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The Influence of Indian and Buddhist Elements in Medieval China: A Study of Buddha’s Birthday Celebrations In Luoyang during the Northern Wei dynasty
The Buddha’s birthday festival reached an unprecedented level of grandeur during the rule of Northern Wei when its capital was at Luoyang (495 to 534 CE). Buddhism was indigenous to neither the rulers nor the native Han Chinese. Yet, the Buddha’s birthday celebration on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month became a popular ritual in which the entire city participated. This paper studies a particular phenomenon in this public ritual, the use of carriages in image processions, tracing the heritage of these carriages back to the religion’s land of origin, India, and their literary sources. The intention of this paper is to study the reasons for such phenomenal success, in particular as they relate to the functional role of a religious festival and how the tenets of a religion can enable itself to be popular and sustainable. The Buddha’s birthday is a relevant case study because over 1,500 years later, countries such as Cambodia, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam continue to celebrate it as their public holiday.
印度ABC
《佛教瞑想論》第一講
拙書之論述聚焦於佛教的瞑想。記得那是很久以前、大學時代的事了，一位理科朋友對我說：「寺院嘛，還是靜坐比較好，對吧？」當時由於我對瞑想不甚了解而無法清楚答覆；現在，總算能夠給出一點像樣的回答了。 關於佛教的瞑想，在印度被稱為 samatha（漢譯為「止」）與 vipassanā（漢譯為「觀」），本書第一章概述 samatha 與 vipassanā，以及在個人實踐體驗與理解上闡述靜心的理由與具體內容等。
《佛教海線絲綢之路》第三章——教大圓環的弘傳和發展
佛教在整個印度半島乃至斯里蘭卡的傳播運動，令人感到震撼。然而，離開印度文化及其語言境域的佛教傳統，面臨更大的挑戰。藉由「大圓環」路線，佛教的思想與實踐傳播至距離印度數千英里之外的地方，商人必經的沿海與河岸一帶，皆是佛教拓展的新據點，致使這個佛教「大圓環」的弧線涵蓋整個歐亞大陸的東南部。「大圓環」的一部分由印度西海岸延伸至印度河谷，穿越喜馬拉雅山脈的盡頭到達塔里木盆地，最後抵達長安（今西安）地帶，這是一條超過4 千英里的陸路。而與海域相連的「大圓環」路線則始於印度西海岸，環繞半島和斯里蘭卡，沿著印度東海岸到孟加拉灣，再經由孟加拉、緬甸、馬來半島的海岸線向東延展，經泰國、柬埔寨和越南，向北轉到東亞的中國、韓國、日本的港口。此沿海路圓環所串連的陸地與海洋，其周長加總起來足以環繞赤道一圈，其中曲折的海岸線長達2 萬英里，是陸路里程的五倍。
