De-Centering the Normative in the Introduction to Buddhism Class

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan McGovern
Keyword(s):  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Alternative Method ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Thich Nhat Hanh

In this article, I present an alternative method for teaching the Intro to Buddhism class. The standard way of teaching this class allows little room for non-normative aspects of Buddhism such as violence, and insofar as it does, it implicitly frames them as “aberrations” from “real Buddhism.” In my syllabus, I began by having students read The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh, which teaches them about Buddhist doctrine with a seductively modernist approach. At the mid-point of the semester, I then reveal to them that Thich Nhat Hanh’s book leaves out a great deal of what is found in actual traditional Buddhist practice, including reincarnation, gods, spirits, miracles, the supernatural, patriarchy, and violence. In the second half of the semester, we then study regional forms of Buddhism, with a special eye towards practice, including the practice of violence.

scholarly journals Is Mindfulness Buddhist? (And Why It Matters)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Sharf
Keyword(s):  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
The Moment

Modern exponents of mindfulness meditation promote the therapeutic effects of “bare attention”—a sort of non-judgmental, non-discursive attending to the moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. This approach is arguably at odds with more traditional Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and meditative practice, but the cultivation of present-centered awareness is not without precedent in Buddhist history; similar innovations arose in medieval Chinese Zen (Chan) and Tibetan Dzogchen. These movements have several things in common. In each case the reforms were, in part, attempts to render Buddhist practice and insight accessible to laypeople unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and/or unwilling to adopt a renunciatory lifestyle. They also promised quick results. And finally, the innovations were met with suspicion and criticism from traditional Buddhist quarters. Those interested in the therapeutic effects of mindfulness and bare attention are often not aware of the existence, much less the content, of the controversies surrounding these practices in Asian Buddhist history.

Images

Buddhism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Lachman
Keyword(s):  
Characteristic Feature ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
Active Interest ◽  
The Buddha

Buddhism appears to have spread slowly at first from its birthplace in northern India after the death of the historical Buddha. With the territorial expansions of King Aśoka—a supporter of Buddhism—in the 3rd century BCE, however, it began to spread more rapidly, first reaching other parts of India, and eventually reaching Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Thailand to the southeast, and Gandhara (in present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) to the northwest. From there, it gradually traveled through Central Asia to China, Korea, and Japan. The various sutras containing the teachings of the Buddha were certainly a central element of this enterprise, but a wide array of Buddhist images also played a crucial role in this transmission. In China, for example, Buddhism was even dubbed the “teaching of images” (xiangjiao) and although this term was meant as a slur it clearly reflects the prominent place of images in Buddhist practice. This prominence persists today, and rituals of bowing, burning incense, and making offerings to images is a characteristic feature of virtually every branch and school of Buddhism. The formal study of Buddhist images, however, is a relatively recent field that only emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since many early historians of Buddhism tended to dismiss the ritual use of images as popular superstition, focusing instead on texts and doctrine, the first scholars to take an active interest in studying Buddhist image traditions tended to be art historians, whose concerns were mainly iconographic and stylistic. More recently, though, this situation has changed, as many Buddhologists have turned their attention to the critical study of images in creative and fruitful ways, while many art historians have stopped approaching images merely as art objects or as iconographic embodiments of Buddhist doctrine. Thus, the study of Buddhist images today is no longer only, or even mainly, the preserve of art historians, and many of the art historians who do focus on Buddhist images tend to be interested in issues that go far beyond matters of style.

Prescribing the Dharma

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira Helderman
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
William James ◽  
The United States ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Mindfulness Practices ◽  
Neuropsychological Study ◽  
Psychological Dimensions ◽  
Depth Interviews

Interest in the psychotherapeutic capacity of Buddhist teachings and practices is widely evident in the popular imagination. News media routinely report on the neuropsychological study of Buddhist meditation and applications of mindfulness practices in settings including corporate offices, the U.S. military, and university health centers. However, as Ira Helderman shows, curious investigators have studied the psychological dimensions of Buddhist doctrine for well over a century, stretching back to William James and Carl Jung. These activities have shaped both the mental health field and Buddhist practice throughout the United States. This is the first comprehensive study of the surprisingly diverse ways that psychotherapists have related to Buddhist traditions. Through extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews with clinicians, many of whom have been formative to the therapeutic use of Buddhist practices, Helderman gives voice to the psychotherapists themselves. He focuses on how they understand key categories such as religion and science. Some are invested in maintaining a hard border between religion and psychotherapy as a biomedical discipline. Others speak of a religious-secular binary that they mean to disrupt. Helderman finds that psychotherapists’ approaches to Buddhist traditions are molded by how they define what is and is not religious, demonstrating how central these concepts are in contemporary American culture.

