HISTORICALLY Ht:DDHIS\1 CAN Cl.\1\1 TO !:IE THE FIHST missionary religion in the world. In fact, its messianic purpose was expressly declared nearly fi,·e centuries before Christ ,,·hen, soon after his enlightenment, the 13ucldha himself his disciples to "preach the truth" and spread the gospel "out of for the ,,·orld, for the good ... for the welfare of gods and men."' Ho,,·cver, it W<lS durin...

Secular Buddhism is coalescing today in response to two main factors. First, it rejects the incoherence of Buddhist modernism, a protean formation that accommodates elements as far afield as ancestral Buddhism and psychotherapies claiming the Buddhist brand. Second, it absorbs the cultural influence of modern secularity in the West. Historically understood, secularity has constituted a centurie...

Architecture is not only a complex including materials and methods to provide a shelter for human beings, but also it is an expression of the society, which created that. Its form will be the reflection of values and religious orientation besides social maturity of the related society and its structure will narrate the nature, power and different dimensions of mythical and psychological aspects...

Skilful means is an important doctrine in Mahayana Buddhism. It gives the movement its pedagogical skill in teaching Dharma and spiritual care. This paper examines the importance of the Jyotis narrative in the Skill-in-Means Sutra, in which a monk violates celibacy for the sake of a woman’s happiness. This essay ties the idea of skill-in-means more intimately with modern Buddhism, examining its...

Early Interaction with Buddhism (552–710): Between 538 and 552, new religions came to Japan from China and Korea. The arrival of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism initiated new dynamics of religious interaction. In early Shinto, each community probably worshipped its local deity according to provincial custom. But under the influence of other faiths, the adherents of Shinto gradually organized...

“Holistic eco-Buddhism” has been roundly criticized for its heterodoxy and philosophical incoherence: the Buddha never claimed we should protect an “eco-self” and there are serious philosophical problems attendant on “identifying with things.” Yet this essay finds inadequate attention has been paid to East Asian sources. Metaphysical issues surrounding eco-Buddhism, i.e., problems of identity a...

Mind is an extremely complex and important subject in Buddhism in general and in esoteric Buddhism in particular. It is partly due to the fact that Buddhism envisions liberation as based on the acquisition of a special wisdom, that is, a different cognitive approach toward reality. Such new cognitive approach is called in the Japanese tradition satori or kakugo, usually rendered in English as “...

Zen and Zen Buddhism have a long history. A consensus among Zen Buddhism practitioners and scholars is that Zen Buddhism began with Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism (Dumoulin 2005), who incorporated dhyana (i.e., a form of Zen meditation with Indian origins) into his training. As Zen meditation can be traced back to India prior to the time of Gautama Buddha, the history of Zen Buddhism a...

Environmentalist concerns have moved centre stage in most major religious traditions of late and Buddhism is no exception to this rule. This paper shows that the canonical writings of Indic Buddhism possess elements that may harmonise with a //de facto// ecological consciousness. However, their basic attitude towards the causal process drastically reduces the possibility of developing an authen...

Among the "Great Religions" of the world may be discovered repetition and similarity, as well as, variations and significant differences. This similarity becomes clear when it is understood that of the five great religions-Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism-a reduction to two may be made historically. Hinduism and Judaism may be considered the genesis of the other three: Hinduism ...