Pub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2019.1637073
K. Crosby
ABSTRACT The Nevill Collection of manuscripts from Sri Lanka housed in the British Library includes seventeen texts, in eleven manuscripts, related to a type of Theravada Buddhist meditation referred to here as boran kammaṭṭhāna, ‘the old meditation method.’ This article offers the first detailed survey of these texts and finds a close correlation between the practices they advocate and commentarial Abhidhamma, a surprising finding given the modern reputation of these practices as heteroprax. It is less surprising when we observe that the texts represent the form of Buddhism introduced into the Kandyan kingdom from Ayutthaya, the then capital of Siam (Thailand), in the mid-18th century at the time of the revitalization of Buddhism and the Sangha in Sri Lanka. A distinguishing feature of boran kammaṭṭhāna is the use of nimitta, ‘signs’, experienced in meditation or as omens of death, previously taken as an indication of heterodoxy. However, a close examination reveals that the interpretation of nimitta corresponds with Abhidhamma. Moreover, the lengthy meditation manuals formulate an extensive and detailed realization of the Abhidhamma path to becoming an arhat, harnessing the Abhidhamma understanding of progression through sequential substitution of lower citta, states of consciousness, and cetasika, mental factors that attend consciousness, with increasingly pure citta and cetasika. The nimitta function as diagnostic tools and as means to guide the embodiment of the increasingly purified states of consciousness within the practitioner’s body. The findings present a new understanding of the system of transformation underlying boran kammaṭṭhāna and also challenge the understanding of Abhidhamma as merely scholastic or descriptive.
{"title":"ABHIDHAMMA AND NIMITTA IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MEDITATION MANUSCRIPTS FROM SRI LANKA: A CONSIDERATION OF ORTHODOXY AND HETEROPRAXY IN BORAN KAMMAṬṬHĀNA","authors":"K. Crosby","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2019.1637073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2019.1637073","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Nevill Collection of manuscripts from Sri Lanka housed in the British Library includes seventeen texts, in eleven manuscripts, related to a type of Theravada Buddhist meditation referred to here as boran kammaṭṭhāna, ‘the old meditation method.’ This article offers the first detailed survey of these texts and finds a close correlation between the practices they advocate and commentarial Abhidhamma, a surprising finding given the modern reputation of these practices as heteroprax. It is less surprising when we observe that the texts represent the form of Buddhism introduced into the Kandyan kingdom from Ayutthaya, the then capital of Siam (Thailand), in the mid-18th century at the time of the revitalization of Buddhism and the Sangha in Sri Lanka. A distinguishing feature of boran kammaṭṭhāna is the use of nimitta, ‘signs’, experienced in meditation or as omens of death, previously taken as an indication of heterodoxy. However, a close examination reveals that the interpretation of nimitta corresponds with Abhidhamma. Moreover, the lengthy meditation manuals formulate an extensive and detailed realization of the Abhidhamma path to becoming an arhat, harnessing the Abhidhamma understanding of progression through sequential substitution of lower citta, states of consciousness, and cetasika, mental factors that attend consciousness, with increasingly pure citta and cetasika. The nimitta function as diagnostic tools and as means to guide the embodiment of the increasingly purified states of consciousness within the practitioner’s body. The findings present a new understanding of the system of transformation underlying boran kammaṭṭhāna and also challenge the understanding of Abhidhamma as merely scholastic or descriptive.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"111 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2019.1637073","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42067892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-04-21DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2019.1599568
M. Kong
ABSTRACT This article explores the changing treatment of a meditation practice, the contemplation of the repulsiveness of food, āhārepaṭikūlasaññā, from its presence in lists of saññā in canonical texts to its detailed explanation in post-canonical texts of the first millennium CE. We observe two main developments: the limitation in the benefits attributed to the practice within commentarial-period Theravada, and two entirely divergent branches in the way the practice is treated. In the Visuddhimagga of Theravada Buddhism, we see a somewhat practical approach that identifies the unpleasant aspects of the monk’s experience of seeking, eating, digesting and excreting food, and takes them as the focus of a 10-stage meditation practice. In the Sarvāstivāda texts, we see a conceptual aversion created by the association of specific food items with other items treated as impure within meditation practice. This articles explores all these divergences, drawing conclusions about what this says in terms of the understanding of food in these two branches.
