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The Traffic in Hierarchy: Masculinity and Its Others in Buddhist Burma

Ward Keeler

Looking at Buddhist monasteries as social institutions, this book integrates a thorough description of one such monastery with a wide-ranging study of Burmese social relations, both religious and ... More

Looking at Buddhist monasteries as social institutions, this book integrates a thorough description of one such monastery with a wide-ranging study of Burmese social relations, both religious and lay, looking particularly at the matter of gender. Hierarchical assumptions inform all such relations, and higher status implies a person’s greater autonomy. A monk is particularly idealized because he exemplifies the Buddhist ideal of “detachment” and so autonomy. A male head of household represents another masculine ideal, if a somewhat less prestigious one. He enjoys greater autonomy than other members of the household yet remains entangled in the world. Women and trans women are thought to be more invested in attachment than autonomy and are expected to subordinate themselves to men and monks as a result. But everyone must concern themselves with the matter of relative status in all of their interactions. This makes face-to-face encounter fraught. Several chapters detail the ways that individuals try to stave off the risks that interaction necessarily entails. One stratagem is to subordinate oneself to nodes of power, but this runs counter to efforts to demonstrate one’s autonomy. Another is to foster detachment, most dramatically in the practice of meditation.Less

Genshin's Ojōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan

Robert F. Rhodes

The Ōjōyōshū, written by the Heian period Tendai monk Genshin (942-1017), played a pivotal role in establishing Pure Land Buddhism in Japan. This book is a study of the central teachings of the ... More

The Ōjōyōshū, written by the Heian period Tendai monk Genshin (942-1017), played a pivotal role in establishing Pure Land Buddhism in Japan. This book is a study of the central teachings of the Ōjōyōshū. Furthermore, in order to situate this text in its historical background, a substantial portion of the volume is taken up with discussions of the development of Pure Land Buddhism before Genshin’s time and to Genshin’s event-filled life. Part One provides a brief survey of Pure Land Buddhism in India and China and then treats how it developed in Japan before Genshin’s time. Part Two focuses on the main events of Genshin’s life. Part Three turns to two main issues taken up in the Ōjōyōshū: its Pure Land cosmology and its nenbutsu teaching. In his description of the Pure Land cosmology, Genshin describes, in often graphic detail, the suffering inherent in the six realms of transmigration, including hell, and urges his readers to seek birth in Amida Buddha’s Pure Land, a realm beyond suffering. Furthermore, in the central portion of the Ōjōyōshū, Genshin presents a systematic analysis of the nenbutsu, or the practice of focusing one’s mind on Amida, which is the central practice for attaining birth in the Pure Land.Less

The Buddha in Lanna: Art, Lineage, Power, and Place in Northern Thailand

Angela S. Chiu

This work is the first in-depth historical study of the Thai tradition of donation of that most iconic of Thai art objects, the Buddha image. The book introduces stories from tamnan(chronicles), ... More

This work is the first in-depth historical study of the Thai tradition of donation of that most iconic of Thai art objects, the Buddha image. The book introduces stories from tamnan(chronicles), monastic histories and legends from the Lanna region centered in today’s northern Thailand. Examination of themes, structures and motifs illuminates the conceptual and material aspects of Buddha images that influenced their functions in Lanna society. As agents and mediators of social agency, Buddha images were focal points of pan-regional political-religious lineages and rivalries, indeed, the very generators of history itself. Statues also unified the Buddha with the northern Thai landscape, integrating Buddhist and local significances of place. The book also compares Thai statues with Sri Lankan and Burmese-Mon Buddha relics and images, contributing to broader understanding of how materially different types of Buddhist representations mediated the Buddha’s ‘presence.’ Moreover, the book considers fundamental yet rarely critically deliberated questions such as how particular statues were selected as models to be copied. This involves the image’s aspect as an exchange of financial outlay for merit, ‘commoditized’ even as it is ‘singularized’ through enshrinement. Throughout its ‘life,’ the Thai Buddha image is always a part of wider society beyond monastery walls.Less

Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan

Bryan D. Lowe

Transcribing scripture (sutras) represents one of the most central devotional practices in the Buddhist world. Sutra copying functioned as a form of ritualized writing, a practice strategically set ... More

Transcribing scripture (sutras) represents one of the most central devotional practices in the Buddhist world. Sutra copying functioned as a form of ritualized writing, a practice strategically set apart from more mundane forms through a set of practices and beliefs. This book highlights sutra transcription throughout Asia, but focuses primarily on seventh- through ninth-century Japan, where the practice is particularly well-documented. It shows how scribes engaged in ritual practices related to purification and how patrons held elaborate dedication ceremonies upon the completion of a project. It traces the social organizations and institutional structures through which sutra copying took place. It highlights the function of the practice in the lives of diverse individuals from scribes to rulers. As a whole, the book offers a radical reassessment of Buddhism in ancient Japan that moves beyond scholarly tendencies to focus on state control and exploitation, and proposes a new way to treat scriptures as ritualized texts that interact dynamically with the individuals and communities who produce them.Less

Theravada Traditions: Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka

John Clifford Holt

This is a study of very popular ritual celebrations observed by Buddhist monks and laity in each of the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, ... More

This is a study of very popular ritual celebrations observed by Buddhist monks and laity in each of the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.) The theoretical approach deployed and guides the reader through the distinctiveness of each culture is comparative in nature, and the basic premise that angles the inquiry is that widely observed public rites common to each religious culture reflect the nature of social, economic and political change occurring more broadly in society. Instead of ascertaining how religious ideas have impacted the ideals of government or ethical practice, this study focuses on how important changes, or shifts in the trajectories of society impact the character of religious cultures. In each of the five chapters that focus specifically on a given rite of great public importance, an historical, political or social context is provided in some detail. As such, this volume can be read effectively as one volume introduction to the practice of Theravada Buddhism and the nature of social change in contemporary Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.Less

