Discerning Buddhas

Discerning Buddhas
Author: Kevin Buckelew
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2024-11-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231560265
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In Song-period China (960–1279 CE), masters in the Chan (Japanese Zen) school of Buddhism were presented as sources of religious authority on par with the Buddha, an almost unthinkably lofty status before the rise of Chan. This claim carried great rhetorical power, facilitating Chan’s appeal to Buddhist monastics and powerful patrons alike. But it also raised a challenging question for Chan Buddhists, who insisted that buddhahood properly transcends all worldly marks: By what signs could one recognize a Chan master as a buddha? Discerning Buddhas argues that Chan Buddhists wove together tropes of sovereignty, hospitality, and martial heroism drawn from both Buddhist tradition and China’s cultural heritage to develop a distinctive vision of what it meant for a Chan master to be a buddha in Song-period China. Kevin Buckelew analyzes the ways Chan Buddhists deployed such tropes in ritual, literature, and visual culture in order to stage the comparison of Chan mastery with buddhahood. He examines how they used the concept of buddhahood to work through questions about the ideal Chan master’s authority, agency, and masculinity, in the process rendering buddhahood in terms highly legible to elite Chinese society. Chan Buddhists, Buckelew shows, developed their own “signature” of buddhahood, according to which enlightened Chan masters who truly deserved comparison to the Buddha were supposed to be distinguished from everyone else. By exploring the resulting Chan culture of discernment, which raised fundamental questions about Buddhist authority at a pivotal inflection point in Chinese history, this book offers fresh insight into the place of Buddhism in Chinese society.

Stages of the Buddha's Teachings

Stages of the Buddha's Teachings
Author: Dolpa
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 758
Release: 2015-12-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0861717988
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Stages of the Buddha's Teachings is an extraordinary and systematized representation of the complete path to enlightenment. From the acclaimed Library of Tibetan Classics. The “stages of the teachings” or tenrim genre of Tibetan spiritual writing expounds the Mahayana teachings as a graded series of topics, from the practices required at the start of the bodhisattva’s career to the final perfect awakening of buddhahood. The three texts in the present volume all exerted seminal influence in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The first text, The Blue Compendium, presents the instructions of the Kadam teacher Potowa (1031–1106) as recorded by his student Dölpa (1059–1131). This text is followed by Gampopa’s (1079–1153) revered Ornament of Precious Liberation, which remains the most authoritative text on the path to enlightenment within the Kagyü school. The final text is Clarifying the Sage’s Intent, a masterwork by the preeiment sage of the Sakya tradition, Sakya Pandita (1182–1251).

Teachings of the Buddha

Teachings of the Buddha
Author: Jack Kornfield
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2012-03-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0834823020
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A reissue of the most popular collection of teachings from Buddhist literature, selected by one of the best known American Buddhist teachers—with a new preface and afterword Jack Kornfield, one of the most respected American Buddhist teachers, has compiled these teachings to impart the essence and inspiration of Buddhism to readers of all spiritual traditions. This treasury of essential Buddhist writings draws from the most popular Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese sources, and is perfect for those both new to Buddhism and longtime practitioners. Among the selections: · Some of the earliest recorded sayings of the Buddha on the practice of freedom · Passages from later Indian scriptures on the perfection of wisdom · Verses from Tibetan masters on the enlightened mind · Songs in praise of meditation by Zen teachers · New selections on the role of women in early Buddhism Also included are traditional instructions on how to practice sitting meditation, cultivate calm awareness, and live with compassion.

