Theravada Buddhism and Meditation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Great Emphasis ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Balanced Development ◽  
Buddhist Meditation ◽  
Textual Basis ◽  
The Way

This chapter describes texts and practices associated with meditation in Southern, or Pali, Buddhism, sometimes known as Theravada Buddhism. It explores some different approaches to meditation that characterize this form of Buddhism, as well as the textual basis for their practice and theory. The word “meditation,” with its application in Southern Buddhism, is examined. In Southern Buddhist countries (principally Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma/Myanmar) the word bhāvanā covers a range of activities including chanting, devotions, offerings, and recollections, as well as sitting meditation. These are considered central supports to the development of both samatha (calm) meditation and vipassanā (insight). The chapter considers the way that various elements of sitting practice in both calm and insight schools are felt to be needed to work with one another and with these supports. Some aspects of the complex relationship between the two modes of approaching meditation, calm and insight, are then examined further: schools in both traditions teach many other features of practice as well as sitting meditation to ensure balanced development. The tradition’s great emphasis on the importance of meditation guidance is also discussed. Some of the adaptations that have accompanied global interest in Southern Buddhist meditation are explored, with a broad survey of some modern strands that have moved to regions outside the traditional “home” of these practices.

Buddhist Preaching and Sinhala Religious Rhetoric: Medieval Buddhist Methods to Popularize Theravāda

Numen ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahinda Deegalle
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Religious Rhetoric ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
The Way

AbstractBuddhist preaching is one of the most neglected areas in modern scholarship. In Buddhist societies, though varieties of preaching rituals are found, existing scholarly literature contains only scattered and often inadequate or misleading references to Buddhist preaching. Since both historians of religions and Buddhologists have tended to ignore the role of Buddhist preachers and preaching in Theravāda Buddhism, this paper stresses the importance of paying attention to ‘preaching’ in developing a holistic understanding of Sinhala Buddhism.Focusing on the term ‘bana,’ this paper examines the development of Buddhist preaching in Sri Lanka. It demonstrates the way bana has functioned in the popularization of Theravāda since the thirteenth century. First, through an examination of inscriptions, it establishes the development of the term bana as an important religio-historical category in Sinhala Buddhism. Second, it examines the specific usage of the term bana in the sense of preaching in the thirteenth century Pūjāvaliya. Finally, focusing on the Butsarana, an early thirteenth century Sinhala text which contains extensive references to bana, it examines the way Vidyācakravartī innovated Theravāda Buddhist intellectual framework by employing an unconventional term such as ‘kāma’ (desire) to describe Theravāda religious concepts in order to popularize them. It argues that Buddhist preaching developed and grew in the context of Sinhala banapot, and functions as a rich cultural, educational, and religious resource influencing the attitudes and practices of Sinhala Buddhists.

Leone de' Sommi and Jewish Theatre in Renaissance Mantua

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
Donald Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Social Negotiations ◽  
Renaissance Artist ◽  
The Way

This is a study of a Renaissance artist and his patrons, but with an added complication, insofar as Leone de' Sommi, the gifted academician and playwright in the employ of the dukes of Mantua in the second half of the sixteenth century, was Jewish and a lifelong promoter and protector of his community. The article deals with the complex relationship between the court and the Jewish "università" concerning the drama and the way in which dramatic performances also became part of the political, judicial and social negotiations between the two parties, as well as a study of Leone's role as playwright and negotiator during a period that was arguably one of the best of times for the Jews of Mantua.

The Role of Music and Allied Arts in Public Writings on Cultural Diversity: “People of Sri Lanka”

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 93-100
Author(s):  
Gisa Jähnichen
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
The World ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Way

The Sri Lankan Ministry of National Coexistence, Dialogue, and Official Languages published the work “People of Sri Lanka” in 2017. In this comprehensive publication, 21 invited Sri Lankan scholars introduced 19 different people’s groups to public readers in English, mainly targeted at a growing number of foreign visitors in need of understanding the cultural diversity Sri Lanka has to offer. This paper will observe the presentation of these different groups of people, the role music and allied arts play in this context. Considering the non-scholarly design of the publication, a discussion of the role of music and allied arts has to be supplemented through additional analyses based on sources mentioned by the 21 participating scholars and their fragmented application of available knowledge. In result, this paper might help improve the way facts about groups of people, the way of grouping people, and the way of presenting these groupings are displayed to the world beyond South Asia. This fieldwork and literature guided investigation should also lead to suggestions for ethical principles in teaching and presenting of culturally different music practices within Sri Lanka, thus adding an example for other case studies.

