Buddhist Architecture in America

Buddhist Architecture in America PDF

Author: Robert Edward Gordon

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-18

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1000783170

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This book is the first comprehensive overview of Buddhist architecture in North America and provides an analysis of Buddhist architecture and communities. Exploring the arrival of Buddhist architecture in America, the book lays out how Buddhists have expressed their spiritual beliefs in structural form in the United States. The story follows the parallel history of the religion’s emergence in the United States since the California Gold Rush to the present day. Conceived of as a general history, the book investigates Buddhist structures with respect to the humanistic qualities associated with Buddhist doctrine and how Buddhist groups promote their faith and values in an American setting. The author’s point of view starts from the ground floor of the buildings to move deeper into the space of Buddhist practice, the mind that seeks enlightenment, and the structures that help one to do so. It discusses Buddhist architecture in the United States in a manner consistent with the intensely human context of its use. A unique and ground-breaking analysis, this book adds to the study of Buddhist architecture in America while also addressing the topic of how and why Buddhists use architecture in general. It will be of interest to scholars of religion, architecture, space and place, U.S. history, Asian Studies, and Buddhist Studies. It will also be a valuable addition to the libraries of Buddhist communities across the United States and the world, since many of the observations about Buddhist architecture in the United States may also apply to structures in Europe and Asia.

Buddhist Architecture in America

Buddhist Architecture in America PDF

Author: Robert Edward Gordon

Publisher:

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781032318479

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"This book is the first comprehensive overview of Buddhist architecture in North America and provides an analysis of Buddhist architecture and communities. Exploring the arrival of Buddhist architecture in America, the book lays out how Buddhists have expressed their spiritual beliefs in structural form in the United States. The story follows the parallel history of the religion's emergence in the U.S. since the California Gold Rush to the present day. Conceived of as a general history, the book investigates Buddhist structures with respect to the humanistic qualities associated with Buddhist doctrine and how Buddhist groups promote their faith and values in an American setting. The author's point of view starts from the ground floor of the buildings to move deeper into the space of Buddhist practice, the mind that seeks enlightenment, and the structures that help one to do so. It discusses Buddhist architecture in the U.S. in a manner consistent with the intensely human context of its use. A unique and ground-breaking analysis, this book adds to the study of Buddhist architecture in America whilst also addressing the topic of how and why Buddhists use architecture in general. It will be of interest to scholars of religion, architecture, space and place, US history, Asian Studies and Buddhist Studies. It will also be a valuable addition to the libraries of Buddhist communities across the United States and the world, since many of the observations about Buddhist architecture in the U.S. may also apply to structures in Europe and Asia"--

Reinventing the Wheel

Reinventing the Wheel PDF

Author: Stephen F. Teiser

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13:

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Awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien by the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Wheel of Rebirth is one of the most basic and popular images in Buddhist visual culture. For nearly two thousand years, artists have painted it onto the porches of Buddhist temples; preachers have used it to explain karmic retribution; and philosophers have invoked it to illuminate the contrast between ignorance and nirvana. In Reinventing the Wheel, noted scholar Stephen F. Teiser explores the history and varied interpretations of the Wheel of Rebirth, a circle divided into sections depicting the Buddhist cycle of transmigration. Combining visual evidence with textual sources, Reinventing the Wheel shows how the metaphor of the wheel has been interpreted in divergent local traditions, from India to Tibet, Central Asia, and China. Teiser deftly shows how written and painted renditions of the wheel have animated local architectural sites and religious rituals, informing concepts of time and reincarnation and acting as an organizing principle in the cosmology and daily life of practicing Buddhists. Engaging and accessible, this uniquely pan-Buddhist tour will appeal to anyone interested in Buddhist culture, as well as to scholars of religious studies, art history, architecture, philosophy, and textual studies.

