BuddhistRoadPaper 5.6 "Light on ‘Art in the Dark’: On Buddhist Practice and Worship in the Mogao Caves"

This piece has partly been written in response to a series of claims put forward by Robert Sharf almost a decade ago in his article Art in the Dark in which he argues that the Buddhist caves in Dunhuang (and elsewhere in China and Central Asia) were not for worship, but were created as a sort of ancestral memorials, or decorated mausoleums meant to be left in the dark. Given that the implications of such reading of Buddhist cave-art in the Sinitic cultural-sphere would surely have a profound impact on our overall understanding of Buddhist ritual practices and cave-art, should Sharf’s readings turn out to be correct, the evidence and speculations he uses as underpinnings for his line of argument in particular merit closer scrutiny. Moreover, as he touches upon a range of other related issues, all of which concern Buddhist ritual practices one way or another, it seems worthwhile to devote a lengthier essay to a more detailed discussion.

The No-Self of Zen/Gen

The Buddhist practice of mindfulness has enjoyed a tremendous surge in popularity in the last few decades, both in the popular press and in the psychotherapy literature. However, the philosophy and practice of mindfulness has often been erroneously equated with quietism or a withdrawal from the world of action, misconceived as a practice of sterile, self-absorbed contemplation. On the contrary, the core Buddhist conception of existential freedom lies in the belief of doing over thinking, and intersubjectivity over introspection. Moreover, the cultural differences in how one conceives oneself, particularly in relation to others around, prove to be a critical factor in determining the efficacy of various clinical techniques including mindfulness practice. The chapter explores the interpersonal dimensions of mindfulness philosophy and practice, and the implications of such paradigms to question whether the current methods of intervention and training based on internality are sufficient for the clinical application.

Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology

This chapter explains Buddhist ethics as moral phenomenology, that is, as a theory of the transformation of our moral experience of ourselves, others, and the world. It compares Buddhist “input ethics” to Western “output ethics” and explains how Buddhist practice aims at developing a less pathological, less egocentric view of our place in the world by cultivating a sense of interdependence. The discussion is grounded in Śāntideva’s Bodhicāryāvatāra, and explores his insights on anger, aversion, vice, and generosity. Śāntideva argues for the importance of developing our moral self-awareness, and changing the way we view suffering, both of ourselves and others.

The Buddhist Interpretation of the Confucianist Concept of Family

Filial piety is one of the cardinal moral values in Confucianism, and has become a keystone in the Chinese social value system, describing and prescribing the proper functioning of human communities at micro (family) and macro (state) levels. The introduction of Buddhism, which advocates that only those who live in celibacy pursuing the career of a monk can easily have access to the highest truth, challenged the uniformly accepted moral obligations of Confucianism, and initiated a dialogue, sometimes a debate, with the Chinese literati on the differences and similarities of Buddhist and Confucianist ethics. This article offers an insight on how Chinese adepts of Buddhism made efforts to prove not only that filial piety is a requirement for all practitioners of Buddhism as a kind of concession in a social environment where filial piety is a representation of virtuous human existence, but also, by forging Indian scriptures on filial piety and visualisation and commenting on Indian scriptures, that this lies at the centre of Buddhist practice.

Practicing Meditation

This chapter describes the Buddhist practice of meditation as it appears in the early Mahayana context of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. It stresses mindfulness as a state of mind cultivated in the midst of ordinary life activity. Rather than demanding the abandonment of the passions and emotional sensitivity, it encourages bodhisattvas to cultivate emotion as one essential element of life. That sensitivity is prevented from being an extreme source of suffering by calming and concentration meditation practices. Vimalakirti is described as practicing and teaching insight meditation throughout the sutra as a means of self-transformation and as a method to deal with the inevitable suffering in human life.

The Path and the Buddha

This chapter examines fundamental Buddhist themes addressed at the beginning of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. After discussing the setting and the primary characters in the story, it describes the metaphor of Buddhism as a path through life that can be pursued through the various disciplines of Buddhist practice and describes the importance attributed to a motivating concept of the goal of Buddhist practice, bodhicitta, the “thought of enlightenment.” The chapter addresses the question of who the Buddha is understood to be and how Buddhists in the sutra understand the miracles performed by the Buddha as “skillful means” of providing motivation for meditative practice.

