Monastic Education in Korea

Monastic Education in Korea PDF Author: Uri Kaplan
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824883578
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
What do Buddhist monks learn about Buddhism? Which part of their enormous canonical and non-canonical literature do they choose to focus on as the required curriculum in their training, and what do they elect to leave out? The cultural depository of Buddhism includes some four thousand canonical texts, hundreds of other historical works, modern textbooks, oral traditions, and more recently, an increasingly growing body of online material. The sheer diversity of this mass of information makes the pedagogical choices of monastics worthy of close study. Monastic Education in Korea is essentially a biography of the Korean Buddhist monastic curriculum over the past five centuries. Based on extensive ethnographic work and archival research in Korean monasteries, it illustrates how a particular premodern syllabus was reimagined in the twentieth century to become the sole national Korean monastic pedagogical program—only to be criticized and completely restructured in recent years. Through a detailed analysis of these modifications, the work demonstrates how Korean Buddhist reformers today tend to imitate the educational practices and canonize the textual totems of the contemporary international discipline of Buddhist studies, and how, by doing so, they ultimately transform the local Korean tradition from a particular brand of Chinese-centered scholastic Chan into the inclusive, pluralistic, Indian-focused Buddhism common in English-language introductions to the religion. The book further examines the proliferation of diverse graduate schools for the sangha, as well as the creation of a novel examination system for all monastics. It reveals some of the realities of operating large monastic organizations in contemporary Asia and portrays a living, vibrant Buddhist community that is constantly negotiating with modern values and reformulating its core orthodoxies.

Monastic Education in Korea

Monastic Education in Korea PDF Author: Uri Kaplan
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824883578
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
What do Buddhist monks learn about Buddhism? Which part of their enormous canonical and non-canonical literature do they choose to focus on as the required curriculum in their training, and what do they elect to leave out? The cultural depository of Buddhism includes some four thousand canonical texts, hundreds of other historical works, modern textbooks, oral traditions, and more recently, an increasingly growing body of online material. The sheer diversity of this mass of information makes the pedagogical choices of monastics worthy of close study. Monastic Education in Korea is essentially a biography of the Korean Buddhist monastic curriculum over the past five centuries. Based on extensive ethnographic work and archival research in Korean monasteries, it illustrates how a particular premodern syllabus was reimagined in the twentieth century to become the sole national Korean monastic pedagogical program—only to be criticized and completely restructured in recent years. Through a detailed analysis of these modifications, the work demonstrates how Korean Buddhist reformers today tend to imitate the educational practices and canonize the textual totems of the contemporary international discipline of Buddhist studies, and how, by doing so, they ultimately transform the local Korean tradition from a particular brand of Chinese-centered scholastic Chan into the inclusive, pluralistic, Indian-focused Buddhism common in English-language introductions to the religion. The book further examines the proliferation of diverse graduate schools for the sangha, as well as the creation of a novel examination system for all monastics. It reveals some of the realities of operating large monastic organizations in contemporary Asia and portrays a living, vibrant Buddhist community that is constantly negotiating with modern values and reformulating its core orthodoxies.

New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism

New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism PDF Author: Hwansoo Ilmee Kim
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438491336
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism moves beyond nationalistic, modernist, and ethnocentric historiographies of modern Korean Buddhism by carefully examining individuals' lived experiences, the institutional dimensions of Korean Buddhism, and its place in transnational conversations. Drawing upon rich archives as well as historical, anthropological, and literary approaches, the book examines four themes that have gained attention in recent years: perennial existential concerns and the persistent relevance of religious practice; the role of female Buddhists; clerical marriage and scandals; and engagement with secular society. The book reveals the limits of metanarratives, such as those of colonialism, nationalism, and modernity, in understanding the complex and contested identities of both monastics and laity, thus demanding that we diversify the methods by which we articulate the history of modern Korean Buddhism.

Principles of Zen Training for Educational Settings

Principles of Zen Training for Educational Settings PDF Author: Hugh Schuckman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104020354X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
This book provides insights into new developments and persistent traditions in Zen teacher training and education through the use of historical archival research and original interviews with living Zen Masters. It argues that some contemporary Euro-American social values of gender equality, non-discrimination, rationality, ecumenicism and democracy permeate not only the organizational aspects of the Kwan Um School of Zen case study, but soteriological processes and goals of the training more widely. Each chapter showcases the ways important facets of Zen education—from meditation to curriculum development to school management — have absorbed Euro-American cultural and social ideals in both community and educational practices. Giving dedicated scholarly attention and conceptualising new adaptations in transnational Zen communities, it constitutes an important and timely addition to the literature and will appeal to researchers and scholars of religion and education, Asian pedagogies, contemporary Buddhism, transnational Zen, and Zen education.

The Role and Meaning of Religion for Korean Society

The Role and Meaning of Religion for Korean Society PDF Author: Song-Chong Lee
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3038978884
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
This special issue presents discussions of the role and meaning of religion for Korean society. Covering wide-ranging time periods, the authors explores with their own cases four major characteristics of Korean religion: Creativity, Greater Responsiveness, Adaptability, and Prophethood. Their topical religious traditions include Neo-Confucianism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Korean new religious movements.

