Download or read book Family in Buddhism written by Liz Wilson and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Buddha left his home and family and enjoined his followers to go forth and "become homeless." With a traditionally celibate clergy, Asian Buddhism is often regarded as a world-renouncing religion inimical to family life. This edited volume counters this view, showing how Asian Buddhists in a wide range of historical and geographical circumstances relate as kin to their biological families and to the religious families they join. Using contemporary and historical case studies as well as textual examples, contributors explore how Asian Buddhists invoke family ties in the intentional communities they create and use them to establish religious authority and guard religious privilege. The language of family and lineage emerges as central to a variety of South and East Asian Buddhist contexts. With an interdisciplinary, Pan-Asian approach, Family in Buddhism challenges received wisdom in religious studies and offers new ways to think about family and society.
Download or read book Buddhism in the Modern World written by Steven Heine and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-11 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 Buddhism in Practice written by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology, first published in 1995, illustrates the vast scope of Buddhist practice in Asia, past and present. Re-released now in a slimmer but still extensive edition, Buddhism in Practice presents a selection of thirty-five translated texts--each preceded by a substantial introduction by its translator. These unusual sources provides the reader with a sense of the remarkable diversity of the practices of persons who over the course of 2,500 years have been identified, by themselves or by others, as Buddhists. Demonstrating the many continuities among the practices of Buddhist cultures widely separated by both history and geography, Buddhism in Practice continues to provide an ideal introduction to Buddhism and a source of new insights for scholars.
Download or read book Buddhism of the Heart written by Jeff Wilson and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10-08 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a foreword by Mark Unno and Taitetsu Unno. Jeff Wilson started his walk on the Buddha's Path as a Zen practitioner-taking up a tradition of vigorous self-effort, intensive meditation, and meticulous attention to rectitude in every action. But in Jeff's case, rather than freeing him from his suffering, he found those Zen practices made him nothing short of insufferable. And so he turned to Shin Buddhism-a path that is easily the most popular in Zen's native land of Japan but is largely unknown in the West. Shin emphasizes an ''entrusting heart,'' a heart that is able to receive with gratitude every moment of our mistake-filled and busy lives. Moreover, through walking the Shin path, Jeff comes see that each of us (himself especially included) are truly ''foolish beings,'' people so filled with endlessly arising ''blind passions'' and ingrained habits that we so easily cause harm even with our best intentions. And even so, Shin holds out the tantalizing possibility that, by truly entrusting our foolish selves to the compassionate universe, we can learn to see how this foolish life, just as it is, is nonetheless also a life of grace. Buddhism of the Heart is a wide-ranging book of essays and open-hearted stories, reflections that run the gamut from intensely personal to broadly philosophical, introducing the reader to a remarkable religious tradition of compassionate acceptance.
Download or read book Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet written by Melvyn C. Goldstein and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, the People's Republic of China gradually permitted the renewal of religious activity. Tibetans, whose traditional religious and cultural institutions had been decimated during the preceding two decades, took advantage of the decisions of 1978 to begin a Buddhist renewal that is one of the most extensive and dramatic examples of religious revitalization in contemporary China. The nature of that revival is the focus of this book.
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 Recovering Buddhism in Modern China written by Jan Kiely and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern Chinese history told from a Buddhist perspective restores the vibrant, creative role of religion in postimperial China. It shows how urban Buddhist elites jockeyed for cultural dominance in the early Republican era, how Buddhist intellectuals reckoned with science, and how Buddhist media contributed to modern print cultures. It recognizes the political importance of sacred Buddhist relics and the complex processes through which Buddhists both participated in and experienced religious suppression under Communist rule. Today, urban and rural communities alike engage with Buddhist practices to renegotiate class, gender, and kinship relations in post-Mao China. This volume vividly portrays these events and more, recasting Buddhism as a critical factor in China's twentieth-century development. Each chapter connects a moment in Buddhist history to a significant theme in Chinese history, creating new narratives of Buddhism's involvement in the emergence of urban modernity, the practice of international diplomacy, the mobilization for total war, and other transformations of state, society, and culture. Working across an extraordinary thematic range, this book reincorporates Buddhism into the formative processes and distinctive character of Chinese history.
Download or read book Women in Buddhism written by Diana Y. Paul and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1985-04-23 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In seeking to explore the interrelationships between, and mutual influence of, varieties of sexual stereotypes and religious views of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, Women in Buddhism succeeds in drawing our attention to matters of philosophical importance. Paul examines the 'image' of women which arise in a number of Buddhist texts associated with Mahayana and finds that, while ideally the tradition purports to be egalitarian, in actual practice it often betrayed a strong misogynist prejudice. Sanskrit and Chinese texts are organized by theme and type, progressing from those which treat the traditionally orthodox and negative to those which set forth a positive consideration of soteriological paths for women. . . . In Women in Buddhism, Diana Paul may be forcing our consideration of the problem of female enlightenment. Thus the main purport and accomplishment of her scholarship is revolutionary."—Philosophy East and West
Download or read book The Everything Buddhism Book written by Arnie Kozak and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-12-18 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." --Dalai Lama That's easy for the Dalai Lama to say--but for the rest of us, understanding this mysterious, multilayered faith can be very difficult. With this updated and revised edition of the classic Buddhist primer, you can delve into the profound principles of nonviolence, mindfulness, and self-awareness. From Tibetan Buddhism to Zen, you'll explore the traditions of all branches of Buddhism, including: The life of Buddha and his continuing influence throughout the world A revealing survey of the definitive Buddhist texts What the Sutras say about education, marriage, sex, and death Faith-fueled social protest movements in Tibet, Burma, and elsewhere Buddhist art, poetry, architecture, calligraphy, and landscaping The proven physiological effects of meditation and other Buddhist practices The growing impact of Buddhism on modern American culture In this guide, you'll discover the deceptively simple truths of this enigmatic religion. Most important, you learn how to apply the tenets of Buddhism to your daily life--and achieve clarity and inner peace in the process.
