scholarly journals On the meanings of the terms dhāraṇī and mantra in the Buddhist written tradition

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 842-857
Author(s):  
Safarali Kh. Shomakhmadov
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
Mental Construct ◽  
Buddhist Teaching ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
The One ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Technical Terms

The article comprises an analysis of some of the most important terms in  the Buddhist religious tradition – dhāraṇī and mantra. It is based upon research of the  Buddhist canonical and post-canonical texts. Among others, the article sets to clarify  whether it is possible to identify the terms of dhāraṇī and mantra also as ‘spells’, ‘incantations’ or ‘invocations’. Special attention is paid to the study of the semantic areas  of the terms in question. This aims to clarify whether the dhāraṇī and mantra can be  considered synonyms. The article also examines the approaches of Russian and foreign  scholarly traditions, which interpreted the meaning of these terms. On a parallel basis, it analyzes the meaning of the term dhāraṇī recorded in Buddhist canonical and  post-canonical texts. Additionally, the article comprises a research of the technical  terms, which are synonymous for dhāraṇī and mantra, however, used in both authentic  (Indian) and non-endemic zones and the relevant traditions, where the Buddhist teaching was also popular, i.e. in Tibet, China and Japan. As a result, the author concludes  as follows. On the ‘popular level’ of the functioning of Buddhist doctrine (protection  from illnesses, robbers, bites of poisonous snakes and insects, etc.) both terms dhāraṇī  and mantra can be certainly bear the meaning as ‘spells’, ‘incantations’ or ‘invocations’.  On the level of the meditative practice of the consciousness transformation, which aims  to the final liberation from affects, both dhāraṇī and mantra function as a ‘mental construct’. On the one hand, they protect the ascetic consciousness they protect the ascetic  consciosness (manas-tra) from afflictions, on the other, they provide the mental comprehension ‘grasping’ and firm holding (dhāraṇa) in memory of the aspects of religious  doctrine, that, ultimately, leads to the Nirvāṇa obtaining. In both cases, dhāraṇī and  mantra function as synonyms, with the only difference that dhāraṇī is a product of  Buddhist ideologists who sought to identify a break from the previous religious tradition – Brahmanism.

scholarly journals Obrona integralnego człowieczeństwa Chrystusa przeciw apolinaryzmowi w dziełach Epifaniusza z Salaminy

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 253-269
Author(s):  
Roland Marcin Pancerz
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
Apostolic Fathers ◽  
Communicatio Idiomatum ◽  
The One ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Church ◽  
Technical Terms

Epiphanius of Salamis was one of the Church Fathers, who reacted resolutely against incorrect Christology of Apollinaris of Laodicea. The latter asserted that the divine Logos took the place of Christ’s human mind (noàj). In the beginning, the bishop of Salamis tackled the problem of Christ’s human body, since – as he told himself – followers of Apollinaris, that arrived in Cyprus, put about incorrect doctrine on the Saviour’s body. Among other things, they asserted it was consub­stantial with his godhead. Beyond doubt, this idea constituted a deformation of the original thought of Apollinaris. Anyway, Epiphanius opposing that error took up again expressions, which had been employed before by the Apostolic Fathers and Apologists in the fight against Docetism. Besides, Epiphanius told that some followers of Apollinaris denied the exi­stence of Christ’s human soul (yuc»). Also in this matter, in all probability, we come across a deformation of the original doctrine of the bishop of Laodicea. A real controversy with Apollinaris was the defence of the human mind of the Sa­viour. Epiphanius emphasized that He becoming man took all components of hu­man nature: “body, soul, mind and everything that man is”, in accordance with the axiom “What is not assumed is not saved” (Quod non assumptum, non sanatum). A proof of the integrity of human nature was the reasonable human feelings the Saviour experienced (hunger, tiredness, sorrow, anxiety) as well as knowledge he had to gain partly from experience, which was witnessed by Luke 2, 52. In the lat­ter question, the bishop of Salamis was a forerunner of contemporary Christology. The fact that Epiphanius admitted a complete human nature in Christ didn’t bring dividing the incarnate Logos into two persons. Although the bishop of Sa­lamis didn’t use technical terms for the one person of Jesus Christ, he outlined nonetheless the idea of the hypostatic union in his own words, as well as through employing the rule of the communicatio idiomatum. The ontological union of the divine Logos with his human nature assured Christ’s holiness, too.

