Journal articles on the topic 'Western Buddhism'
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1
Ayusheeva, Dulma V. "The Problem of Dichotomy in the Classification of Buddhist Communities in the West." Study of Religion, no. 4 (2020): 69–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.22250/2072-8662.2020.4.69-75.
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The article reveals the concept of “two Buddhisms”, which distinguishes two key categories among Buddhist communities in the West: “ethnic”, represented by immigrants from Asian Buddhist countries and their descendants, and “converts”, or adherents of Western origin. This division into Asian and non-Asian Buddhists is often described as one of the main features of Buddhism in the West.The author concludes that the existing concept in its current form is outdated and requires revision and updating. However, the recognition of such approach as “outdated” in the research of modern Buddhism in Western countries is akin to the recognition of the “outdated” real picture of Buddhism in the West, which even in its modernity demonstrates two different approaches to the implementation of Buddhist teachings. This attitude also leads to the loss of high-quality scientific tools in theoretical and methodological aspects.
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Hsu, Alexander O. "Coming to Terms with “Engaged Buddhism”: Periodizing, Provincializing, and Politicizing the Concept." Journal of Global Buddhism 23, no. 1 (July 7, 2022): 17–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.26034/lu.jgb.2022.1991.
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Whatever happened to “Engaged Buddhism”? Twenty years after a flurry of publication placing this global movement firmly on the map, enthusiasm for the term itself appears to have evaporated. I attempt to reconstruct what happened: scholars turned away from the concept for its reproducing colonialist understandings of traditional Buddhism as essentially world-rejecting, and they developed alternate discourses for describing Buddhist actors’ multifarious social and political engagements, especially in contemporary Asia. I describe the specific rise and fall of the term in Anglophone scholarship, in order for scholars to better grasp the evolution of contemporary Western, Anglophone Buddhisms, to better understand what Buddhists in Asia are in fact doing with the term, and to better think through what it might mean politically for us as scholars to deploy the term at all. In particular, I identify “Academic Engaged Buddhism” (1988–2009) as one hegemonic form of Engaged Buddhism, a Western Buddhist practitioner-facing anthological project of Euro-American scholars with potentially powerful but unevenly distributed effects on Buddhist thought and practice around the world.
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Wilson, Jeff. "Blasphemy as Bhāvana." Nova Religio 22, no. 3 (February 1, 2019): 8–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2019.22.3.8.
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Over the course of the twentieth century, Buddhism came to be associated widely with peace, tolerance, and calm detachment in the Western popular imagination. This association was created in opposition to depictions of Christianity as violent, intolerant, and irrational. Buddhism, as the imagined perfect Other, held considerable appeal for counterculture seekers disenchanted with mainstream cultures. While many Buddhist groups played upon these stereotypes to enhance their image and support recruitment, one new Buddhist movement—the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order—went further, employing ritualized “therapeutic blasphemy” to eradicate Christian conditioning in their members and critique mainstream society. Such actions baffled many other Buddhists, but make sense when seen as efforts to heighten in-group solidarity, proclaim distinctive identity, and take the assumption of Buddhism’s superiority over Christianity to its ultimate conclusion. This article attempts to explain why Buddhists might develop intolerant practices, and to assess the costs and benefits of such practices.
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Baumann, Martin. "Culture Contact and Valuation: Early German Buddhists and the Creation of a ‘Buddhism in Protestant Shape’." Numen 44, no. 3 (1997): 270–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568527971655904.
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AbstractThis paper handles the question concerning the factors that control the degree of adaptability of a transplanted religion spread in a culturally alien context. It will be argued that the assumed superiority of both one's religion and one's culture are decisive factors for the willingness to adapt or to refuse adaptation. The theoretical issues will be illustrated by the adoption of Buddhism by its early German followers. Thus, the paper gives a brief survey of the historical development of the adoption of Buddhism in Germany. Characteristics of the early phases will be outlined as well as the state of affairs of Buddhism in Germany in the 1990's. Most remarkable is Buddhism's rapid growth which increased the number of Buddhist centres and groups fivefold since the mid 1970's.On the basis of this historic description a particular line of interpreting Buddhist teachings, that of a rational understanding, is outlined. The analysis of this adoption of Buddhism seeks to show that early German Buddhists interpreted and moulded Buddhist teachings in such a way as to present it as being in high conformity with Western morals and culture. This high degree of adapting Buddhist teachings led to an interpretation which can be characterized as a ‘Buddhism in Protestant shape.’ Buddhism was used as a means of protest against the dominant religion, that of Christianity, but at the same time its proponents took over many forms and characteristics of the religion criticized most heavily.
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Laudere, Marika. "Women contribution to the development of Buddhism in Latvia." SHS Web of Conferences 85 (2020): 01004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20208501004.
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Buddhism is one of the fastest growing and popular religions in the West which connects people of different ages and social classes. The significant role in the historical transmission of Buddhism to the West and in shaping a distinctively Western form of Buddhism has been played by Western women. Many of these women have gained attention for challenging traditional forms of Buddhism and adapting Buddhist teaching to the contemporary Western context. Others for trying to preserve traditional Buddhist teaching in new circumstances and establishing Asian Buddhist lineages in the West. As well all these women have engaged in a range of activities from teaching to translating, charity and social activism, to promoting Buddhism in the West.
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Schedneck, Brooke. "Western Buddhist Perceptions of Monasticism." Buddhist Studies Review 26, no. 2 (October 5, 2009): 229–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v26i2.229.
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This paper explores the contemporary encounter between Western cultures and the Buddhist tradition of monasticism. I have investigated attitudes towards this institution in the forms of contemporary Buddhist memoirs, blog websites, interviews, and dharma talks. This article argues that the institution in general is not ideal for some Western Buddhists— it is seen by some as too restricting or anti-modern. Others find value in monasticism; they are aware of those who critique the institution, and offer instead a model that removes anti-modern elements that they see as problematic. As an extension of these attitudes, this article also draws on the issue of female monasticism. Western Buddhists argue that all women should have the choice to be ordained because this shows that Buddhism is modern. I conclude that Western Buddhists are interested in creating a modern, universal tradition, and this can be seen by analyzing conceptions about monastic life.
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Laycock, Joseph, and Natasha Mikles. "Is Nessie a Naga?" Bulletin for the Study of Religion 43, no. 4 (December 2, 2014): 35–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v43i4.35.
