Satan and Mara: Christian and Buddhist Symbols of Evil*
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Finnigan Karma Moral Responsibility Buddhist Ethics
Forthcoming in Vargas & Doris (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology 1 Karma, Moral Responsibility, and Buddhist Ethics Bronwyn Finnigan ANU The Buddha taught that there is no self. He also accepted a version of the doctrine of karmic rebirth, according to which good and bad actions accrue merit and demerit respectively and where this determines the nature of the agent’s next life and explains some of the beneficial or harmful occurrences in that life. But how is karmic rebirth possible if there are no selves? If there are no selves, it would seem there are no agents that could be held morally responsible for ‘their’ actions. If actions are those happenings in the world performed by agents, it would seem there are no actions. And if there are no agents and no actions, then morality and the notion of karmic retribution would seem to lose application. Historical opponents argued that the Buddha's teaching of no self was tantamount to moral nihilism. The Buddha, and later Buddhist philosophers, firmly reject this charge. The relevant philosophical issues span a vast intellectual terrain and inspired centuries of philosophical reflection and debate. This article will contextualise and survey some of the historical and contemporary debates relevant to moral psychology and Buddhist ethics. They include whether the Buddha's teaching of no-self is consistent with the possibility of moral responsibility; the role of retributivism in Buddhist thought; the possibility of a Buddhist account of free will; the scope and viability of recent attempts to naturalise karma to character virtues and vices, and whether and how right action is to be understood within a Buddhist framework. -
The Story of the Buddha and the Roots of Buddhism
The Story of The Buddha and the Roots of Buddhism Born in Nepal in the 6th (500’s) century B.C., Buddha was a spiritual leader and teacher whose life serves as the foundation of the Buddhist religion. A man named Siddhartha Gautama and he had achieved full awareness -- would one day become known as Buddha. thereby becoming Buddha. Buddha means "enlightened one" or "the awakened.” Siddhartha lived in Nepal during Early Years of His Life the 6th to 4th century B.C. While scholars The Buddha, or "enlightened one," was agree that he did in fact live, the events of his born Siddhartha (which means "he who life are still debated. According to the most achieves his aim") Gautama to a large clan widely known story of his life, after called the Shakyas in Lumbini in modern day experimenting with different teachings for Nepal in the 500’s B.C. His father was king years, and finding none of them acceptable, who ruled the tribe, known to be economically Gautama spent a fateful night in deep poor and on the outskirts geographically. His meditation. During his meditation, all of the mother died seven days after giving birth to answers he had been seeking became clear him, but a holy man prophesized great things explained that the ascetic had renounced the for the young Siddhartha: He would either be world to seek release from the human fear of a great king or military leader or he would be death and suffering. Siddhartha was a great spiritual leader. overcome by these sights, and the next day, To keep his son from witnessing the at age 29, he left his kingdom, wife and son miseries and suffering of the world, to lead an ascetic life, and determine a way Siddhartha's father raised him in extreme to relieve the universal suffering that he now luxury in a palace built just for the boy and understood to be one of the defining traits of sheltered him from knowledge of religion and humanity. -
And Daemonic Buddhism in India and Tibet
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2012 The Raven and the Serpent: "The Great All- Pervading R#hula" Daemonic Buddhism in India and Tibet Cameron Bailey Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE RAVEN AND THE SERPENT: “THE GREAT ALL-PERVADING RHULA” AND DMONIC BUDDHISM IN INDIA AND TIBET By CAMERON BAILEY A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Religion Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2012 Cameron Bailey defended this thesis on April 2, 2012. The members of the supervisory committee were: Bryan Cuevas Professor Directing Thesis Jimmy Yu Committee Member Kathleen Erndl Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii For my parents iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank, first and foremost, my adviser Dr. Bryan Cuevas who has guided me through the process of writing this thesis, and introduced me to most of the sources used in it. My growth as a scholar is almost entirely due to his influence. I would also like to thank Dr. Jimmy Yu, Dr. Kathleen Erndl, and Dr. Joseph Hellweg. If there is anything worthwhile in this work, it is undoubtedly due to their instruction. I also wish to thank my former undergraduate advisor at Indiana University, Dr. Richard Nance, who inspired me to become a scholar of Buddhism. -
Arts of Asia Lecture Series Spring 2015 Masterpieces and Iconic Artworks of the Asian Art Museum Sponsored by the Society for Asian Art
