Experimental Buddhism

Experimental Buddhism PDF

Author: John K. Nelson

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2013-10-31

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0824838343

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Based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, it is one of the first studies to give readers a sense of what is happening on the front lines as a growing number of Buddhist priests try to reboot their roles and traditions to gain greater significance in Japanese society. The book profiles innovative as well as controversial responses to the challenges facing Buddhist priests. From traditional activities (conducting memorial rituals; supporting residences for the elderly and infirm; providing relief for victims of natural disasters) to more creative ones (collaborating in suicide prevention efforts; holding symposia and concerts on temple precincts; speaking out against nuclear power following Japan’s 2011 earthquake; opening cafés, storefront temples, and pubs; even staging fashion shows with priests on the runway), more progressive members of Japan’s Buddhist clergy are trying to navigate a path leading towards renewed relevance in society. An additional challenge is to avoid alienating older patrons while trying to attract younger ones vital to the future of their temples. The work’s central theme of “experimental Buddhism”provides a fresh perspective to understand how priests and other individuals employ Buddhist traditions in selective and pragmatic ways. Using these inventive approaches during a time of crisis and transition for Japanese temple Buddhism, priests and practitioners from all denominations seek solutions that not only can revitalize their religious traditions but also influence society and their fellow citizens in positive ways.

Being and Ambiguity

Being and Ambiguity PDF

Author: Brook Ziporyn

Publisher: Open Court

Published: 2015-10-28

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 0812699270

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Being and Ambiguity is a brilliant work of philosophy, filled with insights, jokes, and topical examples. Professor Ziporyn draws on the works of such Western thinkers as Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, and Hegel, but develops his main argument from Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. This important work introduces Tiantai Buddhism to the reader and demonstrates its relevance to profound philosophical issues. Ziporyn argues that we can make both of the claims below simultaneously: This book is about everything. It contains the answers to all philosophical problems which ever shall exist. This book is all claptrap. It is completely devoid of objective validity of any kind. These claims are not contradictory. Rather, they state the same thing in two different ways. To be objective truth is to be subjective claptrap, and vise versa. All interchanges of any kind - conversations, daydreams, sensations - are not only about something but also about everything. Thus, this book concerns itself with no less than the nature of what is and what it means for something to be what it is. It provides a new approach to the basic Western philosophical and psychological issues of identity, determinacy, being, desire, boredom, addiction, love and truth.

Experiments in Buddhist-Christian Encounter

Experiments in Buddhist-Christian Encounter PDF

Author: Feldmeier, Peter

Publisher: Orbis Books

Published: 2019-02-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1608337618

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"Feldmeier explores connections and divergences between Buddhist and Christian spirituality by utilizing Christian figures like Meister Eckhart and St. John of the Cross to reflect upon Buddhist positions and teachings like Buddha-Nature and the Zen Oxherding Pictures. Feldmeier is well-versed in the metaphysical nuances of Buddhism and Christianity, but seeks in this volume to emphasize the spirituality of both faiths and to suggest how dialogue might change one's way of thinking about one's own faith (not just reveal alignments between the two)"--

The Mind Experiment

The Mind Experiment PDF

Author: Bavo Lievens

Publisher:

Published: 2020-04-20

Total Pages: 537

ISBN-13:

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======PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION====== Buddhism that matters. A comprehensive, no-nonsense practical guide to the enlightenment teachings, including many first-time translations from the Buddhist canon, as well as useful information not readily found elsewhere-- * a symbolic, deeply relevant biography of the Buddha * a comprehensive cosmology, including the various heavens and their associate mind-states * a full guide to the most positive methods of meditation, plus more. =======FROM THE BACK COVER======= THE MIND EXPERIMENT approaches Buddhism unlike any other book, not as a foreign belief system or an academic study to the specialty of 'Buddhology' but as an exploration of the enlightenment teachings that answers the spiritual needs of our time--a universal and secular spirituality, without beliefs or dogmas. It contains many first-time translations directly from the Buddhist canon, linking the enlightenment teachings of Buddhism with the main body of Western wisdom, --from Greek philosophy to Christian mysticism, modern science to American transcendentalism. =======ABOUT THE AUTHOR======= BAVO LIEVENS worked for the Belgian Foreign Service in Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore, for 14 years, then moved to the US where he taught Buddhist Philosophy and Chinese Classics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, for 14 years. He studied privately under Chinese Zen master Nan Huai-chin, who advised him in writing this book. =================================== For more information, please visit the book website at WWW.THEMINDEXPERIMENT.COM for an author autobiography, as well as testimonials from early manuscripts of the book. ===================================

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism PDF

Author: Michael K. Jerryson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 0199362386

