Whereas Christians often give guilt a prominent role, Buddhists are encouraged not to dwell on feelings of guilt. Leading members of the Triratna organisation – Sangharakshita, Subhuti and Subhadramati – characterise guilt as a negative emotion that hinders spiritual growth. However, if we carefully examine the concept of guilt in the manner of Wittgenstein we find that the accounts of guilt given by leading members of Triratna mischaracterise it and so ignore its positive aspects. They should acknowledge the valuable role (...) that guilt can play in our lives. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In the early 1970s, Zen in the United States remained a fledgling new religious movement, characterised by small, informal meditation groups or living room sanghas, and only a handful of larger practice centres in major metropolitan areas. Existing groups were experimenting, tentatively exploring possibilities to adapt Zen for an American context; groups’ continued survival was precarious. In retrospect, the American Zen movement was actually on the cusp of four decades of dramatic growth and change. This paper analyses data preserved (...) in an unpublished study from 1973, and provides an overview of basic patterns such as membership size, geographical distribution, lineage affiliations and the place of teachers. It identifies and profiles the basic types of Zen organisations and their stage of institutional development, with special attention to group longevity, identifying factors that supported future growth and those that placed groups at the greatest risk for dissolution. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article stems from a project launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2017 to examine the degree to which Buddhism might complement or enhance international humanitarian law, also known as ‘the law of war’ or ‘the law of armed conflict’. Given that Buddhist teachings discourage violence, scholarship has critiqued Buddhists’ involvement in armed conflict rather than considered how Buddhism might contribute to regulating the conduct of hostilities once war has broken out. Yet the Buddhist aim (...) to reduce suffering is particularly relevant during armed conflict, and the empirical realism of early Buddhist texts shows that early Buddhist communities were very much aware of its grim reality. The article investigates the evidence for this empirical realism before exploring a range of concepts, doctrines and practices from within Buddhism that are pertinent to the recognition and implementation of IHL principles and the conduct of war. While IHL lays down explicit rules to follow during war, Buddhism emphasises broader ethical principles to be applied, so as not to dilute its ideal of non-violence. At a deeper level, it addresses the intention or motivation of parties to armed conflict, and possesses psychological insights and resources to help change their behaviour. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Despite Jane Hirshfield’s having published 11 books of poetry and having received six awards for poetry, there is a dearth of published criticism on her work. Most of the existing literature consists of online tributes and interviews with the poet, with barely any scholarly consideration. In light of this academic lacuna, we offer a two-fold framework for reading and exploring her poetry. Our foci are the expression of Zen Buddhism and feminist concerns in her poetry. These two themes, although (...) apparently divergent, intersect in Hirshfield’s representation of desire. Desire plays a central role in Zen Buddhism, which theorises it as a central, but problematic, feature of human existence. Desire traps the desiring subject in sensory reality, which is, by its nature, always already contingent. Feminist thinking also foregrounds desire, insisting on women as desiring subjects, and on the complexity of the desiring relation, imbued with overtones of power and domination. Our article explores the representation of desire and relations of desire in a selection of Hirshfield’s poems, demonstrating the centrality and relevance of our twin foci. We offer these here as preliminary tools for reading Hirshfield’s poetry, in the hope of stimulating further research into her work. (shrink)

ABSTRACT A number of scientific writers have proposed manipulating the ecology of Mars in order to make the planet more comfortable for future immigrants from Earth. However, the ethical acceptability of such ‘terraforming’ proposals remains unresolved. In response, in this article I explore some of these scientific proposals through the lens provided by Buddhist environmental ethics that are quantitatively expressed by practitioners in the ethnographic field of the United States. What I find is that contemporary Buddhists combine philosophical notions of (...) interconnectedness with moral considerations not to harm others and then creatively extend this combined sensibility to the protection specifically of abiotic features of Mars. In so doing, these Buddhists significantly reject proposals to alter the Martian ecology planet-wide as beyond the ethical right of humans. Along the way these Buddhists also, importantly, provide an innovative basis for enriching Buddhist environmental ethical protection of abiotic locations, and this strengthening can assist in mitigating climate change on Earth. