Charles Goodman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195375190
- eISBN:
- 9780199871377
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195375190.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Buddhist ethical views have much in common with certain modern ethical theories, and contain many insights relevant to contemporary moral problems. This book examines the theoretical structure of the ...
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Buddhist ethical views have much in common with certain modern ethical theories, and contain many insights relevant to contemporary moral problems. This book examines the theoretical structure of the normative views found in a number of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist texts. Teachings from all three major traditions of Buddhism, the Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna, are considered. Although Buddhist philosophy is quite diverse, and these traditions differ in their ethical perspectives, they can all be understood as versions of a general moral outlook known as welfarist consequentialism. Buddhist versions of consequentialism regard virtue as an intrinsic component of the good life. They range from the cautious indirect approach of the Theravāda, which focuses on following rules that lead to the welfare of many, to the bold and often shocking direct approach of the Vajrayāna. Buddhists can respond convincingly to certain often-discussed criticisms of consequentialism, including several powerful arguments due to Kant. Buddhist texts offer an interesting approach to the problem of the demands of morality. These texts also contain a powerful critique of what we would identify as the concept of free will, a critique which leads to a hard determinist view of human action. This view supports Buddhist values of compassion, nonviolence and forgiveness, and leads to a more humane approach to the justification of punishment.Less
Buddhist ethical views have much in common with certain modern ethical theories, and contain many insights relevant to contemporary moral problems. This book examines the theoretical structure of the normative views found in a number of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist texts. Teachings from all three major traditions of Buddhism, the Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna, are considered. Although Buddhist philosophy is quite diverse, and these traditions differ in their ethical perspectives, they can all be understood as versions of a general moral outlook known as welfarist consequentialism. Buddhist versions of consequentialism regard virtue as an intrinsic component of the good life. They range from the cautious indirect approach of the Theravāda, which focuses on following rules that lead to the welfare of many, to the bold and often shocking direct approach of the Vajrayāna. Buddhists can respond convincingly to certain often-discussed criticisms of consequentialism, including several powerful arguments due to Kant. Buddhist texts offer an interesting approach to the problem of the demands of morality. These texts also contain a powerful critique of what we would identify as the concept of free will, a critique which leads to a hard determinist view of human action. This view supports Buddhist values of compassion, nonviolence and forgiveness, and leads to a more humane approach to the justification of punishment.
Charles Goodman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195375190
- eISBN:
- 9780199871377
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195375190.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter explains the sense in which Mahāyāna practitioners must go beyond ethics, relating this concept to the doctrine of no self. Advanced Mahayanists internalize morality so completely that ...
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This chapter explains the sense in which Mahāyāna practitioners must go beyond ethics, relating this concept to the doctrine of no self. Advanced Mahayanists internalize morality so completely that they do not have to think about moral rules, and will ignore them when doing so produces benefits for sentient beings. This model allows us to understand Vajrayāna ethics. The outrageously unconventional behavior of Tantric siddhas such as Padmasambhava is not amorality, but the perfection of act-consequentialism. Beings in such a state neither deliberate nor think of themselves as moral agents. This state requires the freedom and creativity made possible by a deep, experiential understanding of emptiness. Despite appearances, the Madhyamaka teaching of emptiness does not destroy ethics, though it may eliminate self-defeating attachments to following ethical rules.Less
This chapter explains the sense in which Mahāyāna practitioners must go beyond ethics, relating this concept to the doctrine of no self. Advanced Mahayanists internalize morality so completely that they do not have to think about moral rules, and will ignore them when doing so produces benefits for sentient beings. This model allows us to understand Vajrayāna ethics. The outrageously unconventional behavior of Tantric siddhas such as Padmasambhava is not amorality, but the perfection of act-consequentialism. Beings in such a state neither deliberate nor think of themselves as moral agents. This state requires the freedom and creativity made possible by a deep, experiential understanding of emptiness. Despite appearances, the Madhyamaka teaching of emptiness does not destroy ethics, though it may eliminate self-defeating attachments to following ethical rules.