scholarly journals ROME AND CARTHAGE BY A.V. TIMOFEEV: ON THE PROBLEM OF THE GENESIS OF “HISTORICAL FANTASY” AS A GENRE VARIETY OF RUSSIAN ROMANTIC DRAMA OF THE 19TH CENTURY

2021 ◽  
pp. 142-163
Author(s):  
ARKADII MAN'KOVSKII
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Critic ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Romantic Drama ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Fantasy ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Way

The paper explores the genre of scarcely studied play by Russian minor writer Alexei V. Timofeev (1812-1883) Rome and Carthage (1837). Timofeev’s contemporary literary critic Osip Senkovskii treated like poet’s failure his use of romantic techniques in the play on ancient plot. Taking into account this opinion the paper analyzes the paratextual elements in the play, the way of describing characters, the division of the play into acts, the connection of the plot events with historical facts. The paper argues that the play approaches the kind of romantic drama, which the author suggests to call “historical fantasy” Its main feature is the coexisting in the plot mythology and religious tradition, on the one hand, and historical events, on the other, the heroes of historical chronicles and the heroes of folk legends, belief in miracles and rationalism. The goal of historical fantasy is to produce a generalized image of the time, to convey the spirit of the epoch while the dramatic action takes a secondary place. Samples of the genre were given in the works of Alexander A. Shakhovskoi, Alexander I. Gertsen, Apollon N. Maikov. Timofeev’s play was just in the way to this kind of drama.

Midrash in a Lexical Key

2013 ◽  
pp. 213-232
Author(s):  
Joanna Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Number Of Leaves ◽  
Canonical Texts

This chapter discusses how Jews began to produce dictionaries of their own canonical texts. Particularly significant is the recent discovery of a number of leaves of the ‘lost’ dictionary of Hai Gaon, entitled Kitab al-hawi, which lists words belonging to the main corpora of the author's religious tradition: Scripture, Targum, Talmud, and Midrash. Not long after Hai Gaon penned his dictionary, another lexicon—Nathan ben Yehiel's Sefer he'arukh—was produced. One feature alone links the Arukh, written in Rome at the beginning of the twelfth century, with Hai's dictionary—the citation of rabbinic writings, including the main works of classical Midrash. Nathan, like Hai, harvested the entries for his dictionary from all extant sources and traditions without imposing a hierarchy of reading on his readers.

Meditation and the Modern Encounter between Asia and the West

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. King
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Body ◽  
The West ◽  
Eastern Culture ◽  
Asian Religions ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Colonial Encounter ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

In the West, meditation has been particularly associated with Asian religions and seen as illustrative of the mystical nature of eastern culture. This chapter explores the impact of the colonial encounter between Europe and Asia. In this context, Asian meditative practices became abstracted from their traditional cosmological, ritualistic, and cultural contexts and reframed in terms of key conceptual binaries and assumptions deriving from modern Western culture. These include a Cartesian distinction between mind and body (with mind being associated with meditation and Buddhist mindfulness, and the body linked to “Hindu” yoga and its modern postural forms). Asian forms of meditation were translated according to a modern psychological framework and encountered in relation to the dichotomies between science and religion on the one hand and religious tradition and a de-traditionalized notion of spirituality on the other. The approaches taken in the Western encounter with Asian meditation tell us as much about the intellectual grooves of the modern Western episteme as they do about the Asian meditative traditions to which they relate.

