Gunel Aliyeva-Mammadova, Arlind Kasa, Qi Wang
et al.
The relevance of the study is determined by the need for a deeper understanding of historical processes and intercultural interactions that influenced the formation of the national identity of the countries of the Balkan and South-East Asian regions in the second half of the XX – early XXI century. The study focuses on Albania and Thailand as examples of states with different historical experiences of modernisation, political transformation, and external interaction. The purpose of the study was to trace the dynamics of cultural, religious, and political interaction in Albania and Thailand after the World War II and assess the role of intercultural factors in shaping the national policy and international positioning of both countries. The methodological basis is a historical and comparative approach, supplemented by an analysis of sources on cultural policy, religious transformations, diplomatic strategies, and legal regulation. As a result, it is established that Albania’s isolationist course contributed to increased repression of religion and the monopolisation of cultural space, while Thailand developed a model of managed pluralism, integrating religious and ethnic elements into public policy. An interregional comparison is conducted, and emphasis is placed on the role of cultural and religious dynamics in modernisation and international integration. The study analyses the radical atheistic course that led to the destruction of religious institutions in Albania. The restoration of religious life after 1990 is seen as part of a geopolitical reorientation. It is analysed that Buddhism remained a stabilising factor during political instability and the role of religious leaders in reconciling conflicts, in particular, in the southern Muslim provinces. The practical value of the study lay in the possibility of using it to analyse the role of culture in the transformation processes of post-totalitarian and post-colonial states.
The dialogue between and comparative research into Christianity and Buddhism theoretically involve the issues of self and other. Faced with the cultural reality of religious diversity, theologies of religions provide four modes of dialogue through which Christianity can interface with religious others. The exploration of the infinite and transcendent traits of otherness in contemporary phenomenological philosophy, as well as the emphasis on differences in postmodern philosophy, contributes to maintaining a clear awareness of otherness and self-identity in the Buddhist–Christian dialogue. Following the dialogical path in comparative theology, which leads one out of oneself, into the other, and back into oneself, in experimental Buddhist-Christian dialogue activities, both Christianity and Buddhism figure as the self and the other. If they openly accept each other’s otherness and heterogeneity, view each other as mirrors, and criticize and reflect on themselves, then creative insights into themselves will ultimately be generated. Their selves will be rediscovered, and their understanding and expression will be updated. Reflecting on the Buddhist–Christian dialogue from four aspects, namely, ultimate realism, cosmology, ethics, and religious ideals, can eliminate some misunderstandings and deepen both parties’ understandings of themselves and others.
Narumon Jiwattanasuk, Kittiched Premsakul, Woraponte Tanpoonkiat
et al.
Looking for ways to cultivate greater peace and well-being in your life? Consider the ancient Buddhist practice of mindfulness. We present mindfulness as the art of cultivating “awareness of the present.” Our article offers practical tips for incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine, with an emphasis on promoting peaceful, positive states of mind. While we discuss the concept of peaceful well-being from a Buddhist perspective, we recognize that mindfulness is a practice that can benefit anyone, regardless of background or belief system. We provide a useful analysis for understanding and easy measurement of peaceful well-being. Research has demonstrated that mindfulness can enhance physical, mental, and cognitive well-being. By integrating mindfulness into activities such as walking, sitting, or eating, you can enjoy the many benefits of this transformative practice. Based on evidence-driven research projects in cultivating mindfulness practices, this paper enables practitioners to create peaceful well-being.
This paper interrogates the skepticism surrounding comparative ethics, particularly the question of its relevance in a world where ethical decision-making processes are primarily presumed to be dictated by one universalist culture. The paper argues that all cultures are inherently intercultural, evidenced by the historical coexistence of ideas and practices. Post-comparative ethics, which emphasizes the situational application of intellectual comparison and integration, is inevitable for postcolonial, non-Western societies. Historically, societies have navigated a variety of ethical frameworks, with some, like medieval Chinese society, embracing a plurality of beliefs. This pluralism is exemplified by the harmonious accommodation (<i>yuanrong</i> 圓融) of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Using the example of Song Dynasty Chan master Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲, this article illustrates that intercultural ethics can be both diverse and sincere. Dahui’s pluralistic approach demonstrates that sincere commitment to multiple ethical systems is possible in our multicultural situation. I will discuss common approaches to the multicultural situation, such as expedient synthesis, theoretical synthesis, and crude syncretism, before illustrating the advantage of Dahui’s <i>kanhua</i> 看話禪method as harmonious accommodation through confrontation. This underscores the importance of shifting the debate from “Why compare?” to “How to compare?” in achieving the accommodation of different ethical frameworks.