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In 2014 Lama Gelongma Zangmo of Scotland sparked curiosity when she suggested that the Loch Ness monster or “Nessie” is actually a naga––a fantastic creature from Buddhist mythology. Visitors to her Tibetan practice center on the shores of the Loch will be able to leave offerings to Nessie. Without exaggerating the significance of these offerings within the larger context of Zangmo’s practice, this article suggests that efforts to ritually incorporate Nessie into a Buddhist cosmology is an index of broader changes in Buddhism’s arrival to the West. First, Zangmo’s open discussion of cosmology, ritual, and supernatural beings is a marked distinction from “Protestantized” Western Buddhism, which has historically presented Buddhism as a rational and philosophical alternative to Christianity. This suggests that Buddhists in the West have become less concerned with conforming to Protestant notions of “proper” religion. Second, Zangmo’s praxis is significant to broader patterns of how Asian religions adapt to Western topography. Whereas Asian immigrants have sometimes re-imagined Asian sacred sites in Western countries, Zangmo was taken the opposite strategy of “Buddhicizing” a local monster. This suggests that similar transformative moves can be expected as a globalized world continues to transplant religious traditions from one continent to another.
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Soucy, Alexander. "A Reappraisal of Vietnamese Buddhism’s Status as “Ethnic”." Journal of Vietnamese Studies 12, no. 2 (2017): 20–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jvs.2017.12.2.20.
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In writings of Buddhism in the West, Vietnamese Buddhists have often been pigeonholed as bringing their Buddhism with them like baggage and replicating the practices of their native land. This paper problematizes this characterization by looking more closely at the way that Vietnamese Buddhism has been reconstructed in the diasporic context. I argue that many of the leading figures of this process were, in fact, heavily influenced by intra-Asian and Transpacific reformist trends and engaged in activist movements in southern Vietnam, rather than coming from “traditional’ Buddhist backgrounds. Furthermore, the orientations that they brought were the product of dialogues with other reform movements in Asia that started earlier in the nineteenth century and were, in turn, a result of the colonial encounter. Therefore, rather than a single transference from East to West, what actually took place was a multi-nodal and multidimensional conversation between Asian reformers from different countries and traditions, Western scholars, and Western converts to Buddhism. Consequently, what has been established in the West by Vietnamese is not simply an adaptation of Vietnamese traditional Buddhism to a Western context, but the creation of a new, invented tradition that we can call Vietnamese Transnational Buddhism.
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Kaza, Stephanie. "Western Buddhist Motivations for Vegetarianism." Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 9, no. 3 (2005): 385–411. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853505774841650.
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AbstractBuddhist motivations for abstaining from meat-eating draw from a wide range of traditions. Theravada themes emphasize non-harming, Right Livelihood, and detachment; Mahayana themes highlight interdependence, Buddha-nature, and compassion; Tibetan themes consider rebirth implications for human-animal relationships. These and other contemporary themes overlap with traditional western arguments promoting vegetarianism based on animal welfare, personal and environmental health, world hunger, and ethical development. This paper surveys these themes, then discusses two studies based on survey data that indicate that western Buddhists and Buddhist centers have a wide variety of practices regarding meat-eating. The first survey reports on institutional food choice practices at western Buddhist centers. The second study reports on individual food practices among western Buddhists, with data on food choices and rationales for these choices. In both surveys, Buddhist principles interact with western arguments, leading to diverse decisions about what to eat. As interest in Buddhism grows in the west, Buddhist moral concerns regarding food could influence western food choices in a significant way.
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Langone, Laura. "Schopenhauer's Buddhism in the Context of the Western Reception of Buddhism." History of Philosophy Quarterly 39, no. 1 (January 1, 2022): 77–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.5406/21521026.39.1.05.
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Abstract In this article, I shall analyze Schopenhauer's conception of Buddhism in the context of the Western reception of Buddhism from the seventeenth century onwards. I will focus on Schopenhauer's notion of the Buddhist palingenesis and provide an overview of the Buddhist sources Schopenhauer read before the publication of the second edition of his main work The World as Will and Representation in 1844.
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Sieradzan, Jacek. "Buddyzm „teistyczny” czy „ateistyczny”? Polemika B. Alana Wallace’a ze Stephenem Batchelorem." Idea. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych 30, no. 1 (2018): 136–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.15290/idea.2018.30.1.10.
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The article „Is Buddhism theistic or atheistic? Polemic of B. Alan Wallace with Stephen Batchelor” discuss polemic between two Western buddhologists B. Alan Wallace and Stephen Batchelor concerning question whether nature of Buddhism is „theistic” or „atheistic”. Both are critical towards Buddhism, but if Batchelor is sceptical of value of Buddhist doctrines, including doctrine of rebirth, Wallace try to remove his doubts by looking for paralels between Buddhism and science. Buddhism is middle way between extremities, in this case between theism and atheism. Many buddhists and buddhologists regards it to be nontheistic. In this polemic Buddha Śakyamuni would probably take medium position between „theism” and „atheism”. Both conceptions are creations of a mind, and Buddhism is way of contemplation which aims to find peace of mind beyond mind.
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Hayashi, Makoto. "Four Buddhist Intellectuals in Late 19th Century in Japan." Numen 66, no. 2-3 (April 10, 2019): 185–206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341538.
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AbstractIn recent years, research on modern Buddhism, i.e., Buddhism from the Meiji Restoration (1868) onwards, has been flourishing in Japan. Drawing on existing scholarship, this paper attempts to elucidate the characteristics of the first stage of modern Japanese Buddhism. In the premodern period, Buddhist priests had been the only people able to articulate Buddhism. In the modern period, Buddhist intellectuals with Western academic knowledge re-articulated Buddhism, linking and negotiating between those inside and those outside the Japanese Buddhist world. I will focus on four Buddhist intellectuals and try to understand their involvement in politics, education, and public discourse, their resistance to the expansion of Christianity into the country, and their call for the institutional reform of Buddhism. These activities contributed significantly to the first stage of the development of modern Buddhism.
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DESSEIN, Bart. "Progress and Free Will: On the Buddhist Concept of “Time” and Its Possibilities for Modernity." Asian Studies 4, no. 1 (February 29, 2016): 11–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.2016.4.1.11-33.
