Author : Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 36,46 MB
Release : 2017-12-21
Category : Art
ISBN : 022651790X
"This book is an introduction to Buddhism told as the story of the Korean pilgrim Hyecho, who traveled through the Buddhist world during its eighth-century golden age. Lopez tells the story of Hyecho's journey, along the way introducing key elements of Buddhism--its basic doctrines, monastic institutions, relationship to Islam, and importance of pilgrimage.
Author : Albert Shansky
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 45,41 MB
Release : 2015-03-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0786484241
Structured as a patchwork of conversations, recollections, and lyrical encounters, this rich spiritual autobiography allows readers to eavesdrop on a restless soul in quest of self, God, and home. The memoir tells the story of an American who became intrigued by Buddhism through his love of Asian art and who decided to study the discipline in a Japanese Soto Zen monastery. In Part One, the author gives an account of his life in the Hosshinji monastery in Obama, Japan, detailing his daily routine and his participation in a traditional Takuhatsu almsgiving ceremony, a Sesshin period of intensive meditation, and a Jukai Buddhist initiation ceremony. Part Two describes the author's difficult search for a Buddhist temple to continue his religious practices upon returning to the United States. Part Three deals with the author's involvement in the International Institute for Field-Being and details how his Buddhist training helped prepare him for that venture. Part Four describes obstacles the author has encountered as a lone Buddhism practitioner since his training.
Author : Duncan Ryūken Williams
Publisher : Belknap Press
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 31,24 MB
Release : 2019-02-19
Category : History
ISBN : 0674986539
Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion A Los Angeles Times Bestseller “Raises timely and important questions about what religious freedom in America truly means.” —Ruth Ozeki “A must-read for anyone interested in the implacable quest for civil liberties, social and racial justice, religious freedom, and American belonging.” —George Takei On December 7, 1941, as the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, the first person detained was the leader of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist sect in Hawai‘i. Nearly all Japanese Americans were subject to accusations of disloyalty, but Buddhists aroused particular suspicion. From the White House to the local town council, many believed that Buddhism was incompatible with American values. Intelligence agencies targeted the Buddhist community, and Buddhist priests were deemed a threat to national security. In this pathbreaking account, based on personal accounts and extensive research in untapped archives, Duncan Ryūken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation’s history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American. “A searingly instructive story...from which all Americans might learn.” —Smithsonian “Williams’ moving account shows how Japanese Americans transformed Buddhism into an American religion, and, through that struggle, changed the United States for the better.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer “Reading this book, one cannot help but think of the current racial and religious tensions that have gripped this nation—and shudder.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot
Author : Cheryl A. Giles
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 16,55 MB
Release : 2020-12-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1611808650
Gold Nautilus Book Award Winner Leading African American Buddhist teachers offer lessons on racism, resilience, spiritual freedom, and the possibility of a truly representative American Buddhism. With contributions by Acharya Gaylon Ferguson, Cheryl A. Giles, Gyōzan Royce Andrew Johnson, Ruth King, Kamilah Majied, Lama Rod Owens, Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Sebene Selassie, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde. What does it mean to be Black and Buddhist? In this powerful collection of writings, African American teachers from all the major Buddhist traditions tell their stories of how race and Buddhist practice have intersected in their lives. The resulting explorations display not only the promise of Buddhist teachings to empower those facing racial discrimination but also the way that Black Buddhist voices are enriching the Dharma for all practitioners. As the first anthology comprised solely of writings by African-descended Buddhist practitioners, this book is an important contribution to the development of the Dharma in the West.
Author : Joyce Morgan
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 30,33 MB
Release : 2012-08-22
Category : History
ISBN : 0762787333
When a Chinese monk broke into a hidden cave in 1900, he uncovered one of the world’s great literary secrets: a time capsule from the ancient Silk Road. Inside, scrolls were piled from floor to ceiling, undisturbed for a thousand years. The gem within was the Diamond Sutra of AD 868. This key Buddhist teaching, made 500 years before Gutenberg inked his press, is the world’s oldest printed book. The Silk Road once linked China with the Mediterranean. It conveyed merchants, pilgrims and ideas. But its cultures and oases were swallowed by shifting sands. Central to the Silk Road’s rediscovery was a man named Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-born scholar and archaeologist employed by the British service. Undaunted by the vast Gobi Desert, Stein crossed thousands of desolate miles with his fox terrier Dash. Stein met the Chinese monk and secured the Diamond Sutra and much more. The scroll’s journey—by camel through arid desert, by boat to London’s curious scholars, by train to evade the bombs of World War II—merges an explorer’s adventures, political intrigue, and continued controversy. The Diamond Sutra has inspired Jack Kerouac and the Dalai Lama. Its journey has coincided with the growing appeal of Buddhism in the West. As the Gutenberg Age cedes to the Google Age, the survival of the Silk Road’s greatest treasure is testament to the endurance of the written word.
