In the Chinese Buddhist tradition, copying and printing sacred texts is considered a form of merit-making, or virtuous activity. One reason for the printing and circulation of books in the Buddhist tradition is the belief that one can gain merits. From the introduction of Buddhism into China, devotees copied, printed and disseminated sūtras to generate merit, a kind of spiritual goodness, which accumulates with each positive act. The author has gathered a large amount of data from libraries, museums and temples around the world that demonstrates how the imperial family members, concubines, court ladies, eunuchs, Buddhist monks and lay devotees supported the construction of the Buddhist canon. They believed that the printing of the Buddhist scriptures would grant them all kinds of merit, such as those who seek happiness in life now and happiness in the next life, or those who encounter disasters and difficulties in the present world. As this paper deeply delves into the sources of the editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon, we may further analyze the practice of merit-making hierarchically and horizontally.
Background: Sikhamu Baha, Śrīkhaṇḍa Tarumūla Mahāvihāra, is one of the prominent Buddhist monasteries of Kantipur with a history backed around 7th century CE. It is situated in a small, enclosed courtyard adjoining the Kumari Baha and just off of the Durbar Square. The importance of this baha is the fact that one of its members is the 'Raj Guru', or Raj Gubhaju. This post is hereditary and is always held by a Vajrācārya of one of the lineages of Sikhamu Baha. Objective: The objective of this article are to understand the different activities performed by Rajguru in the past and present, to highlight the facts regarding Raj Guruju, its history as well as his role in the buddhist community of Kathmandu and to showcase the linkage between Kumari and Raj Guruju. Methodology: The study follows descriptive research methodology and interviews are conducted to meet the research objective. Result: The findings of this study is that the Raj Guruju has been playing an eminent role in creating a balance in Buddhist community, working for benefit of Vajrācārya s of Kathmandu, fulfilling his duty as royal priest and also addressing the contemporary issues arose along with time. Conclusion: Raj Guruju is a hereditary post held by Vajrācārya of “Yuta kaval” of Śrīkhaṇḍa Tarumūla Mahāvihāra. Raj Guruju being still a prominent and influential post amongst the Bajracharya of Kathmandu. He is the guardian of Bajracharyas in Kathmandu. He plays an eminent role in creating a balance in Buddhist community, working for benefit of Bajracharyas of Kathmandu. Along with the role towards Bajracharya community as a whole, Raj Guruju has special linkage with Kumari and Kumari chhen and thus has to follow his duties and specific roles in Kumari Chhen as well.
This paper explores the integration of Buddhist philosophies into urban livability assessment frameworks through analysis of literature from 2015-2024. While traditional measurements rely primarily on quantitative metrics, Buddhist principles offer broader perspectives for addressing urbanization challenges, climate change, and inequality. Our methodology employed systematic literature review, thematic content analysis, and comparison of implementation patterns across urban settings. We analyzed academic texts, policy documents, and case studies on Buddhist concepts in urban contexts, focusing on principles like interconnectedness, mindfulness, ethical conduct, and the middle way. The research identifies implementation challenges and opportunities across regions, with traditionally Buddhist areas showing higher adoption rates, though principles remain universally applicable. Cities with strong institutional support demonstrate higher implementation success. Our framework links Buddhist values to specific urban applications, evaluation criteria, implementation challenges, and benefits. Interconnectedness (paticca samuppada) informs neighborhood designs that reduce travel time and foster social interactions. Mindfulness (sati) creates spaces that reduce stress, while compassion (karuna) manifests in inclusive housing policies that decrease homelessness and improve public health. Environmental assessment components align with Buddhist teachings on stewardship and human-nature interconnectedness. This research bridges ancient insights with contemporary urban challenges, offering practical guidance for urban planners seeking to create more sustainable, equitable, and spiritually enriching urban environments.
The educational philosophy of the Nuns’ Buddhist Academy at Pushou Monastery, Mount Wutai, is based on the principles of “Hua Yan as the foundation, precepts as the practice, and Pure Land as the destination.” This philosophy draws upon Buddhist scriptures, integrating descriptions of the Pure Land practice found in the Avatamsaka Sūtra and the Amitābha Sūtra. This approach translates the textual teachings of Buddhist classics into real-life practice, expressing the concept of “the non-obstruction of principle and phenomenon” in the tangible activities of practitioners. It also allows for the experiential understanding of the spiritual realms revealed in the scriptures during theoretical learning and practice. The philosophy of the Nuns’ Academy embodies the practical emphasis of Chinese Buddhism, guiding all aspects of learning and practice. This paper argues that the pure land practice is living. In order to understand pure land practice, there should be a comprehensive viewpoint. It is needed to explore this way of practice through the analysis of textual analysis, figuring its root in Buddhis sūtra, as well as a sociological method to investigate its manifestation at the present society. Moreover, the spiritual dimension should not be neglected for a full-scale study. In this sense, the pure land school is living at present.