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An even only cursory glance at the way Buddhism is experienced, interpreted, and lived in the contemporary world––both Western and Oriental––reveals Buddhism’s multiple “modern faces”. This paper does not intend to describe all or even a selected group of these many faces, but attempts to contribute to our understanding of how peculiar developments within Buddhist philosophy have made it possible that such a variety of “Buddhist modernities” could develop. It is shown that it is the peculiar Buddhist interpretation of the concept of time that has provided the basis on which the various modern features of Buddhism could build, because the Buddhist interpretation of time contains an aspect of progress and free will. It is suggested that these two aspects increased the prominence given to the individual adept in the Mahāyāna. The article then claims that it precisely are the ideas of rationality, progress and individualism that are also characteristic for the modern world that contain the possibility for Buddhism to develop its multitude of modern faces.
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Kidpromma, Amnuaypond. "Buddhist Modernism and the Piety of Female Sex Workers in Northern Thailand." Religions 13, no. 4 (April 12, 2022): 350. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel13040350.
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This paper highlights Thailand’s distinctive form of Buddhist Modernism through an exploration of religious piety among female sex workers in the city of Chiangmai. The generally accepted key basis of Buddhist Modernism, as depicted by certain Western Buddhist scholars, is interaction and engagement with modernity. More specifically, it is seen as incorporating modern science into the Buddhist worldview, and as regarding meditation as a core practice of ‘true Buddhism’. Crucial components of popular Buddhism, such as magical monks and mystical rituals, are excluded from this depiction of Buddhist Modernism, and even decried as ‘false Buddhism’, despite their canonical basis and long-term acceptance. Using ethnographic methods, this paper argues instead that the result of interactions with modernity by popular Buddhists always includes engagement with and mythologizing of traditional cosmology. That is, rather than solely involving global networks and scientific rationalism, Thai Buddhist Modernism is the product of complex patterns of interaction among local beliefs, mystical practices, and modernity. The purpose of this integration of modern and popular Buddhism in the religious practices of sex workers is to create loving-kindness (metta). Metta, in turn, is held to bring luck and attractiveness to practitioners, allowing them to earn an income to support their impoverished families and live well in modern society, as well as to accumulate good merit (bun) to improve their religious lives.
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Yeng, Sokthan. "Irigaray’s Alternative Buddhist Practices of the Self." Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 22, no. 1 (September 19, 2014): 61–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jffp.2014.643.
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In lieu of an abstract, here is the opening paragraph of the essay:Luce Irigaray’s critics charge that her attempt to carve out a space for nature and the feminine self through an engagement with Buddhism smacks of Orientalism. Associating Buddhism with a philosophy of nature can lead to feminizing and exoticizing the non-Western other. Because she relies more on lessons learned from yogic teachers than Buddhist texts or scholarship, her work seems to be an appropriation of Buddhist ideas and a critique of Western ideology3 rather than a reflection of Buddhist philosophy. I trace Orientalist readings of Buddhism, including those of Irigaray, back to Hegel’s influence on comparative philosophy. Indeed, her analysis of the feminine self and nature often seem more like a response to Hegel than an examination of Buddhist principles. Some scholars resist Hegel’s reading by arguing that the Buddhist Absolute manifests in the indeterminately disjunctive and alternative versions of reality and self. Others suggest that the meaning of Buddhism can be found in examining its practices rather than its logic.
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Ulanov, Mergen Sanjievich. "Synthesis of Cultures of the East and West in the Philosophy of B.D. Dandaron." RUDN Journal of Philosophy 24, no. 3 (December 15, 2020): 502–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.22363/2313-2302-2020-24-3-502-511.
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The article deals with the phenomenon of synthesis of East and West cultures in the religious philosophy of B.D. Dandaron - one of the most famous representatives of Russian Buddhism in the XX century. The beginning of the spread of Buddhist teachings in Russian society is also connected with his extraordinary personality. Dandaron was engaged in active yoga, tantric practice, and also gave instructions to those who were interested in Buddhism. As a result, a small circle of people began to form around him who tried to study and practice Buddhism. Dandaron was also engaged in Buddhist activities, studied Tibetan history and historiography, and described the Tibetan collection of manuscripts. It is indicated that Dandaron not only made an attempt to consider Buddhism from the perspective of Western philosophy, but also created his own teaching, which was called neobuddism. As a result, he was able to conduct a creative synthesis of Buddhist philosophy with the Western philosophical tradition. In fact, he developed a philosophical system that claims to be universal and synthesized Buddhist and Western spiritual achievements. Trying to synthesize the Eastern and Western traditions of philosophical thought, Dandaron turned to the well-known comparative works of the Indian thinker S. Radhakrishnan and the Russian buddhologist F.I. Shcherbatsky. The author also notes the influence on the philosophy of neobuddism of the ideas of V.E. Sesemann, a neo-Kantian philosopher with whom Dandaron was personally acquainted. The idea of non-Buddhism had not only a philosophical and theoretical, but also a practical aspect, since the consideration of Buddhism from the perspective of Western philosophy helped to attract people of Western culture to this religion. In General, Dandarons desire to create a universal synthetic philosophical system was in line with the philosophical and spiritual search of Russian philosophy, and was partly related to the traditional problem of East-West, which has always been relevant for Russia.
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Kitinov, Baatr U. "Buddhism and Nationalism as Sources of Identity in in Asia of the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries." RUDN Journal of World History 14, no. 4 (December 15, 2022): 355–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.22363/2312-8127-2022-14-4-355-372.
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The article examines the influence of Buddhism and nationalism on identification processes in Asian countries in the context of political transformations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Significant revitalization of Buddhism (sometimes called “Buddhist Modernism”) in a number of countries coincided with the growth of nationalism (especially in Russia, Mongolia, Tibet, China, and Japan), as well as the growing perception of Buddhist transnational unity. Nationalism and religion collaborated in their reactions to a number of important phenomena: the anti-colonial movement, the resistance against western cultural expansion (India, China, Japan), the aspiration of independence (Tibet, Mongolia), the renovation processes (in particular, among the Russian Buddhists). These phenomena were caused by objective factors, the changes in worldviews, as well as with activity of some individuals (Tagore, Tai-su, Uchida Ryohei, Dalai Lama, Agvan Dorjiev). The high level of civilizational depth allowed Buddhists of various traditions to assert their basic principles as important to identity resources.
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Ulanov, Mergen. "Buddhism in the Feminist Context: Historical Experience and Modern Discourse." Logos et Praxis, no. 2 (September 2019): 14–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2019.2.2.
