Transforming Buddhism

In this study a social and cultural anthropologist and a specialist in the study of religion pool their talents to examine recent changes in popular religion in Sri Lanka. As the Sinhalas themselves perceive it, Buddhism proper has always shared the religious arena with a spirit religion. While Buddhism concerns salvation, the spirit religion focuses on worldly welfare. Buddhism Transformed describes and analyzes the changes that have profoundly altered the character of Sinhala religion in both areas.

The world of Buddhism has always been a dynamic one. There are endless developments and interactions as the dharma spread throughout Asia. In more recent times Buddhism has even made a more global appeal, dharma centers are everywhere nowadays. Transforming Buddhism presents a number of casestudies of a group of scholars who each of them focus on the ways how Buddhism transforms and is transformed, both in the past and in modernity. The book presents results of research performed in Asia for instance on women in the Buddhist monastic tradition of Thailand, foreigners living in the harsh conditions of specific Thai Theravāda monasteries, and childmonks in Tibet. Other subjects are developments within Japanese Zen Buddhism in interaction with modern western philosophy and the Japanese Buddhism incited by Kōbō Daishi (774-835). Next there is the inspiration for modernity that can be found in the works of the Korean monk Chinul (1158-1210), and themes in Buddhist life-histories, legendary, historical and personal. As such Transforming Buddhism gives a broad view on a number of transformations of the Buddhist dharma from various perspectives.

This text outlines the development and spread of ancient Buddhism. It describes its journey west and its evolution here, sketching the lives and teachings of some of Western Buddhism's most important figures.

Gold Nautilus Book Award Winner Leading African American Buddhist teachers offer lessons on racism, resilience, spiritual freedom, and the possibility of a truly representative American Buddhism. With contributions by Acharya Gaylon Ferguson, Cheryl A. Giles, Gyōzan Royce Andrew Johnson, Ruth King, Kamilah Majied, Lama Rod Owens, Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Sebene Selassie, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde. What does it mean to be Black and Buddhist? In this powerful collection of writings, African American teachers from all the major Buddhist traditions tell their stories of how race and Buddhist practice have intersected in their lives. The resulting explorations display not only the promise of Buddhist teachings to empower those facing racial discrimination but also the way that Black Buddhist voices are enriching the Dharma for all practitioners. As the first anthology comprised solely of writings by African-descended Buddhist practitioners, this book is an important contribution to the development of the Dharma in the West.

Teachings of the Dalai Lama given at a series of lectures in London in May 1999, based on the text "Eight Verses on Transforming the Mind" by eleventh-century meditator Lang : Thangpa

Original enlightenment thought (hongaku shiso) dominated Buddhist intellectual circles throughout Japan’s medieval period. Enlightenment, this discourse claims, is neither a goal to be achieved nor a potential to be realized but the true status of all things. Every animate and inanimate object manifests the primordially enlightened Buddha just as it is. Seen in its true aspect, every activity of daily life—eating, sleeping, even one’s deluded thinking—is the Buddha’s conduct. Emerging from within the powerful Tendai School, ideas of original enlightenment were appropriated by a number of Buddhist traditions and influenced nascent theories about the kami (local deities) as well as medieval aesthetics and the literary and performing arts. Scholars and commentators have long recognized the historical importance of original enlightenment thought but differ heatedly over how it is to be understood. Some tout it as the pinnacle of the Buddhist philosophy of absolute non-dualism. Others claim to find in it the paradigmatic expression of a timeless Japanese spirituality. According other readings, it represents a dangerous anti-nomianism that undermined observance of moral precepts, precipitated a decline in Buddhist scholarship, and denied the need for religious discipline. Still others denounce it as an authoritarian ideology that, by sacralizing the given order, has in effect legitimized hierarchy and discriminative social practices. Often the acceptance or rejection of original enlightenment thought is seen as the fault line along which traditional Buddhist institutions are to be differentiated from the new Buddhist movements (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) that arose during Japan’s medieval period. Jacqueline Stone’s groundbreaking study moves beyond the treatment of the original enlightenment doctrine as abstract philosophy to explore its historical dimension. Drawing on a wealth of medieval primary sources and modern Japanese scholarship, it places this discourse in its ritual, institutional, and social contexts, illuminating its importance to the maintenance of traditions of lineage and the secret transmission of knowledge that characterized several medieval Japanese elite culture. It sheds new light on interpretive strategies employed in pre-modern Japanese Buddhist texts, an area that hitherto has received a little attention. Through these and other lines of investigation, Stone problematizes entrenched notions of “corruption” in the medieval Buddhist establishment. Using the examples of Tendai and Nichiren Buddhism and their interactions throughout the medieval period, she calls into question both overly facile distinctions between “old” and “new” Buddhism and the long-standing scholarly assumptions that have perpetuated them. This study marks a significant contribution to ongoing debates over definitions of Buddhism in the Kamakura era (1185–1333), long regarded as a formative period in Japanese religion and culture. Stone argues that “original enlightenment thought” represents a substantial rethinking of Buddhist enlightenment that cuts across the distinction between “old” and “new” institutions and was particularly characteristic of the medieval period.

Imagining the Course of Life offers a rich portrait of rural life in contemporary Southeast Asia and an accessible introduction to the complexities of Theravada Buddhism as it is actually lived and experienced. It is both an ethnography of indigenous views of human development and a theoretical consideration of how any ethnopsychology is embedded in society and culture. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in a Shan village in northern Thailand, Nancy Eberhardt illustrates how indigenous theories of the life course are connected to local constructions of self and personhood. In the process, she draws our attention to contrasting models in the Euro-American tradition and invites us to reconsider how we think about the trajectory of a human life. Moving beyond the entrenched categories that can hamper our understanding of other views, Imagining the Course of Life demonstrates the real-life connections between the "religious" and the "psychological." Eberhardt shows how such beliefs and practices are used, sometimes strategically, in people's constructions of themselves, in their interpretations of others' behavior, and in their attempts at social positioning. Individual chapters explore Shan ideas about the overall course of human development, from infancy to old age and beyond, and show how these ideas inform people's understanding of personhood and maturity, gender and social inequality, illness and well-being, emotions and mental health.

A Buddhist meditation teacher offers a new path to transformation—within ourselves and within the wider world—that integrates spiritual wisdom and social action By the time Donald Rothberg was in his early twenties, he knew he had two vocations. He wanted to dedicate himself to justice and social change, and he wanted to commit himself to exploring the depths of human consciousness—to an awakening of our deeper spiritual nature. It has been his life's work, as an activist, organizer, writer, and teacher, to bring these two paths together and to reveal how deeply they require one another. The Engaged Spiritual Life is the fruit of this work. Skillfully weaving together basic spiritual teachings, real-life examples, social context, and exercises, Rothberg provides a clear, thorough, and compelling guide for those interested in connecting inner and outer transformation. At the core of the book are ten spiritual principles and associated practices that will enable readers to engage all the parts of their lives—whether personal, interpersonal, or political—into a seamless whole.