scholarly journals Buddhist Approaches to Impermanence: Phenomenal and Naumenal

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1081
Author(s):  
Pradeep P. Gokhale
Keyword(s):  
Salient Feature ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Dependent Arising ◽  
The Buddha

The doctrine of impermanence can be called the most salient feature of the Buddha’s teaching. The early Buddhist doctrine of impermanence can be understood in four different but interrelated contexts: Buddha’s empiricism, the notion of conditioned/constituted objects, the idea of dependent arising, and the practical context of suffering and emancipation. While asserting the impermanence of all phenomena, the Buddha was silent on the questions of the so-called transcendent entities and truths. Moreover, though the Buddha described Nibbāṇa/Nirvāṇa as a ‘deathless state’ (‘amataṃ padam’), it does not imply eternality in a metaphysical sense. Whereas the early Buddhist approach to impermanence can be called ‘phenomenal’, the post-Buddhist approach was concerned with naumena (things in themselves). Hence, Sarvāstivāda (along with Pudgalavāda) is marked by absolutism in the form of the doctrines of substantial continuity, atomism, momentariness, and personalism. The paper also deals with the approaches to impermanence of Dharmakīrti and Nāgārjuna, which can be called naumenal rather than strictly phenomenal. For Dharmakīrti, non-eternality was in fact momentariness and it was not a matter of experience but derivable conceptually or analytically from the concept of real. Nāgārjuna stood not for impermanence, but emptiness (śūnyatā), the concept which transcended both impermanence and permanence, substantiality and non-substantiality.

Unfortunate Destiny

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reiko Ohnuma
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agency ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Buddhist Literature ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
Spiritual Potential ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Identity And Difference

This book focuses on the imagery and roles of nonhuman animals in premodern South Asian Buddhist literature. Part I examines the animal realm of rebirth in Buddhist doctrine and cosmology and shows that early Buddhist literature depicts the animal rebirth as a most “unfortunate destiny” (Skt. durgati), won through negative karma and characterized by violence, fear, suffering, and a lack of wisdom, moral agency, or spiritual potential. It also shows that although animals are capable of being reborn in heaven, the means by which this occurs are passive in nature, highly dependent upon the physical presence of a buddha, and categorically inferior to the spiritual cultivation unique to human beings alone. In contrast, Part II looks at the thinking, speaking, and highly anthropomorphized animals that populate many previous-life stories of the Buddha (jātakas). Not only do these animals exhibit wisdom and moral agency, they also use their powers of speech to condemn humanity for its moral shortcomings and expose humanity’s rampant abuse and exploitation of the animal world. Part III examines the roles played by major animal characters within the life-story of the Buddha, arguing that certain animal characters can be seen as “doubles” of the Buddha, illuminating the Buddha’s character through comparison with an animal “other.” Throughout the book, the author shows that humanity’s relationship to the animal is forever characterized by a simultaneous kinship and otherness, identity and difference, attraction and repulsion—and that discourse surrounding animals is primarily aimed at illuminating the nature of the human.

Mountain Buddhism in East Asia

Buddhism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey E. DeWitt
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
English Language ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Comparative Manner

Mountains play a central role in Buddhist cosmology and practice. Scriptural accounts of Mount Sumeru (cosmological center of the Hindu-Buddhist universe) and Vulture Peak in India (favored abode for the Buddha and a panoply of deities and disciples) clearly attest to this, as does the physical and symbolic construction of Buddhist sacred sites in mountainous locales. The varieties of Buddhist activity that developed in East Asia reflect a new valorization of mountains not found in India, however. Diverse forms of Buddhist thought and practice took root at mountain sites throughout present-day China, Korea, and Japan, flourishing in complex and fascinating ways over time through transregional and transcultural exchange—and always in relation to (and sometimes competing with) local concerns and customs. International research on Buddhist mountain spaces, places, and practices has prospered in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with various monographs, anthologies, and essays presenting information about mountains in Buddhist discourse or Buddhist activity that takes place in mountains. Still, no single work to date investigates mountain Buddhism in East Asia in a comprehensive or comparative manner. This review introduces an eclectic mix of English-language sources, grouped thematically (although with significant overlap), that span all time periods and employ various disciplinary approaches. The slight geographical imbalance present in the list reflects the nascent state of research on Korean religions and the exceptionally well-developed body of work on mountain Buddhism in Japan, especially Shugendō, a combinatory and mountain-centric religious tradition deeply influenced by Buddhist doctrine and ritual.

