Experimental Buddhism

Author : John K. Nelson
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824838343
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Experimental Buddhism written by John K. Nelson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, it is one of the first studies to give readers a sense of what is happening on the front lines as a growing number of Buddhist priests try to reboot their roles and traditions to gain greater significance in Japanese society. The book profiles innovative as well as controversial responses to the challenges facing Buddhist priests. From traditional activities (conducting memorial rituals; supporting residences for the elderly and infirm; providing relief for victims of natural disasters) to more creative ones (collaborating in suicide prevention efforts; holding symposia and concerts on temple precincts; speaking out against nuclear power following Japan’s 2011 earthquake; opening cafés, storefront temples, and pubs; even staging fashion shows with priests on the runway), more progressive members of Japan’s Buddhist clergy are trying to navigate a path leading towards renewed relevance in society. An additional challenge is to avoid alienating older patrons while trying to attract younger ones vital to the future of their temples. The work’s central theme of “experimental Buddhism”provides a fresh perspective to understand how priests and other individuals employ Buddhist traditions in selective and pragmatic ways. Using these inventive approaches during a time of crisis and transition for Japanese temple Buddhism, priests and practitioners from all denominations seek solutions that not only can revitalize their religious traditions but also influence society and their fellow citizens in positive ways.

Author : Mónika Kiss
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 7 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Experimental Buddhism written by Mónika Kiss and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : John Kenneth Nelson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780824870942
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Experimental Buddhism written by John Kenneth Nelson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : B. Alan Wallace
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231123353
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Buddhism & Science written by B. Alan Wallace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Distinguished philosophers, Buddhist scholars, physicists, and cognitive scientists examine the contrasts and connections between the worlds of Western science and Buddhism. Contributors, the Dalai Lama among them, assess not only the fruits of inquiry from East and West, they shed light on the underlying assumptions of these disparate world views.

Author : B. Alan Wallace
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780231138352
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Contemplative Science written by B. Alan Wallace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science has long treated religion as a set of personal beliefs that have little to do with a rational understanding of the mind and the universe. This work attempts to bridge this gap by launching an unbiased investigation into the history and practices of science and Buddhist contemplative disciplines.

Author : Brook Ziporyn
Publisher : Open Court
ISBN 13 : 0812699270
Total Pages : 475 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Being and Ambiguity written by Brook Ziporyn and published by Open Court. This book was released on 2015-10-28 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being and Ambiguity is a brilliant work of philosophy, filled with insights, jokes, and topical examples. Professor Ziporyn draws on the works of such Western thinkers as Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, and Hegel, but develops his main argument from Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. This important work introduces Tiantai Buddhism to the reader and demonstrates its relevance to profound philosophical issues. Ziporyn argues that we can make both of the claims below simultaneously: This book is about everything. It contains the answers to all philosophical problems which ever shall exist. This book is all claptrap. It is completely devoid of objective validity of any kind. These claims are not contradictory. Rather, they state the same thing in two different ways. To be objective truth is to be subjective claptrap, and vise versa. All interchanges of any kind - conversations, daydreams, sensations - are not only about something but also about everything. Thus, this book concerns itself with no less than the nature of what is and what it means for something to be what it is. It provides a new approach to the basic Western philosophical and psychological issues of identity, determinacy, being, desire, boredom, addiction, love and truth.

Author : Matthieu Ricard
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262536145
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Beyond the Self written by Matthieu Ricard and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Buddhist monk and esteemed neuroscientist discuss their converging—and diverging—views on the mind and self, consciousness and the unconscious, free will and perception, and more. Buddhism shares with science the task of examining the mind empirically; it has pursued, for two millennia, direct investigation of the mind through penetrating introspection. Neuroscience, on the other hand, relies on third-person knowledge in the form of scientific observation. In this book, Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk trained as a molecular biologist, and Wolf Singer, a distinguished neuroscientist—close friends, continuing an ongoing dialogue—offer their perspectives on the mind, the self, consciousness, the unconscious, free will, epistemology, meditation, and neuroplasticity. Ricard and Singer’s wide-ranging conversation stages an enlightening and engaging encounter between Buddhism’s wealth of experiential findings and neuroscience’s abundance of experimental results. They discuss, among many other things, the difference between rumination and meditation (rumination is the scourge of meditation, but psychotherapy depends on it); the distinction between pure awareness and its contents; the Buddhist idea (or lack of one) of the unconscious and neuroscience’s precise criteria for conscious and unconscious processes; and the commonalities between cognitive behavioral therapy and meditation. Their views diverge (Ricard asserts that the third-person approach will never encounter consciousness as a primary experience) and converge (Singer points out that the neuroscientific understanding of perception as reconstruction is very like the Buddhist all-discriminating wisdom) but both keep their vision trained on understanding fundamental aspects of human life.

