Search found 3379 matches
- Mon Jun 20, 2016 8:52 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Texts that destroy ""scientific" materialism
- Replies: 259
- Views: 51885
Re: Texts that destroy ""scientific" materialism
I don't really see the point of using Buddhist scripture to refute scientific materialism. I don't see any way it doesn't end up as "ha! foolish scientists. I have taken your false premises and destroyed them... with SCRIPTURE!" If there is an argument to be made (I think there is) agains...
- Mon Jun 20, 2016 8:45 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Texts that destroy ""scientific" materialism
- Replies: 259
- Views: 51885
Re: Texts that destroy ""scientific" materialism
There's Babylonian numerology throughout Indian cosmologies, but the geography of Mt. Meru is really originally an Indo-European idea. You find it throughout Indo-European civilizations.Malcolm wrote: Anyway, it is pretty clear that Meru Cosmology is a descendent of Babylonian cosmology, shifted to India.
- Mon Jun 20, 2016 8:08 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Texts that destroy ""scientific" materialism
- Replies: 259
- Views: 51885
Re: Texts that destroy ""scientific" materialism
As a moral and aesthetic cosmolgy, not literally. For example, Edward Henning, probably the worlds leading expert on Kalacakra calculations right now, points out in his lengthy technical book, Kalacakra and the Tibetan Calendar , that the authors of the Kalacakra certainly did not take the Meru cos...
- Wed Jun 08, 2016 5:25 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Newar Vajrayana
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2445
Re: Newar Vajrayana
I think Newar Buddhism is 'Indian Buddhism' or at least one form of it. If you set aside modern conventions regarding nation states, the Kathmandu valley was (and still is) an extension of the Indosphere. The Chinese understood Nepal as belonging to 'northern India'. See the following: http://wenyan...
- Wed Jun 08, 2016 4:17 am
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Newar Vajrayana
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2445
Re: Newar Vajrayana
I recall hearing in Kathmandu that Newar teachers (or a teacher) took on non-Nepalese disciples. I can't recall who it was, but if you went to Boudha and asked around you could find out pretty easily.
It sounds like their tradition is slowly opening up.
It sounds like their tradition is slowly opening up.
- Wed Jun 01, 2016 6:27 pm
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Seventh Root Downfall, Academia, Public Life
- Replies: 41
- Views: 8361
Re: Seventh Root Downfall, Academia, Public Life
Keep in mind that the vast majority of Buddhist Tantric materials, be it in Sanskrit, Tibetan or Chinese, are now in the public domain and openly accessible. You might be wrong. Either about "vast majority" or about "public" and "openly accessible". Bear in mind that s...
- Wed Jun 01, 2016 7:12 am
- Forum: East Asian Buddhism
- Topic: What Did the Japanese Preserved that the Chinese Lost?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3089
Re: What Did the Japanese Preserved that the Chinese Lost?
Indrajala, Thank you for that informative breakdown! In terms of the textual canon, do you know of any resources or articles out there that has a comprehensive summary/rundown on each of the Chinese texts that were lost in China proper but later recovered from Japan? Also, off the top of your head,...
- Tue May 31, 2016 4:53 am
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Seventh Root Downfall, Academia, Public Life
- Replies: 41
- Views: 8361
Re: Seventh Root Downfall, Academia, Public Life
Keep in mind that the vast majority of Buddhist Tantric materials, be it in Sanskrit, Tibetan or Chinese, are now in the public domain and openly accessible. This has been the case since before any of us were born. You can walk around Boudha in Kathmandu and see shops selling any variety of mandala ...
- Mon May 30, 2016 7:51 pm
- Forum: East Asian Buddhism
- Topic: What Did the Japanese Preserved that the Chinese Lost?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3089
Re: What Did the Japanese Preserved that the Chinese Lost?
Adding to what I said above, Japan also preserved a lot of iconography that was lost in China, especially materials related to the esoteric tradition. One major example of this is the Taizō zuz ō 胎藏圖象, which is based on materials brought to Japan from China by the Tendai monk Enchin 圓珍 (814–891) who...
- Mon May 30, 2016 7:41 pm
- Forum: East Asian Buddhism
- Topic: What Did the Japanese Preserved that the Chinese Lost?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3089
Re: What Did the Japanese Preserved that the Chinese Lost?
The Taishō canon 大正蔵経, which was compiled between 1924-1934, was based on earlier canons (in particular the Korean canon), but it also includes many Chinese Buddhist texts that had otherwise been lost in China and Korea. As one example, I'm presently reading Yixing's commentary on the Mahāvairocana-...
