The Buddhist Economies of Modern Urban China

> This paper looks at the dynamic relationship between Buddhism, business, and merit in urban China, and particularly in the cities of the Lower Yangzi Delta (or Jiangnan), with a focus on Shanghai in late imperial and modern times. > It argues that Shanghai residents have continued to practice Buddhism notwithstanding the widespread iconoclasm enforced by the ruling elites and the recurrent calls to end all wasteful practices associated with Chinese religion.

buddhistuniversity.net

Surviving desire: what Buddhist thought teaches us about our war on want | Making sense of it

The work is less about fighting what we feel, and more about meeting desire with curiosity, integrity and wisdom

theguardian.com

The Showa Emperor's Tour of Tokyo, March 18, 1945

> How had politics in Japan brought about a society that valued death above life? At the same time, I have to confess that I too had enjoyed that bracing feeling of devoting my whole being to the noble cause and being ready to sacrifice my life for the Emperor. These two feelings battled within me.

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Benjamin Clough and the Birth of Buddhist Studies

> This article surveys the life and work of Benjamin Clough (1791–1853), Wesleyan Methodist missionary to Ceylon, focusing on his contributions to the study of Pali and Buddhism. > It attempts to show that he inaugurated the Western study of Pali and that he should be recognised as one of the most important early scholars of Buddhism.

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Taiwan’s Socially Engaged Buddhist Groups

> The growth of these groups has been concomitant with democratisation, membership increasing very rapidly in the 1990s so that self-identification with Buddhism has now reached 13% of the adult population.

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Buddhism and the State: The New Relationship: Increasing numbers of believers bring great changes to the monastic economy in China

> From the 1990s onwards, local authorities sought to co-operate with Buddhism, hoping to profit by its cultural capital through attracting investors and promoting tourism. > The state did not cease to control and to oppress the Buddhists though, guided by economic interests, it contributed in some cases to promoting and reconstructing Buddhism

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Buddhism and Marxism in Taiwan: Lin Qiuwu's Religious Socialism and Its Legacy in Modern Times

> Lin Qiuwu, also known by his monastic name Venerable Zhengfeng (1903-1934), is often referred to as 'Taiwan's revolutionary monk.' In his brief but intense life, he was involved in many of the cultural and political currents [of the day]. A staunch partisan of Taiwan autonomy, he put his talents to work helping the local population with the hardships of the Japanese colonial regime. Heavily influenced by Marxist analysis, he labored tirelessly to educate the workers about the pernicious nature of the capitalist and imperialist system under which they lived. As a modernizer, he took to the road as a lecturer and wrote many articles decrying superstition and advocating gender equality. As an ordained Buddhist monk, he faced the daunting task of putting Buddhism to work as a force for social and political change while simultaneously trying to convince other Marxists that it was different from other religions

buddhistuniversity.net

Links That Speak: The Global Language Network and Its Association With Global Fame

> We find that the structure of global language networks is centered on English as a global hub and around a handful of intermediate hub languages, which include Spanish, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, and Chinese.

buddhistuniversity.net

Fo Guang Shan seen through Telescope and Microscope

> FGS (“Buddha’s Light Mountain”) is the largest of several Buddhist movements in today’s Taiwan which draw their inspiration from the “Humanistic Buddhism” of the mainland Chinese monk Tai Xū (1890-1947). > It was founded in 1967 in southern Taiwan by the Master Hsing Yun (b.1927), also from the mainland, who came to Taiwan as a refugee in 1946. > Initially FGS was almost exclusively for monastics, but a lay branch, the Buddhist Light International Association (BLIA), was founded for the laity in 1991 and both organizations have spread across the globe.

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Equality of Access?: Chinese Women Practicing Chan and Transnational Meditation in Contemporary China

> some returned female travelers have taken significant roles in organizing meditation retreats, and establishing meditation centers and meditation halls. > Through examining some ethnographic cases of Chinese nuns and laywomen, this paper argues that the transnational meditation movement has an impact not only on gender equality, especially concerning Chinese women practicing meditation, but also on the development of contemporary Chinese Buddhism.

buddhistuniversity.net

Counting the Monks: The 1736-1739 Census of the Chinese Clergy

> The Qing state several times felt that it had lost control of the religious population, recalled all certificates, and registered the whole clergy anew. Such a decision was taken by the young Qianlong emperor at the very beginning of his reign, possibly to give the impression that he was capable of exerting a very firm control over all quarters of society.

buddhistuniversity.net

China Should Re-Evaluate Its Stance on Wildlife Release

> There are four major challenges with the current wildlife release strategy. The most important problem is the lack of scientific justification.

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Preserving the Values of Cultural Negotiation Through Social Learning: ‘Two Religion Community Life’ Case Study in Phattalung, Southeast Thailand

> Prolonged conflict on the southern Thailand border still continues, especially in four provinces – Pattani, Yala, Narathivat, and Satun. > These four provinces are the home base of the Malay-Muslim community. > However, conflicts have almost never occurred in the province of Phattalung...