Author : Tsutomu (Jixin) Kambe
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9811258538
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Science And Buddhism: Dialogues written by Tsutomu (Jixin) Kambe and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2023-03-21 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the Origin of Life on Earth is explored by modern sciences based both on experimental and observational methods, a new biological principle is adopted in addition to the principles of physics and chemistry. The biosphere is explained by the biodiversity and coexistence amongst countlessly different species reminding us of the Buddha Nature. The book verifies the existence of a platform — dialogues between science and Buddhism — to contemplate these modern aspects of life.In the 2nd century BCE, western Greek philosophy encountered eastern Indian Buddhist philosophy, as captured in a Buddhist text, the Milindapanha (Questions of Milinda), resulting in the Greco-Buddhism, the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism. Some two thousand years later, in the modern era, the sciences have revolutionized ancient philosophies, as Buddhism by the philosophy of Emptiness, stimulating various new schools.Many scientists have written about science, and many Buddhists have explained Buddhism, but an in-depth analysis of both fields may be rare. The book reports on a recent project commemorating the founder and Indian monk of Zen Buddhism Bodhidharma. Imagine a Buddhist Eagle, soaring in the sky of Emptiness with both wings spreading out — one of Wisdom and another of Great Compassion — on all countlessly-many sentient beings.

Author : Chris Impey
Publisher : Templeton Foundation Press
ISBN 13 : 159947462X
Total Pages : 279 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Humble before the Void written by Chris Impey and published by Templeton Foundation Press. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This book will provide readers with a greater awareness of the spirit of curiosity and inquiry that lies at the heart of the Buddhist tradition, as well as the fruitfulness of maintaining active communication between the Buddhist and scientific communities.” —from the Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama In Humble before the Void, Impey, a noted astronomer, educator, and author gives us a thoroughly absorbing and engaging account of his journey to Northern India to teach in the first-ever “Science for Monks” leadership program. The program was initiated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to introduce science into the Tibetan Buddhist monastic tradition. In a vivid and compelling narrative, Impey introduces us to a group of exiled Tibetan monks whose charm, tenacity and unbridled enthusiasm for learning is infectious. Impey marvels not only at their enthusiasm, but at their tireless diligence that allows the monks to painstakingly build intricate sand mandalas—that can be swept away in an instant. He observes them as they meticulously count galaxies and notes how their enthusiasm and diligence stands in contrast to many American students who are frequently turned off by science’s inability to deliver easy, immediate payoffs. Because the Buddhist monks have had a limited science education, Impey must devise creative pedagogy. His new students immediately take to his inspired teaching methods, whether it’s the use of balloons to demonstrate the Hubble expansion or donning an Einstein mask to explain the theory of relativity. Humble before the Void also recounts Impey’s experiences outside the classroom, from the monks’ eagerness to engage in pick-up basketball games and stream episodes of hip American sitcoms to the effects on his relationship with the teenage son who makes the trip with him. Moments of profound serenity and beauty in the Himalayas are contrasted with the sorrow of learning that other monks have set themselves on fire to protest the Chinese oppression in Tibet. At the end of the three week program, both the monks and Impey have gained a valuable education. While the monks have a greater understanding and appreciation of science, Impey has acquired greater self- knowledge and a deeper understanding of the nature of learning and teaching in the East and West. This understanding leads to a renewed enthusiasm for making his topic come alive for others.

Author : D. E. Osto
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231541414
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Altered States written by D. E. Osto and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1960s, Americans combined psychedelics with Buddhist meditation to achieve direct experience through altered states of consciousness. As some practitioners became more committed to Buddhism, they abandoned the use of psychedelics in favor of stricter mental discipline, but others carried on with the experiment, advancing a fascinating alchemy called psychedelic Buddhism. Many think exploration with psychedelics in Buddhism faded with the revolutionary spirit of the sixties, but the underground practice has evolved into a brand of religiosity as eclectic and challenging as the era that created it. Altered States combines interviews with well-known figures in American Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality—including Lama Surya Das, Erik Davis, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei, Rick Strassman, and Charles Tart—and personal stories of everyday practitioners to define a distinctly American religious phenomenon. The nuanced perspective that emerges, grounded in a detailed history of psychedelic religious experience, adds critical depth to debates over the controlled use of psychedelics and drug-induced mysticism. The book also opens new paths of inquiry into such issues as re-enchantment, the limits of rationality, the biochemical and psychosocial basis of altered states of consciousness, and the nature of subjectivity.