Arts of Asia Lecture Series Spring 2015 Masterpieces and Iconic Artworks of the Asian Art Museum Sponsored by The Society for Asian Art “The Buddha Triumphing Over Mara: Form and Meaning in Buddhist Art” Susan L. Huntington The Ohio State University 2.13.15 Goal of Lecture To explore a single masterpiece in the Asian Art Museum Collection from numerous perspectives, incluDing the historical anD religious purpose of the work, its importance as a representative of the Pala School of InDian sculpture, anD the materials anD techniques involved in its creation. Vocabulary and Terms Pala Dynasty (8th-12th century, eastern India and Bangladesh) Sakyamuni Buddha (historical Buddha of our era) Mara (“Death,” the enemy of the BuDDha) Mara Vijaya (Buddha’s victory over Mara) Bodh Gaya (Site in eastern India where Mara Vijaya occurred) Bodhi tree (Location at Bodh Gaya where Mara Vijaya occurred) Buddhism (the moral, ethical system that is the BuDDha’s legacy) Samsara (the world of illusion in which we dwell) Karma (our actions, gooD or baD, as Determinants of our progress) Nirvana (the ultimate goal of BuDDhism; to escape samsara) Four Noble Truths (the principles underpinning Buddhist teachings) Eightfold Path (the methoD by which we can escape samsara anD attain nirvana) Suggested Reading Casey, Jane Anne. Medieval Sculpture from Eastern India: Selections From the Nalin Collection. (New Jersey: Nalini International, 1985). See especially the appenDices regarDing the materials out of which the Pala-period works are maDe. Huntington, Susan L., with contributions by John C. Huntington. Art of Ancient India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jain. (Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1985; reprint, New Delhi: Motilal BanarsiDass, 2014). -
The Signs of the Death Described in Vimalaprabha - Special Reference to the Chapter of Aristamat-Analaksana-Nadiccheda-Mahoddesah
Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, Vol. 49, No. 1, December 2000 (57) The signs of the death described in Vimalaprabha - Special reference to the chapter of Aristamat-analaksana-nadiccheda-mahoddesah- Minenori MATSUMOTO Death (marana, mrtyu, cyuti) is one of the important topics in the Buddhism. Then, the Yoga that simulate death developed on Buddhist Tantrism. Well, how were Buddhists thinking about human's death when they constructed the system of this yoga? I pay attention to description about the signs of death (arista) of the human being explained in the chapter of Aristamaranalaksana-nadiccheda-ma- hoddesah (Au) of Vimalaprabha (VP), and try to do a consideration by this paper. The cause that a human ruins health, and the definition of the death. Why does a human become sick? Au explains that the cause of sickness is in bad condition of the elements of the body (dhatu), and then cause of bad condition is in bad condition of the flow of purana. Moreover, explains that it is the good health that flowing intermittently (avyucchinna) through the vessel (nadi) with the wind of prana in the right and left in the body, and it is a fundamental cause of the death that this flow is interrupted (viccheda) and wind of purana flows into the central vessel (avaduti) in the body. These things are described in Au as follows "Wh en it is bitten and struck, the flow of purana of the right and left is prevented, wind flows into avaduti, and it dies." (VP I p208, 11.1015 (summary)) "Th e characteristic(laksana) whichbecomes full at 100 years of the centralvessel are the number of the human's life (jivitasamkhya)."(VP I p191, 1.10) As mentioned above, Au explains the death by wind's flowing into the central vessel, and furthermore explains that 100 years is a human's life span as a charac- teristic (laksana) of avaduti. -
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations 1
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations 1 Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations Chair • Whitney Cox Professors • Muzaffar Alam - Director of Graduate Studies • Dipesh Chakrabarty • Ulrike Stark • Gary Tubb Associate Professors • Whitney Cox • Thibaut d’Hubert • Sascha Ebeling • Rochona Majumdar Assistant Professors • Andrew Ollett • Tyler Williams - Director of Undergraduate Studies Visiting Professors • E. Annamalai Associated Faculty • Daniel A. Arnold (Divinity School) • Christian K. Wedemeyer (Divinity School) Instructional Professors • Mandira Bhaduri • Jason Grunebaum • Sujata Mahajan • Timsal Masud • Karma T. Ngodup Emeritus Faculty • Wendy Doniger • Ronald B. Inden • Colin P. Masica • C. M. Naim • Clinton B.Seely • Norman H. Zide The Department The Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations is a multidisciplinary department comprised of faculty with expertise in the languages, literatures, histories, philosophies, and religions of South Asia. The examination of South Asian texts, broadly defined, is the guiding principle of our Ph.D. degree, and the dissertation itself. This involves acquaintance with a wide range of South Asian texts and their historical contexts, and theoretical reflection on the conditions of understanding and interpreting these texts. These goals are met through departmental seminars and advanced language courses, which lead up to the dissertation project. The Department admits applications only for the Ph.D. degree, although graduate students in the doctoral program may receive an M.A. degree in the course of their work toward the Ph.D. Students admitted to the doctoral program are awarded a six-year fellowship package that includes full tuition, academic year stipends, stipends for some summers, and medical insurance. Experience in teaching positions is a required part of the 2 Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations program, and students are given opportunities to teach at several levels in both language courses and other courses. -
