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Rethinking the Precept of Not Taking Money in Contemporary Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese Buddhist Nunneries
Around two and half millennia ago, the order of nuns was established when the Buddha allowed women to join the Buddhist monastic community. Buddhist nuns play prominent and respected roles in the Therīgāthā (Verses of the Elder Nuns) from ancient India. The historical work the Biqiuni zhuan 比丘尼傳 (Biographies of Nuns) reports how Buddhist nuns influenced and contributed to Chinese Buddhism in the medieval era. In recent decades, there has been a strong revival of Chinese Buddhism, amid which Buddhist nuns have exerted an ever-growing impact on the monastic environment, and their opinions have gradually become very influential, particularly in Taiwan. Indeed, as aptly put by Chün-fang Yü (Light 1), “Taiwanese nuns today are highly educated and greatly outnumber monks, characteristics unprecedented in the history of Chinese Buddhism.” In Mainland China, some prominent nuns (e.g., Shi Longlian) have held posts in the official organization of Chinese Buddhism or made significant contributions to Buddhist education and Dharma teaching. However, contemporary Mainland Chinese nuns’ religious life has scarcely been explored or discussed. This study aims to rectify this imbalance by examining a central ethical issue of monastic daily life to which scant scholarly attention has hitherto been paid.
Chan Buddhism During the Times of Venerable Master Yixuan and Venerable Master Hsing Yun: Applying Chinese Chan Principles to Contemporary Society
Linji Venerable Master Yixuan 臨濟義玄 (d. 866) and Fo Guang Venerable Master Hsing Yun 佛光星雲 (1927–), although separated by more than a millennium, innovatively applied Chan teachings to the societies in which they lived to help their devotees discover their humanity and transcend their existential conditions. Both religious leaders not only survived persecution, but brought their faiths to greater heights. This paper studies how these masters adapted Chan Buddhist teachings to the woes and conditions of their times. In particular, I shall review how Venerable Master Yixuan and Venerable Master Hsing Yun adapted the teachings of their predecessors, added value to the sociopolitical milieu of their times, and used familiar language to reconcile reality and their beliefs.
Human Condition: Earthly and Cosmic
When Mahāyāna Meets Theravāda: Humanistic Buddhism’s Challenges and Opportunities in Myanmar
From the early Buddhist era to the present day, antagonism between the Mahāyāna and Theravāda schools has existed, and will not be easy to resolve. In the past few decades, however, an increasing number of religious activities and cultural-exchange events have involved union between practitioners of Mahāyāna and Theravāda Buddhism, to the point that one can cautiously hail a breakthrough in cross-traditional understanding and communication. Against this backdrop, my paper has aimed to paint a broad-brush picture of Humanistic Buddhism’s challenges and potential opportunities in Myanmar, based on my latest fieldwork data as well as the relevant prior literature.
Causes and Consequences
“Welcome to a second series of monthly talks about Buddhism in terms of our lived experiences. It has been nearly a year since the first of these were given. Looking back, I realize that our world is still struggling with the pandemic and a number of troubling issues long after we hoped all would be under control. My concern in this talk is to present some of the Buddhist ideas of ‘cause’ in a fashion that gives relevance to the issues that are besetting us. Our world is dealing with debates that concern ‘disinformation.’ From left and right come claims and counterclaims. What do Buddhists have to say that can give us some guidance in such a situation? Can we determine what ‘cause’ is in terms of information available to us?”
Visiting Scholars and Visiting Students Program Application Guidelines Fo Guang Shan Institute of Humanistic Buddhism
am-Application-Guidelines.pdf /news-event/downloads/events/2Form-VSS-1-2_Application-and-CV.docx 佛光山人間佛教研究院 Form VSS-4_Field Research Interviewee Consent Letter Form VSS-3_Agreement Visiting Scholar Program Application Guidelines To promote scholarly research on Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s teaching.....
On Reincarnation and Emptiness
The importance of the idea of reincarnation was brought to me one afternoon in a small Sherpa village in Nepal near Mt. Everest. The village had a small Buddhist temple and it contained Tibetan texts that interested me. When I asked if I could look at the texts that were housed in the shrine room, the guardian of the temple said they were being kept for the Lama and were not available to others. I asked if I could meet the Lama, expecting to hear that he was on a trip and away. Instead, the person said, “You can. He is just over there in that house” and he pointed to it nearby. I walked over and was greeted by a woman holding a young child. They were both very beautiful and their resemblance noticeable. As you may guess, the child in her arms was the Lama. She explained, looking at the boy with a mix of pride, reverence, and sadness: “This Lama has come to me and I must care for him until he is ready to be trained again.” She was aware that by the time he was five or six, he would be taken from her to live his life as a Lama.
Compassion and Enlightenment: Exploring the Depth of Human Connection and Awakening
The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā) and Religious Tolerance
Teaching Buddhism through Art: Fourteenth-Century Tibet and Canada Today
