Asian Religions E-Book

Randall L. Nadeau

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 460

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

ASIAN RELIGIONS "A unique introduction to Asian religions, combining the scholarly rigor of an established historian of Asian religions with the willingness to engage empathetically with the traditions and to suggest that readers do the same." Joseph A. Adler, Kenyon College "Randall L. Nadeau has accomplished what only a few have tried, but which has been much needed in the study of religions. He has written a genuinely novel approach to the religions of Asia... This is a work that should find its way into Asian humanities, history, religion, and civilization courses." Ronnie Littlejohn, Belmont University This all-embracing introduction to Asian religious practices and beliefs takes a unique approach; not only does it provide a complete overview of the basic tenets of the major Asian religions, but it also demonstrates how Asian spiritualities are lived and practiced, exploring the meaning and significance they hold for believers. In a series of engaging and lively chapters, the book explores the beliefs and practices of Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Japanese religions, including Shinto. Using a comparative approach, it highlights the contrasts between Asian and Western modes of thinking and living, and debates the influence of religion on real-world issues including work, economic growth, the environment, human rights, and gender relations. Nadeau, a leading figure in this field, takes an empathetic approach to Asian religious and cultural traditions, and considers Asian spiritualities to be viable systems of belief for today's global citizens. Integrating exercises, activities, and an appealing mixture of examples, such as novels and biographies, this refreshing book leads readers to an enhanced understanding of the ideas and practice of Asian religions, and of their continuing relevance today.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise for Asian Religions: A Cultural Perspective

Title page

Copyright page

List of Figures

Preface

Part I: Introductory Material

1: Religion

“Religion” and the Religions

2: Language

Part II: The Confucian Tradition

3: Defining “Religion”: The Confucian Response

Confucian Cultures in East Asia

The Confucian Program

4: The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism

5: The Self as a Center of Relationships

Lasting Relationships

6: Learning to Be Human

Survey 1 The Confucian Values of Li (禮) and Ren (仁)

7: The Lasting Influence of Confucianism in Modern East Asia

Education as a Primary Indicator of Social Status and Achievement

The Reluctance to Adopt Democratic Institutions, an Uncritical Acceptance of Political Authority, Conservatism in Politics and Economics

Filial Piety, Active Participation of Parents in Children's Affairs, Support of Parents in Old Age, Strong Extended Family Identity

Persistence of Filial Piety as an Abiding Cultural Value, though under Threat from New Family Models, Declining Marriage and Birth Rates, and Economic Changes

Self-Sacrifice for the Benefit of Others and the Rejection of Western Individualism, Privacy, and Self-Interest: An Ethic of Conformity

Public Support for the Arts and Civil Religion

Hospitality, Social Grace, Emphasis on Social Identity

Confucian Fundamentalism and the “National Studies Craze”

Part III: The Taoist Tradition

8: What Is Taoism?

Philosophical Taoism

Yin–Yang Cosmology

9: Philosophical Taoism

Major Themes of Philosophical Taoism

10: Temporal Dimensions of Yin–Yang Cosmology

The Beginning of Time

The Ritual Calendar

11: Spatial Dimensions of Yin–Yang Cosmology

Fengshui

Chinese “Elemental” Theory

Spatial Dimensions of Liturgical Taoism

12: Personal Dimensions of Yin–Yang Cosmology

The Self as a Psychosomatic Whole

Yin–Yang Souls and Spirits

Taoist Long Life and Immortality

Survey 2 Principles of Philosophical and Religious Taoism

13: Taoism as a Global Religious Phenomenon

Taoism as a World Religion

Part IV: The Hindu Tradition

14: What Is Hinduism?