Theravada Traditions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Clifford Holt
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
Religious Cultures

This is a study of very popular ritual celebrations observed by Buddhist monks and laity in each of the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.) The theoretical approach deployed and guides the reader through the distinctiveness of each culture is comparative in nature, and the basic premise that angles the inquiry is that widely observed public rites common to each religious culture reflect the nature of social, economic and political change occurring more broadly in society. Instead of ascertaining how religious ideas have impacted the ideals of government or ethical practice, this study focuses on how important changes, or shifts in the trajectories of society impact the character of religious cultures. In each of the five chapters that focus specifically on a given rite of great public importance, an historical, political or social context is provided in some detail. As such, this volume can be read effectively as one volume introduction to the practice of Theravada Buddhism and the nature of social change in contemporary Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Language ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Auguste Comte ◽  
John Taylor ◽  
The Way

At this point, Mill meets the great, passionate partner of his life, Harriet Taylor. This chapter endeavours to explain the complex relationship and way of life that they created for themselves during the lifetime of her first husband, John Taylor. The choice of celibacy is investigated. Even for freethinkers, chaste affairs were often pursued in this time period and milieu, including by people close to Mill such as W. J. Fox (with Eliza Flower) and Auguste Comte (with Clotilde de Vaux). This chapter also reveals the way that Harriet became a kind of substitute deity and religion for Mill. He frequently applied religious language to her, including deeming her judgement to be ‘perfect’ and ‘infallible’. With Harriet, Mill’s devotional sense finally found an outlet.

scholarly journals Editorial

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-98
Author(s):  
F. John Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Financial Burden ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Great Emphasis ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Geological Society ◽  
Online Submission ◽  
The Way

Abstract. After six years in office as the editor of the Journal of Micropalaeontology, my time in post has come to an end, and as this will be my final issue of the Journal it is time to hand over the reins. At the AGM of TMS a new editor was elected; Professor Alan Lord and I know that he will do a great job.As has been reported over the last year or so at the AGM and in TMS Newsletter, there will be some significant changes afoot for the Journal which I have been involved with over the last couple of years. This negotiation has resulted in a new publishing contract for the Journal of Micropalaeontology with the Geological Society of London (GSL), and its publisher the Geological Society Publishing House (GSPH). This will relieve our Society of the financial burden of paying for the production of the Journal. We will exercise the same editorial control we have always had, and although the GSPH is run as a commercial concern by the Geological Society they, as a learned society themselves, place great emphasis on not interfering with the running of society Journals, and respect the academic nature of our science. The format of the Journal will remain the same, with continued emphasis on excellent international science and high-quality plate production.There will, however, be some significant changes regarding the way papers are submitted and dealt with. The main one will be the initiation of online submission and manuscript handling . . .

scholarly journals Picturesque Farming: The Sound of ‘Happy Britannia’ in Colonial Australia

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Denney
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Great Emphasis ◽  
Art And Literature ◽  
The Way

This essay examines the way in which the British landscape tradition influenced perceptions of sound, noise and silence in colonial Australia, focusing on representations of rural soundscape in art and literature. It argues that poets and artists attempted to recreate an image of Australia as a new ‘Happy Britannia’, a noisy society engaged in virtuous agricultural labour. But this image was opposed to the prevailing taste for picturesque landscape, which accorded little value to human activity and placed great emphasis on silent, rural scenery. Accordingly, colonial perceptions of soundscape were ambivalent, as human-produced noise was heard as both a sign of the progress of civilisation and an obstacle to the spread of cultural refinement.

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