Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief

Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief
Author: Daniel Anderson Arnold
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2005
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780231132817

In Buddhists, Brahmins, and Belief, Dan Arnold examines how the Brahmanical tradition of Purva Mimamsa and the writings of the seventh-century Buddhist Madhyamika philosopher Candrakirti challenged dominant Indian Buddhist views of epistemology. Arnold retrieves these two very different but equally important voices of philosophical dissent, showing them to have developed highly sophisticated and cogent critiques of influential Buddhist epistemologists such as Dignaga and Dharmakirti. His analysis--developed in conversation with modern Western philosophers like William Alston and J. L. Austin--offers an innovative reinterpretation of the Indian philosophical tradition, while suggesting that pre-modern Indian thinkers have much to contribute to contemporary philosophical debates. In logically distinct ways, Purva Mimamsa and Candrakirti's Madhyamaka opposed the influential Buddhist school of thought that emphasized the foundational character of perception. Arnold argues that Mimamsaka arguments concerning the "intrinsic validity" of the earliest Vedic scriptures are best understood as a critique of the tradition of Buddhist philosophy stemming from Dignaga. Though often dismissed as antithetical to "real philosophy," Mimamsaka thought has affinities with the reformed epistemology that has recently influenced contemporary philosophy of religion. Candrakirti's arguments, in contrast, amount to a principled refusal of epistemology. Arnold contends that Candrakirti marshals against Buddhist foundationalism an approach that resembles twentieth-century ordinary language philosophy--and does so by employing what are finally best understood as transcendental arguments. The conclusion that Candrakirti's arguments thus support a metaphysical claim represents a bold new understanding of Madhyamaka.

Why Buddhism is True

Why Buddhism is True
Author: Robert Wright
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1439195471

From one of America’s most brilliant writers, a New York Times bestselling journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. At the heart of Buddhism is a simple claim: The reason we suffer—and the reason we make other people suffer—is that we don’t see the world clearly. At the heart of Buddhist meditative practice is a radical promise: We can learn to see the world, including ourselves, more clearly and so gain a deep and morally valid happiness. In this “sublime” (The New Yorker), pathbreaking book, Robert Wright shows how taking this promise seriously can change your life—how it can loosen the grip of anxiety, regret, and hatred, and how it can deepen your appreciation of beauty and of other people. He also shows why this transformation works, drawing on the latest in neuroscience and psychology, and armed with an acute understanding of human evolution. This book is the culmination of a personal journey that began with Wright’s landmark book on evolutionary psychology, The Moral Animal, and deepened as he immersed himself in meditative practice and conversed with some of the world’s most skilled meditators. The result is a story that is “provocative, informative and...deeply rewarding” (The New York Times Book Review), and as entertaining as it is illuminating. Written with the wit, clarity, and grace for which Wright is famous, Why Buddhism Is True lays the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age and shows how, in a time of technological distraction and social division, we can save ourselves from ourselves, both as individuals and as a species.

Locations of Buddhism

Locations of Buddhism
Author: Anne M. Blackburn
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2010-04-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0226055094

Modernizing and colonizing forces brought nineteenth-century Sri Lankan Buddhists both challenges and opportunities. How did Buddhists deal with social and economic change; new forms of political, religious, and educational discourse; and Christianity? And how did Sri Lankan Buddhists, collaborating with other Asian Buddhists, respond to colonial rule? To answer these questions, Anne M. Blackburn focuses on the life of leading monk and educator Hikkaduve Sumangala (1827–1911) to examine more broadly Buddhist life under foreign rule. In Locations of Buddhism, Blackburn reveals that during Sri Lanka’s crucial decades of deepening colonial control and modernization, there was a surprising stability in the central religious activities of Hikkaduve and the Buddhists among whom he worked. At the same time, they developed new institutions and forms of association, drawing on pre-colonial intellectual heritage as well as colonial-period technologies and discourse. Advocating a new way of studying the impact of colonialism on colonized societies, Blackburn is particularly attuned here to human experience, paying attention to the habits of thought and modes of affiliation that characterized individuals and smaller scale groups. Locations of Buddhism is a wholly original contribution to the study of Sri Lanka and the history of Buddhism more generally.

Black Ants and Buddhists

Black Ants and Buddhists
Author: Mary Cowhey
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2023-10-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1003842291

What would a classroom look like if understanding and respecting differences in race, culture, beliefs, and opinions were at its heart? If you were inspired to become a teacher because you wanted to develop young minds, but now find yourself limited by "teach to the test" pressures and state standards, Mary Cowhey's book Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades will reignite the passion and remind you that educators provide more than test prep. Starting her career as a community activist, Cowhey shares her roots and how they influenced her Peace Class, where she asks her students to think critically, learn through activism and discussion, and view the entire curriculum through the framework of understanding the world, and what they can do to make it a better place. Woven through the book is Mary's unflinching and humorous account of her own roots as well as lessons from her heroes: Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Jr, and others. Her students learn to make connections between their lives, the books they read, the community leaders they meet, and the larger world. Black Ants and Buddhists offers no easy answers, but it does include starting points for conversations about diversity and controversy in your classroom, as well as in the larger community. Students and teachers investigate problems and issues together, in a multicultural, antiracist classroom.

Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays

Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays
Author: Frank Chin
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 442
Release: 1998-05-01
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780824819590

“America doesn’t want us as a visible native minority. They want us to keep our place as Americanized foreigners ruled by immigrant loyalty. But never having been anything else but born here, I’ve never been foreign and resent having foreigners telling me my place in America and America telling me I’m foreign. There’s no denial or rejection of Chinese culture going on here, just the recognition of the fact that Americanized Chinese are not Chinese Americans and that Chinese Americans cannot be understood in the terms of either Chinese or American culture, or some ‘chow mein/spaghetti’ formula of Chinese and American cultures, or anything else you’ve seen and loved in Charlie Chan.” —from “Confessions of a Chinatown Cowboy”

Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition

Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition
Author: Rima Vesely-Flad
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2022-04-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1479810487

"This book illuminates distinct Buddhist practices amongst meditators of African descent. It includes interviews, dharma talks, and writings of more than sixty-five Black Buddhist teachers and long-term practitioners. In lifting up the distinctive voices and practices of Black Buddhists within American Buddhism, this book emphasizes the interpretations and practices of Black Buddhists. This book identifies specific causes and conditions for suffering, such as the transatlantic slave trade, the auction block, lynchings, migrations, and contemporary state violence, that have led Black Buddhist teachers to prioritize healing intergenerational trauma as a foundation for Black liberation. In pointing the horrific conditions manifested by patriarchy, misogyny, cisgender normativity, Black Buddhists assert that healing intergenerational trauma is foundational of psychological and spiritual liberation. Relatedly, this book delves into the importance that Black Buddhists place on honoring ancestors-biological and spiritual-as forebears who survived hostile and degrading conditions. Furthermore, this book illuminates the ways in which Black Buddhists privilege the body, even as it has been degraded, as a vehicle for liberation. Finally, this book argues that all of these distinct components of Black Buddhist practice fulfill the quest for psychological liberation evoked in the Black Radical Tradition"--

Setting Out on the Great Way

Setting Out on the Great Way
Author: Paul Maxwell Harrison
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Mahayana Buddhism
ISBN: 9781781790960

Setting Out on the Great Way brings together different perspectives on the origins and early history of Mahāyāna Buddhism and delves into selected aspects of its formative period. As the variety of the religion which conquered East Asia and also provided the matrix for the later development of Buddhist Tantra or Vajrayāna, Mahāyāna is regarded as one of the most significant forms of Buddhism, and its beginnings have long been the focus of intense scholarly attention and debate. The essays in this volume address the latest findings in the field, including contributions by younger researchers vigorously critiquing the reappraisal of the Mahāyāna carried out by scholars in the last decades of the 20th century and the different understanding of the movement which they produced. As the study of Buddhism as a whole reorients itself to embrace new methods and paradigms, while at the same time coming to terms with exciting new manuscript discoveries, our picture of the Mahāyāna continues to change. This volume presents the latest developments in this ongoing re-evaluation of one of Buddhism's most important historical expressions.

Why I Am Not a Buddhist

Why I Am Not a Buddhist
Author: Evan Thompson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300226551

"A provocative essay challenging the idea of Buddhist exceptionalism, from one of the world's most widely respected philosophers and writers on Buddhism and science. Buddhism has become a uniquely favored religion in our modern age. A burgeoning number of books extol the scientifically proven benefits of meditation and mindfulness for everything ranging from business to romance. There are conferences, courses, and celebrities promoting the notion that Buddhism is spirituality for the rational; compatible with cutting-edge science; indeed, "a science of the mind." In this provocative book, Evan Thompson argues that this representation of Buddhism is false. In lucid and entertaining prose, Thompson dives deep into both Western and Buddhist philosophy to explain how the goals of science and religion are fundamentally different. Efforts to seek their unification are wrongheaded and promote mistaken ideas of both. He suggests cosmopolitanism instead, a worldview with deep roots in both Eastern and Western traditions. Smart, sympathetic, and intellectually ambitious, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in Buddhism's place in our world today."--Provided by publisher.

Spiritual Advice for Buddhists and Christians

Spiritual Advice for Buddhists and Christians
Author: Dalai Lama XIV Bstan-?dzin-rgya-mtsho
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 112
Release: 1998-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780826410764

In the words of the Dalai Lama, the purpose of religion is not to build churches and elaborate temples, but to cultivate positive human qualities such as tolerance, generosity and love. This text contains the four talks given by the Dalai Lama when he attended a meeting of Buddhist and Christian monks at Gethsemani Abbey, Kentucky. The Dalai Lama shares his understanding of four major themes explored in the meeting: the practice of prayer and meditation in the spiritual life; the stages in the process of spiritual development; the role of the teacher and the community in the spiritual life; and the spiritual goals of personal and and societal transformation. In each talk the Dalai Lama expresses the basic principles of Tibetan Buddhism and shows how they are applicable to daily practice for all spiritual seekers, regardless of their religious affiliation.

The Science of Chinese Buddhism

The Science of Chinese Buddhism
Author: Erik J. Hammerstrom
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2015-08-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231539584

Kexue, or science, captured the Chinese imagination in the early twentieth century, promising new knowledge about the world and a dynamic path to prosperity. Chinese Buddhists embraced scientific language and ideas to carve out a place for their religion within a rapidly modernizing society. Examining dozens of previously unstudied writings from the Chinese Buddhist press, this book maps Buddhists' efforts to rethink their traditions through science in the initial decades of the twentieth century. Buddhists believed science offered an exciting, alternative route to knowledge grounded in empirical thought, much like their own. They encouraged young scholars to study subatomic and relativistic physics while still maintaining Buddhism's vital illumination of human nature and its crucial support of an ethical system rooted in radical egalitarianism. Showcasing the rich and progressive steps Chinese religious scholars took in adapting to science's rising authority, this volume offers a key perspective on how a major Eastern power transitioned to modernity in the twentieth century and how its intellectuals anticipated many of the ideas debated by scholars of science and Buddhism today.