The Three Margas

The Bhagavad Gita

The Three Margas as Religious Discipline (Yoga)

15: Karma-marga

Action and Its Consequences

Varna-āśrama-dharma

Karma-marga

16: Jñāna-marga

The puruārthas

Moksha as Unity with Brahman

17: Bhakti-marga

Krishna: Knowing Brahman in Human Form

Shiva: Knowing Brahman through Mystical Union

Survey 3 Religious Attitudes Based on Hindu Worldviews

18: Hinduism in the Modern World

Hinduism and Modern India

Part V: The Theravāda Buddhist Tradition

19: Buddhism and the Buddha

The Mythical Buddha

The Life of the Buddha as a Model for Spiritual Self-Cultivation

20: Suffering and Its Causes

Dukha

Tahā

21: Buddhist Ethics

The Eightfold Path

Ethical Practice

Survey 4 The Five Precepts Survey

22: The Fruits of Meditation

Meditation

Nirvāa

Meditation Practices and Experience of nirvāa

23: Monastic Practice

The Vinaya

Female Monasticism and the Treatment of Women in the Vinaya

Survey 5 Religious Dimensions of Gender and Sexuality

Part VI: The Mahāyāna Buddhist Tradition

24: Faith

Cosmic Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

The Bodhisattva Path

25: Principles of Zen Buddhism

Legends of the Patriarchs

Characteristics of Zen

26: Buddhism as a Global Religion

Buddhist Modernism: From Scientific Rationalism to Depth Psychology

Engaged Buddhism in Asia and the West

Part VII: Japanese Religions

27: Japanese Religion and Culture

Characteristics of Kami

28: Shrine Shintō: Dimensions of Sacred Time and Space in Japan

Sacred Space

29: Dimensions of Religion in Modern Japan

Religious Dimension of Japanese Aesthetics: Chanoyu and Haiku

Religion in Japanese Culture

Part VIII: Conclusions

30: “Religion” and the Religions

Final Thoughts

Survey 6 “Religion” and the Religions

Appendix: Suggestions for Further Reading

Shusaku Endo, Deep River, and John Dalton, Heaven Lake

Michio Takeyama, Harp of Burma, and R. K. Narayan, The Guide

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Films of Bae Yong-kyun (b. 1951) and Kim Ki-duk (b. 1960)

Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West and Robert van Gulik, The Haunted Monastery

Yasunari Kawabata, Thousand Cranes, and Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Glossary

Index

Praise for Asian Religions: A Cultural Perspective

“This book is a unique introduction to Asian religions, in that it combines the scholarly rigor of an established historian of Asian religions with the willingness to engage empathetically with the traditions and to suggest that readers do the same. Its focus is on the traditions in the modern world and their spiritual and experiential dimensions. It takes seriously the possibility that Asian religions, understood in their own contexts (not as mere screens on which to project Western needs and desires), can offer viable options to those in other cultures who may be seeking for meaning beyond the traditions into which they were born.”

Joseph A. Adler, Kenyon College

“Randall L. Nadeau has accomplished what only a few have tried, but which has been much needed in the study of religions. He has written a genuinely novel approach to the religions of Asia. The goal of the book is not primarily historical or phenomenological – the volume is designed to stimulate self-reflection and personal engagement to the “wired generation” reader, who wants to find out what kinds of spiritual resources are meaningful for them. The approach is more cultural than theological; practical than abstract; behavioral than conceptual; embedded than distinctive. This is a work that should find its way into Asian humanities, history, religion, and civilization courses.”

Ronnie Littlejohn, Belmont University

This edition first published 2014

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this title.

Hardback ISBN: 9781118471975

Paperback ISBN: 9781118471968

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Heian Jingu shrine, Kyoto, Japan. © PhotoAlto/Corbis

Cover designer: Simon Levy

List of Figures

2.1 “Travelers among mountains and streams” by Fan Kuan 范寬 (fl. 990–1020). National Palace Museum, Taipei.

2.2 The Sanskrit word om, composed of the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, and thus representing “all of the sounds of the universe.”

3.1 China's cultural diaspora: Confucian cultures in East Asia.

4.1Li: ceremony, ritual; ceremonial living, propriety, conscientiousness, personal comportment.

4.2 Statue of Confucius at the Confucian Temple in Shanghai, China.

4.3Ren: kindness, benevolence; human-heartedness, “co-humanity.”

5.1 Though traditional family courtyards, around which three generations lived “under one roof,” are now being replaced by urban high-rise apartments, the sense of family remains central: three of the five lasting relationships are within the family.

6.1 Engraving from the anonymous History of the Church, circa 1880. Augustine of Hippo (Saint Augustine) is represented in the middle.

6.2 “Confucius would not sit unless his mat was straight.”

8.1 Statue depicting the legendary meeting between Confucius and Laozi.

8.2 Taiji tu (太極圖), “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate.”

9.1 Ike no Taiga (池大雅, 1723–1776), Zhuang Zi dreaming of a butterfly.

10.1Dao: The Path, Way, cosmic motion or principle.

