Archive for the ‘Volume 28 2021’
ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Aquinas and Mipham on Military and Punitive Violence: A Tribute to Michael Jerryson
Damien Keown
Goldsmiths, University of London (Emeritus)
The claim that Buddhism is exclusively a “religion of peace” has been shown to be untenable. Buddhism now faces the challenge of explaining how the pacifist spirit of its teachings can be reconciled with its well-documented recourse to military and punitive violence. Buddhism is not the only religion to face this challenge, and we first consider the Christian stance on violence as formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas before turning to the views of the Tibetan polymath Jamgön Mipham. We consider to what extent the views of the two thinkers are compatible and conclude with a suggestion as to how what Michael Jerryson calls “the quandary of Buddhism and violence” might be resolved.
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Posted on on December 27th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
American JewBu: Jews, Buddhists, and Religious Change. By Emily Sigalow. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019, 280 pages, ISBN 978-0-691-17459-4 (hard-back), $29.95/978-0-691-22805-1 (paperback), $21.95.
Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture: Between Moses and Buddha, 1890–1940. Palgrave Series in Asian German Studies. By Sebastian Musch. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, ix + 289 pages, ISBN 978-3-030-27468-9 (hardback), $99.99/978-3-030-27471-9 (paperback), $69.99/978-3-030-27469-6 (e-book), $54.99.
Reviewed by Mira Niculescu
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Posted on on December 27th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology: A Defense and Development of the Theory
Colin Simonds
Queen’s University at Kingston
This article defends and develops the categorization of Buddhist ethics as moral phenomenology. It first examines the use of the term in Western philosophical settings and compares it to how the term is employed in Buddhist settings. After concluding that Western ethical comportment and Buddhist moral phenomenology are commensurate terms, it explores how moral phenomenology has been understood in Buddhist contexts and considers the evidence scholars have used to make this interpretation. The article then looks to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for further evidence of a moral phenomenological approach to Buddhist ethics and analyzes further proof of this interpretation. Finally, issues that emerge from a moral phenomenological approach to ethics are addressed from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective to strengthen this interpretation and offer moral phenomenology as a viable alternative ethical system.
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Posted on on December 19th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
On Pāli Vinaya Conceptions of Sex and Precedents for Transgender Ordination
Brenna Grace Artinger
Independent Scholar
In this article I evaluate ideas of sex and behavior in Pāli Vinaya texts in order to better understand the roles of such terms and their consequences on monastic inclusion. I then contend with the ramifications of such terms on present-day considerations of ordination for transgender individuals, and the ways in which Vinaya texts provide legal precedent for such possibilities.
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Posted on on December 4th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Living with the Mountain: Mountain Propitiation Rituals in the Making of Human-Environmental Ethics in Sikkim
Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia
University of California Los Angeles
In 2019, a debate erupted in the eastern Himalayan Indian state of Sikkim over whether the Indian Government should allow climbers to attempt to summit Mount Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, located on the western border of Sikkim and Nepal. For local communities in Sikkim, Kanchendzonga, as the mountain is known, is seen as the protector deity of the land and its human and nonhuman inhabitants. Summiting him is considered deeply disrespectful. Ritual and textual traditions in contemporary west Sikkim provide insight into how local Buddhists create and reaffirm their relationship with Kanchendzonga and provide context for understanding the 2019 debates. These traditions outline appropriate ethical behavior and function pedagogically to demonstrate how the mountain and humans have historically engaged in forms of reciprocal care, healing, and protection, and how they can continue to do so, thereby ensuring a generative future for all of Sikkim’s transdimensional residents.
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Posted on on November 27th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
The Spirit Ambulance: Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand. California Series in Public Anthropology 49. By Scott Stonington. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2020, xvi + 187 pages, ISBN 978-0-520-34389-4 (hardback), $85.00/978-0-520-34390-0 (paperback), $29.95/ 978-0-520-97523-1 (e-book), $29.95.
Reviewed by Sean Hillman
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Posted on on October 23rd, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Superiority Conceit in Buddhist Traditions: A Historical Perspective. By Bhikkhu Anālayo. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2021, 184 pages. ISBN 978-1-61429-719-2 (hard-back), $24.95/978-1-61429-733-8 (e-book), $12.99.
Reviewed by Maria Heim
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Posted on on October 23rd, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Aesthetic Emotions: The Existential and Soteriological Value of Saṃvega/Pasāda in Early Buddhism
Lisa Liang and Brianna K. Morseth
Dharma Realm Buddhist University
Across the globe, our continued existence in light of present conditions is uncertain. Rapid spread of disease and risk of complications endanger the human population. Such challenging circumstances may shock and devastate us, inducing mass panic and pandemonium amid the pervasive threat of pandemic. Yet according to Buddhist philosophy, existential unease can also spawn deep transformation. In this paper, we examine a pair of aesthetic emotions (saṃvega/pasāda) from the early Buddhist tradition that together hold the potential to induce critical reflection and productive engagement in response to existential threat. By referring to saṃvega/pasāda as aesthetic emotions, we intend to draw out their distinctive, often visually-oriented soteriological function. While initially disorienting and perhaps even paralyzing, saṃvega and pasāda are ultimately reorienting and motivating factors on the path to liberation from the suffering entailed by cyclic existence.
