Death Imagery in the Buddhist Tradition

2018 ◽  
pp. 109-138
Author(s):  
Sundar Ramaswami ◽  
Anees A. Sheikh
Keyword(s):  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Death Imagery

Thresholds of Time and Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-28
Author(s):  
Susan Milbrath
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Human Sacrifice ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Animal Sacrifice ◽  
Cardinal Directions ◽  
Death Imagery

Analysis of the iconography in a directional almanac on Codex Borgia pages 49–52 invites comparison with almanacs in a related set of divinatory manuscripts known as the Borgia Group, but one aspect of the Codex Borgia almanac remains unique. It records real-time dates employing the central Mexican system of year dates that help identify the images as year-end rituals. These fifteenth-century dates correlate with the last twenty-day “month” in the year, known as Izcalli in the Valley of Mexico and neighboring Tlaxcala. Izcalli rituals in February involved drilling a new fire, the erection of sacred trees, and animal sacrifice, all of which appear on Borgia 49–52. During Izcalli, human sacrifice was performed only every fourth year, a pattern like that seen in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Cospi, where death imagery and decapitated humans appear prominently on the fourth year-bearer page, associated with the southern direction. Borgia Group codices also depict trees and birds representing the four cardinal directions. These are most prominent on Codex Fejérváry-Mayer page 1 in a cosmogram representing two different calendar formats, like those seen in the Borgia almanac. The 5 × 52-day format was used to measure the solar year and Venus cycle, and a second set of day signs appears in a 4 × 65-day pattern useful in calculating the fifty-two-year cycle and the Venus cycle. This provides a subtext for understanding the dates represented on Borgia 49–52 and the extension of the almanac on page 53, where the Venus almanac begins.

Contemplative Principles of a Non-dual Praxis: the Unmediated Practices of the Tibetan ‘Heart Essence’ (sNying thig) Tradition

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-240
Author(s):  
Eran Laish
Keyword(s):  
Contemplative Practice ◽  
Tibetan Buddhist ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
The Common

This article focuses on the main contemplative principles of the ‘Heart Essence’ (sNying thig), a Tibetan Buddhist tradition that is characterized by a vision of non-duality and primordial wholeness. Due to this vision, which asserts an original reality that is not divided into perceiving subject and perceived object, the ‘Heart Essence’ advocates a contemplative practice that undermines the usual intuitions of temporality and enclosed selfhood. Hence, unlike the common principles of intentional praxis, such as deliberate concentration and gradual purification, the ‘Heart Essence’ affirms four contemplative principles of non-objectiveness, openness, spontaneity and singleness. As these principles transcend intentionality, temporality, and multiplicity, they are seen to directly disclose the nature of primordial awareness, in which the meanings of knowing and being are radically transformed. Therefore, the article will also consider the role of these non-dual contemplative principles in deeply changing our understanding of being and knowing alike.

Lineages

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Gamble
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Close Relationship

Chapter 2 examines lineages in Tibetan society and the Buddhist tradition and explains how they influenced the development of Tibet’s reincarnation lineages. It begins by explaining the role of family lineages in thirteenth-century Tibet, describing how lineages helped form identities, created links between people, and served as a mechanism for inheritance. It then examines the three main forms of Buddhist lineages—monastic, Mahāyāna, and Tantric—and shows how these lineages were often intermingled with Tibetan family lineages and inheritance practices. The chapter ends by outlining how lineages associated with manifestation, particularly lineages associated with Avalokiteśvara, underpinned claims by Tibetans to be the manifestation of this bodhisattva and other celestial beings. This chapter also explains how the Karmapas’ reincarnation lineage, traditions, and institutions were presented not as a break from other lineages but as an extension of them, and it highlights the close relationship between lineages and specific places.

Secular State and the ‘Religious Left’: Navayana Buddhism and Dr Ambedkar’s Vision for the Future of Democracy in South Asia

2021 ◽  
pp. 239448112199595
Author(s):  
Kalinga Tudor Silva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
European Origin ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Democratic Change ◽  
Religious Left ◽  
Secular State

In the light of ongoing debates about secular state and religious right in India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, this article examines the intellectual contribution of Dr B. R. Ambedkar towards sustaining democracy in South Asia. His critical contributions included non-violent mobilisation of Dalits and adivasis around their human rights, identity, citizenship and religious faith. Most importantly, he argued that democratic values of equality, liberty and fraternity are not only of European origin but also have roots in South Asia, particularly within the Buddhist tradition. The article reflects on Ambedkar’s politics, social philosophy and contribution to the formation of ‘religious left’ and the process of progressive democratic change via Navayana Buddhism.