Download or read book Heartwood written by Wendy Cadge and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-10-10 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theravada is one of the three main branches of Buddhism. In Asia it is practiced widely in Thailand, Laos, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia. This fascinating ethnography opens a window onto two communities of Theravada Buddhists in contemporary America: one outside Philadelphia that is composed largely of Thai immigrants and one outside Boston that consists mainly of white converts. Wendy Cadge first provides a historical overview of Theravada Buddhism and considers its specific origins here in the United States. She then brings her findings to bear on issues of personal identity, immigration, cultural assimilation, and the nature of religion in everyday life. Her work is the first systematic comparison of the ways in which immigrant and convert Buddhists understand, practice, and adapt the Buddhist tradition in America. The men and women whom Cadge meets and observes speak directly to us in this work, both in their personal testimonials and as they meditate, pray, and practice Buddhism. Creative and insightful, Heartwood will be of enormous value to sociologists of religion and anyone wishing to understand the rise of Buddhism in the Western world.
Download or read book In This Very Life written by U Pandita and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-30 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Burmese meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita shows us that freedom is as immediate as breathing, as fundamental as a footstep. In this book he describes the path of the Buddha and calls all of us to that heroic journey of liberation. Enlivened by numerous case histories and anecdotes, In This Very Life is a matchless guide to the inner territory of meditation - as described by the Buddha.
Download or read book Religious Bodies Politic written by Anya Bernstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-27 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious Bodies Politic examines the complex relationship between transnational religion and politics through the lens of one cosmopolitan community in Siberia: Buryats, who live in a semiautonomous republic within Russia with a large Buddhist population. Looking at religious transformation among Buryats across changing political economies, Anya Bernstein argues that under conditions of rapid social change—such as those that accompanied the Russian Revolution, the Cold War, and the fall of the Soviet Union—Buryats have used Buddhist “body politics” to articulate their relationship not only with the Russian state, but also with the larger Buddhist world. During these periods, Bernstein shows, certain people and their bodies became key sites through which Buryats conformed to and challenged Russian political rule. She presents particular cases of these emblematic bodies—dead bodies of famous monks, temporary bodies of reincarnated lamas, ascetic and celibate bodies of Buddhist monastics, and dismembered bodies of lay disciples given as imaginary gifts to spirits—to investigate the specific ways in which religion and politics have intersected. Contributing to the growing literature on postsocialism and studies of sovereignty that focus on the body, Religious Bodies Politic is a fascinating illustration of how this community employed Buddhism to adapt to key moments of political change.
Download or read book Psychotherapy and Buddhism written by Jeffrey B. Rubin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-11 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is currently a burgeoning interest in the relationship between the Western psychotherapeutic and Buddhist meditative traditions among therapists, researchers, and spiritual seekers. Psychotherapy and Buddhism initiates a conversation between these two modern methods of achieving greater self-understanding and peace of mind. Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin explores how they might be combined to better serve patients in therapy and adherents to a spiritual way of life. He examines the strengths and limitations of each tradition through three contexts: the nature of self, conception of ideal health, and process of achieving optimal health. The volume features the first two cases of Buddhists in psychoanalytic treatment.
Download or read book Inside Buddhism written by Kathy Zaun and published by Lorenz Educational Press. This book was released on 2002-09-01 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an illustrated overview of the origins and development of the Buddhist religion. Includes discussion and essay questions, word lists, a test, and answer key.
Download or read book Saving Buddhism written by Alicia Marie Turner and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work 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. Alicia Turner traces three discourses set in motion by the colonial encounter: the evolving understanding of ssana as an orienting framework for change, the adaptive modes of identity made possible in the moral community, and the definition of religion as a site of conflict and negotiation of autonomy.
Download or read book Setting Out on the Great Way written by Paul Maxwell Harrison and published by Equinox Publishing (UK). This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Setting Out on the Great Way brings together different perspectives on the origins and early history of Mahāyāna Buddhism and delves into selected aspects of its formative period. As the variety of the religion which conquered East Asia and also provided the matrix for the later development of Buddhist Tantra or Vajrayāna, Mahāyāna is regarded as one of the most significant forms of Buddhism, and its beginnings have long been the focus of intense scholarly attention and debate. The essays in this volume address the latest findings in the field, including contributions by younger researchers vigorously critiquing the reappraisal of the Mahāyāna carried out by scholars in the last decades of the 20th century and the different understanding of the movement which they produced. As the study of Buddhism as a whole reorients itself to embrace new methods and paradigms, while at the same time coming to terms with exciting new manuscript discoveries, our picture of the Mahāyāna continues to change. This volume presents the latest developments in this ongoing re-evaluation of one of Buddhism's most important historical expressions.
Download or read book Buddhism in the Modern World written by David L. McMahan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhism in the Modern World explores the challenges faced by Buddhism today, the distinctive forms that it has taken and the individuals and movements that have shaped it. Part One discusses the modern history of Buddhism in different geographical regions, from Southeast Asia to North America. Part Two examines key themes including globalization, gender issues, and the ways in which Buddhism has confronted modernity, science, popular culture and national politics. Each chapter is written by a distinguished scholar in the field and includes photographs, summaries, discussion points and suggestions for further reading. The book provides a lively and up-to-date overview that is indispensable for both students and scholars of Buddhism.
