Contemporary Buddhism最新文献

{"title":"ABHIDHAMMA AND NIMITTA IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MEDITATION MANUSCRIPTS FROM SRI LANKA: A CONSIDERATION OF ORTHODOXY AND HETEROPRAXY IN BORAN KAMMAṬṬHĀNA","authors":"K. Crosby","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2019.1637073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2019.1637073","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Nevill Collection of manuscripts from Sri Lanka housed in the British Library includes seventeen texts, in eleven manuscripts, related to a type of Theravada Buddhist meditation referred to here as boran kammaṭṭhāna, ‘the old meditation method.’ This article offers the first detailed survey of these texts and finds a close correlation between the practices they advocate and commentarial Abhidhamma, a surprising finding given the modern reputation of these practices as heteroprax. It is less surprising when we observe that the texts represent the form of Buddhism introduced into the Kandyan kingdom from Ayutthaya, the then capital of Siam (Thailand), in the mid-18th century at the time of the revitalization of Buddhism and the Sangha in Sri Lanka. A distinguishing feature of boran kammaṭṭhāna is the use of nimitta, ‘signs’, experienced in meditation or as omens of death, previously taken as an indication of heterodoxy. However, a close examination reveals that the interpretation of nimitta corresponds with Abhidhamma. Moreover, the lengthy meditation manuals formulate an extensive and detailed realization of the Abhidhamma path to becoming an arhat, harnessing the Abhidhamma understanding of progression through sequential substitution of lower citta, states of consciousness, and cetasika, mental factors that attend consciousness, with increasingly pure citta and cetasika. The nimitta function as diagnostic tools and as means to guide the embodiment of the increasingly purified states of consciousness within the practitioner’s body. The findings present a new understanding of the system of transformation underlying boran kammaṭṭhāna and also challenge the understanding of Abhidhamma as merely scholastic or descriptive.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"111 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2019.1637073","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42067892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Variations in the Contemplation of the Repulsiveness of Food, āhārepatikūlasaññā: Canonical, Theravāda, Sarvāstivāda and Mahāyāna Forms","authors":"M. Kong","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2019.1599568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2019.1599568","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the changing treatment of a meditation practice, the contemplation of the repulsiveness of food, āhārepaṭikūlasaññā, from its presence in lists of saññā in canonical texts to its detailed explanation in post-canonical texts of the first millennium CE. We observe two main developments: the limitation in the benefits attributed to the practice within commentarial-period Theravada, and two entirely divergent branches in the way the practice is treated. In the Visuddhimagga of Theravada Buddhism, we see a somewhat practical approach that identifies the unpleasant aspects of the monk’s experience of seeking, eating, digesting and excreting food, and takes them as the focus of a 10-stage meditation practice. In the Sarvāstivāda texts, we see a conceptual aversion created by the association of specific food items with other items treated as impure within meditation practice. This articles explores all these divergences, drawing conclusions about what this says in terms of the understanding of food in these two branches.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"95 - 110"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2019.1599568","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48952571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"THE CITY OF NIBBĀNA IN THAI PICTURE BOOKS OF THE THREE WORLDS","authors":"B. J. Terwiel","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1524625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1524625","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Throughout its long history, Buddhist meditation has been a lasting source of happiness, and its ultimate goal has been the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion and delusion have been finally extinguished. This state is called in Pali nibbāna, the place of perfect peace and happiness. In his classical book on Thai painting, Jean Boisselier confidently states: ‘Artists are of course unable to depict any aspect of nibbāna, since that world is by nature without form’. This article will show that more than two centuries ago Thai artists did just that which Boisselier proclaimed to be impossible. Thai artists drawing the cosmos in Picture Books of the Three Worlds (สมุดภาพไตรภูมิุ [Samutphāptraiphūm]) did indeed depict nibbāna. Some drew an ‘empty space’, but among the older manuscripts most drew a complex ‘City of Nibbāna’. It will be determined what this elaborate City of Nibbāna stands for. Finally, the question is raised whether or not the City of Nibbāna is part of a type of Buddhism that was suppressed in early modern times.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"184 - 199"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1524625","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46202825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modern Japanese Buddhist Philosophy","authors":"Gereon Kopf","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0259","url":null,"abstract":"Recent years have seen an increased presence of Japanese Buddhist philosophy in the world of Anglophone scholarship. In 2013 the first issue of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy (SUNY Press) appeared, in 2015 the first issue of the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy (SUNY Press) was released, and in 2016 the first issue of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy (Chisokudō Publications) was published. Japanese Buddhist philosophy emerges and exists at the intersection of Buddhist and Japanese philosophy. The history of the term “Buddhist philosophy” in Japan commences with the encounter between the Japanese and Euro-American intellectual traditions during the Meiji period (1868–1912). As is well known, Nishi Amane 西周 (b. 1829–d. 1897) coined the Japanese word for “philosophy”: tetsugaku哲学. He utilized this concept to refer to European and American philosophy and to distinguish these traditions from