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Traditions and rituals of Buddhism
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Answer five of these six prompts with a short paragraph of 100-120 words.
1. How do Eisai’s Rinzai Zen and Dōgen’s Sōtō Zen schools differ in terms of practice and teaching? How does the type of practice that each teacher emphasizes relate to his understanding of enlightenment?
There is a great difference between Eisai’s Rinzai Zen and Dōgen’s Sōtō Zen schools in terms of practice and teaching. The Dōgen’s Sōtō Zen schools focus on “the single practice of “just sitting”” (Mitchell and Jacoby 332). Dōgen believed that by simply sitting in a meditative posture one was connecting to their inner Buddha nature. Dōgen believed that the posture of meditation was a manifestation of Buddha nature, and if an individual stayed in that posture and was aware of said posture they would be awakened. Eisai on the other hand, focused more so on the awakening of the mind through the “[propagation] of the truth” (331). Dōgen focuses on the physical aspect of meditation while Eisai focuses on the mental meditation or awakening.
2. What element of Buddhism first entered Tibet and how might that have shaped the development of Vajrayāna?
There are two myths that focus on how Buddhism first entered Tibet. The first myth involves King Tri Songdetsen, Santaraksita, and Padmasambhava. These individuals helped establish the Samye temple. Through this myth the tetrarchy was born. The tetrarchy consists of the royal patron, the monk, and the adept. This tetrarchy can relate to Vajrayana because of the use of the vajra. The vajra is a very important element within Vajrayana practices and its structure is modeled off a king’s scepter; thus harkening back to the leader of the tetrarchy. The second myth consists of the debate between a Chinese Chan Buddhi...
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... and Japanese citizens could come to Buddhist temples in order to connect with those said ancestors. The idea of remembering one’s ancestors can also be seen in the O-bon festival. This festival includes a great deal of celebration for the remembrance of ancestors past. Before the immersion of Buddhism Japan had a strong society and sense of community, so it only makes sense that Buddhism merged with the preexisting culture rather than eradicating it. Unlike Japan, Tibet has a less unified community and culture. The community was only unified under the leadership of Songtsen Gampo. Due to a lack of cohesion within the previous community Buddhism had to pull in culture from the strong surrounding countries, India and China. Once Buddhism adapted Indian culture it not only gained power within Buddhism but also gave a great amount of cohesion to the country.
Zen themes may be familiar to a student of religion, since they arise from Buddhism. The Buddha, Sidhartha Gautama, is said to have achieved his four noble truths about the nature of existence through meditation.
of power. This was the case with Buddhism to start as it came into China by way of the
I had a Political science professor that once said “Political survey answers depend more on how a question is asked than on what the question is asking.” I read and reread the above question. I have to admit that even after 15 weeks of topic discussions, PowerPoint, text chapters and Google; I am still confused about how tax expenditure works. The nearest I can figure out and in plain English, it is simply a tax break. That being said, this question is very methodically asked. The term “anti-poverty programs” is a gentle, non threatening term that will be met with compassion and kindness among more than 85% of (surveyed) US citizens. Second “tax expenditures” is a confusing term associated with the mean IRS that must have something to do with the government taking hard earned money and doing something with it, but what? Who knows? The final term is the big, bad anti-conservative term that only about 11% of surveyed Americans actually greet with any positivity. So the question in our subconscious mind flows something like: “What are the advantages and disadvantages of helping people who need it with your tax money instead of giving it to people who don’t want to work?” But that’s not what the question is asking. Because I know that my subconscious takes into consideration, the information it believes is true. First anti-poverty programs, such as Medicaid, are in most people’s minds still welfare. Before the New Deal many of the anti-poverty programs, as well as welfare (utility assistance, help purchasing groceries, etc.) were funded completely through private charities....
Shakya, Tsering. The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since
Buddhism saw its initial, but slow rise under the Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE; however, the religion spread rapidly towards the end of the Han amidst political chaos and hesitance in Confucian principles. During the postclassical era, Buddhism’s spread in China was caused by the prospect of Nirvana, while it also gave way to both negative and positive responses.
Zen Buddhism teaches a concept called wu-nien, or “no-thought”. This, of course, is not a literal absence of thought, but rather a detachment from the thoughts of one’s own mind.... ... middle of paper ... ... During the relatively peaceful Tokugawa period, the samurai were not as occupied with waging war as they had been in the past, and as such they had begun devoting their time to other things.
