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Sexualities In Buddhist Narrative Iconography And Ritual
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Book Synopsis Courtesans and Tantric Consorts by : Serinity Young
Download or read book Courtesans and Tantric Consorts written by Serinity Young and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-03-01 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wisest teachings of Buddhism say that, like all oppositions, one must move beyond gender. But as Serinity Young shows in this enlightening work, the rhetoric of Buddhist texts, the symbolism of its iconography, and the performative import of its rituals, tell different, and often contradictory, stories. In Courtesans and Tantric Consorts, Serinity Young takes the reader on a journey through more than 2000 years of biographical writings, iconographic depictions, and ritual practices revealing Buddhism's deep struggles with gender. Juxtaposing empowering images of women with their textual repudiation, beginning with the Buddha himself who abandoned his wife; tantric courtesans who are considered necessary to male enlightenment with fertility rituals designed to ensure male offspring; tales of gender-bending gods and goddesses with all male heavens; Serinity Young draws on a vast range of sources to reveal the colourful, and often troubling, mosaic of beliefs that inform Buddhist views about gender and sexuality.
Book Synopsis Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography and Ritual by : Serinity Young
Download or read book Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography and Ritual written by Serinity Young and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Courtesans and Tantric Consorts, Serinity Young takes the reader on a journey through more than 2000 years of Buddhist history, revealing the colourful mosaic of beliefs that inform Buddhist views about gender and sexuality.
Book Synopsis Dreaming in the Lotus by : Serinity Young
Download or read book Dreaming in the Lotus written by Serinity Young and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1999 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys the complex history of Buddhist dream experience and analysis.
Book Synopsis Sexuality in World History by : Peter N. Stearns
Download or read book Sexuality in World History written by Peter N. Stearns and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines sexuality in the past, and explores how it helps explain sexuality in the present. The subject of sexuality is often a controversial one, and exploring it through a world history perspective emphasizes the extent to which societies, including our own, are still reacting to historical change through contemporary sexual behaviors, values, and debates. The study uses a clear chronological structure to focus on major patterns and changes in sexuality—both sexual culture and sexual behaviors—in the main periods of world history, covering topics including: • The sexual implications of the transition from hunting and gathering economies to agricultural economies; • Sexuality in classical societies; • The postclassical period and the spread of the world religions; • Sex in an age of trade and colonies; • Changes in sexual behaviors and sexual attitudes between 1750 and 1950; • Sex in contemporary world history. This new edition examines these issues on a global scale, with attention to anthropological insights on sexuality and their relationship to history, the dynamics between sexuality and imperialism, sexuality in industrial society, and trends and conflicts surrounding views of sex and sexuality in the contemporary world.
Book Synopsis Women in Buddhist Traditions by : Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Download or read book Women in Buddhist Traditions written by Karma Lekshe Tsomo and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new history of Buddhism that highlights the insights and experiences of women from diverse communities and traditions around the world Buddhist traditions have developed over a period of twenty-five centuries in Asia, and recent decades have seen an unprecedented spread of Buddhism globally. From India to Japan, Sri Lanka to Russia, Buddhist traditions around the world have their own rich and diverse histories, cultures, religious lives, and roles for women. Wherever Buddhism has taken root, it has interacted with indigenous cultures and existing religious traditions. These traditions have inevitably influenced the ways in which Buddhist ideas and practices have been understood and adapted. Tracing the branches and fruits of these culturally specific transmissions and adaptations is as challenging as it is fascinating. Women in Buddhist Traditions chronicles pivotal moments in the story of Buddhist women, from the beginning of Buddhist history until today. The book highlights the unique contributions of Buddhist women from a variety of backgrounds and the strategies they have developed to challenge patriarchy in the process of creating an enlightened society. Women in Buddhist Traditions offers a groundbreaking and insightful introduction to the lives of Buddhist women worldwide.