Pure Land, Real World: Modern Buddhism, Japanese Leftists, and the Utopian Imagination

Melissa Anne-Marie Curley

For a thousand years, Japanese Buddhists cultivated vivid images of utopia in the form of the Western Paradise, but in the modern period, this utopianism became troublesome. Shinshū modernizers ... More

For a thousand years, Japanese Buddhists cultivated vivid images of utopia in the form of the Western Paradise, but in the modern period, this utopianism became troublesome. Shinshū modernizers reinvented the Pure Land: some molded it into something the nation-state could tolerate; others used it to secure their own autonomy. Their reinterpretations encouraged new engagements with the tradition; during the war years, as the Japanese state bore down upon its citizens, thinkers with no obvious connection to Shinshū seized upon the twinned images of Shinran in exile and Amida’s Pure Land. For economist Kawakami Hajime, the Pure Land represented an inner realm of peace, the discovery of which allowed him to remain committed to Marxism through years in prison and forced seclusion. For philosopher Miki Kiyoshi, it represented the proletariat’s historical mission of liberating humanity, making Shinshū proof positive of the possibility of a proletarian religion. For historian Ienaga Saburō, it represented sheer negation of this world, grounding Shinran’s confrontation with society; Ienaga himself sought to uphold this legacy of resistance, rallying against a state that failed to live up to its ideals. These radical readings reveal that the critical energy of medieval Pure Land has not been exhausted.Less

Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryop

Jin Y. Park

How and why do women engage with Buddhist philosophy? This is the fundamental question that Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp proposes to answer through discussions of Kim ... More

How and why do women engage with Buddhist philosophy? This is the fundamental question that Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp proposes to answer through discussions of Kim Iryŏp’s (1896–1971) life and philosophy. With her Christian background and feminist activist perspective, Kim Iryŏp offers a creative interpretation of Buddhist philosophy as a system of thought that engages with lived experience. Continuing to focus on gender discrimination, suffering, and discontent in the secular world, Iryŏp explores the Buddhist teaching of absolute equality, in which individuals are conceived as free beings with infinite capability. She employs Buddhism to answer her existential questions, including the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the ultimate value of existence. Moving beyond current Buddhist scholarship on gender, Women and Buddhist Philosophy asks whether women’s way of engaging with Buddhist philosophy, in particular, and philosophy, in general, differs essentially from the familiar patriarchal mode of philosophizing. The author claims that in Iryŏp’s engagement with Buddhist philosophy, the difference is visible and can be identified with narrative philosophy and lived experience, as opposed to abstraction and theorization. This distinction, the author suggests, is also applicable to the difference between Asian and Western philosophies.Less

Doctrine and Practice in Medieval Korean Buddhism: The Collected Works of Uich'on

Ŭich’ŏn (1055–1101) is one of the most important figures in Koryŏ Buddhism. He was a staunch proponent of doctrinal Buddhism and the intellectual heritage of East Asia. Although Ŭich’ŏn had been ... More

Ŭich’ŏn (1055–1101) is one of the most important figures in Koryŏ Buddhism. He was a staunch proponent of doctrinal Buddhism and the intellectual heritage of East Asia. Although Ŭich’ŏn had been educated as an adherent of the Hwaŏm (Huayan) school, he reportedly left it to found a new Ch’ŏnt’ae (Tiantai) school in Korea after a pilgrimage to China in 1085–1086. After his death, his disciples compiled his collected works. This monograph is a translation of selections from his collected works, which demonstrate that Ŭich’ŏn did not abandon the Hwaŏm school. Instead, the lectures, letters, essays, and poetry compiled his Ŭich’ŏn’s The Collected Works of State Preceptor Taegak portray a monk committed to the interfusion of doctrinal learning and meditative visualization. Ŭich’ŏn maintained a closer relationship with his Chinese mentor Jinshui Jingyuan (1011–1088) and other colleagues in the Chinese Huayan school than with monastic associates in the Tiantai school. Ŭich’ŏn’s personal writings do not support the view that Ŭich’ŏn abandoned the Hwaŏm tradition to found a new Ch’ŏnt’ae tradition, but rather that he strongly encouraged monks to blend the best learning from all doctrinal traditions with meditative contemplation.Less

Right Thoughts at the Last Moment: Buddhism and Deathbed Practices in Early Medieval Japan

Jacqueline I. Stone

Buddhists across Asia have often sought to die, as the Buddha himself is said to have done, with a clear and focused mind. This study explores the reception and development in early medieval Japan ... More

Buddhists across Asia have often sought to die, as the Buddha himself is said to have done, with a clear and focused mind. This study explores the reception and development in early medieval Japan (roughly, tenth through fourteenth centuries) of the ideal of “dying with right mindfulness” (rinjū shōnen) and the discourses and practices in which it was embedded. By concentrating one’s thoughts on the Buddha at the moment of death, it was said, even the most evil person could escape the round of deluded rebirth and achieve birth in the Pure Land; conversely, even the slightest mental distraction at that juncture could send the most devout practitioner tumbling down into the evil realms. The ideal of mindful death thus generated both hope and anxiety and created a demand for ritual specialists who could help the dying to negotiate this crucial juncture. Examination of hagiographies, ritual manuals, doctrinal writings, didactic tales, diaries, and historical records uncovers the multiple, sometimes contradictory logics by which medieval Japanese approached death. Deathbed practices also illuminate broader issues in medieval Japanese religion that crossed social levels and sectarian lines, including intellectual developments, devotional practices, pollution concerns, ritual performance, and divisions of labor among religious professionals.Less