The paper concentrates on the philosophical discourses of four thinkers – Soren Kierkegaard, M. K. Gandhi, R. D. Ranade and B. R. Ambedkar on Ethics and Religion. Soren Kierkegaard, whose journey in philosophy made him pass through the aesthetic stage to ethical stage and ultimately religious stage landing in the realm of “faith”; where an individual arrives at without any rational commitment. M. K. Gandhi, whose journey in life encompassed politics, economics, and social realms where the underlying paradigm has always been religion. He did not consider ‘truth’ and therefore ‘morality’ as segregated from religion. R. D. Ranade, while mentioning the criteria of mystical experience, very empathetically mentions that a mystic (a saint) has the element of universality, is intellectual, emotional, has the intuitive experience of ‘spiritual realization’ and cannot be devoid of morality. B. R. Ambedkar, instead of accepting Christianity or Islam, consecrated into Buddhism; that befitted Indian contextual situation critiquing the popular Brahmanism, believed that religion must be in amalgamation and consonance with reason and scientific temperament. And this criterion was fulfilled by Buddhism (indeed with other criteria). His adopting Buddhism was more of a political movement rather than spiritual; therefore, his Buddhism in the transformed format, is called Neo-Buddhism. The research article concludes by comparing these masters’ views and ideologies in the context of ‘a possibility of ethical religion’ that has appealed my conscience.
This study offers a comparative analysis of liberation in Buddhism, focusing on Nirvana, and salvation in Christianity, emphasizing redemption. It explores how Buddhism and Christianity address the fundamental human quest for spiritual fulfillment. The analysis reveals that Buddhism views Nirvana as the cessation of suffering through the extinction of desires and ignorance, rather than simply a state of bliss. Christianity, on the other hand, presents redemption as a transformative process involving faith, repentance, and spiritual rebirth, rather than solely relying on divine grace. The study highlights that while Buddhism emphasizes personal effort through ethical conduct and meditation, Christianity combines divine grace with personal commitment and adherence to Christ’s teachings. By emphasizing the nuanced interplay of personal effort and spiritual guidance in both traditions, the study provides a more balanced understanding of how each religion addresses the quest for liberation and salvation.
The <i>Yogalehrbuch</i> is said to have been established in Central Asia and to have a similar terminology to the Sarvāstivāda. However, the exact background of the relation is yet unknown. This paper discusses two points. First, I examine the structure of <i>ānāpānasmṛti</i> and how the meditative images relate to the descriptions of Abhidharmic texts. The results show that the <i>Yogalehrbuch</i> adopts the steps of the Sarvāstivāda but does not reflect a highly systematized doctrine. The second is a comparison of its unique meditative images (oil, <i>abhiṣeka</i>, the Buddhas of the past, and Maitreya) with two meditation manuals, the <i>Secret Essentials</i> and the <i>Methods of Curing</i>, and two early esoteric <i>sūtra</i>s. The results show that the <i>abhiṣeka</i> in the <i>Yogalehrbuch</i> is close to the two meditation manuals, while it represents more the life of Śākyamuni, which is also found in esoteric Buddhism, rather than the healing of illness. However, the <i>Methods of Curing</i> refers to a <i>dhāraṇī</i> similar to those found in two esoteric <i>sūtra</i>s. The two <i>sūtra</i>s use <i>abhiṣeka</i> as the name of <i>dhāraṇī</i>s, not as meditative images. From the above, it is hypothesized that the <i>Yogalehrbuch</i> was established within a background in which elements of early esoteric Buddhism could be found but had not yet seen the development of <i>dhāraṇī</i>s.