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The author considers the problems of women's place in Buddhist culture in the context of feminist discourse. He notes that Buddhism is distinguished by a tolerant and respectful attitude to the female. Buddhism admits that women, along with men, are able to achieve enlightenment and find Nirvana. However, the relationship between male and female monastic orders in Buddhism was not fully equal. The order of nuns was considered to be the youngest in comparison with the order of monks, and the rules restricting the behavior of the nuns were more than for the monks, which was probably a forced step aimed at taking into account the realities of society. Despite this, the Foundation of the women's monastic organization, which opened the way for women to religious knowledge and spiritual rank, was in its essence a radical social revolution for that time. The emergence of the female monastic community was an example of a fundamentally new view of women and their position in society. With the release of Buddhism outside India female monasticism became widespread in many Asian countries. Later, however, in the countries of South, South-East Asia and Tibet, the Institute of full female monasticism disappeared. In the second half of the twentieth century the attempts to revive the Institute that have led to the emergence of the phenomenon of neonuns. As a result of the spread of Buddhism in the West, it was included in the field of gender studies and feminist discourse. The question of equality between women and men in Buddhism has been actively developed by Western female Buddhists in the feminist discourse, that has formed a statement about the original equality of the sexes in Buddhism. The theme of the status of women in society and their rights has become an important part of the social concept of Western Buddhism. The result was the emergence of the international women's Buddhist Association "Sakyadhita".
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MIURA, Syu. "Are modern Buddhist studies in Japan Western Buddhism?" Journal of Research Society of Buddhism and Cultural Heritage 2012, no. 21 (2012): 90–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.5845/bukkyobunka.2012.21_90.
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Beinorius, Audrius. "Buddhism in the Early European Imagination: A Historical Perspective." Acta Orientalia Vilnensia 6, no. 2 (January 1, 2005): 7–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/aov.2005.0.3975.
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Centre of Oriental Studies, Vilnius University
The article deals with the main historical and cultural approaches of Europeans to Buddhism in various Asian areas. The intention of author is to turn to discussion of those peculiar forms in which the knowledge of Buddhism was presented. This study sets out its aim to explore the way of engagement of the West with the Buddhist tradition, emphasizing the early period of the encounter and those initial imaginative constructions and early discourses that shaped the nascency of the scholarly discipline. Conclusion is made that Buddhism has been represented in the Western imagination in a manner that reflects specifically Western concerns, interests, and aspirations. Europeans saw themselves as possessing the criteria upon which the judgement of the religious, social, and cultural value of Buddhism rests. Buddhism was constructed, essentialized and interpreted through Western images of the Oriental mind that provided ideological strategies and a hermeneutic filter.
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Laurent, Li, David Sheffield, and Fiona Holland. "Exploring Buddhism as a ‘Tool’ to Support Well-Being: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Western Adopters’ Experiences." Pastoral Psychology 70, no. 5 (July 14, 2021): 471–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11089-021-00962-5.
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AbstractBuddhism is an ancient religion and philosophy of living that is practised worldwide. More recent interest in mindfulness as a practice and intervention in the West has highlighted Buddhist-derived concepts as useful in supporting health and well-being. As a result, the desire to understand Buddhism in its more complete form has strengthened. Although research into mindfulness and compassion is growing, there is a new interest in second-generation mindfulness, i.e. interventions that draw upon a more holistic use of Buddhist practices. To date, little research has explored this in Western contexts. For the current study, Nichiren Buddhists from the United Kingdom who had been practising for at least three years were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore their experience of this practice and how it informed their approach to daily life and, in particular, their health and well-being. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was employed as a method to understand the participants’ experiences. Three themes were generated using an inductive approach: (1) finding meaning—“All experiences have got so much value now”— which reflected the participants’ determination to seek purpose and value in all aspects of their life; (2) Buddhism as a needed ‘tool’—“I use it all the time”—which revealed their practice as an important method to help them manage their lives; and (3) agency—“I’m in control of my destiny”—which highlighted the participants’ engagement (supported by their Buddhist practice) in taking responsibility for their actions and responses. Findings indicate the need for future studies to further explore Buddhism as a mechanism for enhancing and sustaining well-being.
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Nesterkin, Sergei. "The Main Principles and Directions of the Activity of Socially Engaged Buddhism." Философская мысль, no. 12 (December 2022): 23–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.25136/2409-8728.2022.12.39181.
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The work deals with the history, main principles and areas of activity of "Socially Engaged Buddhism" - an influential trend of modern Buddhist social activism that is especially popular in Western countries. It is noted that its relevance is caused by the need to develop new forms of interaction between Buddhism and society, brought about by a clash with the ideology and social practices of modernity as well as by the consequences of the globalization process; according to the ideologists of "Socially Engaged Buddhism," the traditional forms of Sangha social activity had ceased to meet the challenges of modernity. The main areas of activity of the movement are: 1) environmental issues; 2) racism and ethno-cultural diversity; 3) volunteer and educational work with prisoners; and 4) the women's movement and gender issues. The movement of Engaged Buddhism rather quickly acquired institutionalized forms in the West. Moreover, if initially its activity developed within the framework of Asian Buddhist organizations that have branches in the countries of the West, subsequently new forms and organizations developed within Western communities. These structures quite actively conduct publishing, educational and training activities, so that at present the "Engaged Buddhism" movement is one of the most influential forms of social activity of Buddhism in the countries of the West.
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Ghimire, Shurendra. "Buddhist Pragmatism or Pragmatic Buddhism: What is the relationship between Buddhism and Pragmatism?" BMC Journal of Scientific Research 4, no. 1 (December 31, 2021): 49–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/bmcjsr.v4i1.42250.
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With the rise of modernity, the Western world fell into a deep spiritual crisis which forced Comte to Dewey, and Einstein to Whitehead to synthesize a cosmic or humanistic religion. Similarly, the rise of modern science increased western interest in Eastern religions. Because of the ontological resemblance,they further enquired to Buddhism by assuming that would be a religion of their ideal. They began interpreting Buddhism through the lenses of modern philosophies. As a result, Buddhism appeared so diverse that sometimes its positioning is confusing and ambivalent- e.g. 'ethical idealism', 'atheism', 'empiricism', etc. As an attempt of resolving the contradictory positioning, both the original nikayas translated in English by PTS and commentary texts of Buddhism authored by both eastern and western scholars were carefully reviewed. These texts suggested that Buddhism is mostly close to 'ethical pragmatism. To present this closeness, the article at the first describes the cardinal principles of pragmatism, which are- multiple truths, verification of truths, changeability of truth; and then discusses how these principles are embedded in the teaching of Buddha. It also claims that Buddha’s efforts on developing new doctrine, constituting a Sangha, practicing sainthood, and defending against rival doctrines and organizations were just strategies of social reform via cultivating ethics rather than the objectives in themselves. This knowledge contributes to the understanding of both pragmatism and Buddhism from each other's perspectives, and at the same time, draws its educational implication in developing critical thinking, and ethical values.