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper questions the current construction of a 54 metres statue of Maitreya against a 108 metres stupa in the steppe south of Ulaanbaatar, that will stand at the edge of a new ‘eco-city,’ Maidar City. The Grand Maitreya Project was initiated in 2009 by H. Battulga, businessman and MP. The project aims to be ‘one of the largest Buddhist complex in the world,’ and now is a ‘National project for reviving traditional Buddhist education and culture.’ I propose to (...) use religious and art-historical approaches in order to document the ‘birth’ of a Buddhist project, with a special interest in the long process of conception, fundraising and promotional programme. Relying on recent studies on the entanglement of Buddhism, politics, culture, consumerization and tourism that gave rise to new cultual modalities, and on studies of colossal statues recently built in Asia, this article asks what the GMP tells us about modern Mongolian politics and public religious culture. What are the sources of inspiration and foreign references of the GMP? Is it a religious monument that will benefit from the tourist economy, a tourist attraction, or a unifying, nationalist symbol of 21st-century Mongolia? (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper will compare the ritual performance in two transnational Buddhist organizations in contemporary Taiwan in attempt to investigate the influencing factors in shaping transnational Buddhism. The traditions of both Buddhist organizations studied in this paper are foreign in Taiwan: one is of Sri Lankan Theravada tradition and the other is of Vietnamese Mahayana tradition. The ritual performance chosen for the discussion is commonly translated into English as “Ghost Festival”, though as to be shown later, the translation is somehow (...) inappropriate. I will provide the ethnographic accounts of the Ghost Festival performed by the two organizations for discussion and comparison. Two influencing factors emerge from the comparative study are the role of ritual participants and the perception of the sacred. My discussion will show how these two factors shape Buddhist discourse in transnational context. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The restoration of Nanputuo Monastery in Xiamen and the revival of its South China Sea Buddhist networks in recent decades are significant factors in the religious resurgence in southeast China since the reform and open-door period. This article looks at an earlier role of such networks in this region, using Nanputuo Monastery as a case study, to explore the transregional Buddhist connections between southeast China and the Chinese diaspora from the turn of the twentieth century to 1949. It argues (...) that new patterns of Buddhist mobility contributed to the circulation of people, ideas, and resources across the South China Sea. I show that, on the one hand, Buddhist monks and religious knowledge moved along these networks from China to Southeast Asia, while money from wealthy overseas Chinese was channelled along the networks for temple building in China; on the other hand, Buddhist monks relied on the networks to support China’s war effort and facilitate their relocation to Southeast Asia during the Sino–Japanese War. Examining these networks also explains the emergence of modernist Chinese Buddhism throughout Southeast Asia in the early to mid-twentieth century. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The article examines the phenomenon known as the quarter-life crisis. The aim was to explore how young people in the Czech Republic practising Buddhism experience this crisis and how Buddhism influences the way they cope. Qualitative research was used to gain insight into how respondents experience this life phase and whether they perceive the world of too many opportunities as a challenge or a problem. The relationship with consumer culture and material consumption was discussed along with the practice of (...) Buddhism and the way Buddhism-based values play a role in influencing respondents’ lives. Respondents showed they are missing a set of principles and values to ease their orientation in the world and their decision-making process. They found in Buddhism a structure that helps them form a delimitation against consumer and non-sustainable production. As a result of adhering to Buddhism and engaging in some practices based on Buddhism, they reported more control in self-directing together with a growth in self-confidence during the decision-making process. At the same time, they overcame feelings of exclusion, observed as one of the manifestations of a young age crisis. They reported that establishing contacts with like-minded young people, whether in meditation, sports centres or discussion forums on social networking sites, gave them a sense of belonging to a group. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Dependent Origination is one of the fundamental concepts of early Buddhism. Traditionally, it is interpreted as a description of saṃsāra, the cycle of rebirth. This article offers a psychological interpretation of Dependent Origination as a model that describes how the forming unconscious of the foetus develops into the self-conscious mind of the adult human. This perspective opens new possibilities for the integration of Buddhist mind development, cognitive psychology and psychotherapy.