Pamela D. Winfield
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199753581
- eISBN:
- 9780199332519
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753581.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter introduces readers to the problem of the visual, not only in the contemporary period but also in the premodern era when Buddhism flourished throughout the pan-Asian sphere. It provides a ...
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This chapter introduces readers to the problem of the visual, not only in the contemporary period but also in the premodern era when Buddhism flourished throughout the pan-Asian sphere. It provides a cursory overview of the key historical developments in Buddhist art and doctrine. It mentions the so-called an-iconic stage of Theravadin nonfigural art of early classical Indian Buddhism (fifth century BCE onward) and the early Mahāyāna figural depictions of embodied enlightenment beginning in the early centuries CE. It then chronicles the explosion of elaborate esoteric Vajrayāna (Mikkyō) iconography beginning in the seventh century CE, and the contrasting minimalistic spirit of Zen Buddhist artistic expression in China and Japan in the tenth century onward. It then outlines the content of each chapter in the book to follow.Less
This chapter introduces readers to the problem of the visual, not only in the contemporary period but also in the premodern era when Buddhism flourished throughout the pan-Asian sphere. It provides a cursory overview of the key historical developments in Buddhist art and doctrine. It mentions the so-called an-iconic stage of Theravadin nonfigural art of early classical Indian Buddhism (fifth century BCE onward) and the early Mahāyāna figural depictions of embodied enlightenment beginning in the early centuries CE. It then chronicles the explosion of elaborate esoteric Vajrayāna (Mikkyō) iconography beginning in the seventh century CE, and the contrasting minimalistic spirit of Zen Buddhist artistic expression in China and Japan in the tenth century onward. It then outlines the content of each chapter in the book to follow.
David B. Gray and Ryan Richard Overbey (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199763689
- eISBN:
- 9780190459451
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199763689.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This volume explores the movement of tantric Buddhist traditions through time and space, from the early history of tantric Buddhism to the present day. These studies investigate the development of ...
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This volume explores the movement of tantric Buddhist traditions through time and space, from the early history of tantric Buddhism to the present day. These studies investigate the development of tantric Buddhist traditions in India, their dissemination into Central and East Asia, and exchanges between tantric Buddhist and rival religious traditions. From the hyper-masculine Buddha to the ritualized bodies of the siddhas, the first chapter traces shifts in Indian Buddhist ideal masculinities. The second chapter explores the intersection of Buddhism and Śaivism in early medieval India through the evolving figure of the yoginī. Another chapter explores how tenth- and eleventh-century scholars and translators in Tibet “purified” a Buddhist deity that showed signs of Śaiva Hindu origins. Two chapters use often-overlooked Tibetan and Chinese materials to explore the influence of incantations and ritual manuals on the formation of early tantric Buddhist literature. The volume’s longest chapter is a detailed history of Vajrayāna Buddhism in Nepal. The work concludes with two studies of hybridity and transformation in East Asia: one on the Homa of the Northern Dipper, a fire ritual which passed from India to China to Japan, adapting to Daoist, Buddhist, and Shintō contexts; and another on the True Buddha School, a contemporary Chinese transformation of Vajrayāna Buddhism.Less
This volume explores the movement of tantric Buddhist traditions through time and space, from the early history of tantric Buddhism to the present day. These studies investigate the development of tantric Buddhist traditions in India, their dissemination into Central and East Asia, and exchanges between tantric Buddhist and rival religious traditions. From the hyper-masculine Buddha to the ritualized bodies of the siddhas, the first chapter traces shifts in Indian Buddhist ideal masculinities. The second chapter explores the intersection of Buddhism and Śaivism in early medieval India through the evolving figure of the yoginī. Another chapter explores how tenth- and eleventh-century scholars and translators in Tibet “purified” a Buddhist deity that showed signs of Śaiva Hindu origins. Two chapters use often-overlooked Tibetan and Chinese materials to explore the influence of incantations and ritual manuals on the formation of early tantric Buddhist literature. The volume’s longest chapter is a detailed history of Vajrayāna Buddhism in Nepal. The work concludes with two studies of hybridity and transformation in East Asia: one on the Homa of the Northern Dipper, a fire ritual which passed from India to China to Japan, adapting to Daoist, Buddhist, and Shintō contexts; and another on the True Buddha School, a contemporary Chinese transformation of Vajrayāna Buddhism.