Author : Helen Tworkov
Publisher : Kodansha
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 23,22 MB
Release : 1994
Category : Religion
ISBN :
This expanded edition of the highly acclaimed investigation of Zen teaching in America, by the founder and editor of America's first Buddhist magazine, lays bare the issues at the heart of the Zen mission. Through in-depth portraits of five American Zen masters, Tworkov creates a trenchant sociological picture of an important strand of American spiritual life. 27 photos.
Author : Richard Hughes Seager
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 48,33 MB
Release : 2012-07-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0231504373
Over the past half century in America, Buddhism has grown from a transplanted philosophy to a full-fledged religious movement, rich in its own practices, leaders, adherents, and institutions. Long favored as an essential guide to this history, Buddhism in America covers the three major groups that shape the tradition—an emerging Asian immigrant population, native-born converts, and old-line Asian American Buddhists—and their distinct, yet spiritually connected efforts to remake Buddhism in a Western context. This edition updates existing text and adds three new essays on contemporary developments in American Buddhism, particularly the aging of the baby boom population and its effect on American Buddhism's modern character. New material includes revised information on the full range of communities profiled in the first edition; an added study of a second generation of young, Euro-American leaders and teachers; an accessible look at the increasing importance of meditation and neurobiological research; and a provocative consideration of the mindfulness movement in American culture. The volume maintains its detailed account of South and East Asian influences on American Buddhist practices, as well as instances of interreligious dialogue, socially activist Buddhism, and complex gender roles within the community. Introductory chapters describe Buddhism's arrival in America with the nineteenth-century transcendentalists and rapid spread with the Beat poets of the 1950s. The volume now concludes with a frank assessment of the challenges and prospects of American Buddhism in the twenty-first century.
Author : Charles S. Prebish
Publisher :
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 36,56 MB
Release : 2011
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781896559094
Charles Prebish is world-renowned as a leading Buddhist scholar, with more than 20 books and 100 academic articles to his credit. Since his involvement with Buddhism began in 1965, he has had the privilege and honor to meet all of America's distinguished and visiting Buddhist teachers, to work with Buddhist scholars around the world, and to deepen the academic study of Buddhism. While his specialization is in monastic discipline, he is most widely known as the first scholar to seriously examine Buddhism in America as a distinct field of study. His pioneering efforts in this regard have had a profound impact on the study of Buddhism's history in North America, which is now one of the most active areas of global Buddhist research. Dr Prebish was Founding Co-Chair of the Buddhism Section of the American Academy of Religion in 1981, Founding Co-Publisher of the first online peer-reviewed journal in the field of religious studies - "The Journal of Buddhist Ethics," and five years later another online journal - "The Journal of Global Buddhism." He recently retired as Professor Emeritus from Utah State University, after a 35-year career teaching at Pennsylvania State University. "An American Buddhist Life" is his story, with reflection on where Buddhism in America has been and where it's going.
Author : Rick Fields
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 587 pages
File Size : 44,18 MB
Release : 2022-02-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1611804736
A modern classic unparalleled in scope, this sweeping history unfolds the story of Buddhism’s spread to the West. How the Swans Came to the Lake opens with the story of Asian Buddhism, including the life of the Buddha and the spread of his teachings from India to Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and elsewhere. Coming to the modern era, the book tracks how Western colonialism in Asia served as the catalyst for the first large-scale interactions between Buddhists and Westerners. Author Rick Fields discusses the development of Buddhism in the West through key moments such as Transcendentalist fascination with Eastern religions; immigration of Chinese and Japanese people to the United States; the writings of D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and members of the Beat movement; the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki; the arrival of Tibetan lamas in America and Europe; and the influence of Western feminist and social justice movements on Buddhist practice. This fortieth anniversary edition features both new and enhanced photographs as well as a new introduction by Fields’s nephew, Buddhist Studies scholar Benjamin Bogin, who reflects on the impact of this book since its initial publication and addresses the significant changes in Western Buddhist practice in recent decades.
Author : Wendy Cadge
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 30,75 MB
Release : 2008-10-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0226089010
Theravada is one of the three main branches of Buddhism. In Asia it is practiced widely in Thailand, Laos, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia. This fascinating ethnography opens a window onto two communities of Theravada Buddhists in contemporary America: one outside Philadelphia that is composed largely of Thai immigrants and one outside Boston that consists mainly of white converts. Wendy Cadge first provides a historical overview of Theravada Buddhism and considers its specific origins here in the United States. She then brings her findings to bear on issues of personal identity, immigration, cultural assimilation, and the nature of religion in everyday life. Her work is the first systematic comparison of the ways in which immigrant and convert Buddhists understand, practice, and adapt the Buddhist tradition in America. The men and women whom Cadge meets and observes speak directly to us in this work, both in their personal testimonials and as they meditate, pray, and practice Buddhism. Creative and insightful, Heartwood will be of enormous value to sociologists of religion and anyone wishing to understand the rise of Buddhism in the Western world.
