to make the Buddhist world go round: merit in exchange for wealth. Regardless of whether the Buddhist community has theoretically transcended the need for them or not, jewels—and the paradox they represent—are everywhere. Scholarship has often looked past this splendor, favoring the theory of renunciation instead, but in this volume, scholars from a wide range of disciplines consider the role jewels play in the Buddhist imaginary, putting them front and center for the first time. Following an introduction that relates the colorful story of the Emerald Buddha, one of the most famous jewels in the world, chapters explore the function of jewels as personal identifiers in Buddhist and other Indian religious traditions; Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the Jewel Sutta; the paradox of the Buddha’s bejeweled status before and after renunciation; and the connection in early Buddhism between jewels, magnificence, and virtue. The Newars of Nepal are the focus of a chapter that looks at their gemology and associations between gems and celestial deities. Contributors analyze the Fifth Dalai Lama’s reliquary, known as the “sole ornament of the world”; the transformation of relic jewels into precious substances and their connection to the Piprahwa stupa in Northern India and the Nanjing Porcelain Pagoda. Final chapters offer detailed studies of ritual engagement with the deity known as Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Avalokiteśvara and its role in the new Japanese lay Buddhist religious movement Shinnyo-en. Engaging and accessible, Jewels, Jewelry, and Other Shiny Things in the Buddhist Imaginary will provide readers with an opportunity to look beyond a common misconception about Buddhism and bring its lived tradition into wider discussion.
Download or read book Teaching Buddhism written by Todd Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhist studies is a rapidly changing field of research, constantly transforming and adapting to new scholarship. This creates a problem for instructors, both in a university setting and in monastic schools, as they try to develop a curriculum based on a body of scholarship that continually shifts in focus and expands to new areas. Teaching Buddhism establishes a dialogue between the community of instructors of Buddhism and leading scholars in the field who are updating, revising, and correcting earlier understandings of Buddhist traditions. Each chapter presents new ideas within a particular theme of Buddhist studies and explores how courses can be enhanced with these insights. Contributors in the first section focus on the typical approaches, figures, and traditions in undergraduate courses, such as the role of philosophy in Buddhism, Nagarjuna, Yogacara Buddhism, tantric traditions, and Zen Buddhism. They describe the impact of recent developments-like new studies in the cognitive sciences-on scholarship in those areas. Part Two examines how political engagement and ritual practice have shaped the tradition throughout its history. Focus then shifts to the issues facing instructors of Buddhism-dilemmas for the scholar-practitioner in the academic and monastic classroom, the tradition's possible roles in teaching feminism and diversity, and how to present the tradition in the context of a world religions course. In the final section, contributors offer stories of their own experiences teaching, paying particular attention to the ways in which American culture has impacted them. They discuss the development of courses on American Buddhism; using course material on the family and children; the history and trajectory of a Buddhist-Christian dialog; and Buddhist bioethics, environmentalism, economic development, and social justice. In synthesizing this vast and varied body of research, the contributors in this volume have provided an invaluable service to the field
Download or read book Literature for Little Bodhisattvas written by Natasha Heller and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2025-01-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Literature for Little Bodhisattvas, Natasha Heller makes two key interventions: first, she argues that picturebooks are a new genre of Buddhist writing, and second, she calls attention to an emergent family Buddhism in Taiwan that fashions children as religious subjects through shared attention with adult readers. Surveying Taiwanese Buddhism from the ground up, Heller explores the changing family dynamics that have made children into a crucial audience for Buddhist education and the home a key site for Buddhist cultivation. By taking picturebooks seriously as part of the Buddhist textual tradition, Heller demonstrates their engagement with canonical sources alongside innovations for modern audiences. Close readings analyzing both text and image trace narrative themes about Buddhist figures, and connect representations of buddhas and bodhisattvas to a visual culture where new values such as cuteness are articulated. Heller shows that picturebooks have become an integral part of a contemporary Buddhist education that equips children with strategies to interpret everyday life in Buddhist ways and provides religious models for action in the modern world. Literature for Little Bodhisattvas is a pathbreaking work revealing how contemporary picturebooks reframe Buddhism and offer fresh perspectives on its teachings and ideals of family for both children and adults.
Download or read book Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation written by David B. Gray and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the movement of tantric Buddhist traditions through time and space, from the early history of tantric Buddhism to the present day. These studies investigate the development of tantric Buddhist traditions in India, their dissemination into Central and East Asia, and exchanges between tantric Buddhist and rival religious traditions. From the hyper-masculine Buddha to the ritualized bodies of the siddhas, the first chapter traces shifts in Indian Buddhist ideal masculinities. The second chapter explores the intersection of Buddhism and Śaivism in early medieval India through the evolving figure of the yoginī. Another chapter explores how tenth- and eleventh-century scholars and translators in Tibet "purified" a Buddhist deity that showed signs of Śaiva Hindu origins. Two chapters use often-overlooked Tibetan and Chinese materials to explore the influence of incantations and ritual manuals on the formation of early tantric Buddhist literature. The volume's longest chapter is a detailed history of Vajrayāna Buddhism in Nepal. The work concludes with two studies of hybridity and transformation in East Asia: one on the Homa of the Northern Dipper, a fire ritual which passed from India to China to Japan, adapting to Daoist, Buddhist, and Shintō contexts; and another on the True Buddha School, a contemporary Chinese transformation of Vajrayāna Buddhism.
Download or read book Law and Anthropology written by Michael D. A. Freeman and published by Academic. This book was released on 2009-11-19 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Law and Anthropology, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and anthropology scholarship today. Focussing on the inter-connections between the two disciplines it also includes case studies from around the world.
Download or read book Little Buddhas written by Vanessa R. Sasson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by Vanessa R. Sasson, Little Buddhas brings together a wide range of scholarship and expertise to address the question of what role children have played in Buddhist literature, in particular historical contexts, and their role in specific Buddhist contexts today.
Download or read book The Theory of the Four Stages of Liberation in P li Literature written by Amrita Nanda and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Brides of the Buddha written by Karen Muldoon-Hules and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-06-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For young women in early South Asia, marriage was probably the most important event in their lives, as it largely determined their socioeconomic and religious future. Yet there has been little in the way of systematic examinations of the evidence on marriage customs among Buddhists of this time, and our understanding of the lives of early Buddhist women is still quite limited. This study uses ten stories from the Avadānaśataka, the collection of Buddhist narratives compiled from the second to fifth centuries CE, to examine the social landscape of early India. The author analyzes marital customs and the development of nuns’ hagiographies, while revealing regional variations of Buddhism in South Asia during this period.