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Kolosova, I. V. "Buddhism in Central Asia and Russia: History and Present Stata." Post-Soviet Issues 7, no. 2 (June 3, 2020): 237–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.24975/2313-8920-2020-7-2-237-249.
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The article considers the history of Buddhism in Central Asia and in Russia. It outlines the main periods of development and special features of Buddhism in the region, its influence on the local culture. It explorers the contemporary state of the Buddhist sangha in Russia and Central Asian countries.Central Asia has played an important role in the development of Buddhism as a world religion. In I-III centuries A.D. missionaries from Central Asia carried out the sermon of the Buddhist teachings. The archeological findings illustrate the massive spread of Buddhism on the wide territories of the region which were part of the Kushan Kingdom. The second period of the flourishing of Buddhist teaching falls on the V – first part of the VIII centuries, when the geography on Buddhism in the region expanded, and it peacefully co-existed with other religions.By IX century, when the territories of the contemporary Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tadjikistan stayed under the rule of Umayyad and Abbaside Caliphate, Islam eventually ousted Buddhism from these lands.The third period of rise of Buddhism in the region started with the appearance of Dzungars who aspired to take hold of the lands of Kazahstan. From 1690 to 1760 Central Asian region had become an area of struggle for the hegemony between the Buddhist Dzungarian khanate and China. The Dzungars promoted the spread of Buddhism in the Eastern part of Kazahstan and Northern part of Eastern Turkestan. The entry of Western Turkestan into the Russian Empire put an end to external threats and internal feudal strife. It gave the start to the process of consolidation of the Central Asian nations, which recognized their belonging to Muslim Ummah. In the absence of Dzungar and Chinese factors the influence of Buddhism in the region almost stopped.By the end of the XX century with the renaissance of religiosity on the post-Soviet space the interest to Buddhism slightly raised. However, at the present moment the number of the Buddhists in the region is insignificant. Among the followers of Buddhism the main place is taken by the Korean diaspora, residing in Central Asia since 1937. There also exist some single neo-Buddhist communities in the region.Buddhism made its contribution to the development of the unique socio-cultural identity of Russia as Eurasian by it’s nature. Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva, as well as several parts of Altai, Irkutsk and Chita regions represent historical areas of the spread of Buddhist teaching. At the present moment the Russian Buddhist sangha contains of the major independent centers in Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva, Moscow and St.Petersburg.Buddhism plays and important part in socio-cultural space of Russia, gradually moving far beyond the borders of the regions of its traditional location. Popularity of the Buddhist philosophy derives from the range of grounds, among which are the closeness of some of its principles to contemporary scientific ideas, first of all to cognitive sciences, as well as openness to dialogue with other cultural and religious traditions, humanism, ethics of non-violence and ideas of common responsibility.
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Akymbek, Y. Sh, G. R. Mukhtarova, and B. A. Zheleznyakov. "ABOUT TWO STAGES OF THE HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN THE SOUTHEASTERN KAZAKHSTAN OF THE PRE-MONGOL PERIOD." edu.e-history.kz 30, no. 2 (April 2022): 32–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.51943/2710-3994-2022-30-2-32-47.
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Buddhism, the first of the world religions penetrated the western region of Central Asia. Shu-Ile region it was in late antiquity (5-6 centuries). Buddhism was widely represented until the 17-19 centuries as Lamaism of Oirat tribes. Millennium and a half, it was intermittently presented in the region. The study of the history of the spread of Buddhism in this territory dates back more than a century and a half. Some finds indicate the early (7-8 centuries) spread of Buddhism. Buddhist temple of the 13 century was explored a in Kayalyk hillfort. Throughout the 8-10 centuries Buddhism in the Shu Valley was very widespread, thanks to the support of the local community from the second center of world Buddhism - the monastic fraternities of East Turkestan. The article summarizes the latest results of the study of individual Buddhist artifacts from the Shu Valley and the Talgar settlement, the integration of data into the well- known history of Buddhism throughout the west of Central Asia is being systematized.
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Akymbek, Y. S., G. R. Mukhtarova, and B. A. Zheleznyakov. "ABOUT TWO STAGES OF THE HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN THE SOUTHEASTERN KAZAKHSTAN OF THE PRE-MONGOL PERIOD." edu.e-history.kz 30, no. 2 (October 5, 2022): 32–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.51943/2710-3994_2022_30_2_32-47.
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Buddhism, the first of the world religions penetrated the western region of Central Asia. Shu-Ile region it was in late antiquity (5-6 centuries). Buddhism was widely represented until the 17-19 centuries as Lamaism of Oirat tribes. Millennium and a half, it was intermittently presented in the region. The study of the history of the spread of Buddhism in this territory dates back more than a century and a half. Some finds indicate the early (7-8 centuries) spread of Buddhism. Buddhist temple of the 13 century was explored a in Kayalyk hillfort. Throughout the 8-10 centuries Buddhism in the Shu Valley was very widespread, thanks to the support of the local community from the second center of world Buddhism -the monastic fraternities of East Turkestan. The article summarizes the latest results of the study of individual Buddhist artifacts from the Shu Valley and the Talgar settlement, the integration of data into the well-known history of Buddhism throughout the west of Central Asia is being systematized.
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Meadows, Graham. "Buddhism and Psychiatry: Confluence and Conflict." Australasian Psychiatry 11, no. 1 (March 2003): 16–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1665.2003.00517.x.
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Objective: To describe the relationship between Buddhism and psychiatry, from a personal perspective. Conclusions: The present paper introduces Buddhist thought for those unfamiliar with it, then describes some of the sites of confluence and conflict between this tradition and those of Western mental health care. It does so from the perspective of a Westerner who has made some exploration of Buddhism, mainly within one of the Tibetan traditions.