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Pub Date : 2019-03-31DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2018.1524625
B. J. Terwiel
ABSTRACT Throughout its long history, Buddhist meditation has been a lasting source of happiness, and its ultimate goal has been the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion and delusion have been finally extinguished. This state is called in Pali nibbāna, the place of perfect peace and happiness. In his classical book on Thai painting, Jean Boisselier confidently states: ‘Artists are of course unable to depict any aspect of nibbāna, since that world is by nature without form’. This article will show that more than two centuries ago Thai artists did just that which Boisselier proclaimed to be impossible. Thai artists drawing the cosmos in Picture Books of the Three Worlds (สมุดภาพไตรภูมิุ [Samutphāptraiphūm]) did indeed depict nibbāna. Some drew an ‘empty space’, but among the older manuscripts most drew a complex ‘City of Nibbāna’. It will be determined what this elaborate City of Nibbāna stands for. Finally, the question is raised whether or not the City of Nibbāna is part of a type of Buddhism that was suppressed in early modern times.
{"title":"THE CITY OF NIBBĀNA IN THAI PICTURE BOOKS OF THE THREE WORLDS","authors":"B. J. Terwiel","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1524625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1524625","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Throughout its long history, Buddhist meditation has been a lasting source of happiness, and its ultimate goal has been the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion and delusion have been finally extinguished. This state is called in Pali nibbāna, the place of perfect peace and happiness. In his classical book on Thai painting, Jean Boisselier confidently states: ‘Artists are of course unable to depict any aspect of nibbāna, since that world is by nature without form’. This article will show that more than two centuries ago Thai artists did just that which Boisselier proclaimed to be impossible. Thai artists drawing the cosmos in Picture Books of the Three Worlds (สมุดภาพไตรภูมิุ [Samutphāptraiphūm]) did indeed depict nibbāna. Some drew an ‘empty space’, but among the older manuscripts most drew a complex ‘City of Nibbāna’. It will be determined what this elaborate City of Nibbāna stands for. Finally, the question is raised whether or not the City of Nibbāna is part of a type of Buddhism that was suppressed in early modern times.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"184 - 199"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1524625","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46202825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-27DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0259
Gereon Kopf
Recent years have seen an increased presence of Japanese Buddhist philosophy in the world of Anglophone scholarship. In 2013 the first issue of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy (SUNY Press) appeared, in 2015 the first issue of the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy (SUNY Press) was released, and in 2016 the first issue of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy (Chisokudō Publications) was published. Japanese Buddhist philosophy emerges and exists at the intersection of Buddhist and Japanese philosophy. The history of the term “Buddhist philosophy” in Japan commences with the encounter between the Japanese and Euro-American intellectual traditions during the Meiji period (1868–1912). As is well known, Nishi Amane 西周 (b. 1829–d. 1897) coined the Japanese word for “philosophy”: tetsugaku哲学. He utilized this concept to refer to European and American philosophy and to distinguish these traditions from the works of the Japanese traditions, including Japanese Buddhism, which he classified as “thought” (shisō思想). Today’s understanding of “philosophy” has somewhat shifted. Rein Raud suggests that “[w]hat matters” for philosophers . . . is “interpretations, their quality, their productivity for further thought.” “Buddhist philosophy,” Dale Wright proposes, “is that form of reflection [the effort to ‘understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together’] as practiced by participants who are Buddhists”; that is, “philosophy practiced by those who regard themselves as Buddhist.” By the same token, Inoue Enryō 井上円了 (b. 1858–d. 1919) asserted with the very title of his 1893 work Buddhist Philosophy (Bukkyō tetsugaku仏教哲学) that there is Buddhist philosophy in Japan, premodern, modern, and contemporary. This bibliographic essay includes Anglophone texts in the Japanese Buddhist tradition published after the Meiji restoration (1868 ce). The titles are divided into four categories: (1) Translations, (2) Collections, (3) English-Language Works, and (4) Crossover Works. Unfortunately, a lot of brilliant philosophy produced in Japan is only accessible in the Japanese language. Recent years have seen exciting trends and stimulating ideas in the field of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. The disaster of 3/11, for example, has even given rise to the category of “post-Fukushima” philosophy. The purpose of this bibliographical essay is thus twofold. It is the hope of the editors that this bibliography will help raise the awareness of the wealth and significance of the Japanese Buddhist traditions. At the same time, this essay on modern and contemporary Japanese Buddhist philosophy is designed to encourage scholars to generate more translations in this field.