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As an incredibly diverse religious system, Buddhism is constantly changing. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism offers a comprehensive collection of work by leading scholars in the field that tracks these changes up to the present day. Taken together, the book provides a blueprint to understanding Buddhism's past and uses it to explore the ways in which Buddhism has transformed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume contains 41 essays, divided into two sections. The essays in the first section examine the historical development of Buddhist traditions throughout the world. These chapters cover familiar settings like India, Japan, and Tibet as well as the less well-known countries of Vietnam, Bhutan, and the regions of Latin America, Africa, and Oceania. Focusing on changes within countries and transnationally, this section also contains chapters that focus explicitly on globalization, such as Buddhist international organizations and diasporic communities. The second section tracks the relationship between Buddhist traditions and particular themes. These chapters review Buddhist interactions with contemporary topics such as violence and peacebuilding, and ecology, as well as Buddhist influences in areas such as medicine and science. Offering coverage that is both expansive and detailed, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism delves into some of the most debated and contested areas within Buddhist Studies today.

Buddhism and Science

Buddhism and Science PDF

Author: Buddhadasa P. Kirthisinghe

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 9788120808034

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Buddhism and Science is a compilation of a few learned articles on the subject. The book co-ordinates modern scientific thought with the Buddha Dharma and how the revolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and others blend with the Dharma (Buddha`s Teachings). It recognizes that the world, or even the mughty universe was not created by a god rather it is a steady state of the universe with no beginning and end. The work has shown how the Buddhist philosophy of Anicca (impermanence), Dukkha (suffering), and Anatta (ego-lessness) blends with modern science, with remarkable clarity. It also states that atomic science and Buddhism seem to be entirely different, yet they are tackling the same problem of energy and releasing of energy, breaking the highly concentrated form of energy, the so-called atom, in the one case, and ego, in the other.

Encountering Buddhism

Encountering Buddhism PDF

Author: Seth Robert Segall

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0791486796

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Creatively exploring the points of confluence and conflict between Western psychology and Buddhist teachings, various scholars, researchers, and therapists struggle to integrate their diverse psychological orientations—psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, transpersonal—with their diverse Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist practices. By investigating the degree to which Buddhist insights are compatible with Western science and culture, they then consider what each philosophical/psychological system has to offer the other. The contributors reveal how Buddhism has changed the way they practice psychotherapy, choose their research topics, and conduct their personal lives. In doing so, they illuminate the relevance of ancient Buddhist texts to contemporary cultural and psychological dilemmas.

The Revolution of Buddhist Modernism

The Revolution of Buddhist Modernism PDF

Author: Jeff Schroeder

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2022-10-31

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0824894715

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Reacting to nineteenth-century forces of colonialism and globalization, Buddhist reformers across Asia strove to modernize Buddhist teachings, practices, and institutions. “Buddhist modernism” was typically characterized by disbelief in the supernatural, rejection of ritual, deinstitutionalization, and egalitarianism. The Revolution of Buddhist Modernism provides an account of the upheaval that took place within the world of Japanese Jōdo Shin (True Pure Land) Buddhism when scholar-priest Kiyozawa Manshi (1863–1903) initiated modernist reforms. Kiyozawa and his disciples, especially Soga Ryōjin and Kaneko Daiei, reenvisioned Pure Land teachings as a path to awakening in the present world rather than rebirth in a faraway Pure Land after death. This doctrinal reinterpretation led to a range of revolutionary institutional reforms, including new experiential methods of Buddhist studies, democratization of sect institutions, and enhanced cooperation with Japan’s imperialist state. By combining intellectual history with institutional history, The Revolution of Buddhist Modernism reveals deep connections between Buddhist thought, Buddhist institutions, and national and global politics. It tracks the chaotic, fascinating history by which modernist Buddhist ideas came to be grounded in Buddhist institutions and authoritative for Buddhist communities, offering readers a compelling, ground-level view of Buddhist modernism—and traditionalism—in action.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism PDF

Author: Mario Poceski

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-02-14

Total Pages: 753

ISBN-13: 1118610350

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The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism combines outstanding contributions covering Buddhism as it developed and is practiced in this region. These newly-commissioned essays provide fresh scholarly perspectives on a wide range of concepts, texts, and practices. Offers a comprehensive and balanced survey of Buddhism within East and Central Asia, from the time of the Buddha through to the present day Provides fresh perspectives on a wide range of concepts, texts, traditions, doctrines, practices, and institutions – on topics spanning gender roles, tantric rituals, and the spread of Zen into Europe Brings together cutting-edge research by an interdisciplinary and international contributor team, including historians, literature scholars, and historians, as well as those from religious studies Presents a panoramic view of the extraordinary richness and variety of local Buddhist expressions and practices within Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Tibetan, cultures