Introduction

This chapter provides a general introduction to the work’s investigation of Indian Buddhist metaphysics. It places Buddhist philosophical theory construction within the larger Buddhist soteriological project, explaining why metaphysical theorizing might have so important a place in Buddhist practice. It provides summary accounts of the metaphysics of two important non-Buddhist systems, Sāṃkhya and Nyāya, that served as important sources of objections to the key Buddhist thesis of non-self. It also contains brief sketches of the major Buddhist schools in India and some of the major figures in its history, from Gautama (the Buddha) through Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, and Dharmakīrti, to Ratnakīrti. There is also some discussion of the motivation for examining philosophical traditions other than one’s own.

Criticism of Theism in the Sravakabhumi of the Yogacarabhumi

According to some Indian theists, Isvara or Brahman is the absolute and the creator of the world, an idea that was criticized by Buddhists from the earliest times. This paper considers how Buddhists, particularly the Yogacara school, refute the existence of God as a creator in connection with practice. It seems that all Buddhist sects prove that no universal creator exists, using logical arguments against non-Buddhists. Previous studies have elucidated the proof of the non-existence of Isvara in the Savitarkasavicaradibhumi section of the Yogacarabhumi, the main Yogacara text. However, little attention has been paid to another section, the Sravakabhumi, in which a yoga practitioner uses logical reasoning (anumana) to deal with the denial of Isvara in the course of his or her practice of impermanence (anitya). The Sravakabhumi, probably completed at the earliest stage of compilation of the Yogacarabhumi, describes the practice that could lead to liberation according to the teaching of the Sravakayana. I demonstrate that the Sravakabhumi treats the denial of Isvara as a part of practice, not just as an intellectual exercise aimed at refuting non-Buddhists, and shows the place of discussion of this topic in Buddhist practice.

Giving Up Our Cultural Addiction

This article will begin with an overview of the sources of our cultural addiction to patriarchal culture and its values in Western cultures. Of particular importance to this was the development of the daughter languages of Sanskrit with their dualistic structure. A further major source lies in the Biblical Genesis creation text and subsequent Western philosophy and theology. These things together supported the delusional consciousness which led to individual suffering and the exploitation of others and the earth. The article will then look briefly at some of this addiction’s manifestations and their effects and then explain how Buddhist practice can help with the withdrawal process and foster a ‘new’ way of life although it must be acknowledged that there are real questions as to whether Buddhist practice will be used extensively enough to do so in time to save us from ourselves.

Buddhism in Australia

Buddhism comprised 2.4 percent of the Australian population at the most recent census in 2016. While reflection on Buddhism’s growth in Australia is recorded as early as 1961, the first major body of work in the field was documentation of the early history in Buddhism in Australia, 1848–1988 (Croucher 1989 [cited under History]). The study of Buddhism in Australia has grown since the 1990s, with a small number of books and academic theses now available. An edited volume, Buddhism in Australia: Traditions in Change (Rocha and Barker 2011) [cited under Overviews]) provides a significant addition in showcasing a broad range of work from researchers and leading teachers. “Bibliography: Buddhism in Australia” (Fitzpatrick, et al. 2012 [cited under History]) provides a bibliography of all the works in the field that records more than ninety academic publications and forty other resources. A total of forty of these were completed between 2003 and 2012, and it would be reasonable to assume that approximately forty more have been added from 2012 to 2021, suggesting that there are now more than 175 studies relevant to this field. This review of key works in the field focuses on five areas: Overviews, History, Major Schools, Buddhist Identity, and Expressions of Buddhism. The history section ranges from historical overviews to community profiles, culminating in the exploration in “The Buddhist Council of Victoria and the Challenges of Recognizing Buddhism as a Religion in Australia” (Cousens 2011 [cited under History]) on the efforts to encourage government recognition of Buddhism as a designated religion in Australia. As for many countries in Europe and North America, a wide range of Buddhist schools took root through various means, and examination of these has increased to enable the section on major schools to encompass at least one work on most major traditions, often by researchers who are also practitioners. Consideration of the diversity of Buddhist traditions represented in Australia leads into the section Buddhist Identity, which includes studies on both immigrant identity and conversion in relation to Buddhist practice. The final section contains references dealing with how aspects of Buddhist teachings have been expressed in practice, including feminism, engaged Buddhism, and incorporation into Australian education systems. “Women and Ultramodern Buddhism in Australia” (Halafoff, et al. 2018 [cited under Expressions of Buddhism]) provides a valuable update and new perspective on the role of women in Australian Buddhist history, and The Buddha Is in the Street: Engaged Buddhism in Australia (Sherwood 2003 [cited under Expressions of Buddhism]) illustrates expressions of engaged Buddhism in the Australian context.