Behold the Buddha

Behold the Buddha
Author: James C. Dobbins
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0824879996
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Images of the Buddha are everywhere—not just in temples but also in museums and homes and online—but what these images mean largely depends on the background and circumstance of those viewing them. In Behold the Buddha, James Dobbins invites readers to imagine how premodern Japanese Buddhists understood and experienced icons in temple settings long before the advent of museums and the internet. Although widely portrayed in the last century as visual emblems of great religious truths or as exquisite works of Asian art, Buddhist images were traditionally treated as the very embodiment of the Buddha, his palpable presence among people. Hence, Buddhists approached them as living entities in their own right—that is, as awakened icons with whom they could interact religiously. Dobbins begins by reflecting on art museums, where many non-Buddhists first encounter images of the Buddha, before outlining the complex Western response to them in previous centuries. He next elucidates images as visual representations of the story of the Buddha’s life followed by an overview of the physical attributes and symbolic gestures found in Buddhist iconography. A variety of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and other divinities commonly depicted in Japanese Buddhism is introduced, and their “living” quality discussed in the context of traditional temples and Buddhist rituals. Finally, other religious objects in Japanese Buddhism—relics, scriptures, inscriptions, portraits of masters, and sacred sites—are explained using the Buddhist icon as a model. Dobbins concludes by contemplating art museums further as potential sites for discerning the religious character of Buddhist images. Those interested in Buddhism generally who would like to learn more about its rich iconography—whether encountered in temples or museums—will find much in this concise, well-illustrated volume to help them “behold the Buddha.”

The Truth Taught by All the Buddhas

The Truth Taught by All the Buddhas
Author: Bhikkhu Revata
Publisher: Pa-Auk Meditation Centre (Singapore)
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2016-12-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN:
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"The Buddha of this era and the Buddhas of past eras have all taught only two kinds of truths, and nothing more than these. ‘I have taught the Dhamma that I myself have directly penetrated. All the Dhamma I taught between the day I became enlightened and the day I took final Nibbāna – all the Dhamma I have taught are true. There is nothing I have taught which is untrue.’ ‘I have not taught a Dhamma which you cannot practise. Sañjaya Belatthiputta replied, ‘All the wise will go to the Buddha. The fools will come to me. Do not worry.’ A person can poison others, but the Dhamma will never poison anyone. Depend on the Dhamma, then, and not on the person. Mentality does not originate in the brain. In fact, there is not the slightest trace of mentality in the brain."

Buddha's Möbius Strip

Buddha's Möbius Strip
Author: Ja-Sung Oh
Publisher: Green Frog Academy
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2021-01-30
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 8996279226
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1. Now mankind is fighting against the Corona virus. Everyday a lot of people are dying, dead, and suffering by the Corona virus circulating the world. Heavier suffering and burden are given to the economical weak. This is a very serious problem to be solved soon. However, it is only a small tip of big problem we are facing today. The more serious and hard-to-solve problem like Gordian knot is the environmental problems of earth revealing the symptoms such as the marine pollution, destruction of forest, desertification, climatic change, and so on, accelerated by the financial capitalism and tribal egoism. As philosopher Nietzsche said, mankind becomes the disease of earth. At this rate, Homo sapiens will disappear before the great flower of Earth-Democracy begins to bloom. This terrible result is the product of ego-centric small reason, dichotomous reason, namely, instrumental reason. Such selfish exclusive reason constructs the vertical system of knowledge, vertical relationship of possession, and vertical ruling relationship at any cost. We can not avoid greed, opposition, deception, distrust, conflict, violence, and war. It is because the self is the genius of the lie and deception, so confabulates endlessly to justify and rationalize himself or herself in order to maximize his or her benefits and pleasures. We can not avoid the conflict between two monadic selves, conflict between two logoi, conflict between two benefits, and conflict between two justifications. So we can make a long list of cases of tragedic violences and wars caused by the political leaders who was just a greedy liar, swindler, intellectual dwarf, and sly hypocrite. However, the direction and way for the collective intelligence are clear and distinct. It is inevitable to solve the pains of mankind and all living bodies of earth. 2. The collective intelligence of mankind has explored and tried to discover the ultimate truth and to actualize the democracy incessantly. Science and philosophy are the tracks of hard fighting of brave men in order to make the good world where the universal truth is alive in the justice and democracy. The collective intelligence of mankind has achieved the incessant progress through the Copernican changes in scientific truth. Science has escalated the status of human beings continuously in the universe. All human beings are equal, extremely precious and solemn. Being allowed to parody Wittgenstein, now it is time to keep silent about the affairs which are not coincident with the truth of science, in order to keep the infinite value and dignity of human beings. It is because the substantialization of false concepts allows all kinds of liars and swindlers to win the games pleasantly, while justice keeps silent and human happy life and peace of earth are destroyed in the white screamings. Contemporary great philosopher Deleuze overturns such false concepts decisively and opens new metaphysics and ethics based on the contemporary sciences. Deleuze's philosophy of multiplicity and event is very close to Buddha's philosophy of Dharma and Middle Way which is also very scientific and practical. Middle Way is the ultimate truth and it is the single unique solution to solve the problem of earth ultimately. It is time we need to pay attention seriously on Deleuze and Buddha if we wish to live in justice, democray, freedom, peace, and happiness. 3. This book compares the same points and different points with selected several keywords in the epistemology, ontology, and practical theory between Deleuze and Buddhism. Both will go forward together for the democracy, peace, and happiness of earth. Michel Foucault predicted that the 20th century will be considered as that of Deleuze, which will never be a joke or an exaggeration. We can enter into the Buddhism and come out of Deleuze, and vise versa.

