However varied in its attitudes and ideas, Chinese philosophy has typically centred on the concrete problems of human life, from the personal to the political, and is first and foremost a path to be followed. "The Way of the World" is a wonderfully readable collection of writings that demonstrate the range of Taoist approaches to the practical dynamics involved in the relationship between the individual and society. The writings - some in prose and some in verse - focus on self-cultivation, how to approach the problems of life, and how to acquire the skills necessary for leadership. The material in this collection comes from a variety of sources and spans several time periods including some of the earliest texts. Highlights include selections from Guanzi (dated from 725-645 b.c.e.) on the mastery of the self as a prerequisite to leadership, a commentary on the maxims of Lao Tzu, and famous Taoist anecdotes.

Evidence from Shang oracle bones to memorials submitted to Western Han emperors attests to a long-lasting debate in early China over the proper relationship between humans and gods. One pole of the debate saw the human and divine realms as separate and agonistic and encouraged divination to determine the will of the gods and sacrifices to appease and influence them. The opposite pole saw the two realms as related and claimed that humans could achieve divinity and thus control the cosmos. This wide-ranging book reconstructs this debate and places within their contemporary contexts the rival claims concerning the nature of the cosmos and the spirits, the proper demarcation between the human and the divine realms, and the types of power that humans and spirits can exercise. It is often claimed that the worldview of early China was unproblematically monistic and that hence China had avoided the tensions between gods and humans found in the West. By treating the issues of cosmology, sacrifice, and self-divinization in a historical and comparative framework that attends to the contemporary significance of specific arguments, Michael J. Puett shows that the basic cosmological assumptions of ancient China were the subject of far more debate than is generally thought.

Responding to our modern disillusionment with any claims to absolute truth regarding morality or reality, this book offers a conceptual approach for discussing absolutes without denying either the relevance of divergent religious and philosophical teachings or the evidence supporting postmodern and poststructuralist critiques. Case studies of mysticism within Advaita-Vedānta Hinduism, Mādhyamika Buddhism, and Nicene Christianity demonstrate the value of this approach and offer many fresh insights into the metaphysical presuppositions of these religions as well as into the nature and value of mystical experience. Like Douglas Hofstadter's Gōdel, Escher, Bach, this book finds ultimate reality to be rationally graspable only as an eternal fugue of pattern and paradox. Yet it does not so much counter other philosophical views as provide a conceptual tool for understanding and classifying incommensurable views.

This is a collection of sources in Chinese religion, and is the only currently available text of its kind. Selections are arranged chronologically by dynasty rather than thematically, and there

are substantial introductions to each section. It includes major texts from antiquity to the modern era.

The Hwa Yen school of Mahāyāna Buddhism bloomed in China in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. Today many scholars regard its doctrines of Emptiness, Totality, and Mind-Only as the crown of Buddhist thought and as a useful and unique philosophical system and explanation of man, world, and life as intuitively experienced in Zen practice.

For the first time in any Western language Garma Chang explains and exemplifies these doctrines with references to both oriental masters and Western philosophers. The Buddha's mystical experience of infinity and totality provides the framework for this objective revelation of the three pervasive and interlocking concepts upon which any study of Mahāyāna philosophy must depend.

Following an introductory section describing the essential differences between Judeo-Christian and Buddhist philosophy, Professor Chang provides an extensive, expertly developed section on the philosophical foundations of Hwa Yen Buddhism dealing with the core concept of True Voidness, the philosophy of Totality, and the doctrine of Mind-Only. A concluding section includes selections of Hwa Yen readings and biographies of the patriarchs, as well as a glossary and list of Chinese terms.

Tracing Japan's religions from the Hein Period through the middle ages and into modernity, this book explores the unique establishment of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Japan, as well as the later influence of Roman Catholicism, and the problem of Restoration--both spiritual and material--following World War II.