The Huayan sutras are important historical references for the Chinese worship of the Rocana Buddha; however, these Huayan sutras provide little help in understanding the worship for the larger Rocana triad (i.e., Rocana Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas) in niche no. 5 at the Feilai Feng complex. The Rocana triad images are primarily linked to the Buddhist texts written by Chinese monks which established the principle for teaching the Huayan ritual during the Tang period. With regard to the iconographic characteristics of the two bodhisattvas of the triad in niche no. 5, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra rides an elephant, while the bodhisattva Manjusri rides a lion. They are associated with Buddhist texts and artistic productions beyond the Huayan school and are possibly related to esoteric Buddhism. Similarly, the crowned Rocana seen in niche no. 5 is likely derived from an older tradition dating to the Tang and Five Dynasties periods. Similar descriptions can be found in esoteric Buddhist texts and images. Nevertheless, niche no. 5 is the earliest extant example of such a Rocana triad, wherein the triad is represented by a central crowned Buddha with a special hand gesture or mudra, who is flanked by two bodhisattvas riding animals. From niche no. 5, one can see the development of the Huayan Rocana triad within the tenth century. The combination of elements seen in this niche also indicates that Buddhist artists were not limited by the boundaries of different schools or teachings when they created a new form of iconography. The specific iconography of niche no. 5 can be linked to the Han-style Buddhist artistic traditions from previous periods, such as the Tang, Five Dynasties/Wuyue Kingdom. Ultimately, the contemporary Northern Song capital, Kaifeng, was likely the most direct influence. The Rocana Buddhist triad at niche no. 5 is reflected in the iconography of the same triad installed at the Huiyin monastery at a later time during the Northern Song Dynasty. In turn, the similarities between the images in niche no. 5 and those from other regions, such as Sichuan, Yunnan, Korea and Japan, reveal the connection between the Huiyin monastery and these other sites.
This paper discusses and analyzes cultural diversity seen from the performance of indigenous precursor universities and current intercultural universities in Mexico. A bibliographical and documentary review was carried out where the works related to cultural diversity and intercultural universities in Mexico were taken into account. The difference between cultural diversity and interculturality and the role they play in the current functioning of intercultural universities must be taken into account. The attention to the problems of the original peoples, despite the advances they have had, are still insufficient.
This article examines the life and times of Lee Choon Seng (李俊承), exploring his role as a prominent lay Buddhist leader in Singapore and the broader Chinese Buddhist world. Lee Choon Seng’s influence in society, as well as his adherence to Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, laid an important foundation for him to carry out philanthropic activities within the Buddhist community in Singapore. Before World War II, Lee Choon Seng acted as a patron of the Dharma, sponsoring Buddhist activities and advocating for the idea of revitalizing China in the spirit of Buddhism. During the Japanese Occupation, Lee Choon Seng initiated and led the Buddhist philanthropy movement, which converged into a huge developmental trend in society. In the postwar period, Lee Choon Seng established and served as the inaugural chairman of the Singapore Buddhist Federation, making him a key figure in unifying the Buddhist community in Singapore. As this article demonstrates, Lee Choon Seng’s socio-religious model, which was comprised of a combination of Mahayana Buddhism with social charity and welfare, was an important factor for the promotion of Buddhism among the Chinese community in Singapore.
This paper shows that the early Qing Chinese Buddhist monk Zaisan Hongzan’s belief in Maitreya and Tuṣita Heaven pure lands, as reflected in his collection of miracle tales and biographies, should be understood in a broader socio-religious context of Chan decline and monastic revival in late imperial China. It is important to notice that instead of advocating for the combination of Chan and Amitābha’s Pure Land of Bliss practice, Hongzan proposed the most severe criticism of the Chinese Chan tradition since the Song dynasty. Through both his personal doctrinal writings and the narrative strategies applied in his Tuṣita Heaven miracle tales, Hongzan vividly displayed his concerns about literary Chan practice and argued for the pivotal and urgent need for Vinaya among monastic communities. Hongzan’s personal anti-Chan sentiment and his intention to reestablish the study and practice of Buddhist Vinaya disciplines in a time of alleged “crisis” of Chinese Buddhism strongly influenced how he composed and transcribed eminent monks’ biographies related to the cult of Maitreya and Tuṣita Heaven. A “hagiographic” reading of Hongzan’s miracle tale collections is necessary to understand his religious discourse in this special historical stage in China.