Social Groups and Ranking: an Aspect of Ancient Indian Social Life Derived From the Pali Canonical Texts

1967 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-316
Author(s):  
N.K. Wagle
Keyword(s):  
Triple System ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Group Affiliation ◽  
Social Ranking ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
The Buddha

AbstractIn summing up, a number of conclusions can be drawn. We have tried on the one hand to establish the various de facto social groups implied in the formulae of address, reference and salutation ascertaining the group affiliation of the persons involved. We have also tried to bring out the meaning of various terms and establish a triple system of ranking. The meaning attached to these terms, we may point out, is specifically interactional, and the proof of its validity lies only in its consistency. We have demonstrated this throughout our presentation of the data as well as the conclusions. Our conclusions mainly indicate a three-fold system of ranking. In the social sphere the brāhmanas successfully maintain their hostile equality with the Buddha. But in the religious and political fields, they are not as successful. In the religious field the Buddhist order more than holds its own and claims several distinguished brāhmanas within its fold. Politically too, the Buddha is less encumbered than the brāhmanas. Unlike them, he is not servile to the king. Despite their actual humility in the king's presence, in their mode of address the brāhmanas recognize no superior in any system of ranking, but at the most only equals. They and the Buddhists have an equal hold on the gahapatis, who represent the secular population, the prizes in the religious struggle. Having analysed the social groupings, we may further comment on them and see if we can relate our "inferred" social ranking of the groups to what is already stated about them in the texts. We may

scholarly journals XII. Mahishamandala and Mahishmati

1910 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 425-447
Author(s):  
J. F. Fleet
Keyword(s):  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
The Future ◽  
The One ◽  
Sentient Beings

THE Dipavaṁsa tells us (8. 1, 2) that:—“The far-seeing Moggaliputta, having by supernatural vision beheld the establishment of the [Buddhist] doctrine in the future in the border-land, sent out the Thēras Majjhantika and others, each with four (companions), to establish the doctrine in the border-land for the enlightenment of sentient beings.” And it tells us in verse 5 that the Thēra Mahādēva was thus sent to the Mahisa country, Mahisaraṭṭha, = Mahisharāshṭra. The Mahāvaṁsa, in its account of the same matter, calls this territory (12. 3, 29) Mahisamaṇḍala, = Mahishamaṇḍala. Buddhaghōsha, dealing with the missions in his Samanta-Pāsādikā, quotes a verse, very similar to that of the Dīpavaṁsa, which mentions it as raṭṭhaṁ Mahisaṁ, but uses in his own prose the forms Mahisakamaṇḍala and Mahiṁsaka°; in the latter case, with the insertion of a nasal in a manner which is not uncommon in Pāli. And this last form is also found in the Jātaka and its commentary. We adopt the form Mahishamaṇḍala, because it is the one which, in its Pāli shape, has been habitually used by other writers.

Causal Relationship Between FDI Flow and Technological Innovation in China and Japan

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-545
Author(s):  
Chengkun Liu ◽  
Xiuwu Zhang ◽  
Takashi Tamamine ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
International Capital ◽  
Short Term ◽  
International Capital Flow ◽  
Measure Model ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
The One

The improvement of a country’s technological innovation level is influenced by the technology spillover of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Based on the Coe and Helpmen’s theory of international capital flow model and one-way causality measure model, this study examines the similarities and dissimilarities between the dynamic effects of IDFI and OFDI on technological innovation in China and Japan to enumerate the differences in the utilization effect of FDI between developed and developing countries. The empirical results show that the one-way causality intensity of IFDI to technological innovation in China is weaker than that in Japan, but the FDI volatility in China is stronger than that in Japan. The one-way causality intensity of OFDI to technological innovation are low both in China and Japan, and the patterns of long-term and short-term effects are not identical. According to the results of our empirical research, we draw the conclusions and proposed suggestions for using IFDI and OFDI in China and Japan.