- Tue May 24, 2016 6:13 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Meaning of a triangle in Buddhism
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1618
Re: Meaning of a triangle in Buddhism
The 'Court of Omniscience' 遍知院, which is directly adjacent to the east of the 'Court of the Eight-petaled Lotus' 中臺八葉院 (the central area) in the Garbhadhātu maṇḍala 胎藏界曼荼羅, includes the Sarva-tathāgata-jñāna-mudrā 一切如來智印, the "The sign of the wisdom of all Tathāgatas." In the case of the G...
- Mon May 23, 2016 4:09 pm
- Forum: Academic Discussion
- Topic: ANU cuts Tibetan & Buddhist Studies
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2468
Re: ANU cuts Tibetan & Buddhist Studies
It isn't just Tibetology and Buddhology that are being slashed. The whole humanities are being dismantled. Even in Japan, PM Abe has attempted to get universities to close humanities departments (Tokyo University and Kyoto University fortunately said no, but they're immensely wealthy and influential...
- Mon May 23, 2016 5:43 am
- Forum: Academic Discussion
- Topic: ANU cuts Tibetan & Buddhist Studies
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2468
ANU cuts Tibetan & Buddhist Studies
I would like to bring this to everyone's attention. Australian National University is cut Professor John Powers, a well-known scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. The details are below. I would encourage you to sign the petition if you feel it right. Dear List-Members, Prof. John Powers of the Australian Na...
- Wed May 18, 2016 6:35 pm
- Forum: East Asian Buddhism
- Topic: Reception of Japanese Buddhism in China
- Replies: 17
- Views: 4967
Re: Reception of Japanese Buddhism in China
I was dismayed when I first learned of the near-universal complicity of the Japanese Buddhist leadership with the imperial project. We need to consider things from the perspective of Japan. It was readily apparent after the Meiji Restoration right through to Pearl Harbor that Japan needed to build ...
- Wed May 18, 2016 2:53 am
- Forum: East Asian Buddhism
- Topic: Reception of Japanese Buddhism in China
- Replies: 17
- Views: 4967
Re: Reception of Japanese Buddhism in China
When Taiwan was a territory under the Empire of Japan, the colonial government encouraged the spread of Japanese Buddhism amongst the residents of the island as a means of fostering a new identity as Japanese subjects. There are remnants of this era around Taipei and elsewhere, though the KMT after ...
- Mon May 09, 2016 11:19 pm
- Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
- Topic: Buddhism in ancient Persia
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2640
Re: Buddhism in ancient Persia
See also The Spread of Buddhism published by Brill:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=kr_M1e ... &q&f=false
https://books.google.ca/books?id=kr_M1e ... &q&f=false
- Thu May 05, 2016 10:22 pm
- Forum: Shingon
- Topic: Book - Shingon - Japanese Esoteric Buddhism
- Replies: 12
- Views: 6744
Re: Book - Shingon - Japanese Esoteric Buddhism
There are specific problems but I won't bore you since my own work is certainly more in line with that dry approach. :tongue: I'm deeply interested in hearing what you found interesting or inspiring in the book, because I'm planning a book to occupy a similar non-specialist position in the future. ...
- Wed May 04, 2016 11:51 pm
- Forum: Academic Discussion
- Topic: Historical Buddhist economic thought
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4440
Re: Historical Buddhist economic thought
Anyway, I see no reason why we as Buddhists shoukd adopt the anti-commercial interests of rural Brahmins. We have always been a religion of trade and reclaiming that is just part of our heritage. I am not taking a position on this. I'm just saying that Buddhist financiers in ancient India were prob...
- Wed May 04, 2016 11:48 pm
- Forum: Academic Discussion
- Topic: Historical Buddhist economic thought
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4440
Re: Historical Buddhist economic thought
I was taught that one of the rationales behind the emergence of Mahayana was to overcome the vinaya prohibition on the handling of currency. There's archaeological and literary evidence to suggest, however, that ordinary monks handled money and this wasn't really a problem. There's one suggestion i...
- Wed May 04, 2016 2:02 am
- Forum: Academic Discussion
- Topic: Historical Buddhist economic thought
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4440
Re: Historical Buddhist economic thought
Schopen compares Buddhist monasticism to Christian several times in his work especially with the similar discrepancy between monastic estates owning wealth and their ideal of poverty. It is a valid observation: nominal vows of poverty, yet monastic institutions owning vast sums of wealth. It is int...