ABSTRACT ‘Mind moment analysis’ is a professional counselling technique rooted in early Buddhist teachings. Employing the process of cognition discussed in Madhupiṇḍika Sutta as its theoretical foundation, mind moment analysis takes form in seven iterative steps for the therapeutic practitioner to help clients deconstruct disturbing mental phenomena, detach from mental turbulence and discern wholesome and unwholesome mind acts. After cultivating stability and clarity of mind, practitioners collaborate with clients to investigate the root causes of craving beneath conceptual proliferations and mindfully (...) choose constructive thoughts, thereby resulting in reduced suffering. This paper introduces the theoretical background of mind moment analysis, uses a case example of this therapeutic intervention with sample transcript verbatim to illustrate each step, and discusses the treatment components of the intervention. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The study of digital religion is currently in its fourth wave of research, focusing closely on the interrelation between users and digital religious technologies. In the fields of philosophy, cognitive science and cultural studies, looping effects, or the dynamic process of subject formation as a result of the development and internalisation of new categorisation schemes, have been investigated independently of the development of digital religious technologies. I bring these separate areas of investigation together to understand the way users are (...) transformed by Buddhist meditation apps. By introducing the framework of a subject transformation matrix, I look closely at how meditation apps create value-laden conceptual spaces within which religious subjects are transformed through processes of self-care. Understanding this dynamic relation between users and digital technologies has deep implications for the development of digital religion studies, our understanding of religious subjectivities and the role of religious apps in public spaces. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Long-distance running is an intra-subjective activity that orients the individual towards his/her own experiences and struggle for achievement within both the narrow context of training and competition and the broader context of life itself. This article takes a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to the obstacles and opportunities entailed in running; within this framework, mindfulness training will be prominently featured. These practices have been shown to strengthen the mind–body connection, increase situational awareness and enhance psychophysical well-being. The aim here is to (...) examine the experiential aspect of long-distance running, aided by various understandings gleaned from mindfulness, phenomenology, Buddhism and sports, with a special emphasis on the memoir What I Talk about When I Talk about Running, by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper aims to understand the complex and ambivalent relationships that globalized Buddhism between Asia and the West has with the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of Buddhism’s adaptation of practices to the pandemic and its representational position in society. Buddhism is not the most renowned religion in the media for its interpretation of the causes of the pandemic, nor is it the one that has epitomized the most original adaptations, particularly digital ones, of religions in a context of (...) restricted sociability. Above all, it offers introspective resources that can help to psychologically resist the lockdown and the restriction of sociability imposed by governments, thus psychologically palliating a normative and brutal inflection of social habits. Based on an analysis of information published in analogical and electronic media, as well as personal knowledge of the empirical expressions and scriptural forms of Buddhism, this article intends to show that, far from being limited to this single contribution, Buddhism has an ambivalent relationship to the COVID-19 pandemic, much like other religions. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article discusses how the Fo Guang Shan Nan Hua Temple in South Africa constitutes a transnational religious space linking a ‘Global China’ and the dynamic interplay of its constituent parts with the South African host society. It does so by looking at the complex processes of Chinese migration and diaspora building that generate the conditions for Fo Guang Shan’s developmental trajectory in South Africa, but also takes into consideration how Fo Guang Shan’s renjian Buddhism, (...) and therefore socially engaged approach to the Dharma, generates multiple linkages and entanglements with South Africa’s host society. It aims to shed light on these dynamics, by examining the many different groups that are involved in the Nan Hua Temple. I argue that it is the ‘modernness’ of Fo Guang Shan renjian Buddhism which, through a multitude of social, cultural, religious, charity and educational engagements, generates complex and diverse dynamics that link the Nan Hua temple space with the South African host society, a society that itself consists of people from a variety of backgrounds. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The practice of adapting discourse to cultural and political circumstances is a recurring theme in Buddhist history in China. Today, as for all the religious institutions in China, Buddhism must respond to Chinese government ideology, including the official call to improve environmental conditions in the country. The Chinese Buddhist Association takes its discourse from the ecological adaptation or interpretation of Buddhist modernism, especially from “Humanistic Buddhism,” and also incorporates political rhetoric. As Buddhism is one of the most influential and (...) widespread religions in Chinese society, it is possible to find different Buddhist ecological narratives. Nevertheless, current developments of the government with the new constitution shifting interpretations of Chinese socialism are eroding the spiritual aspects of Buddhist ecological discourse. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article deals with the Buddhist approach to death and the dilemmas facing Buddhists as regards the donation of their bodies after death. In particular, the article outlines the importance of the death process in providing an opportunity for transformation and Enlightenment. Firstly, the article deals with the issue of how bodies are procured for transplantation. This section notes the importance of the ‘brain death’ approach and the consequential issues surrounding the procurement of bodies that may arguably not be (...) dead. Secondly, the article explores Buddhist views on organ transplants and how such views may fit within Buddhist ideas of the body, dying and the after life. In particular, the article describes how Buddhists may wish to structure their death and how these desires may not fit in with the structure and operation of ‘transplant medicine’. (shrink)