Buddhist Responses to Globalization
Buddhist Responses to Globalization

Author: Leah Kalmanson

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2014-07-22

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 073918055X

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This interdisciplinary collection of essays highlights the relevance of Buddhist doctrine and practice to issues of globalization. From various philosophical, religious, historical, and political perspectives, the authors show that Buddhism—arguably the world’s first transnational religion—is a rich resource for navigating today's interconnected world. Buddhist Responses to Globalization addresses globalization as a contemporary phenomenon, marked by economic, cultural, and political deterritorialization, and also proposes concrete strategies for improving global conditions in light of these facts. Topics include Buddhist analyses of both capitalist and materialist economies; Buddhist religious syncretism in highly multicultural areas such as Honolulu; the changing face of Buddhism through the work of public intellectuals such as Alice Walker; and Buddhist responses to a range of issues including reparations and restorative justice, economic inequality, spirituality and political activism, cultural homogenization and nihilism, and feminist critique. In short, the book looks to bring Buddhist ideas and practices into direct and meaningful, yet critical, engagement with both the facts and theories of globalization.

Buddhist Missionaries in the Era of Globalization
Buddhist Missionaries in the Era of Globalization

Author: Linda Learman

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2004-11-30

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9780824828103

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This insightful volume dispels the common notion that Buddhism is not a missionary religion by revealing Asian Buddhists as active agents in the propagation of their faith. It presents at the same time a new framework with which to study missionary activity in both Buddhist and other religious traditions. Included are case studies of Theravada, Chinese, and Tibetan Buddhist teachers and congregations, as well as the Pure Land, Shingon, Zen, and Soka Gakkai traditions of Japan. Contributors examine both foreign and domestic missions and the activities of emigrant communities, showing the resources and strategies garnered by late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century Buddhists who worked to uphold and further their respective traditions, often under difficult circumstances. Based on anthropological fieldwork and historical research, the essays break new ground and provide better analytical tools for studying mission activity than previously available. They provide instructive comparisons with Anglo-American Protestant missionary thinking and offer insights into the internal dynamics of Sri Lankan and Japanese missions as they make their way in Protestant and Catholic societies. Also included are nuanced studies of two major missionary figures in late twentieth-century Chinese Buddhism and a fascinating look at the present Dalai Lama’s relationships with his devotees and the American government, viewed through an exposition of the abiding tradition within Tibetan Buddhism that combines mission activity with the political goals of exiled lamas. Contributors: Stuart Chandler; Peter B. Clarke; C. Julia Huang; Steven Kemper; Linda Learman; Sarah LeVine; Richard K. Payne; Cristina Rocha; George J. Tanabe, Jr.; Gray Tuttle.

Encountering the Dharma
Encountering the Dharma

Author: Richard Hughes Seager

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2006-03-16

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 9780520939042

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This engaging, deeply personal book, illuminating the search for meaning in today’s world, offers a rare insider’s look at Soka Gakkai Buddhism, one of Japan’s most influential and controversial religious movements, and one that is experiencing explosive growth around the world. Unique for its multiethnic make-up, Gakkai Buddhists can be found in more than 100 countries from Japan to Brazil to the United States and Germany. In Encountering the Dharma, Richard Seager, an American professor of religion trying to come to terms with the death of his wife, travels to Japan in search of the spirit of the Soka Gakkai. This book tells of his journey toward understanding in a compelling narrative woven out of his observations, reflections, and interviews, including several rare one-on-one meetings with Soka Gakkai president Daisaku Ikeda. Along the way, Seager also explores broad-ranging controversies arising from the Soka Gakkai’s efforts to rebuild post-war Japan, its struggles with an ancient priesthood, and its motives for propagating Buddhism around the world. One turning point in his understanding comes as Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai strike an authentically Buddhist response to the events of September 11, 2001.

Buddhism in the Modern World
Buddhism in the Modern World

Author: Steven Heine

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0195146980

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The history of Buddhism has been characterized by an ongoing tension between attempts to preserve traditional ideals and modes of practice and the need to adapt to changing cultural conditions. Many developments in Buddhist history, such as the infusion of esoteric rituals, the rise of devotionalism and lay movements, and the assimilation of warrior practices, reflect the impact of widespread social changes on traditional religious structures. At the same time, Buddhism has been able to maintain its doctrinal purity to a remarkable degree. This volume explores how traditional Buddhist communities have responded to the challenges of modernity, such as science and technology, colonialism, and globalization. Editors Steven Heine and Charles S. Prebish have commissioned ten essays by leading scholars, each examining a particular traditional Buddhist school in its cultural context. The essays consider how the encounter with modernity has impacted the disciplinary, textual, ritual, devotional, practical, and socio-political traditions of Buddhist thought throughout Asia. Taken together, these essays reveal the diversity and vitality of contemporary Buddhism and offer a wide-ranging look at the way Buddhism interacts with the modern world.

