This book explores dilemmas that Buddhism faces in relation to the continuing ethnic conflict and violence in contemporary Sri Lanka. Using an interdisciplinary approach, prominent scholars in the fields of anthropology, history, Buddhist studies and Pali examine multiple dimensions of the problem. Buddhist responses to the crisis are discussed in detail, along with how Buddhism can help to create peace in Sri Lanka. Evaluating the role of Buddhists and their institutions in bringing about an end to war and violence as well as possibly heightening the problem, this collection puts forward a critical analysis of the religious conditions contributing to continuing hostilities.

First published in 1952. The Real Tripitaka gives an account of the seventh century pilgrim's adventures, spiritual and material, both in India and after his return to China. In addition the book contains an account of a Japanese pilgrim's visit to China in the ninth century, which describes the Wu-t'ai Shan, China's great place of Pilgrimage, and an eye-witness's account of the great persecution of Buddhism in 842-845 A.D.

The new book in the popular 'How to' series from the father of mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh. 'The monk who taught the world mindfulness' Time In this enlightening series world-renowned spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh shares the essential foundations of mindful practice and meditation.

This sourcebook explores the most extensive tradition of Buddhist dharani literature and provides access to the earliest available materials for the first time: a unique palm-leaf bundle from the 12th-13th centuries and a paper manuscript of 1719 CE. The Dharanisamgraha collections have been present in South Asia, and especially in Nepal, for more than eight hundred years and served to supply protection, merit and auspiciousness for those who commissioned their compilation. For modern scholarship, these diverse compendiums are valuable sources of incantations and related texts, many of which survive in Sanskrit only in such manuscripts.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This is Volume VIII of sixteen in a collection on Buddhism. Originally published in 1923, this volume looks at cosmology. All forms of Buddhism, however divergent, claim to have but three objects of worship: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.. The first is the founder of the faith, the second the teaching which he gave, and the third the order which he founded. Regarding each of the Ratnas or jewels, as they are called, an enormous amount of speculation has grown up, with many different opinions concerning the proper method of interpretation.

Does the real world, defined as a world of objects that exist independent of human interests, concerns, and cognitive activities, really exist? Jan Westerhoff argues that we have good reason to believe it does not. His discussion considers four main facets of the idea of the real world, ranging from the existence of a separate external and internal world (comprising various mental states congregated around a self), to the existence of an ontological foundation that grounds the existence of all the entities in the world, and the existence of an ultimately true theory that provides a final account of all there is. As Westerhoff discusses the reasons for rejecting the postulation of an external world behind our representations, he asserts that the internal world is not as epistemically transparent as is usually assumed, and that there are good reasons for adopting an anti-foundational account of ontological dependence. Drawing on conclusions from the ancient Indian philosophical system of Madhyamaka Buddhism, Westerhoff defends his stance in a purely Western philosophical framework, and affirms that ontology, and philosophy more generally, need not be conceived as providing an ultimately true theory of the world.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Although Buddhism is often depicted as a religion of meditators and philosophers, some of the earliest writings extant in India offer a very different portrait of the Buddhist practitioner. In Indian Buddhist narratives from the early centuries of the Common Era, most lay religious practice consists not of reading, praying, or meditating, but of visually engaging with certain kinds of objects. These visual practices, moreover, are represented as the primary means of cultivating faith, a necessary precondition for proceeding along the Buddhist spiritual path. In Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism, Andy Rotman examines these visual practices and how they function as a kind of skeleton key for opening up Buddhist conceptualizations about the world and the ways it should be navigated.
Rotman's analysis is based primarily on stories from the Divyavadana (Divine Stories), one of the most important collections of ancient Buddhist narratives from India. Though discourses of the Buddha are well known for their opening words, "thus have I heard" - for Buddhist teachings were first preserved and transmitted orally - the Divyavadana presents a very different model for disseminating the Buddhist dharma. Devotees are enjoined to look, not just hear, and visual legacies and lineages are shown to trump their oral counterparts. As Rotman makes clear, this configuration of the visual fundamentally transforms the world of the Buddhist practitioner, changing what one sees, what one believes, and what one does.