An Alternative Method for Identifying a Failed Engine in Twin-Engine Propeller Aircraft

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-111
Author(s):  
Andrey K. Babin ◽  
Andrew R. Dattel ◽  
Margaret F. Klemm
Keyword(s):  
Human Error ◽  
Flight Simulator ◽  
Traditional Group ◽  
Aircraft Accidents ◽  
Alternative Method ◽  
Indicator Group ◽  
Group A ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Engine Failure ◽  
And Performance

Abstract. Twin-engine propeller aircraft accidents occur due to mechanical reasons as well as human error, such as misidentifying a failed engine. This paper proposes a visual indicator as an alternative method to the dead leg–dead engine procedure to identify a failed engine. In total, 50 pilots without a multi-engine rating were randomly assigned to a traditional (dead leg–dead engine) or an alternative (visual indicator) group. Participants performed three takeoffs in a flight simulator with a simulated engine failure after rotation. Participants in the alternative group identified the failed engine faster than the traditional group. A visual indicator may improve pilot accuracy and performance during engine-out emergencies and is recommended as a possible alternative for twin-engine propeller aircraft.

Determination of Myocardial FFA Elimination Rates by Functional Images of Uncorrected Half-Time Values

1984 ◽  
Vol 23 (06) ◽  
pp. 277-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Van Lingen ◽  
G. Westera ◽  
M. van ◽  
W. Den Hollander ◽  
E. E. Van der Wall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coronary Artery ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
Heptadecanoic Acid ◽  
Half Time ◽  
Alternative Method ◽  
Functional Images ◽  
Functional Image ◽  
Back Ground ◽  
Objective Determination

SummaryThis paper presents an alternative method of demarcating regions of in terest over the myocardium after ad ministration of 123I-heptadecanoic acid to patients with coronary artery disea se. In a matrix of 32 × 32 pixels the elimination rates of the radioactivity, which are not corrected for back ground activity, are visualized per pixel in a functional image. The func tional image showed areas in the myocardium with high values of uncorrected elimination rates. These areas corresponded with the tracer defects on the scintigram. Corrected elimination rates obtained from re gions of interest of functional images were comparable with those of scinti grams. Thus based on functional im ages of uncorrected elimination rates a reliable, objective determination of regions of interest over normal and abnormal myocardium can be made.

Evaluation of Sacroiliac Wedge Rotation to Increase Acetabular Ventroversion

1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (04) ◽  
pp. 173-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Aper ◽  
M. D. Brown ◽  
M. G. Conzemius
Keyword(s):  
Hip Joint ◽  
Hip Dysplasia ◽  
Clinical Effect ◽  
Pelvic Osteotomy ◽  
Alternative Method ◽  
Angular Measurements ◽  
Si Joint ◽  
In Vivo Effects ◽  
Canine Hip Dysplasia

SummaryTreatment of canine hip dysplasia (CHD) via triple pelvic osteotomy (TPO) is widely accepted as the treatment that best preserves the existing hip joint. TPO, however, has several important disadvantages. In an effort to avoid some of the difficulties associated with TPO an alternative method of creating acetabular ventroversion (AW) was sought. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of placement of a wedge in the sacroiliac (SI) joint on A W and to compare this to the effect of TPO on A W . On one hemipelvis a 30° pelvic osteotomy plate was used for TPO. The contralateral hemipelvis had a 28° SI wedge inserted into the SI joint. Pre- and postsurgical radiographs of each pelvis were taken and the angular measurements were recorded. On average, the 28° SI wedge resulted in 20.9° of A W, the 30° canine pelvic osteotomy plate resulted in 24.9° A W . Significant differences were not found (p >0.05) between the two techniques. Sacroiliac wedge rotation effectively creates A W and has several theoretical advantages when compared to TPO. The in vivo effects of sacroiliac wedge rotation should be studied in order to evaluate the clinical effect of the technique.Sacroiliac wedge rotation was tested as an alternative method to increase the angle of acetabular ventroversion. This technique effectively rotated the acetabulum and has several theoretical advantages when compared to triple pelvic osteotomy.

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