Mahāyāna and Theravāda are the two major traditions of Buddhism in contemporary Asia. Although they share many similar teachings, there are long-standing disputes between their respective sets of adherents, touching on doctrine, ritual, religious practices, and the ultimate goal, among other matters. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Yangon and Mandalay, this study explores gender’s role in the position of Sino-Burmese Mahāyāna <i>bhikṣuṇī</i>s in the sociocultural context of Theravāda-majority Myanmar, where the full <i>bhikṣuṇī</i> lineage of Theravāda Buddhism has died out. Its findings, firstly, shed light on how the local Theravāda ethos inevitably affects Sino-Burmese Mahāyāna nuns’ positions and experiences of religious- and ethnic-minority status. Secondly, they demonstrate the gender dynamics of Sino-Burmese nuns’ interactions both with indigenous Burmese monks and Myanmar’s ethnic-Chinese laity. As such, this research opens up a fresh perspective on these nuns’ monastic lives, to which scant scholarly attention has hitherto been paid. Specifically, it argues that while Sino-Burmese nuns are subjected to “double suffering” on both gender and ethnoreligious minority grounds, they play an important role in shaping the future of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism by educating the next generation of monastics and serving the religious needs of the wider Sino-Burmese community in Myanmar.
This paper examines Wu Bin’s (c. 1543–c. 1626) <i>Ten Views of a Lingbi</i> Rock (1610) from the perspective of Buddhist epistemological notions in seventeenth-century China. In studying a series of gazes focusing on a single object—a stone with a very complex surface—my discussion posits an act of excessive seeing as a process of making worlds. I take a theoretical cue from contemporaneous intellectual discourses, especially those that flourished with the revival of Yogācāra Buddhism in late Ming China. This paper will show how an art object comes into being in perceivable worlds interconnected by the individual’s sensory experiences. My study aims to inquire into the role of illusion as sensory experiences, phenomenological processes, and even notions of soteriological efficacy beyond formal artistic devices. To that end, this paper is the first attempt to situate <i>Ten Views of a Lingbi Rock</i> alongside Buddhist thoughts and artmaking.
This article argues that it is not Buddhism, per se, but rather Buddhist extremism, that is responsible for violence against relevant out-groups. Moreover, it suggests that the causes of Buddhist extremism, rather than being determined solely by textual and scriptural justifications for out-group violence, are rooted instead in the intersection between social psychology and theology, rather than organically arising from the latter, per se. This article unpacks this argument by a deeper exploration of Theravada Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka. It argues that religious extremism, including its Buddhist variant, is best understood as a fundamentalist belief system that justifies structural violence against relevant out-groups. A total of seven of the core characteristics of the religious extremist are identified and employed to better grasp how Buddhist extremism in Sri Lanka manifests itself on the ground. These are: the fixation with maintaining identity supremacy; in-group bias; out-group prejudice; emphasis on preserving in-group purity via avoidance of commingling with the out-group; low integrative complexity expressed in binary thinking; dangerous speech in both soft- and hard-modes; and finally, the quest for political power, by force if needed. Future research could, inter alia, explore how these seven characteristics also adequately describe other types of religious extremism.
Previous researchers in Myanmar have compatibly asserted about the art of Buddha images produced during the early Konbaung period. U Maung Maung Tin (M.A.) and U Win Maung (Tampawady) in 1983, Than Tun (Mawlamyine) in 2013, and Maung Maung Siri in 2019 proclaimed that the art of early Konbaung images relied on the second Ava called Nyaungyan style in Myanmar[1]. Nevertheless, none of them stated in depth nor analyzed stylistically about the early Konbaung images in their papers. In order to fulfil a gap of knowledge, the researcher, in this study, criticizes whether the Buddhist art of the early Konbaung images relied on the Nyaungyan art completely or partially, what evidences are there to verify, and whether it is true that there was no innovative evolution during the early Konbaung period or not. In sum, this research is a qualitative research based on the evidences collected by data gathered by pragmatic observation and documentation. Research framework is organized with the chronological analysis, iconographic analysis and comparative analysis of data. It is supported with by Erwin Panofsky’s method of Iconography and Iconology. The different types, iconographic style and specific characteristics of the early Konbaung images indicated the innovative evolution of the Burmese Buddhist art during early Konbaung period as the evidences.