11.1 Apartment complex, New Territories, Hong Kong.

11.2 Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong.

11.3 Aerial view of the National Gallery of Art's new East Building.

11.4 Yang order of production.

11.5 Yin order of overcoming.

13.1 Taoism is, increasingly, a viable religious alternative in the West.

14.1 Mural painting depicting Lord Krishna with Arjuna. Patora, Orissa, India.

17.1 Hindu temple featuring images of the Lord Krishna.

17.2 Krishna the Butter Thief: a portrait of Krishna painted on a truck in Jodhpur.

17.3 Krishna and Radha, surrounded by the gopis of Vrindavana. Painting miniature. Rajasthan, India.

17.4Shiva-nataraja, “Lord of the Dance.”

17.5 Lord Shiva as Ardha-nārīśvara, “half-male, half-female.” Chola Period. Bronze Gallery, Chennai, India.

17.6 Aniconic image of Shiva as the unity of lingam and yoni.

19.1 Hand of the Buddha.

19.2 Reclining Buddha. Wat Than wall mural. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

20.1 Feeding deer at Tōdaiji Temple, Nara, Japan.

21.1 The wheel of the dharma (dharma-cakra).

22.1 Seated meditation.

23.1 Burmese monks protesting against the military government crackdown of 2007, Rangoon.

23.2 Buddhist nun, Tibet.

24.1 The Buddha Amitābha, Kamakura.

24.2 Statues of Thousand-Armed Kannon at Sanjūsangendō (三十三間堂), Kyoto.

24.3 Line of stone statues of the bodhisattva Jizō, carved by the disciples of archbishop Tenkai (1536–1643). Nikko, Japan.

25.1 The “empty circle” of Zen.

25.2 The kare-sansui (枯山水, dry landscape) rock garden at Ryōanji (龍安寺).

26.1 The 14th Dalai Lama.

26.2 Exiled Tibetans chant slogans in front of mock coffins as they hold pictures of Tibetans who allegedly have either died by self-immolation or were killed in a Chinese police firing during a protest march in New Delhi, India, on Sunday, January 29, 2012. More than 100 Buddhist monks, nuns, and other Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest since February 2009, mostly in traditionally Tibetan areas of southwestern Sichuan Province.

27.1Izanagi and Izanami, by Kobayashi Eitaku, circa 1885.

27.2 “South Wind Clear Sky” (凱風快晴). From Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji (富嶽三十六景, Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei), by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎), 1760–1849.

28.1 The centrality of sacred space.

28.2 Mizuya at the entrance to a Shintō shrine.

28.3Omamori.

29.1 Japanese tea whisk.

29.2Tokonoma with hanging scroll and ikebana. Tenryū-ji (天龍寺), Kyoto.

Preface

I am sitting in a second-story coffee shop, one franchise of thousands around the world. The shop overlooks a busy intersection in central Taipei, a steady stream of busses, private cars and taxis, motorcycles and bicycles passing beneath me, skirting the construction of a new trunk line of Taipei's ultra-modern rapid transit system. Customers around me are scanning the internet via Wi-Fi, and I see open social network pages in both Chinese and English. Students chat excitedly about their school friends, young men and women relax at the end of a hectic day, and small groups engage in earnest debate about the recent elections.

I have just come from a study session of the Whole Earth Society, one of hundreds of syncretistic groups dedicated to the “dual cultivation” of body and spirit. These groups promote a holistic conception of physical and spiritual well-being that integrates traditional religious teachings with new expressions of human flourishing. Taipei, like many Asian cities, faces challenges to traditional values and lifestyles alongside new opportunities for self-expression and personal growth. In East Asia, education levels are expanding (college enrollments are approaching 90 percent of students of college age), young people are delaying marriage to age 30 and beyond (and the ratio of women choosing not to marry at all is at its highest level in history), and childbirth rates are far below the level of sustainability (Japan's population is expected to fall by two thirds in the next 20–30 years). These changes have brought about a new focus on self-actualization and personal enrichment, as traditional values of marriage and family are replaced by a search for purpose and meaning that is often at odds with conventional expectations. This is true of every modernizing Asian city – from Seoul and Tokyo to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong and on to Bangkok, Delhi, and Colombo. The thirst for spiritual self-cultivation, satisfied by groups like the Whole Earth Society, is a pan-Asian phenomenon.

