Introduction to World Religions: Upgrading One's Cultural Literacy is an enlightening and engaging text that provides students with fundamental knowledge about world religions to deepen their awareness and understanding of global cultures. The book is divided into three units. Unit I explores the Vedic religionsaEURO"Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. East Asian belief systems and religions are discussed in Unit II. The final unit describes the Abrahamic religionsaEURO"Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each unit highlights a major belief, tradition, or practice that unites the featured religions, and each individual chapter includes a list of key terms, selected readings, and comprehension questions to reinforce essential learnings. Throughout, maps build students' knowledge of world geography, and photographs and illustrations bring key beliefs, traditions, and practices to life. Developed to help students expand not only their knowledge of global religions but their knowledge of the world itself and its myriad cultures, Introduction to World Religions is an ideal text for foundational courses in religion and theology.

Originally published in 1927. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Researches into Japanese Buddhism. This book is full of suggestive thought, with the essays on Japanese religious belief calling for particular praise for the earnest spirit in which the subject is approached. Contents Include A Living God. Out of the Street. Notes of a Trip to Kyoto. Dust. About Faces in Japanese Art. Ningyo-No-Haka. In Osaka. Buddhist Allusions in Japanese Folk Song. Nirvana. The Rebirth of Katsuguro. Within the Circle.

Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani is an essential work of Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophical literature. Written in an accessible question-and-answer style, it contains Nagarjuna's replies to criticisms of his philosophy of the "Middle Way." The Vigrahavyavartani has been widely cited both in canonical literature and in recent scholarship; it has remained a central text in India, Tibet, China, and Japan, and has attracted the interest of greater and greater numbers of Western readers.
In The Dispeller of Disputes, Jan Westerhoff offers a clear new translation of the Vigrahavyavartani, taking current philological research and all available editions into account, and adding his own insightful philosophical commentary on the text. Crucial manuscript material has been discovered since the earlier translations were written, and Westerhoff draws on this material to produce a study reflecting the most up-to-date research on this text. In his nuanced and incisive commentary, he explains Nagarjuna's arguments, grounds them in historical and textual scholarship, and explicitly connects them to contemporary philosophical concerns.

Among the many religion and beliefs, Buddhism is one of the most popular. Buddhism is a religion or spiritual belief most common in places such as China, Tibet, Thailand, Korea, Laos, Japan, and many other countries although it is said to have been inspired and a little similar with the Indian religion, Hinduism. Buddhism was taught to be founded and started by Siddhartha Gautama, most popularly known as Buddha because it was his teachings that are mostly believed and practiced in Buddhism. It was believed that Buddhism started when during a meditation under the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha or what is commonly known as the Enlightened One.

Bringing together leading authorities in the fields of Chinese and Tibetan Studies alike, Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism engages cutting-edge research on the fertile tradition of Esoteric Buddhism (also known as Tantric Buddhism). This state of the art volume unfolds the sweeping impact of esoteric Buddhism on Tibetan and Chinese cultures, and the movement's role in forging distinct political, ethnical, and religious identities across Asia at large. Deciphering the oftentimes bewildering richness of esoteric Buddhism, this broadly conceived work exposes the common ground it shares with other Buddhist schools, as well as its intersection with non-Buddhist faiths. As such, the book is a major contribution to the study of Asian religions and cultures. Contributors are: Yael Bentor, Ester Bianchi, Megan Bryson, Jacob P. Dalton, Hou Chong, Hou Haoran, Eran Laish, Li Ling, Lin Pei-ying, Lu Jianfu, Ma De, Dan Martin, Charles D. Orzech, Meir Shahar, Robert H. Sharf, Shen Weirong, Henrik H. Sorensen, and Yang Fuxue and Zhang Haijuan.

The term "revival" has been used to describe the resurgent vitality of Buddhism in Taiwan. Scholars have particularly been impressed by the quality and size of the nun's order: Taiwanese nuns today are highly educated and greatly outnumber monks. Both characteristics are unprecedented in the history of Chinese Buddhism and are evident in the Incense Light community (Xiangguang). Passing the Light is the first in-depth case study of the community. Founded in 1974, Incense Light remains a small but influential order of highly educated nuns who dedicate themselves to teaching Buddhism to lay adults. The work begins with a historical survey of Buddhist nuns in China, based primarily on the sixth-century biographical collection Lives of the Nuns. This is followed by discussions on the early history of the Incense Light community; the life of Wuyin, one of its most prominent leaders; and the crucial role played by Buddhist studies societies on college campuses, where many nuns were first introduced to Incense Light. Later chapters look at the curriculum and innovative teaching methods at the Incense Light seminary and the nuns' efforts to teach Buddhism to adults. The work ends with portraits of individual nuns, providing details on their backgrounds, motivations for becoming nuns, and the problems or setbacks they have encountered both within and without the Incense Light community. This engaging study enriches the literature on the history of Buddhist nuns, seminaries, and education, and will find an appreciative audience among scholars and students of Chinese religion, especially Buddhism, as well as those interested in questions of religion and modernity and women and religion.

