This article thinks alongside the feminist ethic of care tradition to articulate a Tibetan Buddhist ethical approach to the more-than-human world. It begins by unpacking the characterization of ...Tibetan Buddhist ethics as a moral phenomenology before highlighting the major parallels between Buddhist moral phenomenology and the ethic of care tradition. Having made these parallels evident, this article then looks at how the ethic of care tradition has been applied to issues in animal ethics and environmental ethics to similarly think through how a Buddhist moral phenomenology might function in these more-than-human contexts. To further nuance this ecological application of Buddhist ethics, this article then takes up the question of veganism and argues that a Tibetan Buddhist care ethic would ideally adopt the positions of ethical veganism while also recognizing the socio-economic barriers to doing so in certain contexts. Ultimately, this article argues that when Buddhist moral phenomenology is applied to the more-than-human world, it presents as a Buddhist ecological ethic of care which recognizes the interconnected nature of duhkha, the necessity of approaching situations with care as one’s primary conative mode, and an emphasis on context, relationships, and positionality.
This innovative volume brings together the views of leading scholars on a range of controversial subjects including human rights, animal rights, ecology, abortion, euthanasia, and contemporary ...business practice.
The article deals with the phenomenon of synthesis of East and West cultures in the religious philosophy of B.D. Dandaron - one of the most famous representatives of Russian Buddhism in the XX ...century. The beginning of the spread of Buddhist teachings in Russian society is also connected with his extraordinary personality. Dandaron was engaged in active yoga, tantric practice, and also gave instructions to those who were interested in Buddhism. As a result, a small circle of people began to form around him who tried to study and practice Buddhism. Dandaron was also engaged in Buddhist activities, studied Tibetan history and historiography, and described the Tibetan collection of manuscripts. It is indicated that Dandaron not only made an attempt to consider Buddhism from the perspective of Western philosophy, but also created his own teaching, which was called neobuddism. As a result, he was able to conduct a creative synthesis of Buddhist philosophy with the Western philosophical tradition. In fact, he developed a philosophical system that claims to be universal and synthesized Buddhist and Western spiritual achievements. Trying to synthesize the Eastern and Western traditions of philosophical thought, Dandaron turned to the well-known comparative works of the Indian thinker S. Radhakrishnan and the Russian buddhologist F.I. Shcherbatsky. The author also notes the influence on the philosophy of neobuddism of the ideas of V.E. Sesemann, a neo-Kantian philosopher with whom Dandaron was personally acquainted. The idea of non-Buddhism had not only a philosophical and theoretical, but also a practical aspect, since the consideration of Buddhism from the perspective of Western philosophy helped to attract people of Western culture to this religion. In General, Dandarons desire to create a universal synthetic philosophical system was in line with the philosophical and spiritual search of Russian philosophy, and was partly related to the traditional problem of East-West, which has always been relevant for Russia.
Contemporary Buddhism has been fashioned from cross-cultural interactions between a long history of Asian traditions and the expansionist drive of modernity. As part of this engagement, Buddhism, ...particularly in the West, has developed a close relation with transpersonal psychology. This essay forms an introduction to the special issue of articles approaching this relation between Buddhism and psychology in different ways. While some articles probe the difference in aims of the two disciplines, some are concerned with the decontextualized uses of Buddhist techniques such as mindfulness, some explore the possibilities of Buddhist practice in cognitive or other psychological terms and some ground Buddhism in ecopsychological concerns as forms of engagement. This paper outlines the historiography of modern Buddhism and introduces the papers in this special issue of IJTS. Keywords: Western Buddhism, Protestant Buddhism, mindfulness, Vajrayana, Zen, doughnut economics, ox-herding pictures
This book is a study of the formation and the practice of Buddhist canons and an attempt to present as fully as possible the panorama of Chinese Buddhist faith. The book uses textual and ...archaeological sources, including Dunhuang texts, and adopts multiple perspectives such as textual evidence, historical circumstances, social life, as well as the intellectual background at the time.
This article explores the spatiality of Buddhism in the metropolis Shenzhen through its revitalization process in the past decades alongside the rapid expansion of the city. The author explores ...Buddhist practice communities within an urban village (chengzhongcun 城中村) and the central Buddhist temple build in the same neighbourhood. The article aims to illuminate some of the particularities and tensions of urbanization, environment, and the revival of Buddhism in the PRC. Building on Felix Guatarri's thesis of the three ecologies, the author presents a descriptive account of the main active communities in the examined neighbourhood. Furthermore, the article argues that, in order to understand the workings of Buddhist configurations in contemporary urban China, we must look at the registers of the environment, social structure, and human subjectivity. The article suggests that these three ecologies are interconnected and make up the ecology of Shenzhen Buddhism.