Combines the voices of scholars and practitioners in analysing Buddhist women's history. 26 articles document the lives of women who have set in motion changes within Buddhist societies, with analyses of issues such as gender, ethnicity, authority, and class that affect the lives of women in traditional Buddhist cultures and, increasingly, the west.

eBook available with sample pages: PB:0700712534

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2000. This is Volume VI of six of the Oriental series looking at Arabic History and Culture. It was written in 1922, and presents discussions around the religion of Buddhism in China along with Tausim, Confucianism and Buddhist art. It highlights the Chinese Buddhists who contented for the immortality of the soul in the Northern Doctrines, against the followers of Confucius, that gave Chinese Buddhism a base and energy for the founding of new schools.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Demonstrates how the four noble truths are used thorughout the Pali canon as a symbol of Buddha's enlightenment and as a doctrine within a larger network of Buddha's teachings. Their unique nature rests in their function as a proposition and as a symbol in the Theravada canon.

From His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Mutt's cartoonist and award-winning author Patrick McDonnell comes a powerful and timely gem of a book on how to heal our relationship with the planet and each other. At the Dalai Lama's residence in Dharamsala, India, an unusual visitor has arrived. His Holiness interrupts his morning meditation to greet a troubled Giant Panda who has travelled many miles to see him. Welcoming him as a friend, His Holiness invites the Panda on a walk through a cedar forest. There in the shadow of the Himalayas, surrounded by beauty, they discuss matters great and small . . . With a galvanizing message about the future of our planet-text by His Holiness accompanied by McDonnell's masterful illustrations-Heart to Heart calls for a Compassionate Revolution, reminding us that "we are indeed all members of a single family, sharing one little house." Told with whimsy, wisdom, and warmth, this beautiful book is deceptively simple in its approach and all the more powerful for it, as it elegantly and decisively conveys a message of joy, hope and change. "There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday, and one is called Tomorrow."

Part of a series that offers mainly linguistic and anthropological research and teaching/learning material on a region of great cultural and strategic interest and importance in the post-Soviet era.

Large numbers of Buddhist believers regarded Buddhist statues in surprising ways in late- tenth and early eleventh century Japan. Examination of such questions of functionality contributes to a broader view of Buddhist practice at a time when Buddhism was rapidly spreading among many levels of Japanese society. This book focuses particularly on the function of the following types of images: "secret Buddhas" ("hibutsu"), which are rarely if ever displayed; Buddhas who exchange bodies with sufferers ("migawari" "butsu"); and masks of bodhisattvas used in a ritual called "mukaeko," Primary sources for these topics include collections of popular tales ("setsuwa"), poetry, ritual texts, and temple histories ("engi").

This book examines the early teachings of Buddhism associated with the life of the Buddha, Siddhatta Gotama. In these teachings, the Buddha put forward his famous Four Noble Truths concerning the nature of suffering, its causes, the Truth that it can be overcome, and a pathway to end suffering. The suffering experienced in the contemporary coronavirus pandemic may seem to be very distant from the Buddhas message delivered over two thousand years ago, but the teaching of the Four Noble Truths is as relevant today as it was all that time ago. So this book melds the two, occasionally with discrete treatment of past and present but ever cognizant of the ways in which the teachings of the past inform the present crisis. To understand coronaviruses, the book examines the nature of viruses, their origins, causes and the ways in which they are both friends and enemies of humankind. Importantly and crucially, the book investigates how far humanity itself is the cause of its own suffering in the pandemics that arise no less in the coronaviruses that have emerged in the twenty-first century. Chapters include: The Buddha; Viruses: Friends and Enemies; The Noble Truth of Suffering; The Second Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering; The Third Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering; The Fourth Noble Truth: The Noble Eightfold Path; The Noble Eightfold Path: Mindfulness and Concentration; The Brahma-vihara: Love: Compassion: Sympathetic Joy: Equanimity.