Download or read book Pure Land Real World written by Melissa Anne-Marie Curley and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For close to a thousand years Amida’s Pure Land, a paradise of perfect ease and equality, was the most powerful image of shared happiness circulating in the Japanese imagination. In the late nineteenth century, some Buddhist thinkers sought to reinterpret the Pure Land in ways that would allow it speak to modern Japan. Their efforts succeeded in ways they could not have predicted. During the war years, economist Kawakami Hajime, philosopher Miki Kiyoshi, and historian Ienaga Saburō—left-leaning thinkers with no special training in doctrinal studies and no strong connection to any Buddhist institution—seized upon modernized images of Shinran in exile and a transcendent Western Paradise to resist the demands of a state that was bearing down on its citizens with increasing force. Pure Land, Real World treats the religious thought of these three major figures in English for the first time. Kawakami turned to religion after being imprisoned for his involvement with the Japanese Communist Party, borrowing the Shinshū image of the two truths to assert that Buddhist law and Marxist social science should reinforce each other, like the two wings of a bird. Miki, a member of the Kyoto School who went from prison to the crown prince’s think tank and back again, identified Shinran’s religion as belonging to the proletariat: For him, following Shinran and working toward building a buddha land on earth were akin to realizing social revolution. And Ienaga’s understanding of the Pure Land—as the crystallization of a logic of negation that undermined every real power structure—fueled his battle against the state censorship system, just as he believed it had enabled Shinran to confront the world’s suffering head on. Such readings of the Pure Land tradition are idiosyncratic—perhaps even heretical—but they hum with the same vibrancy that characterized medieval Pure Land belief. Innovative and refreshingly accessible, Pure Land, Real World shows that the Pure Land tradition informed twentieth-century Japanese thought in profound and surprising ways and suggests that it might do the same for twenty-first-century thinkers. The critical power of Pure Land utopianism has yet to be exhausted.

Download or read book Love Letter to the Earth written by Thich Nhat Hanh and published by Parallax Press. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world-renowned Zen monk argues for a more mindful, spiritual approach to environmental protection and activism—one that recognizes people and planet as one and the same While many experts point to the enormous complexity in addressing issues ranging from the destruction of ecosystems to the loss of millions of species, Thich Nhat Hanh identifies one key issue as having the potential to create a tipping point. He believes that we need to move beyond the concept of the “environment,” as it leads people to experience themselves and Earth as two separate entities and to see the planet only in terms of what it can do for them. Thich Nhat Hanh points to the lack of meaning and connection in peoples’ lives as being the cause of our addiction to consumerism. He deems it vital that we recognize and respond to the stress we are putting on the Earth if civilization is to survive. Rejecting the conventional economic approach, Nhat Hanh shows that mindfulness and a spiritual revolution are needed to protect nature and limit climate change. Love Letter to the Earth is a hopeful book that gives us a path to follow by showing that change is possible only with the recognition that people and the planet are ultimately one and the same.

Download or read book Ecodharma written by David Loy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we respond urgently and effectively to the ecological crisis—and stay sane doing it? This landmark work is simultaneously a manifesto, a blueprint, a call to action, and a deep comfort for troubling times. David R. Loy masterfully lays out the principles and perspectives of Ecodharma—a Buddhist response to our ecological predicament, introducing a new term for a new development of the Buddhist tradition. This book emphasizes the three aspects of Ecodharma: practicing in the natural world, exploring the ecological implications of Buddhist teachings, and embodying that understanding in the eco-activism that is needed today. Within these pages, you’ll discover the powerful ways Buddhism can inspire us to heal the world we share. Offering a compelling framework and practical spiritual resources, Loy outlines the Ecosattva Path, a path of liberation and salvation for all beings and the world itself.