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Strain, Charles. "Engaged Buddhist Practice and Ecological Ethics." Worldviews 20, no. 2 (2016): 189–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685357-02002004.
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Engaged Buddhist approaches to an ecological ethics can be read as a case study of the reinvention of Buddhism within the matrix of Western cultures. Three challenges have been raised to these efforts: first, engaged Buddhists have projected back onto the early Buddhist tradition modern formulations of ancient teachings in particular that of dependent co-arising (pratitya samutpada); second, Buddhists associated with the deep ecology movement have offered a form of holism that is “ethically vacuous;” third, while Buddhist virtue ethics are immune to some of these criticisms, they fail in face of the urgency of the challenge presented by climate change and do not offer a way of addressing entrenched power that impedes action. The article takes up each of these challenges and argues that these Buddhist “Eco-constructivists” perform a midrash on the Buddhist tradition that is geared towards praxis; it offers forms of practice that are hardly ethically vacuous.
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Apud, Ismael. "Modern Buddhism and its Cultural Translations. Reflections from a Qualitative Case Study of Two European Zen Monks." Arxiu d'Etnografia de Catalunya, no. 23 (December 21, 2021): 207–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.17345/aec23.207-232.
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Buddhism has expanded around the world as a variety of schools and branches. In Western countries, the encounter between modernity and Buddhism has resulted in a heterogenic cultural product called ‘Modern Buddhism.’ For several authors, it is a recent invention, quite different from ‘Traditional Buddhism.’ But is Modern Buddhism an exception in the history of Buddhism? The current article critically reflects on this question, using the notion of ‘cultural translation’ and, to do so, presents a qualitative case study of two European Zen monks. One is a Catalan monk from Spain; the other is a German abbot living in Japan. Interpretations and cultural translations of Buddhist ideas and practices are regarded as being influenced by the background of Modern Buddhism and by the singular personal biographical trajectories of the two monks. It will be argued that the cultural translations described in Modern Buddhism are not an exception but an expected interpretation.
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Cokelet, Bradford. "Confucianism, Buddhism, and Virtue Ethics." European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 8, no. 1 (March 21, 2016): 187–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v8i1.75.
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Are Confucian and Buddhist ethical views closer to Kantian, Consequentialist, or Virtue Ethical ones? How can such comparisons shed light on the unique aspects of Confucian and Buddhist views? Oriented by these questions, this essay tackles three tasks: provides a historically grounded framework for distinguishing western ethical theories, identifies a series of questions that we can ask in order to clarify the philosophic accounts of ethical motivation embedded in the Buddhist and Confucian traditions, and critiques Lee Ming-huei’s claim that Confucianism is closer to Kantianism than virtue ethics and Charles Goodman’s claim that Buddhism is closer to Consequentialism than Virtue Ethics.
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Wang, Vanessa, and Bryant M. Stone. "Buddhism in Addiction Recovery." Encyclopedia 2, no. 1 (February 22, 2022): 530–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia2010035.
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Buddhism was established by Guatama Buddha as a practice to liberate sentient beings from suffering. Mindfulness-Based interventions (MBIs) are Western psychologists’ adaptation of mindfulness/Vipassana to treat mental illnesses. In addition to mindfulness, Buddhist recovery peer-support programs also adopt the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the Five Precepts, which are the Buddha’s prescription to cease suffering and to discipline one’s ethical conduct.
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Xu, Ting, Xiaohe Xu, Thankam Sunil, and Bangon Sirisunyaluck. "Buddhism and Depressive Symptoms among Married Women in Urban Thailand." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 3 (January 25, 2020): 761. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030761.
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A growing body of research has documented salutary associations between religious involvement and poor mental health outcomes, such as depressive symptoms and psychological distress. However, little scholarly attention has been given to the association between Buddhism, a non-Western religious faith, and depressive symptomatology in Thailand. Using random survey data collected from urban Thailand, this study examines the association between religious involvement and depressive symptoms among married women in Bangkok. Findings from multiple linear regression models reveal that (1) Buddhist respondents report significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than their non-Buddhist counterparts, (2) the frequency of participation in religious activities is significantly and inversely associated with the level of depressive symptoms, and (3) the inverse association between religious participation and depressive symptoms is more salient for Buddhists who frequently practice their faith (i.e., significant interaction effect). Research limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
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Scherer, Burkhard. "Macho Buddhism: Gender and Sexualities in the Diamond Way." Religion and Gender 1, no. 1 (February 19, 2011): 85–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18785417-00101005.
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Western Tibetan Buddhist movements have been described as bourgeois and puritanical in previous scholarship. In contrast, Ole Nydahl’s convert lay Karma Kagyu Buddhist movement, the Diamond Way, has drawn attention for its apparently hedonistic style. This article addresses the wider issues of continuity and change during the transition of Tibetan Buddhism from Asia to the West. It analyses views on and performances of gender, sexual ethics and sexualities both diachronically through textual-historical source and discourse analysis and synchronically through qualitative ethnography. In this way the article demonstrates how the approaches of contemporary gender and sexualities studies can serve as a way to question the Diamond Way Buddhism’s location in the ‘tradition vs modernity’ debate. Nydahl’s pre-modern gender stereotyping, the hetero-machismo of the Diamond Way and the mildly homophobic tone and content of Nydahl’s teaching are interpreted in light of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist sexual ethics and traditional Tibetan cultural attitudes on sexualities. By excavating the emic genealogy of Nydahl’s teachings, the article suggests that Nydahl’s and the Diamond Way’s view on and performance of gender and sexualities are consistent with his propagation of convert Buddhist neo-orthodoxy.
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Ju, Wanying. "The Research on the Origin and Communication of Blue and Green Colors in Chinese Blue and Green Landscape Painting." Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences 5 (November 23, 2022): 119–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v5i.2891.
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Blue and Green landscape painting is an important component of Chinese landscape painting. The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of blue and green colors in blue and green landscape painting and search for the reasons for the establishment of the blue and green landscape painting's style. Today's many researchers identify the murals of the Dunhuang Mogao Caves as the original form of Chinese Blue and Green Landscape Painting, and the Mogao Caves' painting style was significantly influenced by Indian Buddhist art. This paper employs a research approach that compares the stylistic convergence of early Chinese and Western Buddhist artworks. By combining the study of the trade history of the Silk Road, which helped spread Buddhism, and analyzing the origins of blue and green pigments, this paper finds that the use of blue and green colors showed signs that they spread with Buddhist art. The conclusion is that the earliest blue and green color in Chinese Blue and Green Landscape Painting originated from the Buddhist art in the western part of China and spread with Buddhism to the east China.