{"title":"Modern Japanese Buddhist Philosophy","authors":"Gereon Kopf","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0259","url":null,"abstract":"Recent years have seen an increased presence of Japanese Buddhist philosophy in the world of Anglophone scholarship. In 2013 the first issue of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy (SUNY Press) appeared, in 2015 the first issue of the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy (SUNY Press) was released, and in 2016 the first issue of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy (Chisokudō Publications) was published. Japanese Buddhist philosophy emerges and exists at the intersection of Buddhist and Japanese philosophy. The history of the term “Buddhist philosophy” in Japan commences with the encounter between the Japanese and Euro-American intellectual traditions during the Meiji period (1868–1912). As is well known, Nishi Amane 西周 (b. 1829–d. 1897) coined the Japanese word for “philosophy”: tetsugaku哲学. He utilized this concept to refer to European and American philosophy and to distinguish these traditions from the works of the Japanese traditions, including Japanese Buddhism, which he classified as “thought” (shisō思想). Today’s understanding of “philosophy” has somewhat shifted. Rein Raud suggests that “[w]hat matters” for philosophers . . . is “interpretations, their quality, their productivity for further thought.” “Buddhist philosophy,” Dale Wright proposes, “is that form of reflection [the effort to ‘understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together’] as practiced by participants who are Buddhists”; that is, “philosophy practiced by those who regard themselves as Buddhist.” By the same token, Inoue Enryō 井上円了 (b. 1858–d. 1919) asserted with the very title of his 1893 work Buddhist Philosophy (Bukkyō tetsugaku仏教哲学) that there is Buddhist philosophy in Japan, premodern, modern, and contemporary. This bibliographic essay includes Anglophone texts in the Japanese Buddhist tradition published after the Meiji restoration (1868 ce). The titles are divided into four categories: (1) Translations, (2) Collections, (3) English-Language Works, and (4) Crossover Works. Unfortunately, a lot of brilliant philosophy produced in Japan is only accessible in the Japanese language. Recent years have seen exciting trends and stimulating ideas in the field of Japanese Buddhist philosophy. The disaster of 3/11, for example, has even given rise to the category of “post-Fukushima” philosophy. The purpose of this bibliographical essay is thus twofold. It is the hope of the editors that this bibliography will help raise the awareness of the wealth and significance of the Japanese Buddhist traditions. At the same time, this essay on modern and contemporary Japanese Buddhist philosophy is designed to encourage scholars to generate more translations in this field.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"70 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72450368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-20DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2018.1536852
P. Kyaw
ABSTRACT This article explores the popular Sunlun and Theinngu meditation traditions in Myanmar. The founders, Sunlun Sayadaw Ven. U Kavi (1878–1952) and Theinngu Sayadaw Ven. U Ukkaṭṭha (1913–1973), both led a lay life until in their mid-40s and only then took up meditation, going on to become highly respected meditation teachers. Their meditation techniques are similarly distinctive in employing rapid, strong and rhythmic breathing. They combined this with the contemplation of the intense, usually unpleasant, bodily sensations that are thus induced. I document their techniques and application in detail, highlighting their complexity and diversity. I draw contrasts between the use of sati, mindfulness, in their methods and the way it is used in the modern Mindfulness movement. Finally, I discuss the ways in which the practices and experiences of both masters had to be authorised to survive where other meditation traditions have been outlawed. Senior members of the Burmese Sangha catechised both masters separately, using Pāli canonical and post-canonical texts as a benchmark to verify the popular belief amongst Burmese people that they were arahants. I locate this testing within the context of the concerns, sense of duty and status experienced by Burmese lay people in relation to defending Buddhism from decline.