Book Synopsis Tantric Buddhism in East Asia by : Richard K. Payne
Download or read book Tantric Buddhism in East Asia written by Richard K. Payne and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Indian and Tibetan versions of tantric Buddhism are increasingly recognized, the East Asian variations on this practice remain largely overlooked. The only book to present the entire breadth of tantric Buddhism in East Asia, this collection remedies that situation with 12 key essays drawn from rare sources. Organized into four sections--China and Korea, Japan, Deities and Practices, and Influences on Japanese Religion--the book brings together a "critical mass" of scholarship, with the potential to create a sea change in the understanding of this subject
Book Synopsis The Cambridge World History of Sexualities: Volume 2, Systems of Thought and Belief by : Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Download or read book The Cambridge World History of Sexualities: Volume 2, Systems of Thought and Belief written by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2024-04-30 with total page 806 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume II focuses on systems of thought and belief in the history of world sexualities, ranging from early humans to contemporary approaches. Comprising eighteen chapters, this volume opens with a chapter on the evolutionary legacy and then delves into the sexualities of ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece, and Rome, continuing with pre-modern South Asia, China, and Japan, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. Chapters include an examination of sexuality in the religious traditions of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and also look at more recent approaches, including scientific sex, sexuality in socialism and Marxism, and the intersections between sexuality, feminism, and post-colonialism.
Book Synopsis Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities by : Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Download or read book Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities written by Karma Lekshe Tsomo and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silver Medalist, 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Religion (Eastern/Western) Category This groundbreaking book explores Buddhist thought and culture, from multiple Buddhist perspectives, as sources for feminist reflection and social action. Too often, when writers apply terms such as "woman," "femininity," and "feminism" to Buddhist texts and contexts, they begin with models of feminist thinking that foreground questions and concerns arising from Western experience. This oversight has led to many facile assumptions, denials, and oversimplifications that ignore women's diverse social and historical contexts. But now, with the tools of feminist analysis that have developed in recent decades, constructs of the feminine in Buddhist texts, imagery, and philosophy can be examined—with the acknowledgment that there are limitations to applying these theoretical paradigms to other cultures. Contributors to this volume offer a feminist analysis, which integrates gender theory and Buddhist perspectives, to Buddhist texts and women's narratives from Asia. How do Buddhist concepts of self and no-self intersect with concepts of gender identity, especially for women? How are the female body, sexuality, and femininity constructed (and contested) in diverse Buddhist contexts? How might power and gender identity be perceived differently through a Buddhist lens? By exploring feminist approaches and representations of "the feminine," including persistent questions about women's identities as householders and renunciants, this book helps us to understand how Buddhist influences on attitudes toward women, and how feminist thinking from other parts of the world, can inform and enlarge contemporary discussions of feminism.
Book Synopsis Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism by : Ruth Gamble
Download or read book Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism written by Ruth Gamble and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-09 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism examines how the third Karmapa hierarch, Rangjung Dorjé (1284-1339) transformed reincarnation from a belief into a lasting Tibetan institution. Born the son of an itinerant, low-caste potter, Rangjung Dorjé went on to become a foundational figure in Tibetan Buddhism and a teacher of the last Mongolian emperor. He became renowned for his contributions to Buddhist philosophy, literature, astrology, medicine, architecture, sacred geography and manuscript production. But, as Ruth Gamble demonstrates, his most important legacy was the transformation of the Karmapa reincarnation lineage to ensure that, after his death, subsequent Karmapas were able to assume power in the religious institutions he had led. The inheritance model of reincarnation instituted by Rangjung Dorjé changed the Tibetan Plateau's power relations, which until that time had been based on family associations, and created a precedent for later reincarnate institutions, including that of the Dalai Lamas. Drawing on Rangjung Dorjé's hitherto un-translated autobiographies and autobiographical songs, this book shows that his reinvention of reincarnation was a self-conscious and multi-faceted project, made possible by Rangjung Dorjé's cultural, social, and political standing and specific historical and geographical circumstances. Exploring this combination of agency and historical coincidence, this is the first full-length study of the development of the reincarnation institution.
Book Synopsis Postcolonial Amazons by : Walter Duvall Penrose Jr.