scholarly journals Dōgen and the Feminine Presence: Taking a Fresh Look into His Sermons and Other Writings

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiko Yusa
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Filial Piety ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Feminine

Dōgen’s gender-egalitarian stance on women to attain awakening in their zazen practice is well known. At the same time, a nagging suspicion lingers on among some scholars that he grew increasingly misogynistic in his old age. In this present study, which focuses on Dōgen’s sermons compiled in the Record of Eihei (Eihei kōroku), the Shōbōgenzō, and other writings related to women, we find that even after Dōgen moved to Eiheiji, his stance on women remained consistent. Not only did he readily respond to his female disciples’ requests to give special sermons in memory of their parents, but also positively saw women’s presence in the development of the Buddhist tradition. Through this study it also becomes clear that Dōgen came to embrace a more flexible view on filial piety in his later years, as he deepened his reflection on this matter—the sense of gratitude one feels for one’s parents is concomitant with nurturing one’s compassion. The aspect of compassion that sustained Dōgen’s life of teaching begins to loom large. It was his Chinese master Nyojō (Rujing) who emphasized compassion as the pillar of the zazen practice. Two sermons Dōgen delivered on the anniversary of his father’s death, moreover, have given the scholars new information concerning his parentage. The focus on the aspect of "feminine presence” in Dōgen inadvertently (or naturally?) leads to the heart of Dōgen’s own identity.

How Things Are

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Siderits
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Causal Relation ◽  
Abstract Objects ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Common Strategy ◽  
Classical Indian Philosophy ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
The Common

This work is designed to introduce some of the more important fruits of Indian Buddhist metaphysical theorizing to philosophers with little or no prior knowledge of classical Indian philosophy. It is widely known among non-specialists that Buddhists deny the existence of a self. Less widely appreciated among philosophers currently working in metaphysics is the fact that the Indian Buddhist tradition contains a wealth of material on a broad assortment of other issues that have also been foci of recent debate. Indian Buddhist philosophers have argued for a variety of interesting claims about the nature of the causal relation, about persistence, about abstract objects, about the consequences of presentism, about the prospects for a viable ontological emergentism. They engaged in a spirited debate over illusionism in the philosophy of consciousness. Some espoused global anti-realism while others called its coherence into question. And so on. This work is meant to introduce the views of such major Buddhist philosophers as Vasubandhu, Dharmakīrti, and Nāgārjuna on these and other issues. And it presents their arguments and analyses in a manner meant to make them accessible to students of philosophy who lack specialist knowledge of the Indian tradition. Analytic metaphysicians who are interested in moving beyond the common strategy of appealing to the intuitions of “the folk” should find much of interest here.

Conclusions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Cole
Keyword(s):  
Religious Literature ◽  
State Support ◽  
Personal Gain ◽  
Buddhist Tradition

This concluding chapter argues that the most reasonable way to account for the composition of Chan texts is to assume that Chan authors were quite aware of the art of writing “religious literature,” and were equally aware of how their efforts fit into a long tradition of reshaping tradition. Thus, though Chan authors no doubt wrote their texts for a variety of reasons, it remains altogether likely that their view of the Buddhist tradition and its ever-expanding body of literature was a particularly clear-eyed one, and that, based on that clarity, they felt entitled to continue the work of rewriting tradition in new and provocative terms. In presenting this evidence, this book casts doubt on the regrettably durable assumption that ancient and medieval religious authors were simple people who straightforwardly wrote down what they thought about life and salvation, with little or no consideration for politics, personal gain, institutional longevity, state support, their place in history, and so on.

The Platform Sūtra and Other Conspiracy Theories

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Cole
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
The Buddha

This chapter focuses on the Platform Sūtra. Composed sometime in the late eighth century, Platform Sūtra picks up and works over a number of claims regarding the Bodhidharma clan that had been put forth in earlier Chan works. The text opens with an unusually creative “autobiography” of Huineng, one that circles around an involved conspiracy supposedly orchestrated by master Hongren. As the details of the conspiracy come into focus, the reader learns that Hongren's chosen heir was not Shenxiu, but rather Huineng. With that startling “history” newly revealed roughly one hundred years after the events supposedly took place, the narrative turns to show Huineng giving a formal dharma teaching that, in places, appears to negate many of the building blocks of the Buddhist tradition, while also emphasizing the innate presence of perfect tradition within each person in the form of the buddha-nature.

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