{"title":"THE SOUND OF THE BREATH: SUNLUN AND THEINNGU MEDITATION TRADITIONS OF MYANMAR","authors":"P. Kyaw","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1536852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536852","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the popular Sunlun and Theinngu meditation traditions in Myanmar. The founders, Sunlun Sayadaw Ven. U Kavi (1878–1952) and Theinngu Sayadaw Ven. U Ukkaṭṭha (1913–1973), both led a lay life until in their mid-40s and only then took up meditation, going on to become highly respected meditation teachers. Their meditation techniques are similarly distinctive in employing rapid, strong and rhythmic breathing. They combined this with the contemplation of the intense, usually unpleasant, bodily sensations that are thus induced. I document their techniques and application in detail, highlighting their complexity and diversity. I draw contrasts between the use of sati, mindfulness, in their methods and the way it is used in the modern Mindfulness movement. Finally, I discuss the ways in which the practices and experiences of both masters had to be authorised to survive where other meditation traditions have been outlawed. Senior members of the Burmese Sangha catechised both masters separately, using Pāli canonical and post-canonical texts as a benchmark to verify the popular belief amongst Burmese people that they were arahants. I locate this testing within the context of the concerns, sense of duty and status experienced by Burmese lay people in relation to defending Buddhism from decline.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"247 - 291"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536852","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44535293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-01-01DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0258
L. Witt
Mountains play a central role in Buddhist cosmology and practice. Scriptural accounts of Mount Sumeru (cosmological center of the Hindu-Buddhist universe) and Vulture Peak in India (favored abode for the Buddha and a panoply of deities and disciples) clearly attest to this, as does the physical and symbolic construction of Buddhist sacred sites in mountainous locales. The varieties of Buddhist activity that developed in East Asia reflect a new valorization of mountains not found in India, however. Diverse forms of Buddhist thought and practice took root at mountain sites throughout present-day China, Korea, and Japan, flourishing in complex and fascinating ways over time through transregional and transcultural exchange—and always in relation to (and sometimes competing with) local concerns and customs. International research on Buddhist mountain spaces, places, and practices has prospered in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with various monographs, anthologies, and essays presenting information about mountains in Buddhist discourse or Buddhist activity that takes place in mountains. Still, no single work to date investigates mountain Buddhism in East Asia in a comprehensive or comparative manner. This review introduces an eclectic mix of English-language sources, grouped thematically (although with significant overlap), that span all time periods and employ various disciplinary approaches. The slight geographical imbalance present in the list reflects the nascent state of research on Korean religions and the exceptionally well-developed body of work on mountain Buddhism in Japan, especially Shugendō, a combinatory and mountain-centric religious tradition deeply influenced by Buddhist doctrine and ritual.
{"title":"Mountain Buddhism in East Asia","authors":"L. Witt","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0258","url":null,"abstract":"Mountains play a central role in Buddhist cosmology and practice. Scriptural accounts of Mount Sumeru (cosmological center of the Hindu-Buddhist universe) and Vulture Peak in India (favored abode for the Buddha and a panoply of deities and disciples) clearly attest to this, as does the physical and symbolic construction of Buddhist sacred sites in mountainous locales. The varieties of Buddhist activity that developed in East Asia reflect a new valorization of mountains not found in India, however. Diverse forms of Buddhist thought and practice took root at mountain sites throughout present-day China, Korea, and Japan, flourishing in complex and fascinating ways over time through transregional and transcultural exchange—and always in relation to (and sometimes competing with) local concerns and customs. International research on Buddhist