Sigit Budiyanto, Ibrahim Bafadal, Burhanuddin Burhanuddin
Abstract: This research was conducted using a qualitative approach with a multi-site study design. This research was conducted at Kertaraja Buddhist College in Batu and Smaratungga Buddhist College in Ampel. This study aims to explain (1) religious values that inspire the leadership of monks in Buddhist educational institutions, (2) the type of monk’s leadership in Buddhist educational institutions, (3) the principles of monk's leadership in Buddhist education institutions. The results of this study are as follows: first, internal encouragement in the form of experience as a leader and encouragement to serve and meet academic qualifications, while external encouragement is basically appointed by the foundation to become chairman. Religious values in the leadership of monks in higher education institutions of Buddhism are values contained in the dasa raja dhamma. Second, the type of monk leadership in Buddhist religious education institutions is mixed, namely: democratic type, delegate leadership behavior and participative leadership. The way the head of higher education involves members to achieve organizational goals is by placing the right people, giving the vice chairman a big role and active participation of members. A personal figure as a monk who is a Buddhist clergyman and uses a humanistic approach, as well as an element of kinship in work culture. Third, the use of communication tools by the Head of the Buddhist College when not in place.
Abstrak: Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan rancangan studi multi situs. Penelitian ini dilakukan di STAB Kertaraja Batu dan STIAB Smaratungga Ampel. Penelitian ini bertujuan menjelaskan (1) nilai religius yang menjiwai kepemimpinan bhikkhu di lembaga pendidikan agama Buddha, (2) jenis kepemimpinan bhikkhu di lembaga pendidikan agama Buddha, (3) prinsip kepemimpinan bhikkhu di lembaga pendidikan agama Buddha. Hasil penelitian ini adalah sebagai berikut. Pertama, yaitu dorongan internal berupa pengalaman sebagai pemimpin dan dorongan untuk mengabdi dan memenuhi syarat kualifikasi akademik, sedangkan dorongan eksternal yaitu pada dasarnya ditunjuk oleh yayasan untuk menjadi ketua. Nilai religius dalam kepemimpinan bhikkhu di lembaga pendidikan tinggi agama Buddha yaitu nilai yang termuat dalam dasa raja dhamma. Kedua, jenis kepemimpinan bhikkhu di lembaga pendidikan agama Buddha mix (campuran), yaitu tipe demokratis, perilaku kepemimpinan delegasi dan partisipatif. Cara ketua perguruan tinggi dalam melibatkan anggota untuk mencapai tujuan organisasi yaitu dengan melakukan penempatan orang yang tepat, memberikan peran besar wakil ketua dan partisipasi aktif anggota. Sosok personal sebagai bhikkhu yang merupakan rohaniawan buddhis dan menggunakan pendekatan humanistik, serta unsur kekeluargaan dalam budaya kerja. Ketiga, penggunaan alat komunikasi oleh Ketua Sekolah Tinggi Agama Buddha ketika tidak berada di tempat.
The author analyzes the works of the famous «The Sea of Parables» essay translated from Tibetan and recorded on «Oirat clear script» by a Kalmyk Buddhist priest Tugmyud-gavdzhi (O. M. Dordzhiev) as well as provides a list of chapters (garchak) to each of the four notebooks of the manuscript. Garchak publication shows that the author’s intention was not simply to arrange the text of the translation properly but also to systematize an extensive material. There is no doubt that Tugmyud gavdzhi was preparing his translation for the reading by the general public and not only for representatives of the scientific circles.
History (General), Oriental languages and literatures
Lacan recommends reading Kierkegaard, an author who Freud has not cited at all, which invites us to a transdisciplinary experience on the notion of repetition, as an element of the unconscious mind, in an attempt to provide greater philosophical depth to Sigmund Freud. Our starting point is Kierkegaard's question whether repetition is actually possible. For pre-Socratics, it was not possible since the world was immobile for them, while for Heraclitus, the world was in a continuous dialectical state of becoming, which anticipated Hegel, a philosopher Lacan has studied thoroughly. For Kierkegaard, repetition is life itself. Nasio shows us two types of repetition: the healthy one and the pathological one, an issue that we hereby try to elucidate. We can liberate ourselves from repetition by elaborating through reviviscence, synthesis of the pre-Socratic immobility and the Heraclitian.