The Defeat of Mara
THE DEFEAT OF MARA The story of the Buddha, whose name means "the Enlightened One," is part history and part myth. The real Gautama Siddhartha was born in the 6th century B. C., a prince in the Shakya Kingdom of Northern India (now Nepal). Because he became a very great teacher of religious wisdom, his life story was reinterpreted in symbolic terms emphasizing his extraordinary nature. Before he was born, his mother dreamed of a radiant white elephant descending from heaven and entering her right side. Because of this dream, the positions of the stars at the time of his birth, and the unusual marks on his body, the holy men at the palace foretold that this child would grow up to be a great leader of men. He would be either a powerful and influential king or a wise religious teacher. His father, a king himself and member of the warrior caste, wanted his son, of course, to be a king. Therefore, from the time he was old enough to learn, Siddhartha's father The Buddha being born painlessly from his gave him everything he needed to become a great king. He was given mother’s side. lessons in history and government and was trained in all the arts of warfare. When the proper time came, the king arranged a marriage for Siddhartha with the most beautiful and gentle princess in the land. The prince enjoyed his life in the palace, loved his wife, and for many years never questioned his father's rule, which forbade him to go outside the city walls. -
Reiko Ohnuma Animal Doubles of the Buddha
H U M a N I M A L I A 7:2 Reiko Ohnuma Animal Doubles of the Buddh a The life-story of the Buddha, as related in traditional Buddha-biographies from India, has served as a masterful founding narrative for the religion as a whole, and an inexhaustible mine of images and concepts that have had deep reverberations throughout the Buddhist tradition. The basic story is well-known: The Buddha — who should properly be referred to as a bodhisattva (or “awakening-being”) until the moment when he attains awakening and becomes a buddha — is born into the world as a human prince named Prince Siddhārtha. He spends his youth in wealth, luxury, and ignorance, surrounded by hedonistic pleasures, and marries a beautiful princess named Yaśodharā, with whom he has a son. It is only at the age of twenty-nine that Prince Siddhārtha, through a series of dramatic events, comes to realize that all sentient beings are inevitably afflicted by old age, disease, death, and the perpetual suffering of samsara, the endless cycle of death-and-rebirth that characterizes the Buddhist universe. In response to this profound realization, he renounces his worldly life as a pampered prince and “goes forth from home into homelessness” (as the common Buddhist phrase describes it) to become a wandering ascetic. Six years later, while meditating under a fig tree (later known as the Bodhi Tree or Tree of Awakening), he succeeds in discovering a path to the elimination of all suffering — the ultimate Buddhist goal of nirvana — and thereby becomes the Buddha (the “Awakened One”). -
Chandogya Upanishad 1.2.1: Once Upon a Time the Gods and the Demons, Both Descendants of Prajapati, Were Engaged in a Fight
A Preview “… Dr. Prasad’s collections of the two largest and most difficult to understand Upanishads make an in-road and gives access to the magnificent conclusions left by the ancient sages of India. This book gives us a view of the information which was divulged by those teachers. It is easy to read and understand and will encourage you to delve deeper into the subject matter.” CONTENTS 1. Chāndogya Upanishad……..…….…. 3 1. The big famine…………………………….…..... 6 2. The cart-man…………………………….………13 3 Satyakama Jabala and Sevā………………… 14 4. Fire teaches Upakosala…………….………… 15 Chāndogya 5. Svetaketu: five questions……………………. 18 and 6. Svetaketu: nature of sleep…………………... 22 7. That thou art, O Svetaketu………………….…23 Brihadāranyaka 8. Indra and virochana……………………….….. 29 Commentary…………………………...……..... 31 Upanishads End of Commenrary……………………....….. 55 Two large and difficult Upanishads are presented 2. Brihadāranyaka Upanishad …….…56 (without original Sanskrit verses) in simple modern English for those advanced students who have 9. Dialogue: Ajtsatru-Gargya……………...…. 61 read Bhagavad-Gita and other 9 Principal 10. Yajnavalkya and maitreyi ……………....…..63 Upanishads. Simpler important verses are 11. Meditation taught through horse’s head.. 65 12. Yajnavalkya: The best Vedic Scholar…… 66 printed in underlined-bold; comm- 13. Three ‘Da’ …………………………….…….…78 entaries from translators, references&Glossary. Commentary…………………………….……... 84 14. Each soul is dear to the other………...……90 By 15. The Wisdom of the Wise (Yagnavalkya)… 91 16. Gargi and the Imperishable ……………..…94 Swami Swahananda 17. Janaka and Yajnavalkya 1 ……………..…..95 and 18. Janaka and Yajnavalkya 2 …………..……..97 Swami Madhavananda et al. 19. The Process of Reincarnation…… …..… 100 Editor: Ramananda Prasad End of Commenrary …………….…..……….105 A Brief Sanskrit Glossary On page 844 of 908 of the pdf: www.gita-society.com/108Upanishads.pdf INTERNATIONAL GITA ***** Editor’s note: Most of the materials in this book are SOCIETY taken from the above webpage which does not have a Copyright mark. -