Download or read book Why Buddha Touched the Earth written by Tom Swiss and published by . This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortly before his death, John Lennon called himself a "Zen Pagan." With this he gave an excellent name to a religious trend that goes back at least as far as Henry David Thoreau, who wrote of his love and respect for both the ancient nature god Pan and the Buddha. The connection between Buddhism and nature spirituality is ancient. According to legends of the Buddha's enlightenment, in his hour of need he asked the Earth to bear him witness rather than appealing to a heavenly deity. Over the centuries, Buddhism influenced and was influenced by nature religions like Taoism and Shint, while its introduction to the West came partly through spiritual nature writers like Thoreau and Gary Snyder. Occultists Aleister Crowley and H.P. Blavatsky played key roles in both Buddhist and Neopagan history. Why Buddha Touched the Earth investigates the rise of Buddhism as a world religion during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, its relationship to the Neopagan movement, and how both are related to the extraordinary changes civilization has seen since the Industrial Revolution. It combines rigorous history with lively and practical discussions of mysticism, magic, meditation, ethics, and the future of religion in a scientific age.

Download or read book Heaven and Earth Are Flowers written by Joan D. Stamm and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-03-09 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lovely, meditative exploration of Ikebana -- the Japanese art of flower arranging -- Joan Stamm shows us how her twin paths of Buddhist practice and artistic endeavor converge and indeed become thoroughly intertwined. In reflecting on the fading of a lovely bloom, the author understands impermanence; when she shows us the natural symmetry of a blossom, we find that we too have regained our balance. Stamm's elegant, lush voice weaves childhood memories with meditations on the symbolic importance of nature.

Download or read book Touching the Earth written by Thich Nhat Hanh and published by Parallax Press. This book was released on 2004-03-09 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though the original edition of Touching the Earth is deeply embraced by those already practicing mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, the revised edition seeks to make the exercises contained within more accessible for those new to Buddhist or mindfulness practice. Based on the loving kindness and compassion meditation of the Lotus Sutra, Touching the Earth contains one of the most popular and transformative practices of Thich Nhat Hanh. Written as a poetic conversation with the Buddha, it is a step-by-step guidebook to the practice of 'Beginning Anew'. Thich Nhat Hanh describes it as having the capacity to removing obstacles brought about by past wrongdoings and to bring back the joy of being alive. According to many of his students who are deeply touched by this practice, it can help renew our faith and develop our compassion. It presents a opportunity to heal our relationships through forgiveness and to embrace our ancestors, parents, teachers, and ourselves. Touching the Earth contains clear instructions for the 'Beginning Anew' practice with over 40 guided meditation verses, allowing the reader to practice alone or with others.

Download or read book Touching the Earth EasyRead Edition written by Nhất Hạnh (Thích.) and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2004 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Touching the Earth written by Akuppa and published by Windhorse Publications. This book was released on 2002 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faced with the environmental crises we see many people carrying on as usual. If we look to those in government, we see indecision or complacency. So what do we do? Do we follow the herd or do we look to our own sense of what is rational and compassionate?

Download or read book Touching the Earth EasyRead Super Large 24pt Edition written by and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Establishing a Pureland on Earth written by Christopher Stuart Chandler and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Saving the Earth written by Akuppa and published by Buddhist View. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides tools for change while showing how the Buddhist philosophies of interconnectedness and compassion are of immense use in our efforts towards preserving the natural world. This work helps you to deal with the feelings of panic and despair that news of the environment can often evoke.

Download or read book A Still Forest Pool written by Achaan Chah and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2013-10-23 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achaan Chah spent many years walking and meditating in the forest monastery of Wat Ba Pong, engaging in the uncomplicated and disciplined Buddhist practice called dhudanga. A Still Forest Pool reflects the quiet, intensive, and joyous practice of the forest monks of Thailand. Achaan Chah’s humble words, compiled by two Westerners who are former ordained monks, awaken the spirit of inquiry, wonderment, understanding, and deep inner peace. Attachment, according to Achaan Chah, causes all suffering. Understanding the impermanent, insecure, and selfless nature of life is the message he offers for human happiness and realization. To vividly grasp the meaning of attachment leads us to a new place of practice – the path of balance, the Middle Path.

