The Place of Relic Worship in Buddhism: An Unresolved Controversy?

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karel Werner
Keyword(s):  
Devotional Practice ◽  
Lay Buddhists ◽  
Correct Understanding ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Way

Although worship of the relics of the Buddha — and its corollary, st?pa worship — is a widespread feature of Buddhist devotional practice among both lay Buddhists and monks, there is in some quarters a view that, while recommended to lay followers, it is forbidden to monks. This controversy started very early after the Buddha’s parinibb?na and has reverberated throughout the centuries till the present time. Its source is in the Mah?parinibb?na Sutta, and it stems from the ambiguity in the meaning of the compound sar?ra-p?j? in the Buddha’s reply to ?nanda’s two questions concerning the actions to be taken after the Master’s death with respect to his body. The resolution of the controversy depends on a correct understanding of the nature of the Buddha’s replies to the two questions. This paper analyses the relevant passages of the sutta and the way they have been translated, correctly or incorrectly, into Western languages and into Chinese, and finally arrives at a solution derived entirely from within the text of the Mah?parinibb?na Sutta itself.

Abruptly Dogen

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kidder Smith
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Full Moon ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The World ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Way

In the thirteenth century Dogen brought Zen to Japan. His tradition flourishes there still today and now has taken root across the world. Abruptly Dogen presents some of his pith writings—startling, shifting, funny, spilling out in every direction. They come from all seventy-five chapters of his masterwork, the Eye of Real Dharma (Shōbōgenzō 正法眼藏), and roam through mountains, magic, everyday life, meditation, the nature of mind, and how the Buddha is always speaking from inside our heads. An excerpt from chapter 1, “A Case of Here We Are”: Human wisdom is like a moon roosting in water. No stain on the moon, nor does the water rip. However wide and grand the light, it still finds lodging in a puddle. The full moon, the spilling sky, all roosting in a single dewdrop on a single blade of grass. A man of wisdom is uncut, the way a moon doesn’t pierce water. Wisdom in a man is unobstructed, the way the sky’s full moon is unobstructed in a dewdrop. No doubt about it, the drop’s as deep as the moon is high. How long does this go on? How deep is the water, how high the moon?

Relocating the Light

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Scheible
Keyword(s):  
Physical Space ◽  
Moral Community ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
The Future ◽  
Significant Patterns ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Rhetorical Structures ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Way

Pāli is not typically considered a language that allows for much literary flourish, but literary moves are made nonetheless: patterns and rhetorical structures introduced in the first chapter determine how the rest of the historical narrative is literarily conveyed. This chapter argues that structurally significant patterns manifest in the proem itself are what determine the narrative arc of the text, and further explores the metaphor of light as it is employed in the story, paying attention to the way the proems had set up the reader to perceive the transformative richness and practical potential of such metaphors. By exploring this metaphor of light we will see how a certain pattern is developed whereby the physical space of Laṅkā is transformed to a lamp of the dhamma, a cetiya for the future remembrance and representation of the Buddha through relic veneration, while individual hearers are transformed ethically, resulting in the moral community primed for the responsibility of the dhamma. Just as a lamp is primed with oil to effectively receive the flame, so the reader of the Mahāvaṃsa is primed for the full, transformative force of the text by the proem and by the narrative strategies employed.

Uncertain Labor

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-120
Author(s):  
Samantha Katz Seal
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Strategy ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Devotional Practice ◽  
Human Labor ◽  
Similar Materials ◽  
The Way

Chapter 3 approaches reproduction from the medieval scientific perspective of two contraries coming together, with the active male spirit working upon the passive female matter. Analyzing the Second Nun’s Tale and the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, this chapter explores the way in which Chaucer imagined alternative strategies of conception. In the former, the Second Nun calls upon the Virgin Mary to partner her in a devotional practice of production; in the latter, the Canon and his Yeoman both attempt to create without the necessary contraries, bringing similar materials together in failed alchemical experiments that are distinguished by the queerness of their reproductive strategy. There are ways, Chaucer writes, to turn human labor into an authoritative generation, but one must partner with God in order to effect this triumph.