Zen Architecture

Zen Architecture PDF

Author: Paul Discoe

Publisher: Gibbs Smith

Published: 2008-09-10

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1423600096

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Focuses on wood based Zen-Buddhism architectural structures and renovations in the United States and Europe. This book identifies the elements of Buddhism that are represented in his buildings and describes the trials and triumphs of blending building methods and codes with ancient Japanese joinery techniques

Buddhist Architecture

Buddhist Architecture PDF

Author: Huu Phuoc Le

Publisher: Grafikol

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 0984404309

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"The volume thoroughly examines the origins and principal types of Buddhist architecture in Asia primarily between the third century BCE-twelfth century CE with an emphasis on India. It aims to construct shared architectural traits and patterns alongwith the derivative relationships between Indian and Asian Buddhist monuments. It also discusses the historical antecedents in the Indus Civilization and the religious and philosophical foundations of the three schools of Buddhism and its founder, Buddha. Previously obscure topics such as Aniconic and Vajrayana (Tantric) architecture and the four holiest sites of Buddhism will also be covered in this comprehensive volume. The author further investigates the influences of Buddhist architecture upon Islamic, Christian, and Hindu architecture that have been overlooked by past scholars."

Sitting Inside: Buddhist Practice in America's Prisons

Sitting Inside: Buddhist Practice in America's Prisons PDF

Author: Scott Whitney

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2017-02-06

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 0971814309

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The book has two audiences: prison inmates who want to start practicing Buddhism and volunteers from American sanghas who want to work with prison dharma groups. The book discusses the basics of meditation, compassion and precept practice within the correctional facility context. Whitney discusses some of the history of Buddhist involvement in American prisons as well as the history of constitutional interpretations of religious freedom as applied to inmates. The book is meant to be as practical as possible and it emphasizes Buddhism in action - through the precepts, peacemaking and sangha building inside and out.

The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism

The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism PDF

Author: Ann Gleig

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 561

ISBN-13: 0197539033

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The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date scholarship available on Buddhism in America. It charts the history and diversity of Buddhist communities, including traditions and communities that have been previously neglected, and looks at the ways in which Buddhist practices such as mindfulness meditation have been adopted in non-Buddhist settings.

Heartwood

Heartwood PDF

Author: Wendy Cadge

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-10-10

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0226089010

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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.

American Dharma

American Dharma PDF

Author: Ann Gleig

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2019-02-26

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 0300245041

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The past couple of decades have witnessed Buddhist communities both continuing the modernization of Buddhism and questioning some of its limitations. In this fascinating portrait of a rapidly changing religious landscape, Ann Gleig illuminates the aspirations and struggles of younger North American Buddhists during a period she identifies as a distinct stage in the assimilation of Buddhism to the West. She observes both the emergence of new innovative forms of deinstitutionalized Buddhism that blur the boundaries between the religious and secular, and a revalorization of traditional elements of Buddhism such as ethics and community that were discarded in the modernization process. Based on extensive ethnographic and textual research, the book ranges from mindfulness debates in the Vipassana network to the sex scandals in American Zen, while exploring issues around racial diversity and social justice, the impact of new technologies, and generational differences between baby boomer, Gen X, and millennial teachers.

The East

The East PDF

Author: Christopher Tadgell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-23

Total Pages: 2179

ISBN-13: 1136753834

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Continuing the Architecture in Context series, this second volume narrates the development of architecture across a huge swathe of the world, from the Indian subcontinent to the Japanese archipelago, over a period extending from prehistory to the arrival of Islam and its distinct traditions from the eleventh century onwards. Fantastically illustrated, with over 1,000 photographs and drawings, Christopher Tadgell covers the major architectural traditions of India, China, Thailand and Japan as well as the spectacular architecture of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Korea, Myenmar, Bhutan and Tibet. As with the first volume – Antiquity – The East presents not only the buildings themselves, but the cultures and peoples that they are a part of. Unprecedented in its scope, this volume is a beautiful guide to the fascinating history of Eastern architecture.