In Moby-Dick's wide philosophical musings and central narrative arch, Daniel Herman finds a philosophy very closely aligned specifically with the original teachings of Zen Buddhism. In exploring the likelihood of this hitherto undiscovered influence, Herman looks at works Melville is either known to have read or that there is a strong likelihood of his having come across, as well as offering a more expansive consideration of Moby-Dick from a Zen Buddhist perspective, as it is expressed in both ancient and modern teachings. But not only does the book delve deeply into one of the few aspects of Moby-Dick's construction left unexplored by scholars, it also conceives of an entirely new way of reading the greatest of American books-offering critical re-considerations of many of its most crucial and contentious issues, while focusing on what Melville has to teach us about coping with adversity, respecting ideological diversity, and living skillfully in a fickle, slippery world.

Knowledge plays a very significant role in Buddhism, as it is the gateway to enlightenment and nirvana. This volume provides a clear and exhaustive exposition of Buddhist epistemology and logic, based on the works of classical thinkers such as Vasubandhu, Dinnaga, and Dharmakiriti. It traces the historical development of the Buddhist theory of knowledge and analyzes some basic issues like the nature of reality and knowledge, the criteria of truth, and nature of perception and inference, the only two sources of knowledge accepted in Buddhist philosophy. The appendix contains the Sanskrit original and an annotated translation of Nyaya Pravesa, a basic text of Buddhist epistemology, which discusses the nature of perception and inference and their fallacies. This work sheds light on abtruse epistemological topics and will enable readers to gain a clearer appreciation of the depths of Buddhist theory of knowledge.

Rennyo Shonin (1415-1499) is considered the "second founder" of Shin Buddhism. Under his leadership, the Honganji branch grew in size and power, becoming a national organization with great wealth and influence. Rennyo's success lay in conveying an attractive spiritual message while exerting effective administrative control. A savvy politician as well as religious leader, ennyo played a significant role in political, economic, and institutional developments. Though he is undeniably one of the most influential persons in the history of Japanese religion, his legacy remains enigmatic and largely overlooked by the West. This volume offers an assessment of Rennyo's contribution to Buddhist thought and the Honganji religious organization. A collection of 16 previously unpublished essays by both Japanese and non-Japanese scholars in the areas of historical studies, Shinshu studies, and comparative religion, it is the first book to confront many of the major questions surrounding the phenomenal growth of Honganji under Rennyo's leadership. The authors examine such topics as the source of Rennyo's charisma, the soteriological implications of his thought against the background of other movements in Pure Land Buddhism, and the relationship between his ideas and the growth of his church. This collection is an important first step in bringing this important figure to an audience outside Japan. It will be of significant interest to scholars in the fields of Japanese religion, Japanese social history, comparative religion, and the sociology of religion.

The Golden Lotus was a monthly magazine "dedicated to those who seek The Way" (Buddhism). It began in 1944. Volume 8 covers 1951, with articles and reviews on such diverse topics as book reviews (H.P. Blavatsky), Sanskrit, The Dharma, The Kingdom of Water, The Mystery of Being, poetry, questions and answers, and much more.

In recent years, there has been a growing academic acknowledgment around the world of a contemporary Buddhist phenomenon described as Engaged, or Socially Engaged Buddhism (SEB). It is a contested phenomenon variously associated with finding Buddhist solutions for social, political and ecological problems. The debate about its origins, practice and legitimacy has stirred academics and practitioners alike. Firstly, does such an approach to Buddhist practice constitute a departure with the past, in which case a new expression of an ancient practice is being experienced all around us? Or is this really a continuity of practice, adapted to inform current understanding given that some would describe Buddhism as always having been engaged? Adaptation and Developments in Western Buddhism examines the UK Socially Engaged Buddhist experience captured through a series of five case studies of Buddhist groups and a survey undertaken over two years in the field. The volume is a ground-breaking and benchmark analysis of Socially Engaged Buddhism in the UK, drawing for the first time on evidence from practitioner's experiences with which to characterise the previously dichotomous academic debate. Ultimately, the volume locates Socially Engaged Buddhism in the UK and places it within the broader and global context of an emerging "Western Buddhism", characterising the phenomenon and its relationships to the wider Buddhist world.