Classical Daoist Meditation, 400–100 bce

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold D. Roth
Keyword(s):  
Body Politic ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
The Body ◽  
Contemplative Practice ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Way

Daoism is the indigenous Chinese religious tradition that has been a major feature of this culture for over two thousand years. It is grounded in a comprehensive cosmology of the Way (Dao) that derives from the ancient practice of a meditation that emphasizes attentional focus and mental tranquility attained through an apophatic (self-negating) practice of systematically emptying consciousness of its normal contents. These foundational ideas are present in a series of surviving works that include the famous Laozi and Zhuangzi, which have recently been supplemented by newly excavated texts and newly appreciated extant ones known for millennia. They contain a meditative practice that has been called “inner cultivation” and that emphasizes methods that develop concentration in order to empty the mind of all common thoughts, desires, emotions, and perceptions. These lead ultimately to self-transcending experiences in which adepts experience a complete union with the non-dual Way. The return to dualistic consciousness is accompanied by a fresh and transformed cognition in which adepts are able to spontaneously and effortlessly act in harmony with all new circumstances. This flowing cognition is able to effect transformations in other people and in the body politic and so becomes part of the arcana of government advocated to local kings by the scholar-practitioners of this tradition. These apophatic methods constitute one of the main contemplative practice streams within the Daoist religious tradition and its continuities with later Daoism are detailed by Louis Komjathy in another chapter of this volume.

scholarly journals The First Witnesses. Martha, Longinus and Veronica in the Slavic Manuscript Tradition (Initial Observations)

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Skowronek ◽  
Marek Majer
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
The One ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Patron Saints ◽  
Popular Texts

The epithet ‘first witnesses’, conferred on the three saints in the title, is but a conventional designation; it seems fitting as common for the figures of saints, who gave proof of their devotion to Christ. Otherwise, although they make no simultaneous appearance in any of the canonical texts, there are – interestingly – far more interconnections between the three characters in pseudo-canonical and legendary literature than could be surmised from the lack thereof in the Bible. The aim of the paper is to present a literary picture of three New Testament heroes, as commemorated in different literary texts representing diverse cultural registers, even from the Ancient Christian Times until the close of the Middle Ages. Among them there are short and extended lives and passions of saints, liturgical poetry, as well as specific, more popular texts, such as ‘tales’ and legends. The material under discussion largely includes texts that form a part of the Slavic Orthodox tradition, depicting them on the background of fairly wellknown works belonging to the Western Christian tradition. It turns out that the legends are inspired by the canonical text on the one hand, while on the other hand they themselves infiltrate official texts – they become officially sanctioned as soon as their popularity is taken over and adopted by liturgical practice. It should be borne in mind that those legends – part of which is known both in the Eastern and in the Western Christianity – confirm one further crucial characteristic of texts constituting the canonical and pseudo-canonical tradition: the commonness of themes and motifs which can without exaggeration be called ‘wandering’. They determine the fact that there is hardly any originality in the formation of the characters of patron saints; moreover, on the level of creating the notion of sainthood and its reception, there seem to be far more common points than differences between both of the Early Christian traditions – the East and the West. The paper is an attempt to point out how the Christian tradition exemplifies various manifestations of holiness, what means it has for annotating, elucidating and embellishing the Biblical hypertext, and how it adapts pseudo-canonical legends for the purposes of liturgical use.

scholarly journals Language and Its Limits: Meaning, Reference and the Ineffable in Buddhist Philosophy

Topoi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Blomberg ◽  
Przemysław Żywiczyński
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Conceptual Thinking ◽  
Linguistic Description ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The One ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractBuddhist schools of thought share two fundamental assumptions about language. On the one hand, language (śabda) is identified with conceptual thinking (kalpanā), which according to the Buddhist doctrine (dharma) separates us from the momentary and fleeting nature of reality (satya, “truth”). Language is comprised of generally applicable forms, which fuel the reificatory proclivity for clinging to the distorted – and ultimately fictious – belief in substantial existence. On the other hand, the distrust of language is mitigated by the doctrine of ineffability (anirdeśya), which although asserts that reality is beyond the scope of linguistic description, submits that philosophical analyses of key Buddhist concepts is a means of overcoming the limitations that language imposes on our experience and facilitating insight into the nature of reality (bodhi). This paper provides an overview of Buddhist philosophy of language, with an emphasis on the dialectical view of language as indispensable but ultimately insufficient for contemplation. The Buddhist discussions of ineffability are explicated and compared with its treatment in modern Occidental thought, specifically the similarities and differences with Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language.

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