mountain spaces, places, and practices has prospered in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with various monographs, anthologies, and essays presenting information about mountains in Buddhist discourse or Buddhist activity that takes place in mountains. Still, no single work to date investigates mountain Buddhism in East Asia in a comprehensive or comparative manner. This review introduces an eclectic mix of English-language sources, grouped thematically (although with significant overlap), that span all time periods and employ various disciplinary approaches. The slight geographical imbalance present in the list reflects the nascent state of research on Korean religions and the exceptionally well-developed body of work on mountain Buddhism in Japan, especially Shugendō, a combinatory and mountain-centric religious tradition deeply influenced by Buddhist doctrine and ritual.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81466568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-29DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0257
J. Dobbins
D. T. Suzuki (Daisetz [Daisetsu] Teitarō Suzuki, b. 1870–d. 1966) was a Japanese scholar of Buddhism who published extensively in both Japanese and English and who emerged as a famous thinker and public intellectual in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in the Meiji period (1868–1912) when Japan was rapidly modernizing, Suzuki was one of many young intellectuals who sought to revitalize and reinterpret Buddhism for the modern age. He excelled in English and studied Western thought at Tokyo Imperial University in the early 1890s, but at the same time dedicated himself to Zen practice at Engakuji monastery in nearby Kamakura, an experience that made an indelible mark on his thinking. In 1897 Suzuki traveled to America to become a translator and editorial assistant at Open Court Publishing in LaSalle, Illinois. He spent eleven years there working, studying, and publishing on Buddhism and other Asian topics. Upon returning to Japan in 1909, he became an English professor in the preparatory division of the Peers School, Gakushūin, in Tokyo for twelve years. In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Lane (b. 1875–d. 1939, previously thought to be born in 1878), a highly educated American with an abiding interest in Asian religions whom he had met overseas and who subsequently assisted him with his English publications. In 1921 Suzuki became a professor of Buddhist studies at Otani University in Kyoto and there launched the journal The Eastern Buddhist with his wife as coeditor. During his long career at Otani, Suzuki published many of his most important works on Zen, Mahāyāna, and Pure Land Buddhism. After his wife’s death in 1939 and throughout the war years, Suzuki lived in semi-retirement in Kamakura, continuing to write and publish. During the American occupation of Japan after the war, Suzuki gained prominence because of his familiarity with America and his efforts to articulate a postwar vision for the country. In 1949, when Suzuki was almost eighty, he had an opportunity to live in America again—first in Honolulu, then Los Angeles, and finally New York. Working as a traveling lecturer and guest professor, he remained in America until 1958 (except for brief visits back to Japan). During this period, there was burgeoning interest in Buddhism in the West, and Suzuki was perfectly poised to answer this demand. His earlier English writings were republished, and he emerged as a Buddhist authority in the eyes of Western scholars, artists, psychoanalysts, and the reading public. When Suzuki returned to Japan in 1958, he was arguably the most prominent spokesman for Buddhism in the West. During his remaining years he was in high demand for publications, translations, interviews, and lectures, and when he died in 1966 he was celebrated as one of Japan’s foremost Buddhist thinkers. In the years after his death, there was widespread respect and appreciation for Suzuki’s works. But in the 1990s a strong critique of Suzuki appeared in Western scholarship. He was identified as