Das Baha'itum ist von der Wissenschaft bisher weitgehend unbeachtet geblieben. Analysen zu Inhalt und Theologie dieser jungen Religion, die ihren Ursprung im Iran des 19. Jahrhunderts hat, finden sich derzeit kaum. Diese Arbeit ist ein Beitrag, die bestehende Lucke zu schliessen. Sie ermittelt den theologischen Begrundungszusammenhang der Verbindlichkeit der ethischen Prinzipien, die fur einen Baha'i handlungsbestimmend wirken. Nach einer Bestimmung des Zwecks der Ethik in Philosophie und Religion folgt eine ausfuhrliche Darstellung der Baha'i-Theologie (Gottesbild, Manifestationen Gottes, Bundestheologie und Menschenbild), auf deren Basis vier wesentliche Grunde zur Verbindlichkeit der Baha'i-Ethik ermittelt werden. Dabei werden unter anderem Fragen der Eschatologie und des Heilsegoismus vertieft.

In July 1999, a mere seven years after the founding of the religious movement known as Falun Gong, the Chinese government banned it. Falun Gong is still active in other countries, and its suppression has become a primary concern of human rights activists and is regularly discussed in dealings between the Chinese government and its Western counterparts. But while much has been written on Falun Gong's relation to political issues, no one has analyzed in depth what its practitioners actually believe and do. "The Religion of Falun Gong" remedies that omission, providing the first serious examination of Falun Gong teachings. Benjamin Penny argues that in order to understand Falun Gong, one must grasp the beliefs, practices, and texts of the movement and its founder, Li Hongzhi. Contextualizing Li's ideas in terms of the centuries-long Chinese tradition of self-cultivation and the cultural world of 1980s and '90s China - particularly the upwelling of biospiritual activity and the influx of translated works from the Western New Age movement - Penny shows how both have influenced Li's writings and his broader view of the cosmos. An illuminating look at this controversial movement, "The Religion of Falun Gong" opens a revealing window into the nature and future of contemporary China.

This set, as a collection of representative studies on Japanese Religions, illustrates the diversity and complexity of the Japanese religious experience, past and contemporary, while at the same time offering an overview of the most updated research in the field. The themes selected promote avenues of analysis that place the religious phenomenon in its socio-historical and cultural context. The selection demonstrates the range of religious practices and the contexts in which these practices are performed, with the aim of counterbalancing the traditional foci on either theological (doctrinal) studies or ethnographic studies only. This collection affords a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the nature and practice of Japanese religiosity. The framework in which the material is presented also offers an alternative to the usual chronological organization of works on Japanese religions, and to traditional arrangements of works on East Asian religions in general according to the categories of Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto and Christianity. Although these traditional approaches are covered in the first volume, the set as a whole stresses the practice of religion, which stretches across traditions and denominations, and the pre-modern/modern divide.

"Chinese Religion" is a new introduction to the field of Chinese religion and culture. It seeks to guide readers through some of the primary source material and to introduce them to continuing, contemporary debates and interpretations of religious ideas, concepts and practices in China and beyond. Religious beliefs are never pursued and held in a vacuum; they are an integral part of a particular culture, interwoven and interactive with other elements of the culture and tradition. Chinese religion in this sense can be said to be part of Chinese culture and history. In this clear account, Xinzhong Yao and Yanxia Zhao move away from the traditional and outmoded definition of Chinese religion, the three institutional doctrines: Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, towards a multi-layered hermeneutic of the syncretic nature and functions of religions in China. Additional features include questions for reflection and discussion and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter.