the works of the Japanese traditions, including Japanese Buddhism, which he classified as “thought” (shisō思想). Today’s understanding of “philosophy” has somewhat shifted. Rein Raud suggests that “[w]hat matters” for philosophers . . . is “interpretations, their quality, their productivity for further thought.” “Buddhist philosophy,” Dale Wright proposes, “is that form of reflection [the effort to ‘understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together’] as practiced by participants who are Buddhists”; that is, “philosophy practiced by those who regard themselves as Buddhist.” By the same token, Inoue Enryō 井上円了 (b. 1858–d. 1919) asserted with the very title of his 1893 work Buddhist Philosophy (Bukkyō tetsugaku仏教哲学) that there is Buddhist philosophy in Japan, premodern, modern, and contemporary. This bibliographic essay includes Anglophone texts in the Japanese Buddhist tradition published after the Meiji restoration (1868 ce). The titles are divided into four categories: (1) Translations, (2) Collections, (3) English-Language Works, and (4) Crossover Works. Unfortunately, a lot of brilliant philosophy produced in Japan is only accessible in the Japanese language. Recent years have seen exciting trends and stimulating ideas in the field of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. The disaster of 3/11, for example, has even given rise to the category of “post-Fukushima” philosophy. The purpose of this bibliographical essay is thus twofold. It is the hope of the editors that this bibliography will help raise the awareness of the wealth and significance of the Japanese Buddhist traditions. At the same time, this essay on modern and contemporary Japanese Buddhist philosophy is designed to encourage scholars to generate more translations in this field.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"70 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72450368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"THE SOUND OF THE BREATH: SUNLUN AND THEINNGU MEDITATION TRADITIONS OF MYANMAR","authors":"P. Kyaw","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1536852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536852","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the popular Sunlun and Theinngu meditation traditions in Myanmar. The founders, Sunlun Sayadaw Ven. U Kavi (1878–1952) and Theinngu Sayadaw Ven. U Ukkaṭṭha (1913–1973), both led a lay life until in their mid-40s and only then took up meditation, going on to become highly respected meditation teachers. Their meditation techniques are similarly distinctive in employing rapid, strong and rhythmic breathing. They combined this with the contemplation of the intense, usually unpleasant, bodily sensations that are thus induced. I document their techniques and application in detail, highlighting their complexity and diversity. I draw contrasts between the use of sati, mindfulness, in their methods and the way it is used in the modern Mindfulness movement. Finally, I discuss the ways in which the practices and experiences of both masters had to be authorised to survive where other meditation traditions have been outlawed. Senior members of the Burmese Sangha catechised both masters separately, using Pāli canonical and post-canonical texts as a benchmark to verify the popular belief amongst Burmese people that they were arahants. I locate this testing within the context of the concerns, sense of duty and status experienced by Burmese lay people in relation to defending Buddhism from decline.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"247 - 291"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536852","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44535293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mountain Buddhism in East Asia","authors":"L. Witt","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0258","url":null,"abstract":"Mountains play a central role in Buddhist cosmology and practice. Scriptural accounts of Mount Sumeru (cosmological center of the Hindu-Buddhist universe) and Vulture Peak in India (favored abode for the Buddha and a panoply of deities and disciples) clearly attest to this, as does the physical and symbolic construction of Buddhist sacred sites in mountainous locales. The varieties of Buddhist activity that developed in East Asia reflect a new valorization of mountains not found in India, however. Diverse forms of Buddhist thought and practice took root at mountain sites throughout present-day China, Korea, and Japan, flourishing in complex and fascinating ways over time through transregional and transcultural exchange—and always in relation to (and sometimes competing with) local concerns and customs. International research on Buddhist mountain spaces, places, and practices has prospered in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with various monographs, anthologies, and essays presenting information about mountains in Buddhist discourse or Buddhist activity that takes place in mountains. Still, no single work to date investigates mountain Buddhism in East Asia in a comprehensive or comparative manner. This review introduces an eclectic mix of English-language sources, grouped thematically (although with significant overlap), that span all time periods and employ various disciplinary approaches. The slight geographical imbalance present in the list reflects the nascent state of research on Korean religions and the exceptionally well-developed body of work on mountain Buddhism in Japan, especially Shugendō, a combinatory and mountain-centric religious tradition deeply influenced by Buddhist doctrine and ritual.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81466568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"D. T. Suzuki","authors":"J. Dobbins","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0257","url":null,"abstract":"D. T. Suzuki (Daisetz [Daisetsu] Teitarō Suzuki, b. 1870–d. 1966) was a Japanese scholar of Buddhism who published extensively in both Japanese and English and who emerged as a famous thinker and public intellectual in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in the Meiji period (1868–1912) when Japan was rapidly modernizing, Suzuki was one of many young intellectuals who sought to revitalize and reinterpret Buddhism for the modern age. He excelled in English and studied Western thought at Tokyo Imperial University in the early 1890s, but at the same time dedicated himself to Zen practice at Engakuji monastery in nearby Kamakura, an experience that made an indelible mark on his thinking. In 1897 Suzuki traveled to America to become a translator and editorial assistant at Open