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Posted on on September 19th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
The Culture of Giving in Myanmar: Buddhist Offerings, Reciprocity and Interdependence. By Hiroko Kawanami. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, xv + 185 pages, ISBN 978-1-350-12417-2 (hardback), $115.00/978-1-350-12418-9 (e-book), $103.50.
Reviewed by Jason Carbine
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Posted on on September 17th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Wilfrid Sellars and Buddhist Philosophy: Freedom from Foundations. Edited by Jay L. Garfield. Routledge Studies in American Philosophy. London and New York: Routledge, 2019, 254 pages. ISBN 978-0-367-11209-7 (hardback), $128/978-1-03-209415-1 (paperback), $39.16/978-0-429-02794-9 (e-book), $44.05.
Reviewed by Matthew T. Kapstein
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Posted on on September 17th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Coronavirus and Ill-fated Crowns: Buddhist Lessons in Pandemics and Politics
Alexander McKinley
Loyola University Chicago
Synthesizing three retellings of the story about the Buddha curing a plague in the ancient city of Vesāli, this article argues that lessons from the narrative can help us analyze the modern coronavirus pandemic and critique political responses to it. From the ancient Pāli commentary of Buddhaghosa to Sinhala vernacular retellings by a medieval monk named Buddhaputra and a colonial-era layman named Vijēvikrama, the critical force of the story has seemingly grown over time. Along the way, these authors emphasize how the endless expansion of the city due to the material desires of its rulers was bound to exacerbate suffering by their grasping at impermanent forms. This philosophical insight is applicable to current problems, where the limitless materialism of global capitalism has also been overextended, altering climates and ecologies to generate new pathogens like the coronavirus. Countries that promised uninterrupted economic growth during the pandemic have in turn suffered its worst consequences. The story of Vesāli therefore remains ripe for many more retellings in the modern world, teaching that attention to a higher ideal of transcendent truth is more fruitful than material enrichment alone.
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Posted on on August 15th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
The Ethics of AI and Robotics: A Buddhist Viewpoint. By Soraj Hongladarom. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2020, 236 pp., ISBN 978-1-4985-9729-6 (hardback), $100.00.
Reviewed by James J. Hughes
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Posted on on July 26th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Cross-Cultural Existentialism: On the Meaning of Life in Asian and Western Thought. By Leah Kalmanson. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, 194 pp., ISBN 978-1-350-14001-1 (hardback), $115.00.
Reviewed by Nathan R. B. Loewen
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Posted on on July 26th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Buddhist Ethics. Cambridge Elements in Ethics. By Maria Heim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 66 pp. ISBN 978-1-108-70662-9 (paperback), $20.00.
Reviewed by Emily McRae
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Posted on on July 4th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Is Buddhism Individualistic? The Trouble with a Term
Donna Lynn Brown
University of Manitoba
Western scholars have been calling expressions of Buddhism “individualistic”—or denying the charge—since the 1800s. This article argues that “individualism” and related terms are sometimes problematic when applied to Buddhism. Because they are associated with Western modernity, they contribute to hegemonic discourses about Asia and Buddhism, skew representations, and reinforce stereotypes. Because their referents have been many and varied—including escaping caste and family, asociality, lay practice, and racism—their use leads to imprecision, confusion, and lack of comparability among analyses. And because they have moral connotations, they can blend observation with valuation and polemic. The article examines selected scholarly works that maintain or deny that Buddhism is individualistic, highlights problems associated with the term, and concludes that, in many cases, more precise and less value-laden descriptors should be found.
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Posted on on June 13th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
The Huayan University Network: The Teaching and Practice of Avataṃsaka Buddhism in Twentieth-Century China. By Erik J. Hammerstrom. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020, 288 pp., ISBN 978-0-231-19430-3 (hardback), $65.00.
Reviewed by Gregory Adam Scott
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Posted on on May 5th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Mindfully Facing Climate Change. By Bhikkhu Anālayo. Barre, Massachusetts: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 2019, 206 pp., ISBN 978-1-7067-1988-5 (paperback), $9.95. Open access e-book: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MindfullyFacingClimateChange.pdf.
Reviewed by Abhinav Anand
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Posted on on April 3rd, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Inward: Vipassana Meditation and the Embodiment of the Self. By Michal Pagis. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2019, x + 216 pp, ISBN 978-0-226-36187-1 (paperback), $27.50.
Reviewed by Joseph Loss
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Posted on on April 3rd, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence. By Michael Jerryson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018, 240 pp., ISBN 978-0-19-068356-6 (hardback), $115.00.
Reviewed by Manuel Litalien
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Posted on on February 14th, 2021 in
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Readings of Dōgen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. By Steven Heine. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020, 312 pp., ISBN 978-0-231-18229-4 (paperback), $35.00.
Reviewed by Zuzana Kubovčáková
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Posted on on January 23rd, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 28, 2021
Seeking Śākyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism. By Richard M. Jaffe. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2019, xvi + 309 pp., ISBN 978-0-226-39115-1 (paperback), $32.50.
Reviewed by Melissa Anne-Marie Curley
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Posted on on January 12th, 2021 in
Volume 28 2021 |
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