Yan An Cornejo Montoya, Dennis Morán, Sofía Alejandra García Cornejo
Addressing this issue motivates a systematic review of neurodidactics related to the learning process, which are directly related not only to memory but also to emotional stimuli. Learning begins in the hippocampus and amygdala collaborating in the evaluation of emotional stimuli. Through empirical research with a sample made up of 160 university participants from UNEMI, the ECI instrument was applied, the results of which made it possible to analyze how students manage their emotional intelligence skills in the classroom. The didactic strategies that are used in the classroom have the capacity to favor the learning of the students or to prevent it, depending on the management of the emotions that the teacher carries out. The article was developed based on a review of the literature related to the functioning of the emotional brain, and the way in which emotions influence human learning.
In the17th and 18th centuries, just as English scholars were reading and writing about their heritage in the continental prestige language of Latin, so too were Japanese members of the Buddhist clergy researching and publishing about the Chinese language heritage of their own religious tradition, drawing both on new printed books, often imported from China, and on much earlier manuscripts and printed texts preserved in their own country. The importation and reprinting of the canon by Ōbaku monks and the subsequent flowering of Zen scholarship is already well-known, but we should consider the efforts of Shingon monks in commenting on the heritage they received from China eight centuries earlier, and even the activities of Nichiren monks, who took steps to promote the legacy of Chinese Tiantai Buddhism. Critical reflection on the Buddhist tradition may not have emerged in Japan until the 18th century, but it did so in the context of a world of scholarship concerning an imported classical language that certainly stood comparison with that of the contemporary Anglophone world.
The Applied Hermeneutics department of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral (Argentina), Fundación MenteClara Internacional’s Peer-Reviewed Journal and the history department of Savitribai Phule Pune University (India) call for papers addressing the following topics egalitarian philosophies of caste, class, gender, and life choices looking for relationships between humanist philosophies, existential phenomenology, and their influence on the work and thinking of those who fostered the evolution of shudras and dalits from ignorance and slavery in India, just as Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule, Sathyavani Muthu, and others have done in other continents.
This call aims at discussing and integrating concepts as well as creating new academic tools to emancipate individuals and bring them to the same condition of being by gathering, in a common forum, different disciplines that contribute to solve and make inequalities of caste, class, gender, and life choices visible.
We will have in particular consideration (financing projects) empirical research related to the critical analysis of the discourse of contemporary social actors to identify, in those leading or influencing the destinies of regions, tendencies to segregate, massify or emancipate people in verbal or body language.
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This paper focuses on the Anatman experience as described by Guatma(6th century BCE). Many Buddhist philosophers consider the absence of self as a foundational experience of Buddhism. This paper elaborates the Buddhist Absence of Self from the View of Existential Phenomenology. The paper articulates the phenomenological difference between the Ontic-Ontological absence of Self in early Buddhism and the Ontic-Ontological presence of Self in Contemporary Existential Phenomenology. Throughout the paper there is an Existential Phenomenological focus on the intertwining of our Sense of Self and our Sense of Being. The sense of self in early Buddhism is being-less, baseless and empty. Empty of What? Empty of Being! There is no presence of Being and no Being of presence. There is no experience of Being. There is no source of Being. There is no source of Being for our mind. The mind is absent of Being. There is no source of Being for us as person. In early Buddhism the absence of self is the absence of Being-ness.
The article considers the Kalmyk Buddhist tradition through the prism of images depicted in decorative and applied arts. The author emphasizes the interrelations between Kalmyk folk traditions of decorative and applied arts and the nomadic way of life, points out some features of such arts in the sphere of religion that emerged due to the autonomous development of Buddhism in the North Caspian Steppe after the Kalmyk Khanate was abolished in the late 18th century and links with the Buddhist world of Central Asia were disrupted. The work shows that the diverse historical events resulted not only in the Kalmyks’ conversion to sedentary life but, moreover, the very process was accompanied by virtually a complete a loss of material culture and related original traditions of decorative and applied arts, including manufacturing of Buddhist icons and sculptures. The Kalmyk tradition had once elaborated ‘own’ images of Buddhist deities - with due regard of religious syncretism and folk Buddhism. The image of Green Tara associated with the traditional cult of the Progenitor Mother has always been - and still is - a most revered one among the Kalmyks. In modern realia, the worship of the image of Green Tara obtains new features which are refl ected in new forms of national decorative and applied arts.
History (General), Oriental languages and literatures
Problem: The aim of this paper is to verify the existence of differences in experiencing life meaningfulness of believers and unbelievers and analyze how much faith affects life meaningfulness. Methods: The sample consisted of 213 university students aged 20-29 years (mean age = 23). Respondents were divided into three groups: Christians (N = 80), Buddhists (N = 25), atheists (N = 108). We used a Existential Scale (ES) questionnaire, 46-item tool, detecting a subjective measure of personal meaningful existence in two dimensions: Personality (sub-dimensions Self-distance and Self-transcendence) and Existentiality (sub-dimensions Freedom and Responsibility). Data were analyzed using SPSS.