This book argues that Dylan actually embraces two radically distinct world views at alternating periods. Throughout his various stages, Dylan's work reveals an affinity with the Zen world view, where enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. Forgoing Christianity and Western Views for Zen and Buddhism, "Bargainin' for Salvation" will capture your attention and direct it toward the East. One of the mysteries of Bob Dylan's incredible corpus is why he seems to veer and zigzag so drastically and dramatically from one extreme standpoint to another. Throughout his career, rapid, radical transitions in musical style and public persona have either inspired or shocked different sectors of his fans. Is Dylan's work complex and contradictory, or is there an underlying consistency and continuity? Steven Heine, Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University, argues that Dylan actually embraces two radically distinct world views at alternating periods. One is prevalent in his Protest (early '60s), Country (late '60s), and Gospel (late '70s) phases; it finds Dylan expressing moral outrage in endorsing a single higher truth based on a right-versus-wrong philosophy. The second view appears during periods of Dylan's disillusionment in the mid '60s ("Desolation Row"), mid '70s ("Tangled Up in Blue"), and mid '80s ("Jokerman"), finding him disenchanted with one-sided proclamations of truth and wandering, seemingly aimless amid a relativistic world of masks and disguises where nothing is ever what it claims to be. Throughout his various stages, Dylan's work reveals an affinity with the Zen world view, where enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. Whatever his current beliefs are, though, one can go into reading this book knowing that there are no others like it. Forgoing Christianity and Western views for Zen and Buddhism, "Bargainin' for Salvation" will capture your attention and direct it toward the East.

The first detailed account of the Ainu, the little-known aboriginal people of Japan, Neil Gordon Munro's classic work was based on decades of research in the first half of this century. Munro, a medical doctor who lived and worked in Japan for almost fifty years, studied the Ainu for years before finally going to live among them for the last twelve years of his life.

Munro's object in writing "Ainu Creed and Cult" was not only to give an account of his close observation of this mysterious people and their customs, but also to demonstrate to the world at large and to the Japanese in particular that the Ainu had an independent culture worthy of respect and preservation.

The author's unique insider's position among the Ainu enabled him to accurately describe their religious beliefs, homes, ceremonies, social organizations, arts, festivities, and funerary practices. "Ainu Creed and Culture" establishes the intricacy of the group's spiritual beliefs and ritual practices, a dominant force in their daily lives.

Munro's work stands today as a fine example of the anthropological method, as a historical record of those decades at the beginning of the century when the old Ainu ways were still followed, and as an eloquent and timeless plea for the dignity and survival of a minority cultural group.

Die religiose Erziehung durchlief bei den Hui, den chinesischen Muslimen, vom 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert eine besondere Entwicklung und wird als Jingtang Jiaoyu, Bucherhallen Erziehung, bezeichnet. Es wurden eigenstandige Schriften zum Islam in chinesischer Sprache verfasst. Geistliche und Gelehrte versuchten die islamische Lehre in ihre konfuzianisch gepragte Umwelt zu transferieren und schriftlich zu fixieren. Auch die Verwaltung von Schule und Gemeinde erhielt ihre eigene Form. Diese Arbeit stellt die verschiedenen fur die Ausbildung relevanten Aspekte dar. Die Aussagen basieren auf den Inhalten islamischer Steleninschriften, den religiosen Werken bedeutender Gelehrter sowie den Studien von Forschern und Muslimen im heutigen China.

This study deals with examples of Buddhist and Sivaite dvarapalas or temple-guardians from mainland Southeast Asia, compared to examples from Indonesia which are still in situ, that is to say on their original location, within the architectural layout of Buddhist and Sivsite sanctuaries. Two issues are dealt with. Firstly, that foreign frameworks (notably from southern India, southern Vietnam and Cambodia) iconographically and stylistically founded the dvarapala in Indonesia. Secondly, that the dvarapala in this latter area is the outcome of a distinct acculturation process of adoption and reinterpretation, based on local developments. This book contributes to knowledge of the dvaralapa, and as well as the text, provides a collection of 100 black-and-white plates of dvarapala statues. It is suitable for archaeologists, and those interested in Asian iconography and cultural history.

Leading scholars examine religious and philosophical dimensions of the Chinese classic known as the Daodejing or Laozi.

An exploration of Chinese during a time of monumental change, the period after the fall of the Han dynasty.