Download or read book Establishing a Pure Land on Earth written by Stuart Chandler and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2004-07-31 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With more than 150 temples in thirty countries, Foguangshan has developed over the last thirty-five years into one of the world’s largest and most influential Chinese Buddhist movements. The result of two years of fieldwork in Foguangshan temples in Taiwan, the U.S., Australia, and South Africa, this volume is an unprecedented examination of the inner workings of a dynamic and innovative religious movement. Based on direct observations, private interviews, and careful textual and historical analysis, Stuart Chandler looks at the challenges faced by Foguangshan’s leader, Master Xingyun, and his followers as they try to adhere to traditional practices and values while tapping into the advantages afforded by modern, global society. Foguangshan’s slogans (“Humanistic Buddhism” and “Establishing a Pure Land on Earth”) are placed in historical context to reveal their role in shaping the group’s attitudes toward capitalism, women’s rights, and democracy, as well as toward the traditional Chinese virtue of filial piety and the Chinese Buddhist concept of “links of affinity” (jieyuan). Chandler goes on to analyze Foguangshan’s educational system and its understanding of how precepts relate to contemporary problems such as abortion and capital punishment. The book’s final chapters consider the cultural and political dynamics at play in Foguangshan’s ambitious attempt to spread Humanistic Buddhism around the world and how its followers have reinterpreted the Buddhist ideal of homelessness to take advantage of the spiritual potentialities of people’s lives as global citizens.

Download or read book Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet written by Thich Nhat Hanh and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER “When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing. And at that moment you can have real communication with the Earth… We have to wake up together. And if we wake up together, then we have a chance. Our way of living our life and planning our future has led us into this situation. And now we need to look deeply to find a way out, not only as individuals, but as a collective, a species.” -- Thich Nhat Hanh We face a potent intersection of crises: ecological destruction, rising inequality, racial injustice, and the lasting impacts of a devastating pandemic. The situation is beyond urgent. To face these challenges, we need to find ways to strengthen our clarity, compassion, and courage to act. Beloved Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is blazingly clear: there’s one thing we all have the power to change, which can make all the difference, and that is our mind. Our way of looking, seeing, and thinking determines every choice we make, the everyday actions we take or avoid, how we relate to those we love or oppose, and how we react in a crisis. Mindfulness and the radical insights of Zen meditation can give us the strength and clarity we need to help create a regenerative world in which all life is respected. Filled with Thich Nhat Hanh’s inspiring meditations, Zen stories and experiences from his own activism, as well as commentary from Sister True Dedication, one of his students Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet shows us a new way of seeing and living that can bring healing and harmony to ourselves, our relationships, and the Earth.

Download or read book Buddhist Ecological Protection of Space written by Daniel Capper and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-10-21 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This seminal monograph provides the essential guidance that we need to act as responsible ecological citizens while we expand our reach beyond Earth. The emergence of numerous national space programs along with several potent commercial presences prompts our attention to urgent environmental issues like what to do with the large mass of debris that orbits Earth, potential best practices for mining our moon, how to appropriately search for microscopic life, or whether to alter the ecology of Mars to suit humans better. This book not only examines the science and morals behind these potential ecological pitfall scenarios beyond Earth, it also provides groundbreaking policy responses founded upon ethics. These effective solutions come from a critical reframing for scientific settings of the unique moral voices of diverse Buddhists from the American ethnographic field, who together delineate sophisticated yet practical values for traveling through our solar system. Along the way, Buddhists fascinatingly supply robust environmental lessons for Earth, too. As much a work of astrobiology as it is one of religious studies, this book should appeal to anyone who is interested in space travel, our human environment in large scale, or spiritual ecology.

Download or read book Tibet written by Peter Grieder and published by Clear Light Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Describes the culture and people of Tibet and the key elements of Buddhist teachings."--Amazon.com

Download or read book The Buddha s Footprint written by Johan Elverskog and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An environmental history of Buddhism. The book addresses the basic concerns of environmental history: the history of human thought about "nature" or "the environment"; the influence of environmental factors on human history; and the effect of human-caused environmental changes on human society"--