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Borup, Jørn. "Buddhistisk askese: Fra verdensforsagelse til coping og dannelse." Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift, no. 64 (March 11, 2016): 35. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/rt.v0i64.23326.
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Asceticism is a central concept in Buddhism. It is both a constituent ideal and a practice needing to be tamed by institutional religion. This article analyzes Buddhist asceticism as textual ideal and religious practice from an understanding of asceticism as both renunciation (Gavin Flood), and training (Peter Sloterdijk). Influenced by Mary Douglas' group/grid model, a typology is suggested in which both the Buddha legend, historical Buddhism in its various expressions and modern Japanese shugyō and Western mindfulness are placed. It is the article's claim that asceticism is a foundational Buddhist ideal and a practice with significance for the development and societal integration of the religion.
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Wang, Ching-ning. "Living Vinaya in the United States: Emerging Female Monastic Sanghas in the West." Religions 10, no. 4 (April 4, 2019): 248. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel10040248.
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From late January to early February 2018, the first Vinaya course in the Tibetan tradition offered in the United States to train Western nuns was held in Sravasti Abbey. Vinaya masters and senior nuns from Taiwan were invited to teach the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, which has the longest lasting bhikṣuṇī (fully ordained nun) sangha lineage in the world. During this course, almost 60 nuns from five continents, representing three different traditional backgrounds lived and studied together. Using my ethnographic work to explore this Vinaya training event, I analyze the perceived needs that have spurred Western Buddhist practitioners to form a bhikṣuṇī sangha. I show how the event demonstrates the solid transmission of an Asian Vinaya lineage to the West. I also parallel this Vinaya training event in the West to the formation of the bhikṣuṇī sangha in China in the 4th and 5th centuries, suggesting that for Buddhism in a new land, there will be much more cooperation and sharing among Buddhist nuns from different Buddhist traditions than there are among monastics in Asia where different Buddhist traditions and schools have been well-established for centuries. This Vinaya training event points to the development of the bhikṣuṇī sangha in the West being neither traditionalist nor modernist, since nuns both respect lineages from Asia, and reforms the gender hierarchy practiced in Asian Buddhism. Nuns from different traditions cooperate with each other in order to allow Buddhism to flourish in the West.
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Kuan, Tse-fu. "From Joseph to Aṅgulimāla." Archiv orientální 90, no. 2 (October 27, 2022): 275–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.47979/aror.j.90.2.275-308.
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From the late 4th century BCE, the Greeks initiated long-term cultural exchange between the Indian and Mediterranean worlds. Following the Greek conquests of North-West India and Central Asia, Buddhism spread to these regions. Here Buddhists, native and immigrant alike, came into prolonged contact with Western civilizations. The Bible in Greek or Syriac translation may have been available in North-West India and Central Asia in the early centuries CE or before the Common Era. Cumulative evidence also indicates that there were Christians and Jews in these regions during this period. They lived side by side with Buddhists for generations. Presumably under such circumstances, biblical elements found their way, perhaps indirectly, into Buddhist literature. A notable example is one version of the Aṅgulimāla Sutta, T118. The episode of Aṅgulimāla’s encounter with his teacher’s wife was probably adapted from Joseph’s encounter with Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39. In this article, I show that the similarities between the Joseph story and the Aṅgulimāla story greatly surpass those between the Joseph/Aṅgulimāla stories and their counterparts in other literature, including six Greek tales, an Indian epic, two Jātakas and the Divyāvadāna of Buddhism.
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KAWAMURA-HANAOKA, Eiko. "Zen (Buddhism) and Western Nihilism." Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 6, no. 2 (September 1, 1996): 174–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.2143/sid.6.2.2004041.
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Smith, Simon G. "Western Buddhism: Tradition and Modernity." Religion 26, no. 4 (October 1996): 311–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/reli.1996.0025.
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McGhee, Michael. "Greeks, Galatians and Western Buddhists: Christianity, Buddhism and ‘Social Responsibility’." Contemporary Buddhism 3, no. 2 (January 1, 2002): 99–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1463994032000068528.
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Tarocco, Francesca. "The Politics of Buddhist Organisations in Taiwan: 1989–2003. Safeguarding the Faith, Building a Pure Land, Helping the Poor. By ANDRÉ LALIBERTÉ . [London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. xii+178 pp. ISBN 0-415-32235-9.] Establishing a Pure Land on Earth. The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization. By STUART CHANDLER. [Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004. xvii+371 pp. ISBN 0-8248-2746-5.]." China Quarterly 181 (March 2005): 195–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0305741005360103.
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In open contrast to the abundance of studies concerning the first millennium of Chinese history, many aspects of the institutional, intellectual and cultural history of Chinese Buddhism during the past one thousand years remain, with some notable exceptions, largely unstudied. In particular, Western language scholarly accounts of Chinese Buddhism since the end of the 19th century are still rare and, with regards to the first part of the 20th century, largely limited to the efforts of one individual, the late American scholar, Holmes Welch (1921–1981). During the last ten or 15 years, however, there have been signs of a reversal of this tendency as an increasing number of researchers began to devote themselves to the study of modern and contemporary Chinese Buddhism. The lion's share of this emerging scholarly trend belongs to studies of Taiwanese rather than mainland Chinese Buddhism. This choice can partly be attributed to the increasing international visibility of Taiwanese Buddhist associations, but I also suspect that funding opportunities and a comparatively more welcoming research environment may have something to do with it!The two books under review are also concerned with contemporary Taiwanese Buddhism. Their authors adopt different but somehow complementary approaches. Whereas André Laliberté's instructive study of the attitudes towards the active political participation of Taiwanese Buddhist organizations focuses on the activities of the three main Taiwanese Buddhist organizations, namely the Buddha Light Mountain (or Foguangshan) monastic order, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association (or Ciji gongdehui), and the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China (Zhongguo fojiaohui), Stuart Chandler's engaging study focuses on Foguangshan and the views of its founder and charismatic leader, Ven. Xingyun.
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Spearritt, Gregory. "Don Cupitt: Christian Buddhist?" Religious Studies 31, no. 3 (September 1995): 359–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0034412500023714.