铃木泰隆(D. T. Suzuki)， 1870 - 1870。1966年)，日本佛教学者，以日语和英语出版了大量著作，在20世纪50年代和60年代成为著名思想家和公共知识分子。铃木生于明治时期(1868-1912)，当时日本正处于快速现代化的时期，他是众多年轻知识分子中的一员，他们试图在现代复兴和重新诠释佛教。他精通英语，并于19世纪90年代初在东京帝国大学(Tokyo Imperial University)学习西方思想，但与此同时，他在镰仓(Kamakura)附近的天乐寺(Engakuji)修炼禅宗，这段经历在他的思想上留下了不可磨灭的印记。1897年，铃木前往美国，在伊利诺斯州拉萨尔市的Open Court出版社担任翻译和编辑助理。他在那里工作、学习了11年，并发表了有关佛教和其他亚洲主题的文章。1909年回到日本后，他在东京的贵族学校(Gakushūin)的预备部担任了12年的英语教授。1911年，铃木娶了比阿特丽斯·莱恩(1875-d)。他是一位受过高等教育的美国人，对亚洲宗教有着持久的兴趣，他在海外结识了他的朋友，后来帮助他出版了英文书籍。1921年，铃木成为京都大谷大学的佛教研究教授，并与妻子共同创办了《东方佛教》杂志。在他在大谷的漫长职业生涯中，铃木发表了许多关于禅宗、Mahāyāna和净土佛教的重要著作。1939年妻子去世后，在整个战争年代，铃木在镰仓过着半退休的生活，继续写作和出版。战后，在美国占领日本期间，铃木因对美国的熟悉，以及他对日本战后愿景的阐述而声名鹊起。1949年，铃木快80岁的时候，他有机会再次到美国生活——先是在檀香山，然后是洛杉矶，最后是纽约。作为一名巡回讲师和客座教授，他在美国一直呆到1958年(除了短暂回日本)。在这一时期，西方对佛教的兴趣迅速增长，铃木完全可以满足这种需求。他早期的英文作品被重新出版，他成为西方学者、艺术家、精神分析学家和读者眼中的佛教权威。1958年铃木回到日本时，他可以说是西方最著名的佛教代言人。在他的最后几年里，他的出版物、翻译、采访和演讲都受到了很高的要求。1966年他去世时，他被誉为日本最重要的佛教思想家之一。在他去世后的几年里，铃木的作品受到了广泛的尊重和欣赏。但在20世纪90年代，西方学术界出现了对铃木的强烈批评。他被认为是一名支持战争的日本民族主义者，还因向西方不准确地介绍佛教而受到批评——将西方思想融入其中，同时夸大日本在精神上的优越性。这些批评引起了铃木的辩护者的反驳，关于他的争论一直持续到今天。铃木最好不要被看作是佛教向西方的无偏见传播者，而是作为日本和西方的佛教现代诠释者——有时是传统的，有时是主观的和特殊的。
{"title":"D. T. Suzuki","authors":"J. Dobbins","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0257","url":null,"abstract":"D. T. Suzuki (Daisetz [Daisetsu] Teitarō Suzuki, b. 1870–d. 1966) was a Japanese scholar of Buddhism who published extensively in both Japanese and English and who emerged as a famous thinker and public intellectual in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in the Meiji period (1868–1912) when Japan was rapidly modernizing, Suzuki was one of many young intellectuals who sought to revitalize and reinterpret Buddhism for the modern age. He excelled in English and studied Western thought at Tokyo Imperial University in the early 1890s, but at the same time dedicated himself to Zen practice at Engakuji monastery in nearby Kamakura, an experience that made an indelible mark on his thinking. In 1897 Suzuki traveled to America to become a translator and editorial assistant at Open Court Publishing in LaSalle, Illinois. He spent eleven years there working, studying, and publishing on Buddhism and other Asian topics. Upon returning to Japan in 1909, he became an English professor in the preparatory division of the Peers School, Gakushūin, in Tokyo for twelve years. In 1911, Suzuki married Beatrice Lane (b. 1875–d. 1939, previously thought to be born in 1878), a highly educated American with an abiding interest in Asian religions whom he had met overseas and who subsequently assisted him with his English publications. In 1921 Suzuki became a professor of Buddhist studies at Otani University in Kyoto and there launched the journal The Eastern Buddhist with his wife as coeditor. During his long career at Otani, Suzuki published many of his most important works on Zen, Mahāyāna, and Pure Land Buddhism. After his wife’s death in 1939 and throughout the war years, Suzuki lived in semi-retirement in Kamakura, continuing to write and publish. During the American occupation of Japan after the war, Suzuki gained prominence because of his familiarity with America and his efforts to articulate a postwar vision for the country. In 1949, when Suzuki was almost eighty, he had an opportunity to live in America again—first in Honolulu, then Los Angeles, and finally New York. Working as a traveling lecturer and guest professor, he remained in America until 1958 (except for brief visits back to Japan). During this period, there was burgeoning interest in Buddhism in the West, and Suzuki was perfectly poised to answer this demand. His earlier English writings were republished, and he emerged as a Buddhist authority in the eyes of Western scholars, artists, psychoanalysts, and the reading public. When Suzuki returned to Japan in 1958, he was arguably the most prominent spokesman for Buddhism in the West. During his remaining years he was in high demand for publications, translations, interviews, and lectures, and when he died in 1966 he was celebrated as one of Japan’s foremost Buddhist thinkers. In the years after his death, there was widespread respect and appreciation for Suzuki’s works. But in the 1990s a strong critique of Suzuki appeared in Western scholarship. He was identified as ","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84384532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-10-31DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2018.1527823
S. Kemper
ABSTRACT Dharmapala was the son of a pious Buddhist family, although educated in missionary schools where he acquired knowledge of English and Christian scripture. English gave him access to Western scholarship on Buddhism and made him a useful member of the Theosophical Society, which arrived in Sri Lanka in 1880. Wanting to be a religious worker, Dharmapala served as Colonel Olcott’s translator, and he soon came to be influenced by Madame Blavatsky’s highly imagined interpretation of Buddhism. The upshot was that Dharmapala’s lifelong practice of meditation was shaped by Theosophical interest in esoteric Buddhism and the moral course of the advanced spiritual seeker.