The Whole Earth Society sponsors lectures on world religions, teaches techniques of meditation and physical exercise (massage, yoga, and deep breathing), and offers courses on healthy eating and traditional arts and crafts. At the same time these traditional pursuits are adapted to modern needs and interests, responding directly to the hectic lifestyles of modern urbanites, the single status of most of its members, and modern technologies of communication and entertainment. Today's syncretistic religious organizations succeed only to the extent that they are able to marry traditional principles and practices with the individualist values of working young people in the modern world.

The aim of this book is not to describe the Whole Earth Society and similar groups across Asia, but rather to follow their lead in recognizing both the lasting viability and the remarkable adaptability of Asian religions in the modern world. The Whole Earth Society is in some ways representative of a much wider phenomenon: a newly enlivened, global thirst for meaning and purpose. The integration of nature, self, and cosmos has been the goal of Asian religious traditions for centuries, and their practices and insights are rapidly becoming universal in themselves, as cultural globalization has come to include Europeans and Americans (not to mention educated urbanites in other parts of the world) among adherents of Hinduism, Buddhism, and East Asian religious traditions. What is inspiring about the Whole Earth Society (as one representative example) is its ability to respond directly to the interests and aspirations of increasingly cosmopolitan populations, whose members see themselves not just as citizens of Taipei, or Taiwan, or China, or Asia, but as citizens of the world. In this respect they are no different from their Euro-American analogues (the young urban professionals of the “wired generation”), forming a generational cohort that shares an increasingly overlapping set of needs and aspirations. What are these common needs and aspirations? And how are they shared across cultures? Perhaps they are best expressed by a set of common questions:

No longer satisfied by the unselfconscious religious practices of my parents and grandparents, what kind of spiritual resources are most meaningful to me?As I am less interested (for the time being at least) in the traditional religious focus on family responsibilities and domestic life, how can my religious practice inspire me as an individual?Busy as I am with my education and career, I do not want to “live to work” but rather to “work to live,” inspired by new experiences and new perspectives – but what kind of life do I want to lead?Unwilling to limit myself to a single defining identity (son, student, investor, mother, laborer, engineer, artist, citizen), I seek to develop a multifaceted, protean self – but how can I guide this process in an integrative way, and how can spiritual insight aid me in this process of self-defining and self-becoming?Pulled in multiple directions by school, work, family, and society, how can I maintain a coherent sense of self, where the various dimensions of my identity can inspire and complete one another?What is my role as an individual vis-à-vis a wider community – a role not limited to my family or country but extending to the world as a whole? What does my spiritual understanding of myself and my spiritual work, both mental and physical, contribute to my sense of global citizenship? Though my interests are intensely personal, I recognize that they are shared with my cohort, which includes not just the citizens of Taipei (or London or New York), but the citizens of every country and the adherents of every religion.

In reading through these questions, you may have picked up on their individualistic emphasis. While “individualism” is a modern Western phenomenon (with its own history and cultural contingency), it is increasingly the driving motivation and self-conception of educated persons around the world. It is no longer accurate to describe individualism as exclusively Western or to generalize an individualist West in contrast to a collectivist East. Indeed the thesis of Western individualism in contrast to Eastern collectivism is an overstated generalization, even when applied to traditional culture. And this is all the more true today, when the individualist tendency is as pronounced in Asia as it is in the West. This is partly a function of globalization and Western “influence,” but even more of the modern development of societies around the world, as they become more diverse and decentralized, and of economic trends that favor creativity, mobility, and adaptability. More and more, the scope of cultural self-expression (including spiritual self-cultivation) is focused on the individual, interacting with natural, social, and global environments.

So this book is directed primarily to individuals. Its goal is to stimulate self-reflection and personal engagement. It is my hope and expectation, as author, that the reader will ask, and ask repeatedly: “What does this mean to me? How does this resonate with my own experience and understanding? How might I be able to apply this insight or practice to my own life?” In teaching courses on Asian religions to students in Texas, USA, I urge my students to think of their education as an exercise (“exercise” means application and action, not just passive learning) in what I call “sympathetic imagination” – imagining oneself sympathetically or empathically as “believing” and “doing” what “other people” in “other religions” believe and do. Only in this way can they begin to understand others (the practicality of which should be obvious in today's interpenetrating world) and only in this way can they begin to appreciate the power and potential of Asian religions in their own lives. Sympathetic imagination often leads to creative adaptation – going far beyond passive understanding.

