Climate Change and the Spread of Buddhism to East Asia

Climate Change and the Spread of Buddhism to East Asia PDF Author: Alan Ward
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781452812199
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Buddhist culture and philosophy spread out from its origins in India to China and Japan in several waves, one of which took place between the 4th and 7th centuries. But why then, and not earlier or later? In this book we examine the hypothesis that at least part of the answer may come from changes in the climate of the region.

Climate Change and the Spread of Buddhism to East Asia

Climate Change and the Spread of Buddhism to East Asia PDF Author: Alan Ward
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781452812199
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 76

Get Book Here

Book Description
Buddhist culture and philosophy spread out from its origins in India to China and Japan in several waves, one of which took place between the 4th and 7th centuries. But why then, and not earlier or later? In this book we examine the hypothesis that at least part of the answer may come from changes in the climate of the region.

The Buddha's Footprint

The Buddha's Footprint PDF Author: Johan Elverskog
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812251830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A corrective to the contemporary idea that Buddhism has always been an environmentally friendly religion In the current popular imagination, Buddhism is often understood to be a religion intrinsically concerned with the environment. The Dharma, the name given to Buddhist teachings by Buddhists, states that all things are interconnected. Therefore, Buddhists are perceived as extending compassion beyond people and animals to include plants and the earth itself out of a concern for the total living environment. In The Buddha's Footprint, Johan Elverskog contends that only by jettisoning this contemporary image of Buddhism as a purely ascetic and apolitical tradition of contemplation can we see the true nature of the Dharma. According to Elverskog, Buddhism is, in fact, an expansive religious and political system premised on generating wealth through the exploitation of natural resources. Elverskog surveys the expansion of Buddhism across Asia in the period between 500 BCE and 1500 CE, when Buddhist institutions were built from Iran and Azerbaijan in the west, to Kazakhstan and Siberia in the north, Japan in the east, and Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the south. He examines the prosperity theology at the heart of the Dharma that declared riches to be a sign of good karma and the means by which spritiual status could be elevated through donations bequeathed to Buddhist institutions. He demonstrates how this scriptural tradition propelled Buddhists to seek wealth and power across Asia and to exploit both the people and the environment. Elverskog shows the ways in which Buddhist expansion not only entailed the displacement of local gods and myths with those of the Dharma—as was the case with Christianity and Islam—but also involved fundamentally transforming earlier social and political structures and networks of economic exchange. The Buddha's Footprint argues that the institutionalization of the Dharma was intimately connected to agricultural expansion, resource extraction, deforestation, urbanization, and the monumentalization of Buddhism itself.

Tantric Buddhism in East Asia

Tantric Buddhism in East Asia PDF Author: Richard K. Payne
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861714873
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Although Indian and Tibetan versions of tantric Buddhism are increasingly recognized, the East Asian variations on this practice remain largely overlooked. The only book to present the entire breadth of tantric Buddhism in East Asia, this collection remedies that situation with 12 key essays drawn from rare sources. Organized into four sections--China and Korea, Japan, Deities and Practices, and Influences on Japanese Religion--the book brings together a "critical mass" of scholarship, with the potential to create a sea change in the understanding of this subject

Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan

Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan PDF Author: Lori R. Meeks
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824860640
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Hokkeji, an ancient Nara temple that once stood at the apex of a state convent network established by Queen-Consort Komyo (701–760), possesses a history that in some ways is bigger than itself. Its development is emblematic of larger patterns in the history of female monasticism in Japan. In Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan, Lori Meeks explores the revival of Japan’s most famous convent, an institution that had endured some four hundred years of decline following its establishment. With the help of the Ritsu (Vinaya)-revivalist priest Eison (1201–1290), privately professed women who had taken up residence at Hokkeji succeeded in reestablishing a nuns’ ordination lineage in Japan. Meeks considers a broad range of issues surrounding women’s engagement with Buddhism during a time when their status within the tradition was undergoing significant change. The thirteenth century brought women greater opportunities for ordination and institutional leadership, but it also saw the spread of increasingly androcentric Buddhist doctrine. Hokkeji explores these contradictions. In addition to addressing the socio-cultural, economic, and ritual life of the convent, Hokkeji examines how women interpreted, used, and "talked past" canonical Buddhist doctrines, which posited women’s bodies as unfit for buddhahood and the salvation of women to be unattainable without the mediation of male priests. Texts associated with Hokkeji, Meeks argues, suggest that nuns there pursued a spiritual life untroubled by the so-called soteriological obstacles of womanhood. With little concern for the alleged karmic defilements of their gender, the female community at Hokkeji practiced Buddhism in ways resembling male priests: they performed regular liturgies, offered memorial and other priestly services to local lay believers, and promoted their temple as a center for devotional practice. What distinguished Hokkeji nuns from their male counterparts was that many of their daily practices focused on the veneration of a female deity, their founder Queen-Consort Komyo, whom they regarded as a manifestation of the bodhisattva Kannon. Hokkeji rejects the commonly accepted notion that women simply internalized orthodox Buddhist discourses meant to discourage female practice and offers new perspectives on the religious lives of women in premodern Japan. Its attention to the relationship between doctrine and socio-cultural practice produces a fuller view of Buddhism as it was practiced on the ground, outside the rarefied world of Buddhist scholasticism.