{"title":"Anagarika Dharmapala’s Meditation","authors":"S. Kemper","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1527823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1527823","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Dharmapala was the son of a pious Buddhist family, although educated in missionary schools where he acquired knowledge of English and Christian scripture. English gave him access to Western scholarship on Buddhism and made him a useful member of the Theosophical Society, which arrived in Sri Lanka in 1880. Wanting to be a religious worker, Dharmapala served as Colonel Olcott’s translator, and he soon came to be influenced by Madame Blavatsky’s highly imagined interpretation of Buddhism. The upshot was that Dharmapala’s lifelong practice of meditation was shaped by Theosophical interest in esoteric Buddhism and the moral course of the advanced spiritual seeker.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"223 - 246"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1527823","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44821383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-10-30DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2018.1536850
E. Harris
ABSTRACT This paper argues that the multiple orientalist expressions that flowed from British pens in nineteenth century Sri Lanka are of use to the scholar of Buddhism, in that they can not only shed light on the growth of Buddhist modernism and the use of the term ‘meditation’ within it, but also on Sri Lankan Buddhist practice on the ground. It first surveys the preconceptions of the British about the concept of ‘meditation’. It then examines the writings of a representative selection of scholar civil servants and Christian missionaries who were resident in Sri Lanka within the century. This data reveal that a vibrant culture of Buddhist devotion and preaching existed throughout the century, together, among the laity, with the practice of ‘meditation’ on objects related to insight into reality. Additionally, it suggests that the jhānas, although hard for westerners to understand, were an important part of Buddhist self-understanding. The paper, therefore, argues that the priority given to vipassanā as the essence of meditation within Buddhist Modernism is a reduction of the diversity within traditional practice and a distortion of the traditionally recognised interrelationship between the jhānas and other forms of mental culture.
{"title":"Buddhist Meditation and the British Colonial Gaze in Nineteenth Century Sri Lanka","authors":"E. Harris","doi":"10.1080/14639947.2018.1536850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536850","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper argues that the multiple orientalist expressions that flowed from British pens in nineteenth century Sri Lanka are of use to the scholar of Buddhism, in that they can not only shed light on the growth of Buddhist modernism and the use of the term ‘meditation’ within it, but also on Sri Lankan Buddhist practice on the ground. It first surveys the preconceptions of the British about the concept of ‘meditation’. It then examines the writings of a representative selection of scholar civil servants and Christian missionaries who were resident in Sri Lanka within the century. This data reveal that a vibrant culture of Buddhist devotion and preaching existed throughout the century, together, among the laity, with the practice of ‘meditation’ on objects related to insight into reality. Additionally, it suggests that the jhānas, although hard for westerners to understand, were an important part of Buddhist self-understanding. The paper, therefore, argues that the priority given to vipassanā as the essence of meditation within Buddhist Modernism is a reduction of the diversity within traditional practice and a distortion of the traditionally recognised interrelationship between the jhānas and other forms of mental culture.","PeriodicalId":45708,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"200 - 222"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14639947.2018.1536850","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42701913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-10-29DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2018.1536848
Jotika Khur-Yearn
ABSTRACT This article explores how meditation is inculcated throughout the life of Shan Buddhists using poetic phrasing and texts, culminating in several forms of meditation as part of the practice of temple-sleeping undertaken by lay Buddhist seniors from the age of 40 upwards. I look at how the poetic texts, lik loung, that form the basis of temple-sleeping practice, may have shifted in content in the 19th to 20th centuries to focus on meditation topics, in a move parallel to the development of vipassanā in lowland Burma in reaction to the threat colonialism posed to Buddhism. I then document the rise of separate vipassanā meditation centres in Shan regions from the 1930s and their ambiguous status as either representatives of Burmese hegemony or drivers of Shan revival. I note the influence of Shan lik loung on practice at such centres, as well as a more recent development, the uptake of vipassanā within temple-sleeping contexts.
摘要：本文探讨了如何在掸邦佛教徒的一生中使用诗意的措辞和文本来灌输冥想，最终形成了几种形式的冥想，作为40岁以上的佛教长老进行的寺庙睡眠实践的一部分。我观察了作为寺庙睡眠实践基础的诗歌文本lik loung在19世纪至20世纪的内容可能发生了怎样的变化，以专注于冥想主题，这与缅甸低地的毗婆沙的发展相平行，以应对殖民主义对佛教构成的威胁。然后，我记录了自20世纪30年代以来，掸邦地区独立的毗婆沙禅修中心的兴起，以及它们作为缅甸霸权代表或掸邦复兴推动者的模糊地位。我注意到Shan lik loung对这些中心的实践的影响，以及最近的一个发展，即在寺庙睡眠环境中对毗婆沙的吸收。
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