Buddhism and Science as Ethical Discourse

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisca Cho
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Systems Science ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western Science ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Ethical Discourse ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Dependent Arising

The discourse about the similarity and compatibility between Buddhism and science has persisted from the late nineteenth century into the current day as a central feature of contemporary Buddhism. A consistent aspect of this meeting of traditional Buddhism and modern Western science is the desire to turn the moral narratives implied by scientific theories toward ethical and spiritual visions, in explicit opposition to mechanistic and matter-reductionistic worldviews. This chapter examines the most recent expressions of this impulse, which focus on the Buddhist doctrine of dependent arising (pratitya-samutpada) and displace reductionistic theories in evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and physics with new insights from systems science.

scholarly journals “One’s Own Body of Pure Channels and Elements”: The Teaching and Practice of Tibetan Yoga at Namdroling

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 404
Author(s):  
Naomi Worth
Keyword(s):  
South India ◽  
The Body ◽  
Yoga Practice ◽  
Tibetan Buddhist ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Relationship

The Tibetan yoga practice known as “winds, channels, and inner heat” (rtsa rlung gtum mo) is physically challenging, and yet is intentionally designed to transform the mind. This chapter explores the relationship between Buddhist doctrine and this physical practice aimed at enlightenment through the teachings of a contemporary yoga master at Namdroling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery and Nunnery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, South India. This ethnographic profile exemplifies the role of a modern Tibetan lama who teaches a postural yoga practice and interprets the text and techniques for practitioners. While many modern postural yoga systems are divorced from religious doctrine, Tibetan Buddhist yoga is not. This essay highlights three key areas of Buddhist doctrine support the practice of Sky Dharma (gNam chos) yoga at Namdroling: (1) The history and legacy that accompany the practice, which identify the deity of Tibetan yoga as a wrathful form of Avalokiteśvara, the Buddha of compassion; (2) The role of deity yoga in the practice of Tibetan yoga, where the practitioner arises as the deity during yoga practice, an all-consuming inner contemplation; and (3) The framing of Tibetan yoga within the wider philosophy of karma theory and its relationship to Buddhist cosmology. Practitioners of Tibetan yoga endeavor to burn up karmic seeds that fuel the cycle of rebirth in the six realms of saṃsāra. In Tibetan yoga, the body acts in service of the text, the philosophy, and the mind to increasingly link the logic of texts to experience in meaningful ways.

scholarly journals Potyczki Kryszny z Buddą. Kilka uwag o polemicznej wymowie Bhagawadgity wobec wczesnego buddyzmu

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-69
Author(s):  
Przemysław Szczurek
Keyword(s):  
Religious Thought ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
Early Buddhism ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Pāli Canon

Krishna’s skirmishes with the Buddha. Remarks on the polemical meaning of the Bhagavadgītā towards early Buddhism: The paper discusses the issue of the confrontation of the Bhagavadgītā with some aspects of the early Buddhist doctrine as presented in the Pāli canon. The confrontation points to the Bhagavadgītā as being a poem of the (broadly understood) orthodox current of Indian religious thought, which also contains some polemical elements, these mostly addressed to the most powerful heterodox religious current in the first centuries B.C. (which is most probable the date of the Bhagavadgītā’s composition). Several parts of the famous Sanskrit poem are compared and confronted with the respective parts of the Pāli canon in order to demonstrate, firstly, the different approaches of both currents, mostly in ethics and metaphysics, and secondly, the Bhagavadgītā’s reaction to particular elements of early Buddhism. The first six chapters of the Sanskrit poem have been subjected to analysis in this respect.

If You Meet the Buddha on the Road

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jerryson
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Military Chaplains ◽  
The Road ◽  
Conflict Zone ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
On The Road ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
The Relationship

It is said that the famous ninth-century Chinese Buddhist monk Linji Yixuan told his disciples, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” The statement deliberately confounds people and is meant to jolt them from complacent ways of thinking. However, beyond this purpose there is another. One should seek the inner Buddha nature that resides within, not an external Buddha for liberation. In this way, the thought of killing the Buddha dislodges a person from the illusionary perspective that enlightenment lies outside her/himself. The proclamation also highlights the power of violence, even on a symbolic level. Violence abounds in Buddhist thoughts, doctrine, and actions. However, it is not widely acknowledged or understood. This book addresses one important absence in the study of religion and violence: the religious treatment of violence. In order to pursue an understanding of the relationship between Buddhism and violence, it is important to first ask, how do Buddhist scriptures and Buddhists understand violence? Drawing on Buddhist treatments of violence, this book explores the ways in which Buddhists invoke, support, or justify war, conflict, state violence, and gender discrimination. In addition, the book examines the ways in which Buddhists address violence as military chaplains, cope with violence in a conflict zone, and serve as witnesses of blasphemy to Buddhist doctrine and Buddha images.