The Buddhist Self

The Buddhist Self
Author: C. V. Jones
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2020-11-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0824886496
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Winner of the 2021 Toshihide Numata Book Award in Buddhism The assertion that there is nothing in the constitution of any person that deserves to be considered the self (ātman)—a permanent, unchanging kernel of personal identity in this life and those to come—has been a cornerstone of Buddhist teaching from its inception. Whereas other Indian religious systems celebrated the search for and potential discovery of one’s “true self,” Buddhism taught about the futility of searching for anything in our experience that is not transient and ephemeral. But a small yet influential set of Mahāyāna Buddhist texts, composed in India in the early centuries CE, taught that all sentient beings possess at all times, and across their successive lives, the enduring and superlatively precious nature of a Buddha. This was taught with reference to the enigmatic expression tathāgatagarbha—the “womb” or “chamber” for a Buddha—which some texts refer to as a person’s true self. The Buddhist Self is a methodical examination of Indian teaching about the tathāgatagarbha (otherwise the presence of one’s “Buddha-nature”) and the extent to which different Buddhist texts and authors articulated this in terms of the self. C. V. Jones attends to each of the Indian Buddhist works responsible for explaining what is meant by the expression tathāgatagarbha, and how far this should be understood or promoted using the language of selfhood. With close attention to these sources, Jones argues that the trajectory of Buddha-nature thought in India is also the history and legacy of a Buddhist account of what deserves to be called the self: an innovative attempt to equip Mahāyāna Buddhism with an affirmative response to wider Indian interest in the discovery of something precious or even divine in one’s own constitution. This argument is supplemented by critical consideration of other themes that run through this distinctive body of Mahāyānist literature: the relationship between Buddhist and non-Buddhist teachings about the self, the overlap between the tathāgatagarbha and the nature of the mind, and the originally radical position that the only means of becoming liberated from rebirth is to achieve the same exalted status as the Buddha.

Buddha Taught Nonviolence, Not Pacifism

Buddha Taught Nonviolence, Not Pacifism
Author: Paul R. Fleischman
Publisher: Pariyatti Publishing
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1928706223
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In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, this thought-provoking essay explores the Buddha's teaching to find one prescription: not war, not pacifism but nonviolence.

The Flower Ornament Scripture

The Flower Ornament Scripture
Author: Thomas Cleary
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 2759
Release: 1993-10-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0834824094
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A masterful translation of one of the most influential Buddhist sutras—the Avatamsaka Sutra—by one of the greatest translators of Buddhist texts of our time Known in Chinese as Hua-yen and in Japanese as Kegon-kyo, the Avatamsaka Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture, is held in the highest regard and studied by Buddhists of all traditions. Through its structure and symbolism, as well as through its concisely stated principles, it conveys a vast range of Buddhist teachings. This one-volume edition contains Thomas Cleary’s definitive translation of all thirty-nine books of the sutra, along with an introduction, a glossary, and Cleary’s translation of Li Tongxuan’s seventh-century guide to the final book, the Gandavyuha, “Entry into the Realm of Reality.”