Download or read book Postcolonial Amazons written by Walter Duvall Penrose Jr. and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-20 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars have long been divided on the question of whether the Amazons of Greek legend actually existed. Notably, Soviet archaeologists' discoveries of the bodies of women warriors in the 1980s appeared to directly contradict western classicists' denial of the veracity of the Amazon myth, and there have been few concessions between the two schools of thought since. Postcolonial Amazons offers a ground-breaking re-evaluation of the place of martial women in the ancient world, bridging the gap between myth and historical reality and expanding our conception of the Amazon archetype. By shifting the center of debate to the periphery of the region known to the Greeks, the startling conclusion emerges that the ancient Athenian conception of women as weak and fearful was not at all typical of the region of that time, even within Greece. Surrounding the Athenians were numerous peoples who held that women could be courageous, able, clever, and daring, suggesting that although Greek stories of Amazons may be exaggerations, they were based upon a real historical understanding of women who fought. While re-examining the sources of the Amazon myth, this compelling volume also resituates the Amazons in the broader context from which they have been extracted, illustrating that although they were the quintessential example of female masculinity in ancient Greek thought, they were not the only instance of this phenomenon: masculine women were masqueraded on the Greek stage, described in the Hippocratic corpus, took part in the struggle to control Alexander the Great's empire after his death, and served as bodyguards in ancient India. Against the backdrop of the ongoing debates surrounding gender norms and fluidity, Postcolonial Amazons breaks new ground as an ancient history of female masculinity and demonstrates that these ideas have a much longer and more durable heritage than we may have supposed.
Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics by : Daniel Cozort
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics written by Daniel Cozort and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many forms of Buddhism, divergent in philosophy and style, emerged as Buddhism filtered out of India into other parts of Asia. Nonetheless, all of them embodied an ethical core that is remarkably consistent. Articulated by the historical Buddha in his first sermon, this moral core is founded on the concept of karma—that intentions and actions have future consequences for an individual—and is summarized as Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, three of the elements of the Eightfold Path. Although they were later elaborated and interpreted in a multitude of ways, none of these core principles were ever abandoned. The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics provides a comprehensive overview of the field of Buddhist ethics in the twenty-first century. The Handbook discusses the foundations of Buddhist ethics focusing on karma and the precepts looking at abstinence from harming others, stealing, and intoxication. It considers ethics in the different Buddhist traditions and the similarities they share, and compares Buddhist ethics to Western ethics and the psychology of moral judgments. The volume also investigates Buddhism and society analysing economics, environmental ethics, and Just War ethics. The final section focuses on contemporary issues surrounding Buddhist ethics, including gender, sexuality, animal rights, and euthanasia. This groundbreaking collection offers an indispensable reference work for students and scholars of Buddhist ethics and comparative moral philosophy.
Download or read book A Bull of a Man written by John Powers and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-19 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The androgynous, asexual Buddha of contemporary popular imagination stands in stark contrast to the muscular, virile, and sensual figure presented in Indian Buddhist texts. In early Buddhist literature and art, the Buddha’s perfect physique and sexual prowess are important components of his legend as the world’s “ultimate man.” He is both the scholarly, religiously inclined brahman and the warrior ruler who excels in martial arts, athletic pursuits, and sexual exploits. The Buddha effortlessly performs these dual roles, combining his society’s norms for ideal manhood and creating a powerful image taken up by later followers in promoting their tradition in a hotly contested religious marketplace. In this groundbreaking study of previously unexplored aspects of the early Buddhist tradition, John Powers skillfully adapts methodological approaches from European and North American historiography to the study of early Buddhist literature, art, and iconography, highlighting aspects of the tradition that have been surprisingly invisible in earlier scholarship. The book focuses on the figure of the Buddha and his monastic followers to show how they were constructed as paragons of masculinity, whose powerful bodies and compelling sexuality attracted women, elicited admiration from men, and convinced skeptics of their spiritual attainments.
Download or read book Buddhism written by Serinity Young and published by Marshall Cavendish. This book was released on 2007 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the history and origins, basic tenets and beliefs, organizations, traditions, customs, rites, societal influences, and modern-day impact of Roman Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism.