Results: Using independent t–test, it was confirmed that life meaningfulness was significantly lower for unbelievers in dimension Personality, t(180,943) = 7,013), p < ,001 (this represented a strong effect, d = ,983) and ES Total Score, t(175,424) = 4,201, p < ,001 (this represented a medium effect, d = ,592). Subsequent independent one-way ANOVA (using Welch F) indicated that believers demonstrate a higher life meaningfulness in the dimensions Personality, F (2, 84,212) = 32,062, p < ,001, Self–distance, F (2, 69,585) = 8,556, p < ,001, Self–transcendence, F (2, 79,331) = 26,058, p < ,001, and in ES Total Score, F (2, 74,285) = 9,133, p < ,001. A post hoc Games–Howell indicated that believers (Christians and Buddhists) scored significantly higher in Personality (strong effect, ?2 = ,23), Self-transcendence (strong effect, ?2 = ,19), Self-distance (medium effect, ?2 = ,07), and ES Total Score (medium effect, ?2 = ,07) than atheists. In Personality and Self–transcendence Buddhists also scored significantly higher than Christians.
A linear regression was further performed. The faith (Christianity and Buddhism) was a significant predictor of life meaningfulness in ES Total Score, dimension Personality and its sub–dimensions. The religion explains 7,6% (R2 = ,076) of ES Total Score variance, 18,7% (R2 = ,187) of Personality variance, 16,9% (R2 = ,169) of Self–transcendence variance, and 6,9% (R2 = ,069) of Self–distance variance.
Finally, we analyzed the influence of gender on the relationship between faith and life meaningfulness. A Pearson correlation explored the relationship between faith and life meaningfulness. This analysis was found to be statistically significant in dimension Personality, r(209) = ,433, p < ,001, and ES Total Score, r(209) = ,276, p < ,001, indicating a strong positive relationship. This relationship was then subjected to a first-order partial correlation in order to explore the relationship controlling for the effects of social support. The first-order correlation was found to be statistically significant in dimension Personality, r(209) = ,432, p < ,001, and ES Total Score, r(209) = ,278, p < ,001, indicating that gender doesn’t affect a relationship between faith and life meaningfulness.
Discussion: Analysis confirmed the differences in life meaningfulness depending on faith and corresponds with the results of earlier studies (cf. Mahoney & Grace, 1999; Fromm, 2001; Halama, Martos & Adamová, 2010; Yalom, 2006). Faith seems to facilitate understanding of one’s own world as meaningful, and through religious dogma, traditions and rules provides a firm meaningful life framework. Higher scores of meaningfulness at Buddhists can be explained by the fact that Buddhism compared with Christianity more potentiates the possibility of self-development and a positive perception of the world. The influence of faith on the perceived life meaningfulness is however rather smaller, but still significant. This is consistent with previous studies (cf. Byron & Miller-Perrin, 2009). The biggest influence is evident in the dimension Self-transcendence. Faith, therefore, affects more emotional than cognitive aspects. This is consistent with the fact that faith is more a matter of the heart than sense, rather a kind of sensed, animistic beliefs than rational logical conclusions.
The research has some limitations. The research sample consist of specific group of university humanities students. More general population may therefore produce different results. Also the concept of faith (religiosity) was measured in simplex way. For future research it would be desirable to accurately distinguish the different forms of faith (spiritual beliefs) and also monitor their intensity. This could provide further/ deeper insight into the issue of relationship between faith and life meaningfulness.
Conclussion: Believers and unbelievers university students significantly differ in their experience of life meaningfulness, especially in the domain of Personality. The actual impact of the faith is not too large and ranges from 6,9 to 18,7% of the explained variance of meaningfulness. The research results and lack of studies on certain aspects of this issue indicate the need for further investigation of the topic.
Tibetan thangkas (Buddhist scroll paintings) are created as religious ritual objects. The fact that they are mainly considered as artworks in the Western world impacts on the decisions made for their display and conservation. This article explores the current approach to thangkas in Australian public collections and compares it with the views of contemporary Tibetan Buddhism practitioners. It underlines a few misconceptions at the source of conservation decision-making, and discusses practical outcomes of integrating the sacred dimension into professional practice against the backdrop of conservation’s Codes of Ethics. Conserving living religious heritage requires that professional ethical standards are adaptable to the needs of users. Existing frameworks for the conservation of sacred objects of pre-colonised, indigenous cultures provide useful models for the conservation of thangkas. This article argues that engaging with contemporary cultural groups to conserve religious significance is part of the mission of conservators. This is viewed as an expansion of conservation practice into the social realm, in a search for purposeful conservation that establishes the social relevance of our profession.