I have taught a course on Asian Religions for 20 years at Trinity University, a liberal arts college with selected pre-professional programs in San Antonio, Texas. I have emphasized both humanistic and more “practical” benefits of the study of religion – including self-reflection, appreciation of human diversity, and cultural understanding, as well as in the service of international trade, government diplomacy, and global citizenry. This orientation – with head in the clouds and feet on the ground – is one that I have learned to embrace, and it has forced me to examine the role of religion in culture more deeply than a purely humanistic approach alone would permit. Religion is embedded in the economic, political, and social dimensions of human cultures. It shapes and is shaped by worldly pursuits. This is the basic orientation of this book.

I am indebted to Trinity University for granting me an administrative leave in spring 2012, after seven years as chair of the Department of Religion, affording me the time to devote to this project. During that semester I was in residence in the Department of History at National Chengkung University in Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China, and I am indebted to the former and current chairs, Professors Cheng Wing-sheung and Chen Heng-an, for their hospitality. I also benefitted from conversations with Professor Tsai Yen-zen of the Institute of Comparative Religions at Chengchi University in Taipei on the category of “religion” as a means of comparative cultural analysis and understanding. Finally, I wish to express my special appreciation to Tang Ming-jer, president of Tunghai University, for his commitment to holistic education and interdisciplinary research in the humanities and in natural and social sciences. I am grateful to Mackenzie Brown, Bradley Kayser, Fernando Triana, and to friends new and old for inspiring me to write a book that would be interesting not only to scholars or students, but to a general audience of interested readers: I have tried to address you as my conversation partners in writing this book. I am indebted to my anonymous readers and to Rebecca Harkin, General Editor of Religion at Wiley Blackwell, for helping me to sharpen the language and to address errors and infelicitous phrasing in early drafts; whatever errors or misleading generalizations might remain are my responsibility. And I am forever grateful to my wife and my children for their understanding and support through the transition rites, both painful and immensely satisfying, of high school and college graduations, and bold steps forward in life. Thank you, Ruth, Miranda, and Adrian. You have all inspired me to take risks, to find joy in others, and to find self in family. It is to you that I dedicate this book.

Part I

Introductory Material

1

Religion

There are plenty of books on the market which describe Asian religions for the introductory college course or the casual reader. They define Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shintō as distinct beliefs and practices. More recent textbooks are conscientious about presenting Asian religious traditions in multiple aspects – not just as scriptural traditions or “systems of thought,” but as living religions, especially in their behavioral and ritual dimensions. Many are illustrated, or contain photographs of an ethnographic nature. Most are accurate, making use of both academic scholarship and insider experiences. I recommend these books for seeing how important religion has been and continues to be in Asian cultures.

This book may differ from others of its kind in recognizing that the study of religion has intrinsic value (it is humanistic) but at the same time supports the practical objective of intercultural exchange. One goal of this book is to further social and cultural commerce – a word that is related not only to trade, but also to communication, understanding, even appreciation. I do not subscribe to the prejudice that humanism and practical work are mutually opposed. In fact they inform one another.

The impact of religious tradition is felt in virtually every dimension of cultural life: politics, economics, medicine, ethics and law, marriage and family, human rights, media and communications, science and technology. The role of religion in shaping these institutions may no longer be obvious or apparent, but it runs so deep that, had religion been absent, the shape and contour of these cultural traits would have evolved in utterly different ways or would never have come into existence at all. In this sense, the study of religion also involves description of cultural practices, as well as personal understandings of social purpose and value. I often tell my students that my courses deal less with “religion” in a narrow sense than they do with “culture” as a whole: Whom do people marry, and why? How do people order themselves – who is higher in status, who lower? Who has the right to rule, and why should we follow them? How are families organized, how do they stay together? What accounts for economic progress or collapse? What do people like to eat? How do they prevent and treat illness? What kinds of artistic expression are funded, supported, encouraged or reviled?