Mindfulness-based practice methods are entering the Western cultural mainstream as institutionalised approaches in healthcare, education, and other public spheres. The Buddhist roots of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and comparable mindfulness-based programmes are widely acknowledged, together with the view of their religious and ideological neutrality. However, the cultural and historical roots of these contemporary approaches have received relatively little attention in the study of religion, and the discussion has been centred on Theravāda Buddhist viewpoints or essentialist presentations of ‘classical Buddhism’. In the light of historical and textual analysis it seems unfounded to hold Theravāda tradition as the original context or as some authoritative expression of Buddhist mindfulness, and there are no grounds for holding it as the exclusive Buddhist source of the MBSR programme either. Rather, one-sided Theravāda-based presentations give a limited and oversimplified picture of Buddhist doctrine and practice, and also distort comparisons with contemporary non-religious forms of mindfulness practice. To move beyond the sectarian and essentialist approaches closely related to the ‘world religions paradigm’ in the study of religion, the discussion would benefit from a lineage-based approach, where possible historical continuities and phenomenological similarities between Buddhist mindfulness and contemporary non-religious approaches are examined at the level of particular relevant Buddhist teachers and their lineages of doctrine and practice.
This paper provides an overview of the first detailed case study of a Buddhist congregation in Estonia. The object of this study is Triratna Buddhist Community in Estonia, which was established here in 1989 and is part of international Triratna Buddhist Community (formerly known as Friends of the Western Buddhist Order) created in the United Kingdom in 1967. Mainly through oral history and participant observation methods as well as analysis of data presented by different written and oral sources the researcher strives to give an overview of various aspects of activity connected with one particular Buddhist group in Estonia, including its practice, ordination rituals, beliefs and membership characteristics. It also includes a detailed overview of the congregation’s history and its relationship with members of Triratna congregations in Finland and the UK. It presents Buddhism as an emerging new religion in Estonia through a case study of a Western Buddhist ecumenical congregation.
My paper deals with mythological/religious imagery and syncretic soteriologies in Thomas Pynchon’s 2006 novel Against the Day, focusing in particular on the character of Cyprian Latewood, bisexual spy, Orpheus stand-in, and masochist par excellence. Cyprian’s path throughout the novel is specifically an Orphic descent/return myth, but it also deals with issues of mystical transcendence, metempsychosis, Dionysian ekstasis, and Buddhist nirvana. These are represented at the macro level in themes such as retreat from the world, neo-monasticism, anarchic activism, or hope for transcendent knowledge, and also within specific images and scenes, such as those involving flight, self-negation, disembodied voices, and the final voyage of the Chums of Chance, a Manichaean allegory of escape. Cyprian’s final home at a Bogomil-Orphic monastery near Thrace serves to tie together disparate religio-political strands within the novel, including a syncretic teleology (Gnostic/Buddhist/Manichaean) and countercultural activism. It is simultaneously a retreat from the world – a political move with relevance to the history of the Bogomils as both persecuted sect and social agitators – and also a move towards transcendence through gnostic ritual. There are a few important results of this reading, touching on religious, mythological, and Pynchon studies, and sexual and political discourse. Firstly, it challenges the ease with which Western, and specifically Christian, ideologies appropriate counter-discourses in acts of cultural hegemony, exemplified in one instance by Kathryn Hume’s early reading of the novel’s ethos as explicitly Roman Catholic, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary (“The Religious and Political Vision of Against the Day”, 2007). Secondly, though other critics have gestured at the presence of Orphism and Buddhism in Against the Day, they have failed to convincingly tie these concerns to a larger conversation around Pynchon’s oeuvre and the meaning of the evolution of the author’s religious vision. None, so far as I know, have commented on the expressly Manichaean concepts in the work, and the consequences of the presence of this specific cosmological binary. Lastly, by making the heroic Cyprian the focus of the novel’s transcendental religious narrative, the author complicates two assumptions which have lingered unquestioned for far too long in Pynchon studies, namely the anti-metaphysics of his earth-centered onto-epistemology, and the inherent homophobia present in a worldview which privileges the nuclear, procreative family structure and seems to use homosexuality and sadomasochism strictly in negative significations, as metaphors for unequal political and economic power dynamics (see Julie Christine Sears’ “Black and White Rainbows and Blurry Lines”). This paper resists the reductive impulse towards conclusiveness, but rather seeks to complicate existing readings while pushing forward into new territory by synthesizing areas of discourse around the author, his works, and mythology and politics, which are usually considered only as discrete entities. Pynchon’s postmodern playfulness in his arrangement of historical, religious, and political signifiers resists organization into a singular narrative, but is rather designed to lead readers to question the ways in which knowledge is produced and belief is rationalized, and to consider alternatives to a future which marches blindly in lockstep with our past and present realities.