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This article uses a Himalayan Buddhist lens to critically interrogate a fundamental premise of "the Anthropocene"---that the epoch commemorates a "newfound" capacity of humans to mobilise Earth ...forces. Rather, Himalayan Buddhism has long held that humans wield geological agency, mobilised through relationships with territorial landscape deities, which inflict severe weather in retaliation for human moral infractions. Offering an alternative model of anthropogenic climate change, Buddhist and Indigenous lifeworlds challenge Western convictions that "the Anthropocene" is a novel planetary epoch. Since the term has gained a vibrant discursive life beyond geology, its cultural assumptions---rather than biophysical thresholds---are primarily evaluated, revealing an extension of Eurocentric colonial logic into this new planetary chapter. Alternatively, I suggest the Himalayan Buddhist term "kawa nyampa" (degenerate era) better encapsulates our transition towards environmental breakdown. There was no need to "invent" the Anthropocene as a new epoch of thought---it had long already existed.
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"Other than the devil, there is no Buddha; other than the Buddha, there is no devil." The Chinese monk Siming Zhili (960-1028) uttered this remark as part of his justification for his ...self-immolation. An exposition of the intent, implications, and resonances of this one sentence, this book expands and unravels the context in which the seeming paradox of the ultimate identity of good and evil is to be understood. In analyzing this idea, Brook Ziporyn provides an overview of the development of Tiantai thought from the fifth through the eleventh centuries in China and contributes to our understanding of Chinese intellectual culture and Chinese Buddhism, as well as to basic ontological, epistemological, and axiological issues of interest in modern philosophy.
Theravada as practiced by most converts in the West is distinguished by the absence of monasticism, its dominant institution. Nevertheless, Thai Forest monasticism has managed to gain a foothold in ...the convert West, thanks to the efforts of convert monastics trained in Thailand. This article analyzes the missionary project to “monasticize” Western lay converts through the history of Birken Forest Monastery in British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1994. To establish a monastery in Birken’s isolated, non-Buddhist environs, the abbot, Ajahn Sona in effect created a lay village to attract converts to and to teach them their role in orthodox Thai Forest monasticism. The all-consuming nature of the monasticization project among laypeople has cut short the training of a homegrown Sangha at Birken, demonstrating the challenges of establishing a domestic convert monasticism and the continuing dominance of the laity in North American Theravada.
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"The core of the book is a complete annotated translation of the collected ‘religious poetry’ (Tibetan: mgur) of the Tibetan yogin Tsangnyön Heruka (gTsang smyon Heruka, 1452–1507). The book also ...contains a translation of a short ‘catalogue’ (dkar chag) of Tsangnyön’s poetry/songs. These two texts were compiled and printed in 1508 by a group of disciples who wanted to express their devotion to their recently deceased master, and make his insights available for others. The Songs of Tsangnyön Heruka begins with an extensive scholarly introduction to Tsangnyön and his songs, providing the reader with a context to the translations. Following the two translated texts, is an appendix introducing Tibetan Buddhism to the general reader, then comes a glossary explaining some of the key terms used in the songs, and finally some back matters, i.e. end notes and bibliographies. Nowadays, Tsangnyön Heruka is mainly known for having written and printed the ‘life story’ (rnam thar) and ‘song collection’ (mgur ’bum) of the famous poet-saint Milarepa (1040–1123). However, Tsangnyön is not only one of Tibet’s foremost authors and poets, he is also one of the best known ‘holy madmen’ (smyon pa) of Tibet. These colourful figures challenged powerful leaders and monks with their peculiar and seemingly crazy ways. In sharp contrast to Milarepa’s life story and songs, Tsangnyön’s were gradually forgotten. Tsangnyön’s songs provide us with a fascinating and direct insight into the lifestyle, teachings, and message of the wandering yogins. Moreover, they give us an idea of how it was in Tibet before the Fifth Dalai Lama came to power in the mid-17th century. However, the songs have a direct, down-to-earth, and human message, making them timeless and relevant also for people living in another time and culture. These songs have never been translated to any language, and they have never been studied thoroughly before."
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