Wake Up and Laugh

Wake Up and Laugh PDF Author: Daehaeng
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1614291454
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
Wisdom, warmth, and humor from a renowned Zen Master. The compassion, humor, and practical intelligence of one of Korea's foremost Zen masters shines throughout this new collection of Dharma talks. On each page, Master Daehaeng reveals how everything in daily life, even the ugly and difficult parts, can become the fuel for our spiritual growth. Her illuminating insight will guide the reader toward an understanding of her ultimate teaching -- know yourself, trust yourself, and go forward, no matter what your current life situation might be. At turns laughing and scolding, always engaging, Zen Master Daehaeng exhorts, cajoles, and instructs readers in their practice. These Dharma talks -- gathered over several years -- are like having Master Daehaeng at your side, urging you on. The question-and-answer sessions with students are particularly enlightening; readers will find that the students' questions mirror their own and that Master Daehaeng’s responses guide them on.

Women in Gray Robes

Women in Gray Robes PDF Author: Chungwhan Sung
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN: 1649138172
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
About the Book Women in Gray Robes explores the lives and practices of the Korean Buddhist nuns of the famous seminary of the Unmunsa by combining historical analysis and ethnographic research and by applying a hermeneutic perspective. About the Author Chungwhan Sung received her B.A. and M. A. with a concentration in Buddhism from Dongguk University. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. Throughout her academic career, she has studied Buddhism through the intersection of texts, history, and culture. She has worked on issues relating to cultural heritage in religion and Buddhism during globalization.

Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen

Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen PDF Author: Eun-su Cho
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438435126
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Uncovering hidden histories, this book focuses on Korean Buddhist nuns and laywomen from the fourth century to the present. Today, South Korea's Buddhist nuns have a thriving monastic community under their own control, and they are well known as meditation teachers and social service providers. However, little is known of the women who preceded them. Using primary sources to reveal that which has been lost, forgotten, or willfully ignored, this work reveals various figures, milieux, and activities of female adherents, clerical and lay. Contributors consider examples from the early days of Buddhism in Korea during the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods (first millennium CE); the Koryŏ period (982–1392), when Buddhism flourished as the state religion; the Chosŏn period (1392–1910), when Buddhism was actively suppressed by the Neo-Confucian Court; and the contemporary resurgence of female monasticism that began in the latter part of the twentieth century.

The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism

The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism PDF Author: Ann Gleig
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197539033
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 561

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Book Description
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.

Religions of Korea in Practice

Religions of Korea in Practice PDF Author: Robert E. Buswell Jr.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691188157
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
Korea has one of the most diverse religious cultures in the world today, with a range and breadth of religious practice virtually unrivaled by any other country. This volume in the Princeton Readings in Religions series is the first anthology in any language, including Korean, to bring together a comprehensive set of original sources covering the whole gamut of religious practice in both premodern and contemporary Korea. The book's thirty-two chapters help redress the dearth of source materials on Korean religions in Western languages. Coverage includes shamanic rituals for the dead and songs to quiet fussy newborns; Buddhist meditative practices and exorcisms; Confucian geomancy and ancestor rites; contemporary Catholic liturgy; Protestant devotional practices; internal alchemy training in new Korean religions; and North Korean Juche ("self-reliance") ideology, an amalgam of Marxism and Neo-Confucian filial piety focused on worship of the "father," Kim Il Sung. Religions of Korea in Practice provides substantial coverage of contemporary Korean religious practice, especially the various Christian denominations and new indigenous religions. Each chapter includes an extensive translation of original sources on Korean religious practice, accompanied by an introduction that frames the significance of the selections and offers suggestions for further reading. This book will help any reader gain a better appreciation of the rich complexity of Korea's religious culture.

Educating Monks

Educating Monks PDF Author: Thomas A. Borchert
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824866525
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Most studies of Buddhist communities tend to be limited to villages, individual temple communities, or a single national community. Buddhist monastics, however, cross a number of these different framings: They are part of local communities, are governed through national legal frameworks, and participate in both national and transnational Buddhist networks. Educating Monks makes visible the ways Buddhist communities are shaped by all of the above—collectively and often simultaneously. Educating Monks examines a minority Buddhist community in Sipsongpannā, a region located on China’s southwest border with Myanmar and Laos. Its people, the Dai-lue, are “double minorities”: They are recognized by the Chinese state as part of a minority group, and they practice Theravāda Buddhism, a minority form within China, where Mahāyāna Buddhism is the norm. Theravāda has long been the primary training ground for Dai-lue men, and since the return of Buddhism to the area in the years following Mao Zedong’s death, the Dai-lue have put many of their resources into providing monastic education for their sons. However, the author’s analysis of institutional organization within Sipsongpannā, the governance of religion there, and the movements of monks (revealing the “ethnoscapes” that the monks of Sipsongpannā participate in) points to educational contexts that depend not just on local villagers, but also resources from the local (Communist) government and aid form Chinese Mahāyāna monks and Theravāda monks from Thailand and Myanmar. While the Dai-lue monks draw on these various resources for the development of the sangha, they do not share the same agenda and must continually engage in a careful political dance between villagers who want to revive traditional forms of Buddhism, a Chinese state that is at best indifferent to the continuation of Buddhism, and transnational monks that want to import their own modern forms of Buddhism into the region. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Dai-lue monks in China, Thailand, and Singapore, this ambitious and sophisticated study will find a ready audience among students and scholars of the anthropology of Buddhism, and religion, education, and transnationalism in Southeast and East Asia.