Alagadd?pama Sutta as a Scriptural Source for Understanding the Distinctive Philosophical Standpoint of Early Buddhism

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 111-123
Author(s):  
P. D. Premasiri
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
Early Buddhism ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Philosophical Standpoint ◽  
History Of ◽  
Special Mention ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Pāli Canon

The Alagadd?pama Sutta is the 22nd discourse of the Majjhima-nik?ya of the Pali canon. In the sutta itself it is mentioned that the Buddha’s delivery of this discourse was necessitated by the need to refute a wrong view held by one of his disciples named Ari??ha. Parallel versions of the sutta are found preserved in the Chinese ?gamas. The two main similes used in the sutta, those of the snake and of the raft, are referred to in the scriptures of a number of non-Therav?da Buddhist traditions as well, showing that the Buddhist doctrine represented in it is early and authentic and the message contained in the sutta was considered to be extremely significant by many early Buddhist traditions. The Alagadd?pama Sutta shows the Buddha’s role as one of the earliest thinkers in the history of philosophy who engaged in a critique of the craving for metaphysics and dogma frequently exhibited in those who propound worldviews. The Buddha did not value a belief or a worldview on grounds of the logical skill with which it was constructed but on grounds of the transformative effect it could have on the character of an individual and the sense of wellbeing it could promote. There are several discourses of the Pali canon which give prominence to this aspect of the Buddha’s teaching. Among them the Brahmaj?la Sutta of the D?gha-nik?ya and the A??hakavagga of the Suttanip?ta need special mention. The Buddha is seen to have consistently avoided engagement in speculative metaphysics, pointing out that the goal of his teaching goes beyond all such engagement. The Buddha himself distinguished his own worldview as a Teaching in the Middle (majjhena) avoiding the common tendency of humankind to be trapped by either of the two extremes, Eternalism or Annihilationism. These distinctive standpoints of the Buddha are all seen to be amply represented in the Alagadd?pama Sutta.

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.

Suffering, Buddhist views of origination of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Mejor
Keyword(s):  
General Formula ◽  
Dependent Origination ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Four Noble Truths ◽  
The Way

The Sanskrit term pratītyasamutpāda (Pāli, paṭiccasamuppāda) literally translates as ‘arising [of a thing] after encountering [its causes and conditions]’. This term, conventionally translated as ‘dependent origination’, ‘conditioned co-arising’ or ‘interdependent arising’, signifies the Buddhist doctrine of causality. This doctrine is usually applied to explain the origin of suffering (duḥkha) as well as the means of liberation from it. According to the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha discovered the law of dependent origination during his meditation on the night he attained his awakening. According to traditional accounts, he saw all his former lives and the lives of all other beings, understood the principle governing transmigration, and found the way of liberation. He then formulated the so-called Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Noble Path and the Law of Dependent Origination. The twelve elements of the chain of dependent origination were designed to explain the mechanism of entanglement of a sentient being in a wheel of consecutive lives, and, at the same time, to explain how this entanglement is possible without admitting the concept of a permanent principle, like ‘self’, ‘ego’, and the like. These twelve members are: (1) ignorance, (2) formations (volitional dispositions), (3) consciousness, (4) name and form, (5) six bases of cognition, (6) contact, (7) feeling, (8) desire, (9) attachment, (10) existence, (11) rebirth, (12) ageing and death. In addition to the twelvefold formula, there is also the so-called ‘general formula’ of dependent origination, which goes ‘when this is, that arises; when this is not, that does not arise.’

Violence against Buddha

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jerryson
Keyword(s):  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
End Times ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Personal Violence

This chapter addresses the cosmic violence to Buddhism, as well as the personal violence to Buddhists who experience slander and blasphemy. The Buddhist doctrine identifies the violation of Buddhist images as injuring the Buddha. Blasphemy can signal a decline in the Buddhist doctrine and the coming of a Buddhist End Times. Slandering the Buddhist doctrine is not only a signal of the End Times, it is also one of the gravest of sins. But beyond textual analyses, Buddhists explain that they are harmed by such actions. This investigation into blasphemy requires the inclusion of Buddhist experiences, protests, and movements. For Buddhists, like those of the Knowing Buddha Organization, there are correct ways to treat Buddha images. The failure to display a modicum of respect amounts to blasphemy.

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