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Buddhist Charities and China's Social Policy

> After a brief survey of social policies and the role granted by the state to religious institutions as providers of services in recent years, the essay considers the philanthropic activities of Buddhist institutions. > This survey looks at some of their achievements and their shortcomings, and notes that they have adopted the same cautious attitude as their co-religionists in Taiwan, which may nurture an alternate civility, but does not sustain political reform.

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The Ancient Greeks Who Converted to Buddhism

> One edict references 'those who are devoted to Dharma among the Greeks and Persians.' Chief among them was King Menander.

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Assessing the Field of Āgama Studies in Twentieth-Century China:With a Focus on Master Yinshun’s 印順 Three-Aṅga Theory

> Travagnin considers Master Yinshun’s entire oeuvre, so as to unpack the development and shifts in his thought in parallel with his learning and also the availability at that time of Japanese scholarship on the subject. In section IV, Bhikkhu Anālayo offers a critical assessment of the theory

buddhistuniversity.net

Ambitions and Negotiations: The Growing Role of Laity in Twentieth-century Chinese Buddhism

> While lay Buddhists have played an important role throughout Chinese Buddhist history, during the modern period they assumed prerogatives that had been traditionally limited to monastics. > The article explores three exemplary cases: a Tantric priest (Wáng Hóngyuàn), a scholar (Oūyáng Jìngwú) and a political leader (Zhào Púchū).

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Embodied and Enactive Approaches to Cognition

> Contemporary theories of embodied cognition, including what has been termed the '4Es' (embodied, embedded, extended and enactive cognition).

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The Uses of Buddhist and Shamanistic Symbolism in the Empowerment of Queen Sŏndŏk

> It is generally believed that Buddhism succeeded in expanding its influence and appeal in far-distant lands due to its universalistic ethics and royal patronage. > The history of Buddhism in Silla is its ideal illustration, because soon after its arrival it forged inseparable links with the Silla royalty...

buddhistuniversity.net

Separate Teaching and Separate Transmission: Kokan Shiren’s Zen Polemics

> Kokan’s (1248–1346) understanding of Zen developed in the context of a polemic against and consequently under the influence of the classical schools of Japanese Buddhism, especially Tendai.

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The Rediscovery of Three Early Buddhist Scriptures on Meditation: A Preliminary Analysis of the Fo Shuo Shi’er Men Jing, the Fo Shuo Jie Shi’er Men Jing Translated by an Shigao and Their Commentary Preserved in the Newly Found Kongo-Ji Manuscript

A close analysis of a newly-discovered Japanese manuscript of a commentary on two early Chinese meditation manuals gives us a glimpse into how knowledgable those early missionaries into China were about the EBTs.

buddhistuniversity.net

We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit

Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys

theguardian.com

Towards a Landscape Archaeology of Buddhist Cave-Temples in China

> Based on these observations, an initial hypothesis was formed which states that the visibility of the locations into which cave sites are carved increases over time.

buddhistuniversity.net

Pranksters vs. Autocrats: Why Dilemma Actions Advance Nonviolent Activism

> If you can trap those in power in an irresolvable dilemma, the action is more likely to accomplish its goals.

buddhistuniversity.net

Milk, Yogurt and Butter in Medieval East Asia: Dairy Products from China to Japan in Medicine and Buddhism

> Unlike luxury consumables such as aromatics and medicines, perishable foodstuffs were unlikely to have been transported from the mainland. > This study will document and discuss the transmission of a dairy industry from China to Japan, with a focus on the role of these products in religious and medical contexts.

buddhistuniversity.net

Theorizing Buddhist Anti-Muslim Nationalism as Global Islamophobia

> The concerns raised in Buddhist anti-Muslim nationalism are not only shaped by local contexts. > On the contrary, they are very much informed by global discourses and concerns.

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Politico-Religious Beliefs of Khruba Srivichai, the Saint of Northern Thailand

> However during his interrogation in 1935, Srivichai himself avowed that he was following the teachings of the Buddha. Rather than adjudge Srivichai’s arrests as a misunderstanding, this essay seeks to reconstruct the religious beliefs of Srivichai by considering the popular texts shaping the Lanna Buddhist imaginaire during his lifetime and analyzing the surviving hints of his religious praxis, including the religious texts most closely associated with him, his rejection of apotropaic practices, and his numerous temple restorations and construction projects.

buddhistuniversity.net

Don’t call them ICE detention centers. Call them camps | John Washington

I’ve spent a decade reporting on immigration enforcement. The word ‘camp’ best captures the political function of these facilities

theguardian.com

The Year One: Art of the Ancient World, East and West

> Two thousand years ago, artworks of astonishing variety were being created in far-flung regions of the world. > This volume presents more than 150 works of art from western Europe, the Mediterranean, the Near East, India, China, Southeast Asia, and the Americas, and highlights the similarities that existed between the widely separated parts of the world in which they originated.

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