The Tea Ceremony and Women's Empowerment in Modern Japan

The Tea Ceremony and Women's Empowerment in Modern Japan
Author: Etsuko Kato
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2004-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 113437237X

By combining anthropological observation with historical examination of the tea ceremony, this book radically revises mainstream discourses surrounding women and the tea ceremony in Japan.

Empowerment of North American Indian Girls

Empowerment of North American Indian Girls
Author: Carol A. Markstrom
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0803216211

Empowerment of North American Indian Girls is an examination of coming-of-age-ceremonies for American Indian girls past and present, featuring an in-depth look at Native ideas about human development and puberty. Many North American Indian cultures regard the transition from childhood to adulthood as a pivotal and potentially vulnerable phase of life and have accordingly devised coming-of-age rituals to affirm traditional values and community support for its members. Such rituals are a positive and enabling social force in many modern Native communities whose younger generations are wrestling with substance abuse, mental health problems, suicide, and school dropout. Developmental psychologist Carol A. Markstrom reviews indigenous, historical, and anthropological literatures and conveys the results of her fieldwork to provide descriptive accounts of North American Indian coming-of-age rituals. She gives special attention to the female puberty rituals in four communities: Apache, Navajo, Lakota, and Ojibwa. Of particular interest is the distinctive Apache Sunrise Dance, which is described and analyzed in detail. Also included are American Indian feminist interpretations of menstruation and menstrual taboos, the feminine in cosmology, and the significance of puberty customs and rites for the development of young women.

Empowerment as Ceremony

Empowerment as Ceremony
Author: William Epstein
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2017-07-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351296663

Many people in the United States are poor, lead marginal lives, and need jobs as well as basic services such as education, medical care, and housing. Multitudes in other parts of the world, in addition to being poor, are jailed, tortured, and killed for being members of the wrong ethnic group or expressing political opinions. Those who argue for empowerment claim it is a magic bullet. It can liberate the oppressed, largely through self-organization, self-motivation, self-invention, and even self-clarity. William M. Epstein sees contemporary empowerment practice in the United States as a civic church of national values, one better in performing its ceremonial role than god-based houses of worship. By itself, empowerment is not worth the effort of commentary, since it achieves none of its goals and has not even generated a respectable critical literature. But Epstein argues that empowerment practice and American social welfare both embody prescriptive cultural preferences. Like art and music, empowerment opens windows into deeper social meaning. The social sciences have carved out roles for themselves by looking for simple remedies, ones that are inexpensive and compatible with contemporary social arrangements. Epstein shows that those in social work practices have not only deluded themselves into thinking that these services have real instrumental value, but really operate at cross-purposes. This accessible work will attract critical attention among these professional groups. It bases its carefully-documented insights upon informed sociological and anthropological theory.

Empowerment and the Path of Liberation

Empowerment and the Path of Liberation
Author: Sna-tshogs-raṅ-grol (Rtse-le Rgod-tshaṅ-pa)
Publisher: Rangjung Yeshe Publications
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2004-05-24
Genre: Mahāmudrā (Tantric rite)
ISBN: 9789627341154

Replies to queries from a disciple on the teaching of Mahāmudrā and its initiations; an explanation instruction according to the Rñiṅ-ma-pa tradition.

A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism

A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism
Author: Bruce Newman
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0834844133

Uncover the nature of the mind with this ground-level, practice-oriented presentation of Tibetan Buddhism. A personal and accessible guide to establishing progress on the path. The book begins with the awakening of students' interest in spirituality and the initial encounter with Tibetan Buddhism, then leads us through all the steps necessary for successful practice in the West. Included is succinct counsel on finding an appropriate teacher, receiving empowerments, becoming active in a center, and launching and sustaining a Vajrayana practice. Special emphasis is placed on the potential pitfalls, and the marvelous benefits, of the guru-disciple relationship.

A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path

A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path
Author: Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2010-03-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 155939790X

Buddhist teachings provide numerous methods for bringing greater meaning and happiness into our lives and into our relationships with others. In A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path, Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche reveals these methods in direct, vibrant, down-to-earth language. At the core of this work lies The Jewel Treasury of Advice, a text composed by Drikung Bhande Dharmaradza (1704–1754), the reincarnation of Drikung Dharmakirti. Khenchen Rinpoche interprets these ancient teachings with compassion, humor, and a keen awareness for their relevance in contemporary Western life. Those who sincerely want to study and practice the Buddha's teachings will find this an indispensable guide.

Vajrayana and the Culmination of the Path

Vajrayana and the Culmination of the Path
Author: Dalai Lama
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2024-12-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1614299579

The final volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion by His Holiness the Dalai Lama takes us to the uncommon practices and realizations of Vajrayana to the full awakening of a buddha. His Holiness the Dalai Lama skillfully illuminates the unique qualities of Vajrayana, as practiced in Tibet, and the method to eradicate the subtlest obscurations preventing the full awakening of a buddha. Speaking to newcomers and advanced students alike, he explains the similarities and differences of the Sutra and Tantra paths. Having gathered many of the doubts and difficult points concerning the tantric path, he clarifies the purpose of receiving proper empowerment by qualified gurus and the ethical restraints and commitments required to enter the path of secret mantra. The paths and stages of the four tantric classes are explained, as are the generation-stage and completion-stage practices of Highest Yoga Tantra. You are introduced to the practices of clear appearance and divine identity common to all tantric sadhanas, as well as the distinctive practices of illusory body and actual clear light that overcome the subtlest defilements on the mind and eliminate all obscurations quickly. The understanding of emptiness in Sutra and Tantra is the same, but the consciousness perceiving emptiness differs. In Highest Yoga Tantra that consciousness is great bliss, which arises from knowing the methods to manipulate the channels, winds, and drops of the subtle body. In short, in Vajrayana and the Culmination of the Path the Dalai Lama sets out the path that leads to blissful awakening and enables us to be of great benefit to all sentient beings.

Questioning Empowerment

Questioning Empowerment
Author: Jo Rowlands
Publisher: Oxfam
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780855983628

Focusing on the term empowerment this book examines the various meanings given to the concept of empowerment and the many ways power can be expressed - in personal relationships and in wider social interactions.

Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism

Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism
Author: Martin A. Mills
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136854746

This is a major anthropological study of contemporary Tibetan Buddhist monasticism and tantric ritual in the Ladakh region of North-West India and of the role of tantric ritual in the formation and maintenance of traditional forms of state structure and political consciousness in Tibet. Containing detailed descriptions and analyses of monastic ritual, the work builds up a picture of Tibetan tantric traditions as they interact with more localised understandings of bodily identity and territorial cosmology, to produce a substantial re-interpretation of the place of monks as ritual performers and peripheral householders in Ladakh. The work also examines the central and indispensable role of incarnate lamas, such as the Dalai Lama, in the religious life of Tibetan Buddhists.