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD SWAMI KRISHNANANDA DISCOURSE-34 (26 APRIL 1977) CHAPTER V Fifth Brahmana THE REAL EXPLAINED Among the various methods of meditation, a popular one is what is known as the resolution of the effect into the cause. This is a very popular method prescribed in many other scriptures. It is easy to understand too and stands to reason. A suggestion that this method can be adopted in meditation is made in the following section. The method is a contemplation on the process of retracing the steps that are taken in the process of evolution. Evolution is how things come from causes and shape themselves into effects. We have to understand the theory of evolution, creation, manifestation and how the one becomes the many, gradually, by stages. The same stages have to be now contemplated backward. The grossest appearance of manifestation is this earth plane. We individuals inhabit this earth. We have all come from certain substances emanating from the earth. We can thus be resolved back into the earth. The body, for instance, which is constituted of the essence of food is resolvable into the earth element because the substance of food is the substance of the earth. Thus, anything that is in the body, physically, is subject to return to its cause, namely, the earth, as actually happens when the body is cast off at the time of death. The physical constituents return to their original abode which is the earth. The earth has come from water, water from fire, fire from air, and air from ether. -
Four Noble Truths Compared.Pages
Four Noble Truths Thursday, December 3, 2015 The four simple truths the Buddha taught, and which form the core teachings of Buddhism across all denominations, groups, and sanghas, have been variously interpreted and explained over the millennia. For such simple statements, the range of these interpretations is surprising. Here I’ve gathered several examples to demonstrate this diversity. Which one is correct? You must use the Buddha’s own criteria to discern what is most true for you, based on your observations and experiences of living. Further, you should use these as starting points for your own inquiry. Here the Buddha is not attempting to make some description of reality, or some metaphysical or philosophical theory. He offers, rather, a very immediate, intimate, and practical approach for living, both for individuals and societies. David Brazier says that these truths are called “noble” not to exalt them, not because they are some holy doctrine, but because it is noble to face them directly. For each of us, they are a path of discovery and acceptance. The four noble truths are the first teachings given by the Buddha following his enlightenment, and he preceded them with this introduction: “Monks, these two extremes that should not be followed by one who has gone forth into homelessness. What two? The pursuit of sensual happiness in sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of worldlings, ignoble, unbeneficial; and the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble and unbeneficial. Without veering toward either of these extremes, the Tathagata has awakened to the middle way, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, and leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. -
Death Beliefs in Hinduism: an Analysis of Hindu Sacred Texts
Research Articles Death Beliefs in Hinduism: An Analysis of Hindu Sacred Texts Dr Veenat The sacred literature in Hinduism has been written since ceremony for Hindus. The Aranyakas (forest books) and the coming of Aryans and collected over centuries and Upanishads (collection of philosophical doctrines) brought composed for so many years later also. Majorly, the the philosophical transformation in Hindu tradition. entire literature is categorized in two parts, Śruti (heard/ From an actual sacrifice to abstract symbolism; for revealed) and Smriti (remembered). Śruti literature instance, in Brihadaranyaka, a very popular, Vedic sacrifice, evolved in the early phase of Hinduism and the major ashvamedha, which involved actual sacrificing of a horse, themes in Hindu philosophy that are prevalent even is explained in the light of mediation. In Upanishads the in present times emerged from the Śruti canon. And, emphasis is placed on inner, mystical experience, called gradually, in the later phases, as the Smriti literature was as an ‘internalization of the sacrifice’ than performing the written, the variety of practices and rituals for various actual sacrifice1. Upanishads have contributed in laying aspects of life and righteous code of conduct for Hindus the philosophical foundations of Hinduism. Philosophies emerged. Śruti literature is called ‘heard literature’ on universe, birth, death, doctrine of reincarnation, because for centuries it survived orally. The teachings transmigration of souls and salvation, etc. have emerged were transmitted by guru (teacher) to shishya (disciple) from Upanishads. verbally. It is believed that the ancient seers were endowed Smriti literature contains the whole body of sacred with such powers that when they would get deeper into wisdom remembered by rishis (sages) based on their their inner self, the truths of the universe would appear in interpretation of Śruti texts.