Author : Sangharakshita
Publisher : Windhorse Publications
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 31,61 MB
Release : 2013-09-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1909314161
Imagine a world without beauty, myth, celebration or ritual. It seems that to feel fully and vibrantly alive, these experiences are essential to us. Devotional ritual speaks this language of the heart, but can be a confronting aspect of Buddhism for some people in the West. Skilfully steering us through the difficulties we may encounter, Sangharakshita leads us through the sevenfold puja, a sequence of devotional moods found in Tibetan and Indian forms of Buddhism
Author : Jörg Gengnagel
Publisher : Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 24,96 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Buddhism
ISBN : 9783447051521
Words and Deeds is a collection of articles on rituals in South Asia with a special focus on their texts and context. The volume presupposes that a comprehensive definition of "ritual" does not exist. Instead, the papers in it avoid essentialist definitions, allowing for a possible polythetic definition of the concept to emerge. Papers in this volume include those on Initiation, Pre-Natal Rites, Religious Processions, Royal Consecration, Rituals which mark the commencement of ritual, Rituals of devotion and Vedic sacrifice as well as contributions which address the broader theoretical issues of engaging in the study of ritual texts and ritual practice, both from the etic and the emic perspective. These studies show that any study of the relationship between the text and the context of rituals must also allow for the possibility that different categories of performers can and do subjectively constitute the relationship between their ritual knowledge and ritual practice, between text and context in differing and nuanced ways.
Author : Sangharakshita (Bhikshu)
Publisher : Windhorse Publications (UK)
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 49,12 MB
Release : 1995
Category : Philosophy
ISBN :
Some Westerners are disconcerted to find a strong emphasis on ritual in all forms of Buddhism. However, Buddhists need to bring their whole self to their spiritual practice, including their deepest emotions, and this book explains the importance of devotional practice for the spiritual life.
Author : Glenn Wallis
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 41,54 MB
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 079148842X
Mediating the Power of Buddhas offers a fascinating analysis of the seventh-century ritual manual, the Mañjusrimulakalpa. This medieval text is intended to reveal the path into a ritual universe where the power of a buddha abides. Author Glenn Wallis traces the strategies of the Mañjusrimulakalpa to enable its committed reader to perfect the promised ritual, uncovering what conditions must be met for ritual practice to succeed and what personal characteristics practitioners must possess in order to realize the ritual intentions of the Buddhist community. The manual itself was written at a key point in Buddhist history, one when Hindu forms of practice were still imitated and on the cusp of the shift from Mahāyāna to Vajrayāna (or Tantric) Buddhism. In addition, the Mañjusrimulakalpa presents a rich compendium of Buddhist life in an earlier era, containing information on a variety of its readers' concerns: astrology, astronomy, medicine and healing, ritual practice, iconography, devotion, and meditation.
Author : Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang-grags-pa
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 49,58 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Religion
ISBN : 086171153X
Devoting oneself to a spiritual teacher is a practice much misunderstood in the West, yet fundamental to the tanctric Buddhism of Tibet.
Author : Sangharakshita
Publisher : Windhorse Publications (UK)
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 44,74 MB
Release : 2003-09-07
Category : Buddhism
ISBN : 9780904766967
All Buddhist traditions have given a central place to ritual and devotional chanting, often in a mixture of the local language and the inherited Buddhist languages, Pali and Sanskrit. Chanting in the local language ensures that some aspects of the ritual are a readily accessible focus for devotion, whilst chanting in Pali and Sanskrit provides a link with other Buddhists throughout history and across the world.
Author : Kevin Trainor
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 42,44 MB
Release : 1997-06-13
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780521582803
This book is a serious study of relic veneration among South Asian Buddhists. Drawing on textual sources and archaeological evidence from India and Sri Lanka, including material rarely examined in the West, it looks specifically at the practice of relic veneration in the Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist tradition. The author portrays relic veneration as a technology of remembrance and representation which makes present the Buddha of the past for living Buddhists. By analysing the abstract ideas, emotional orientation and ritual behaviour centred on the Buddha's material remains, he contributes to the 'rematerializing' of Buddhism which is currently under way among Western scholars. This book is an excellent introduction to Buddhist relics. It is well written and accessible and will be read by scholars and serious students of Buddhism and religious studies for years to come.
Author : Julie Gifford
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 44,20 MB
Release : 2011-03-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1136817956
Providing an overall interpretation of the Buddhist monument Borobudur in Indonesia, this book looks at Mahayana Buddhist religious ideas and practices that could have informed Borobudur, including both the narrative reliefs and the Buddha images. The author explores a version of the classical Mahayana that foregrounds the importance of the visual in relation to Buddhist philosophy, meditation, devotion, and ritual. The book goes on to show that the architects of Borobudur designed a visual world in which the Buddha appeared in a variety of forms and could be interpreted in three ways: by realizing the true nature of his teaching, through visionary experience, and by encountering his numinous presence in images. Furthermore, the book analyses a particularly comprehensive and programmatic expression of Mahayana Buddhist visual culture so as to enrich the theoretical discussion of the monument. It argues that the relief panels of Borobudur do not passively illustrate, but rather creatively "picture" selected passages from texts. Presenting new material, the book contributes immensely to a new and better understanding of the significance of the Borobudur for the field of Buddhist and Religious Studies.
Author : James L. Ford
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 11,79 MB
Release : 2006-08-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0190293276
This is the first book-length study in any language of Jō kei (1155-1213), a prominent Buddhist cleric of the Hossō (Yog=ac=ara) school, whose life bridged the momentous transition from Heian (794-1185) to Kamakura (1185-1333) Japan. "Kamakura Buddhism" has drawn notable scholarly attention, largely because it marks the emergence of new schools-Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen-that came to dominate the Buddhist landscape of Japan. Although Jōkei is invariably cited as one of the leading representatives of established Buddhism during the Kamakura period, he has been seriously neglected by Western scholars. In this book, James L. Ford aims to shed light on this pivotal and long-overlooked figure. Ford argues convincingly that Jōkei is an ideal personage through which to peer anew into the socio-religious dynamics of early medieval Japan. Indeed, Jōkei is uniquely linked to a number of decisive trends and issues of dispute including: the conflict between the established schools and Hōnen's exclusive nenbutsu movement; the precept-revival movement; doctrinal reform efforts; the proliferation of prominent "reclusive monks" (tonseisō); the escalation of fundraising (kanjin) campaigns and popular propagation; and the conspicuous revival of devotion toward 'Sákyamuni and Maitreya. Jōkei represents a paradigm within established Buddhism that recognized the necessity of accessing other powers through esoteric practices, ritual performances, and objects of devotion. While Jōkei is best known as a leading critic of Hōnen's exclusive nenbutsu movement and a conservative defender of normative Buddhist principles, he was also a progressive reformer in his own right. Far from defending the status quo, Jōkei envisioned a more accessible, harmonious, and monastically upright form of Buddhism. Through a detailed examination of Jōkei's extensive writings and activities, Ford challenges many received interpretations of Jōkei's legacy and the transformation of Buddhism in early medieval Japan. This book fills a significant lacuna in Buddhist scholarship
Author : A. G. S. Kariyawasam
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 13,76 MB
Release : 1995
Category : Buddhism
ISBN : 9789552401268
