ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Buddhism and the State: Rājadhamma after the Sattelzeit
Lajos Brons
Rājadhamma is a list of ten royal virtues or duties that occurs in the jātaka tales and that has been influential in Southeast Asian Buddhist political thought. Like pre-modern political thought in Europe—that is, thought before the Sattelzeit—Buddhist political thought lacks a concept of the “state” and is concerned with kings and similar rulers. Here I propose a modernized interpretation of rājadhamma as virtues/duties of the state. Read article
ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Economic Justice in the Buddhist Tradition
Christopher Queen
Harvard University
Buddhism is widely associated today with progressive values and exemplary models of economic life. The idea of “Buddhist economics” was paired with the slogan “small is beautiful” by the economist E. F. Schumacher in 1973. Voluntary simplicity, renunciation, and a middle path between self-indulgence and self-denial are seen as keys to sustainable levels of acquisition and consumption. Buddhist kindness and compassion are thought to inspire charitable giving to the poor, and right livelihood to promote occupations of service to society. Yet the history of Buddhist economics does not always support these assumptions. Traditional beliefs in karma and merit-making do not align with modern ideas of justice. We examine the Buddhist record in areas of social equality, property, natural resources, products, wealth, income, jobs, and taxation. Each section surveys Buddhist economics in the Theravāda cultures of South and Southeast Asia; the Mahāyāna cultures that flourished in India, China, Tibet, and East Asia; and the modern period, marked by the rise of Engaged Buddhism in Asia and the West. At each stage we find distinctive teachings and practices in the economic sphere. Read article
ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Buddhist Performing Arts: Thematizing Gender and Developing a New Pedagogy in Modern Thai Buddhism
Martin Seeger
University of Leeds
Apirak Chaipanha
Burapha University
Naris Charaschanyawong
Independent Scholar
This article sets out to describe and reflect on the development, execution, and impact of two devised theatre performances that the authors of this paper designed as an innovative and effective way of engaging audiences with Buddhist teachings and gender issues in Thai Buddhism. Based on long-term research into the biographies, soteriological practice and teaching, and veneration of historical Thai female Buddhist practitioners, each of these two plays was staged publicly twice in or near Bangkok in 2018 and 2019 respectively. We will discuss how the educational potential of performing arts can be harnessed to change understandings of audiences and performers or, at least, prompt their curiosity in the study of Buddhism, both as a doctrinal system and in terms of aspects of current religious practices, understandings, and perceptions. Read article
ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
“The Shadow of the Whip:” Memento Mori in Dōgen’s 12 Fascicles Collection (十二卷本集)
Steven Heine
Florida International University
This paper offers a reexamination and reevaluation of the philosophical meaning and significance of Dōgen’s 道元 (1200-1253) last text that was left unfinished shortly before he died and was lost for centuries after that. The main message of the work concerns the inviolability of karmic causality (inga 因果) and the need to offer sincere repentance (zange 懺悔) for offenses committed. For various reasons, I refer to the final text as the 12 Fascicles Collection (Jūnikanbon-shū 十二卷本集) instead of using the customary moniker of the “12-fascicle Shōbōgenzō” (Jūnikanbon Shōbōgenzō 十二卷本正法眼蔵), which implies it is one of several versions of Dōgen’s masterwork. The title of this paper, drawn from a passage in the “Shime (Four Horses)” fascicle of the Collection, highlights that a true Buddhist practitioner learns to respond to an awareness of the imminence of finitude and mortality like a proverbial splendid horse that spontaneously “races off upon seeing the shadow of the whip” (mi ben’ei nigyō 見鞭影而行). This image suggests the steed does not suffer the rider’s reprimands, or to put it another way, a true aspirant need not be prodded to obey the law of causality because he knows how to conduct himself in a principled way in every circumstance. The 12-Fascicles Collection should also be seen as the result of Dōgen’s effort to curate the legacy of his general instructional outlook by rewriting or recasting some of his earlier essays and themes while crafting a timeless primer of basic Buddhist tenets. Its memento mori approach has a resonance with Kamakura-period deathbed practices and morality tales (setsuwa bungaku 説話文学). Read article
ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Emptiness and Otherness: A Comparison Between the “Gift Debate” in French Postmodern Thought and Dāna-Pāramitā in Mahāyāna Buddhism
Mingyi Xiao
University of California, Santa Barbara
This article delves into the intersection of Western postmodern thought’s “gift debate,” rooted in Marcel Mauss’s work and continued by Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion, and Mahāyāna Buddhism’s practice of dāna (almsgiving). Examining parallels, the paper identifies resonances in two dimensions. Firstly, in the realm of truth, the wisdom of “three-fold emptiness” in Madhyamaka Buddhism offers insights into the paradoxical nature of the gift, reconciling Derrida’s scarcity and Marion’s abundance perspectives. Secondly, ethically, the emphasis on the “other” in the gift prompts reflection on dāna’s motives, deepening our understanding of self-other relationships in Buddhism. This exploration seeks to facilitate a comparative dialogue between postmodern thought and Mahāyāna Buddhism, unraveling philosophical, ethical, and religious dimensions within the act of giving.