David B. Gray
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199373093
- eISBN:
- 9780199373116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199373093.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The study of tantric Buddhism in the Euro-American academic world has grown immensely over recent decades, with new research on its origins in ancient India, its development in Nepal and Tibet, and ...
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The study of tantric Buddhism in the Euro-American academic world has grown immensely over recent decades, with new research on its origins in ancient India, its development in Nepal and Tibet, and then its evolution in China and under the Shingon school in Japan. The instructor covering Buddhism faces a host of difficult questions about how to introduce and convey this esoteric Buddhist tradition: Is it appropriate to introduce the typical undergraduate to teachings and initiation practices that are not routinely revealed to a typical Buddhist from Nepal or Tibet? Can any individuals who are not grounded in the teachings and meditation practices of Mahayana Buddhism be expected to grasp the symbolic and coded meanings in tantric Buddhism? How to handle the exposure of students to images of deities and saints in sexual embrace? David Gray presents a useful overview of how this tradition is now understood by its historians and reflects on how esoteric or Vajrayāna Buddhism can be most effectively taught in the undergraduate classroom.Less
The study of tantric Buddhism in the Euro-American academic world has grown immensely over recent decades, with new research on its origins in ancient India, its development in Nepal and Tibet, and then its evolution in China and under the Shingon school in Japan. The instructor covering Buddhism faces a host of difficult questions about how to introduce and convey this esoteric Buddhist tradition: Is it appropriate to introduce the typical undergraduate to teachings and initiation practices that are not routinely revealed to a typical Buddhist from Nepal or Tibet? Can any individuals who are not grounded in the teachings and meditation practices of Mahayana Buddhism be expected to grasp the symbolic and coded meanings in tantric Buddhism? How to handle the exposure of students to images of deities and saints in sexual embrace? David Gray presents a useful overview of how this tradition is now understood by its historians and reflects on how esoteric or Vajrayāna Buddhism can be most effectively taught in the undergraduate classroom.
Todd Lewis and Naresh Man Bajracarya
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199763689
- eISBN:
- 9780190459451
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199763689.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Since around 900 CE, the Kathmandu Valley has been an important center of Buddhist tantric traditions, and the only non-ethnic Tibetan region of South Asia in which tantric Buddhist traditions have ...
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Since around 900 CE, the Kathmandu Valley has been an important center of Buddhist tantric traditions, and the only non-ethnic Tibetan region of South Asia in which tantric Buddhist traditions have survived to the present day. For this reason, it played a major role in the preservation and dissemination of tantric Buddhist traditions across the Indo-Tibetan region. Just as the vast majority of surviving Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts have been preserved there by the Newar Buddhist community, so are many other cultural traditions associated with tantric Buddhism still extant. Since Newar tantric traditions remain among the least explored in Asia, this chapter seeks to remedy this lacuna by summarizing what is known about its history, focusing on the major texts, ritual practices, and distinctive religious sites. The sangha of Newars, especially its Vajrācārya (New. Bajrācārya) sub-community, receives detailed description, including portraits of its notable modern religious scholars and tantric masters.Less
Since around 900 CE, the Kathmandu Valley has been an important center of Buddhist tantric traditions, and the only non-ethnic Tibetan region of South Asia in which tantric Buddhist traditions have survived to the present day. For this reason, it played a major role in the preservation and dissemination of tantric Buddhist traditions across the Indo-Tibetan region. Just as the vast majority of surviving Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts have been preserved there by the Newar Buddhist community, so are many other cultural traditions associated with tantric Buddhism still extant. Since Newar tantric traditions remain among the least explored in Asia, this chapter seeks to remedy this lacuna by summarizing what is known about its history, focusing on the major texts, ritual practices, and distinctive religious sites. The sangha of Newars, especially its Vajrācārya (New. Bajrācārya) sub-community, receives detailed description, including portraits of its notable modern religious scholars and tantric masters.