Court Publishing in LaSalle, Illinois. He spent eleven years there working, studying, and publishing on Buddhism and other Asian topics. Upon returning to Japan in 1909, he became an English professor in the preparatory division of the Peers School, Gakushūin, in Tokyo for twelve years. In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Lane (b. 1875–d. 1939, previously thought to be born in 1878), a highly educated American with an abiding interest in Asian religions whom he had met overseas and who subsequently assisted him with his English publications. In 1921 Suzuki became a professor of Buddhist studies at Otani University in Kyoto and there launched the journal The Eastern Buddhist with his wife as coeditor. During his long career at Otani, Suzuki published many of his most important works on Zen, Mahāyāna, and Pure Land Buddhism. After his wife’s death in 1939 and throughout the war years, Suzuki lived in semi-retirement in Kamakura, continuing to write and publish. During the American occupation of Japan after the war, Suzuki gained prominence because of his familiarity with America and his efforts to articulate a postwar vision for the country. In 1949, when Suzuki was almost eighty, he had an opportunity to live in America again—first in Honolulu, then Los Angeles, and finally New York. Working as a traveling lecturer and guest professor, he remained in America until 1958 (except for brief visits back to Japan). During this period, there was burgeoning interest in Buddhism in the West, and Suzuki was perfectly poised to answer this demand. His earlier English writings were republished, and he emerged as a Buddhist authority in the eyes of Western scholars, artists, psychoanalysts, and the reading public. When Suzuki returned to Japan in 1958, he was arguably the most prominent spokesman for Buddhism in the West. During his remaining years he was in high demand for publications, translations, interviews, and lectures, and when he died in 1966 he was celebrated as one of Japan’s foremost Buddhist thinkers. In the years after his death, there was widespread respect and appreciation for Suzuki’s works. But in the 1990s a strong critique of Suzuki appeared in Western scholarship. He was identified as ","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84384532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anagarika Dharmapala’s Meditation","authors":"S. Kemper","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1527823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1527823","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Dharmapala was the son of a pious Buddhist family, although educated in missionary schools where he acquired knowledge of English and Christian scripture. English gave him access to Western scholarship on Buddhism and made him a useful member of the Theosophical Society, which arrived in Sri Lanka in 1880. Wanting to be a religious worker, Dharmapala served as Colonel Olcott’s translator, and he soon came to be influenced by Madame Blavatsky’s highly imagined interpretation of Buddhism. The upshot was that Dharmapala’s lifelong practice of meditation was shaped by Theosophical interest in esoteric Buddhism and the moral course of the advanced spiritual seeker.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"223 - 246"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1527823","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44821383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Buddhist Meditation and the British Colonial Gaze in Nineteenth Century Sri Lanka","authors":"E. Harris","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1536850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536850","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper argues that the multiple orientalist expressions that flowed from British pens in nineteenth century Sri Lanka are of use to the scholar of Buddhism, in that they can not only shed light on the growth of Buddhist modernism and the use of the term ‘meditation’ within it, but also on Sri Lankan Buddhist practice on the ground. It first surveys the preconceptions of the British about the concept of ‘meditation’. It then examines the writings of a representative selection of scholar civil servants and Christian missionaries who were resident in Sri Lanka within the century. This data reveal that a vibrant culture of Buddhist devotion and preaching existed throughout the century, together, among the laity, with the practice of ‘meditation’ on objects related to insight into reality. Additionally, it suggests that the jhānas, although hard for westerners to understand, were an important part of Buddhist self-understanding. The paper, therefore, argues that the priority given to vipassanā as the essence of meditation within Buddhist Modernism is a reduction of the diversity within traditional practice and a distortion of the traditionally recognised interrelationship between the jhānas and other forms of mental culture.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"200 - 222"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536850","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42701913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Traditional and Modern Meditation Practices in Shan Buddhist Communities","authors":"Jotika Khur-Yearn","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1536848","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536848","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores how meditation is inculcated throughout the life of Shan Buddhists using poetic phrasing and texts, culminating in several forms of meditation as part of the practice of temple-sleeping undertaken by lay Buddhist seniors from the age of 40 upwards. I look at how the poetic texts, lik loung, that form the basis of temple-sleeping practice, may have shifted in content in the 19th to 20th centuries to focus on meditation topics, in a move parallel to the development of vipassanā in lowland Burma in reaction to the threat colonialism posed to Buddhism. I then document the rise of separate vipassanā meditation centres in Shan regions from the 1930s and their ambiguous status as either representatives of Burmese hegemony or drivers of Shan revival. I note the influence of Shan lik loung on practice at such centres, as well as a more recent development, the uptake of vipassanā within temple-sleeping contexts.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"314 - 345"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536848","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49580457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}