Buddhism and Business
Buddhism and Business

Author: Trine Brox

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0824884167

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Although Buddhism is known for emphasizing the importance of detachment from materiality and money, in the last few decades Buddhists have become increasingly ensconced in the global market economy. The contributors to this volume address how Buddhists have become active participants in market dynamics in a global age, and how Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike engage Buddhism economically. Whether adopting market logics to promote the Buddha’s teachings, serving as a source of semantics and technologies to maximize company profits, or reacting against the marketing and branding of the religion, Buddhists in the twenty-first century are marked by a heightened engagement with capitalism. Eight case studies present new research on contemporary Buddhist economic dynamics with an emphasis on not only the economic dimensions of religion, but also the religious dimensions of economic relations. In a wide range of geographic settings from Asia to Europe and beyond, the studies examine institutional as well as individual actions and responses to Buddhist economic relations. The research in this volume illustrates Buddhism’s positioning in various ways—as a religion, spirituality, and non-religion; an identification, tradition, and culture; a source of values and morals; a world-view and way of life; a philosophy and science; even an economy, brand, and commodity. The work explores Buddhism’s flexible and shifting qualities within the context of capitalism, and consumer society’s reshaping of its portrayal and promotion in contemporary societies worldwide.

The Globalization of Ethics
The Globalization of Ethics

Author: William M. Sullivan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-07-23

Total Pages: 71

ISBN-13: 1139466593

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Sullivan and Kymlicka seek to provide an alternative to post-9/11 pessimism about the ability of serious ethical dialogue to resolve disagreements and conflict across national, religious, and cultural differences. It begins by acknowledging the gravity of the problem: on our tightly interconnected planet, entire populations look for moral guidance to a variety of religious and cultural traditions, and these often stiffen, rather than soften, opposing moral perceptions. How, then, to set minimal standards for the treatment of persons while developing moral bases for coexistence and cooperation across different ethical traditions? The Globalization of Ethics argues for a tempered optimism in approaching these questions. Its distinguished contributors report on some of the most globally influential traditions of ethical thought in order to identify the resources within each tradition for working toward consensus and accommodation among the ethical traditions that shape the contemporary world.

Contesting Buddhist Narratives
Contesting Buddhist Narratives

Author: Matthew J. Walton

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 9780866382533

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Myanmar's transition to democracy has been marred by violence between Buddhists and Muslims. While the violence originally broke out between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, it subsequently emerged throughout the country, impacting Buddhists and Muslims of many ethnic backgrounds. This article offers background on these so-called "communal conflicts" and the rise and evolution of Buddhist nationalist groups led by monks that have spearheaded anti-Muslim campaigns. The authors describe how current monastic political mobilization can be understood as an extension of past monastic activism, and is rooted in traditional understandings of the monastic community's responsibility to defend the religion, respond to community needs, and guide political decision-makers. The authors propose a counter-argument rooted in Theravada Buddhism to address the underlying anxieties motivating Buddhist nationalists while directing them toward peaceful actions promoting coexistence. Additionally, given that these conflicts derive from wider political, economic, and social dilemmas, the authors offer a prescription of complementary policy initiatives.--Résumé de l'éditeur.

Globalization and the Making of Religious Modernity in China
Globalization and the Making of Religious Modernity in China

Author: Thomas Jansen

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-03-20

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 9004271511

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Globalization and the Making of Religious Modernity in China, co-edited by Thomas Jansen, Thoralf Klein and Christian Meyer, investigates the transformation of China’s religious landscape under the impact of global influences since 1800. The interdisciplinary case studies analyze the ways in which processes of globalization are interlinked with localizing tendencies, thereby forging transnational relationships between individuals, the state and religious as well as non-religious groups at the same time that the global concept ‘religion’ embeds itself in the emerging Chinese ‘religious field’ and within the new academic disciplines of Religious Studies and Theology. The contributions unravel the intellectual, social, political and economic forces that shaped and were themselves shaped by the emergence of what has remained a highly contested category. The contributors are: Hildegard Diemberger, Vincent Goossaert, Esther-Maria Guggenmos, Thomas Jansen, Thoralf Klein, Dirk Kuhlmann, LAI Pan-chiu, Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Christian Meyer, Lauren Pfister, Chloë Starr, Xiaobing Wang-Riese, and Robert P. Weller.

Buddhist Approaches to Human Rights
Buddhist Approaches to Human Rights

Author: Carmen Meinert

Publisher: Transcript Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13:

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The demonstrations of monks in Tibet and Myanmar (Burma) in recent times as well as the age-old conflict between a predominantly Buddhist population and a Hindu minority in Sri Lanka raise the question of how the issues of human rights and Buddhism are related. The question applies both to the violation of basic rights in Buddhist countries and to the defence of those rights which are well-grounded in Buddhist teachings. The volume provides academic essays that reflect this up to now rather neglected issue from the point of view of the three main Buddhist traditions, Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. It provides multi-faceted and surprising insights into a rather unlikely relationship.

"Right Development"

Author: Juliana Essen

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 9780739109373

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The intent here is not to offer a new metastrategy for global development but to underscore the need for diverse responses to the vast array of economic, social, and environmental dilemmas."--BOOK JACKET.