Compare And Analysis The Japanese Buddhism And Indo Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy founded by Siddhartha Gautama in northeast India during the period from the late 6th century to the early 4th century BC. Spreading from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan, Buddhism has played an influential role in the spiritual, cultural, and social life of much of the Eastern world. It is the prevailing religious force in most of Asia (India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Tibet). ‘Buddhism’ is reformulated and re-expressed in different cultures and at different times, adopting and redefining aspects of the cultures in which it has taken root. Today, there are about 300 million followers. (Yamplosky) The Indian religion Buddhism, founded in the sixth century BC, is one of the common features of Asian civilization, and Buddhist institutions and believers are found all over East, South, and Southeast Asia. While Buddhism is now just a minority belief in the country of it’s founding, it remains a significant religious and cultural force in Japan today. Buddhism started in India and made its way to China and Korea. From there, it ended up in Japan. Buddhism went through several different periods before it became Japan's national religion. In indo Buddhism, the temple is the main sanctuary, in which services, both public and private, are performed but Japanese Buddhism is mainly hub of individual activities and services. Similarly to Japanese Buddhism, in Indo Buddhism the monastery is a complex of buildings, located usually in a spot chosen for its beauty and seclusion. Its function is to house the activities of the monks. Images are important features of temples, monasteries, and shrines in both Indo a...
Gordan uses the biographies, memoirs, and diaries of men living in ancient Asia to explain this broad and complex world. One of those men is Xuanzang. Under his brothers training he grew up a young monk and entered monastery in Luoyang at 13. It was there that Xuanzang studied, learned, & meditated about Buddhism. In 623, defying his older brother Xuanzang left their monastery to travel and hear oral teachings. He traveled through Henan, preaching and gaining fame. However by age 26, after listening to many oral teachings, he became unsatisfied because there were so many schools of thought and he did not know which doctrine to follow. He decided to travel to the center of Buddhism to find answers but the quest faced difficulties in the beginning as the Tang government forbade commoners to travel west, so his journey was illegal and a warrant for arres...
In about ½ of a page (single-spaced), please state whether you agree, disagree, or have a mixed opinion regarding the following statement and argue, via evidence and claims from what you have learned in class, why you have picked your stated position. Be sure to comprehensively explain and support your reasoning.
The popularity of Buddhism in America became most pronounce in the period after World War II. It is interesting to note that the United States had just concluded the most devastating war in human history, with the first use of the atomic bomb on the Empire of Japan, yet the Japanese of style Buddhism took hold in America more than other school after the war. It could be said that the main figure head of Japanese, or more precisely, Zen Buddhism, in America was the author and intellectual Dr. D.T. Suzuki. In terms of the American expression of Buddhism, Suzuki had more influence over the interpretation of Zen philosophy than any other writer of the time.
The 1960s was a period well remembered for all the civil rights movements that occurred during that time frame and the impact these movements had on the social and political dynamics of the United States. The three largest movements that were striving in the 1960s were the African American civil rights movement, the New Left movement and the feminist movement. These three movements were in a lot of ways influenced by each other and were very similar in terms of their goals and strategies. However, within each of these movements there were divisions in the way they tried to approach the issues they were fighting against. Looking at each of these movements individually will reveal the relationship they all share as well as the changes that were brought forth as a result of each groups actions.
Fourteenth century Japan was a time of peace for many people. Buddhism had just become a major part of Japanese culture due to the Shogun Yoshimitsu. He became ruler in 1367 at the sapling age of ten (Waley 21). Yoshimitsu needed to distinguish himself from his ancestors and he did this by being devoted to Buddhism, specifically the Zen Sect (21). “Zen Buddhism and the life and teaching of Shinran are popularly identified as typical Japanese Buddhism.” (Takeda 27) However Buddhism, in Japan, is different and unique from Buddhism in other countries because it is considered the “funeral religion” (27). This is mainly influenced by ancient Japanese beliefs of the onryo.
Buddhism, like most other religions, originated in a particular place at a particular time, and its roots are in forms and ideas that were part of the environment in which it developed. The most important of these areas at the time of the Buddha was the valley of the Ganges river which flows from west to east across most of northern India. It was here that the great religions of India first arose and flourished. Only later did they spread to the south. In the time of the Buddha, about 500 B.C.E., this area was undergoing a period of vigorous religious development.
...nese control, a southern Vietnamese state, called Funan, spread out over much of Indochina and the Malay Peninsula—providing a trading and cultural circle for Indian merchants, Brahman priests, and Buddhist monks. This Indian influence continued even after the decline of Funan, as did Indian influence in the independent state of Tai and the Khmer Empire of Cambodia. Also drawing on Indian tradition and Sanskrit writing was the maritime empire of Srivijaya based on the island of Sumatra, and dominating the waters in that area and extending up to the Malay Peninsula. After 800 it was the early Indian form of Buddhism (called Theravada Buddhism) that dominated in Southeast Asia. Finally, it was not direct Indian control that was the key to the expansion of Indian culture, but an extension of trade and religious networks.