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Precepts, Ordinations, and Practice in Medieval Japanese Tendai. Studies in East Asian Buddhism 31. By Paul Groner. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2022, xvii + 376 pages, ISBN 978-0-8248-9274-6 (hardback), $68.00, 978-0-8248-9328-6 (paperback), $20.00.
Reviewed by Bryan D. Lowe
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Becoming a Student, Remaining a Student, Never Less than a Student: A Special Issue in Honor of Charles Hallisey
Karen Derris, University of Redlands
Natalie Gummer, Beloit College
Maria Heim, Amherst College
This Special Issue in honor of Charles Hallisey is edited by three friends and colleagues who began studying with him in the 1990’s. We asked twenty-four contributors—drawn from Hallisey’s students and colleagues—to reflect in short essays on how Charles Hallisey’s work on “moral anthropology” has influenced their work in Buddhist ethics and literature. Hallisey’s felicitations of two of his own teachers begin the collection, and an Afterword by Wendy Doniger completes it. We also include a consolidated transcript based on two interviews with Hallisey conducted by Natalie Gummer in the Summer and Fall of 2023. This introduction sets out some of the interventions of Hallisey’s work in Buddhist ethics and the major themes of the contributors.
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
From Metaphors to Life in Tibetan Settlements and Back Again: Space, an Important Factor for Resilient Response to the Suffering Caused by Armed Conflict
Diane Denis
Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Katmandu University
This paper is concerned with the interface between Buddhism and humanitarian principles in the context of the forced displacement of civilians due to armed conflict. It seeks to highlight how humanitarian activities can be informed by a resilience-oriented language and by its landscape of dignity. At issue are not only the repercussions of wartime violence, but also the problems of how we conceive the harm done and its effects, and how we account (or not) for resilient responses. By drawing on the spiritual, philosophical, and psychological insights of Tibetan Buddhist textual traditions, some effects of violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) are addressed. Inspired by Lewis’s ethnographic research in Tibetan settlements, this paper focuses on the metaphor of space and related life-enhancing “technologies.” In so doing, it also contributes to the discussions over some of the potential problems with the trauma/victim narrative as addressed by sociologist Fassin. The main aim is to contribute to scholarly discussions on forced displacement, and to inform aid agencies and policy-makers who can contribute to lessening the suffering of all those who may be involved or unwillingly caught in armed conflict.
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Buddhism and Scepticism: Historical, Philosophical, and Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Oren Hanner. Hamburg Buddhist Studies 13. Bochum/Frieburg: Projekt Verlag, 2020, 183 pages, ISBN 978-3-89733-558-5 (E-Book), ISBN 978-3-89733-518-9 (hardback), $25.00.
Reviewed by Ronald S. Green
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Xuedou’s 100 Odes to Old Cases: A Translation and Commentary. By Steven Heine. New York: Oxford University Press, 2024, ISBN 978-0197676998 (paperback), $29.95.
Reviewed by Dale Wright
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Phases of the Buddhist Approach to the Environment
Johannes Cairns
University of Helsinki
Various typologies of Buddhist ecophilosophies have been proposed but they have overlooked temporal dynamics and the relationship between beliefs and practice. I address this research gap by proposing a three-tier diachronic scheme. The first premodern phase featured a mixed bag of attitudes and behaviors in relation to ecology, with some being supportive of environmental ethics and others subversive. The second phase arose with the early counterculture environmental movement and consisted of ecophilosophies and activism with limited influence. The third phase started in the mid-1990s with political acknowledgement of the ecocrisis and has gained momentum. It consists of global adoption of ecophilosophies and environmental practices, including conservative Asian organizations, and new radical ecology. The dynamics indicate that a tradition of accommodating to prevailing political paradigms may have obstructed Buddhist environmentalism in the past but could facilitate it in the future.
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