1. Buddhist morality

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Damien Keown
Keyword(s):  
Common Core ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Monastic Community ◽  
The Law ◽  
Moral Teachings ◽  
Lay Buddhists ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
The Buddha

This chapter summarizes the main moral teachings, precepts, and virtues common to the major schools of Buddhism. While these schools often exhibit divergent practices and customs, it seems legitimate to speak of them sharing a common moral core grounded in the teachings of the Buddha originating in the 5th century bce and then handed down largely unaltered through the centuries. A central part of this common core are the Five Precepts observed by lay Buddhists everywhere. The monastic community has its own set of rules and regulations in the Vinaya. Buddhist moral beliefs are underpinned by the cosmic principle of Dharma, of which the law of karma is an aspect. Like science, karma is objective, but unlike science it is not value-free. Karma is concerned with voluntary actions and the good and bad consequences flowing from moral choices.

scholarly journals A Generative Entanglement: Word and Image in Roman Catholic Devotional Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Devotional Practice ◽  
Word And Image ◽  
The Way

Devotional piety broadly depends on events that are not accessible for direct observation and commonly offer very little, if anything, in the way of historical documentation. Sometimes the experiences to which devotion is directed in the veneration of saints is based on visionary experience for which reports are contradictory. This essay explores ways in which word and image are brought together to anchor evanescent or ephemeral, or entirely uncertain, origins and provide devotion with stable objects. I develop the view that word and image are generatively entangled, meaning that their ambiguous connections with one another are able to produce a medium in which devotion finds a footing. The discussion focuses on two case studies: Our Lady of Fátima and Saint Jude. Fátima is based on a series of apparitions to young children in 1917 and Jude is a historically shadowy figure whose cult underwent a modern revival, in part assisted by new iconographic developments that allowed devotees to link their saint to very old traditions. Lore and imagery work together as forms of saying and seeing that bring elusive origins into focus.

Karma

2020 ◽  
pp. 82-90
Author(s):  
Nicolas Bommarito
Keyword(s):  
The World ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Of Gravity ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines karma. Karma, most literally, means action. Initially, it meant very specific ritual actions to bring about certain results. Later, the meaning of the term expanded and started to refer to all actions. Not only that, it is also used to refer to the effects of an individual’s actions and the connections between their actions and those effects. Given this basic idea of karma, it is important to highlight what it is not. People sometimes talk about the “law of karma.” People think of laws as having a lawmaker and an enforcer. However, karma is not like that—there is nobody writing the law and making sure it is enforced. In this sense, it is more like the law of gravity—it is a regularity in the way the world is; nobody has to write or enforce it. Moreover, karma is not some form of cosmic justice; it need not be about deserving the effects. Karma is not fate as well. The Buddha is clear that not all events are determined by karma.

HEREDITARY PROBLEMS IN LONG-WALL MINING BY FREE HEXAGONS

2011 ◽  
Vol 08 (02) ◽  
pp. 293-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETR P. PROCHAZKA ◽  
TAT S. LOK
Keyword(s):  
Coal Seam ◽  
Distinct Element ◽  
Material Behavior ◽  
Discrete Elements ◽  
Scale Models ◽  
Rock Aggregate ◽  
Correct Understanding ◽  
Creep Problem ◽  
Element Method ◽  
The Way

In deep mines, the way of excavation, depositing packs, and the mechanical properties as well as the velocity of mining belong to the most decisive phenomena for the threat of bumps. In this paper, time-dependent hereditary creep problem in terms of free hexagon distinct element method (DEM) is formulated and solved for assessment of bumps occurrence in deep mines. The time factor as an impact of the velocity of mining is involved here in a natural way in the model of discrete elements. Inside of these elements, the material behavior is described by the boundary element method. Mutual coupling of the velocity and the way of deposition of packs can principally influence the safety against bumps. For the correct understanding, the behavior of the rock aggregate (coal seam and the overburden) and the nucleation of cracks finally leading to the bumps have to be treated as time depended and creep and viscoplasticity in the overburden should be considered. In the coal seam, brittle material is adopted. According to the new experiments on scale models and results from accessible literature those effects will be involved into the formulations.

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