The Making of Southeast Asia

The Making of Southeast Asia PDF Author: Amitav Acharya
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801466342
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Developing a framework to study "what makes a region," Amitav Acharya investigates the origins and evolution of Southeast Asian regionalism and international relations. He views the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) "from the bottom up" as not only a U.S.-inspired ally in the Cold War struggle against communism but also an organization that reflects indigenous traditions. Although Acharya deploys the notion of "imagined community" to examine the changes, especially since the Cold War, in the significance of ASEAN dealings for a regional identity, he insists that "imagination" is itself not a neutral but rather a culturally variable concept. The regional imagination in Southeast Asia imagines a community of nations different from NAFTA or NATO, the OAU, or the European Union. In this new edition of a book first published as The Quest for Identity in 2000, Acharya updates developments in the region through the first decade of the new century: the aftermath of the financial crisis of 1997, security affairs after September 2001, the long-term impact of the 2004 tsunami, and the substantial changes wrought by the rise of China as a regional and global actor. Acharya argues in this important book for the crucial importance of regionalism in a different part of the world.

Mindfully Facing Climate Change

Mindfully Facing Climate Change PDF Author: Bhikkhu Analayo
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781706719885
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
In Mindfully Facing Climate Change, Bhikkhu Analayo offers a response to the challenges of climate change that is grounded in the teachings of early Buddhism and mindfulness meditation. Based on employing the teaching of the four noble truths as its main framework, it places facing climate change within the context of the eightfold path and provides detailed meditation instructions on how to build up mental resilience and balance.

Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction

Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Damien Keown
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
ISBN: 0191606448
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
This Very Short Introduction introduces the reader to the teachings of the Buddha and to the integration of Buddhism into daily life. What are the distinctive features of Buddhism? Who was the Buddha, and what are his teachings? How has Buddhist thought developed over the centuries, and how can contemporary dilemmas be faced from a Buddhist perspective? Words such as 'karma' and 'nirvana' have entered our vocabulary, but what do they mean? Damien Keown's book provides a lively, informative response to these frequently asked questions about Buddhism.

How to Read Buddhist Art

How to Read Buddhist Art PDF Author: Kurt Behrendt
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588396738
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
Intended to inspire the devout and provide a focus for religious practice, Buddhist artworks stand at the center of a great religious tradition that swept across Asia during the first millennia. How to Read Buddhist Art assembles fifty-four masterpieces from The Met collection to explore how images of the Buddha crossed linguistic and cultural barriers, and how they took on different (yet remarkably consistent) characteristics in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Himalayas, China, Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Works highlighted in this rich, concise overview include reliquaries, images of the Buddha that attempt to capture his transcendence, diverse bodhisattvas who protect and help the devout on their personal path, and representations of important teachers. The book offers the essential iconographic frameworks needed to understand Buddhist art and practice, helping the reader to appreciate how artists gave form to subtle aspects of the teachings, especially in the sublime expression of the Buddha himself.

The Silk Roads

The Silk Roads PDF Author: Peter Frankopan
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101946334
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Far more than a history of the Silk Roads, this book is truly a revelatory new history of the world, promising to destabilize notions of where we come from and where we are headed next. "A rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world.” —The Wall Street Journal From the Middle East and its political instability to China and its economic rise, the vast region stretching eastward from the Balkans across the steppe and South Asia has been thrust into the global spotlight in recent years. Frankopan teaches us that to understand what is at stake for the cities and nations built on these intricate trade routes, we must first understand their astounding pasts. Frankopan realigns our understanding of the world, pointing us eastward. It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the twentieth century—this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East. Also available: The New Silk Roads, a timely exploration of the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now—as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East.

WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY. (PRODUCT ID 23958336).

WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY. (PRODUCT ID 23958336). PDF Author: CAITLIN. FINLAYSON
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description