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In a number of ways, western Christianity has taken a genuine interest in the thought-world and practice of Buddhism over the last few decades. Process theologians have found much to enthuse them in the Buddhist rejection of substance as a fundamental category and Christian mysticism has discovered common ground with Buddhist understandings of ultimate Reality. Buddhist–Christian dialogue has been occurring at many levels, initiated for the most part by Christians.
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Zuber, Devin. "The Buddha of the North: Swedenborg and Transpacific Zen." Religion and the Arts 14, no. 1-2 (2010): 1–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/107992610x12598215383242.
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AbstractThe Scandinavian scientist-mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) has had a curious relationship to the history of how Western literature has responded to Buddhism. Since Honoré de Balzac’s claim in the 1830s that Swedenborg was “a Buddha of the north,” Swedenborg’s mystical teachings have been consistently aligned with Buddhism by authors on both sides of the pacific, from D. T. Suzuki to Philangi Dasa, the publisher of the first Buddhist journal in North America. This essay explores the different historical frames that allowed for this steady correlation, and argues that the rhetorical and aesthetic trope of “Swedenborg as Buddha” became a point of cultural translation, especially between Japanese Zen and twentieth-century Modernism. Swedenborg’s figuration in the earlier work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Blake, moreover, might begin to account for the peculiar ways those two Romantics have particularly affected modern Japanese literature. The transpacific flow of these ideas ultimately complicates the Orientalist critique that has read Western aesthetic contact with Buddhism as one of hegemonic misappropriation.
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Clydesdale, Heather. "Earthly Beasts and Heavenly Creatures: Animal Realms in Early Medieval Chinese Tombs and Cave Temples." Arts 12, no. 1 (January 16, 2023): 14. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/arts12010014.
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This analysis of the fabricated worlds in tombs and cave temples of China’s Hexi Corridor shows that animals are integral to concepts of earthly and heavenly realms. Changes in animal imagery from the third through sixth centuries connect to the region’s social, cultural, and demographic transformations, including an embrace of pastoralism followed by increasing cosmopolitanism with the spread of Buddhism. A profusion of domestic animals in Wei-Jin tombs establish microcosms, while otherworldly creatures on entrances and coffins play supernatural roles. Western Jin tombs emphasize fantastic beasts over familiar ones and fuel the mysticism of this era. A Sixteen Kingdoms tomb represents the synthesis of the celestial and terrestrial, setting the stage for Buddhist cave temples. In these, real-world animals are all but expunged while imaginary beasts adapt easily to the new habitat. The proliferation of human figures in the form of buddhas and bodhisattvas not only crowd out animals but indicates that the introduction of Buddhism ushers in an anthropocentric view of earthly life and paradise.
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Coderey, Céline. "Healing the whole: Questioning the boundaries between medicine and religion in Rakhine, Western Myanmar." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 51, no. 1-2 (June 2020): 49–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022463420000259.
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Based on fieldwork conducted among the Buddhist population living in Rakhine State, Myanmar, between 2005 and 2011, this article elucidates how people deal with health and illness and related uncertainties by relying on a multiplicity of conceptions and practices associated with Buddhism, astrology, spirit cults, as well as indigenous and Western medicine. This article unpacks this plurality to show how different components contribute to the healing process in complementary and yet hierarchical ways which hold to a nexus of political, social, medical, economic, cosmological, biological, and environmental factors. It also questions the boundaries between the religious and medical, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, worldly and otherworldly, and natural and supernatural.
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Qin, Zhenzhen, and Yao Song. "The Sacred Power of Beauty: Examining the Perceptual Effect of Buddhist Symbols on Happiness and Life Satisfaction in China." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 7 (April 8, 2020): 2551. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072551.
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The theoretical relationship between Buddhism and subjective well-being has gained much academic attention in recent decades. However, the prominent determinants of religiosity remain limited for researchers to understand a holistic picture of religion-informed subjective well-being, particularly in the context of Buddhism. This study has applied a quantitative survey to verify the impact of the aesthetic effects of the Buddhist gesture symbol on Chinese people’s subjective happiness through sequential mediators of life satisfaction and the perceived religiosity. The significance of this study is threefold. Firstly, it aims to enrich the current academic understanding of the religion-informed subjective well-being by introducing a new determinant of the Buddhist symbols. Secondly, the current study investigates the mechanism of how Buddhist symbols could influence happiness by analyzing the sequential mediating roles of religiosity and life satisfaction. Thirdly, this study empirically examines the topic in the context of China to confirm and underpin the theoretical relationship between Buddhism and subjective well-being in relevant research, which has previously focused on Western culture. Our results indicated that the aesthetic perception of the Buddhist gesture symbol positively influenced perceived happiness and life satisfaction. In addition, perceived religiosity and life satisfaction sequentially mediated the perceived happiness after seeing the Buddhist gesture symbol. Our findings contribute to the current academic understanding of religious symbols and their impacts on subjective well-being.
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Duoer, Daigengna. "From “Lama Doctors” to “Mongolian Doctors”: Regulations of Inner Mongolian Buddhist Medicine under Changing Regimes and the Crises of Modernity (1911–1976)." Religions 10, no. 6 (June 7, 2019): 373. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel10060373.
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This paper focuses on how Buddhist medicine in twentieth-century Inner Mongolia was defined, restricted, regulated, and transformed under different ruling political regimes since the fall of the Qing empire in 1911 to the 1980s. The paper argues that the fate of Mongolian medicine was closely linked with the fate of Mongolian Buddhism in twentieth-century Inner Mongolia. As Inner Mongolian Buddhism came to be re-defined, regulated, and coerced by various systems of governance that came to rule the region, Mongolian Buddhist medicine faced crises of modernity in which processes of secularization, exercises of biopower, practices of colonial medicine, and discourses of ethnicity and hygiene challenged the tradition to either reform and adapt to new standardizations imposed by Western biomedicine or lose relevancy in rapidly evolving eras of change.
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McGhee, Michael. "Editorial: Greeks, Galatians and Western Buddhists: Christianity, Buddhism and ‘social responsibility’." Contemporary Buddhism 3, no. 2 (November 2002): 99–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639940208573760.
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Williams, Paul J. "Indian Buddhism and Western Moral Theory." Journal of Indian Philosophy and Religion 13 (2008): 39–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/jipr2008133.
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Møllgaard, Eske. "Slavoj žižek's critique of western buddhism." Contemporary Buddhism 9, no. 2 (November 2008): 167–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639940802556545.
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