Book Synopsis Eminent Buddhist Women by : Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Download or read book Eminent Buddhist Women written by Karma Lekshe Tsomo and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2014-08-25 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the exemplary legacy of Buddhist women across the centuries and across the Buddhist world. Eminent Buddhist Women reveals the exemplary legacy of Buddhist women through the centuries. Despite the Buddhas own egalitarian values, Buddhism as a religion has been dominated by men for more than two thousand years. With few exceptions, the achievements of Buddhist women have remained hidden or ignored. The narratives in this book call into question the criteria for eminence in the Buddhist tradition and how these criteria are constructed and controlled. Each chapter pays a long-overdue tribute to one woman or a group of women from across the Buddhist world, including the West. Using a variety of sources, from orally transmitted legends to firsthand ethnographic research, contributors examine the key issues women face in their practice of Buddhist ethics, contemplation, and social action. What emerges are Buddhist principles that transcend gender: loving kindness, compassion, wisdom, spiritual attainment, and liberation. In her chapter What Is a Relevant Role Model? Rita Gross describes the need for more stories about Buddhist women, particularly those whose feats are not so fabled as to seem out of reach for contemporary practitioners. This volume advances that objective, mapping the paths of numerous, often lesser-known women who have dedicated their lives to Buddhism and inspired their communities. Buddhadharma Educational and inspirational, this important collection will appeal to scholars and practitioners alike. Hsiao-Lan Hu, author of This-Worldly Nibb?na: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community
Book Synopsis Illness and Immortality by : Patricia Sauthoff
Download or read book Illness and Immortality written by Patricia Sauthoff and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illness and Immortality examines a medieval Sanskrit text, the Netra Tantra, which is devoted to health and healing through a yogic practice dedicated to the chanting of mantras, the building of mandalas, and meditation. Patricia Sauthoff examines the role of such ritual elements in rites to alleviate illness and death. She includes analysis of the various forms of the deity Amrtesa or Mrtyuñjaya (Conqueror of Death), the nature of mantra, and the relationship between the tantric practitioner and the patient. This work explores what is meant by immortality within the medieval context and how one goes about attaining it. It asks how ritual alleviates illness, what role the deity plays in health and healing, and finally who has access to the rites described within the text. Central to this study is the conception of a body vulnerable to demons and reliant on deities for continued existence, and how the three yogic bodies (sthula, suksma, and para) play a role in physical and spiritual well-being. Featuring new translations of large sections of the Netra Tantra, the book offers readers various points of entry into the text so that tantric practitioners and scholars alike can access the influential and important concepts and practices found within this long-revered but under-studied work.
Book Synopsis Silhouettes of the Soul by : Otto Von Busch
Download or read book Silhouettes of the Soul written by Otto Von Busch and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the relationship between the soul, or inner life, and what we wear in the making of identity and belief? What bearing do religious and political belonging, respectability, and resistance have on the way in which we dress? Why have more traditional religious practices been so prescriptive about body adornment? Historically, fashionable dress and religion have been positioned as polar opposites. Silhouettes of the Soul brings them together, placing them in conversation with each other. By moving beyond traditional, social scientific, and historical analysis of religious attire and adornment the book presents a variety of disciplinary approaches from across regional, social, and religious locations. Contentious and challenging, as well as academically rigorous, the book's diverse range of contributors - from fashion and religious studies scholars, to designers, activists, monastics, and journalists - explore the relationship between religion and fashion, extending the meanings and possibilities of both dress and spirituality. Combining interviews and personal stories with more traditional theoretical analysis, Silhouettes of the Soul offers new ways of looking at the relationship between religion, personal convictions, and self-expression - our sense of self and our sense of fashion.
Book Synopsis Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers by : N. Harry Rothschild
Download or read book Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers written by N. Harry Rothschild and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-16 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wu Zhao (624–705), better known as Wu Zetian or Empress Wu, is the only woman to have ruled China as emperor over the course of its 5,000-year history. How did she—in a predominantly patriarchal and androcentric society—ascend the dragon throne? Exploring a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries, this multifaceted history suggests that China's rich pantheon of female divinities and eminent women played an integral part in the construction of Wu Zhao's sovereignty. Wu Zhao deftly deployed language, symbol, and ideology to harness the cultural resonance, maternal force, divine energy, and historical weight of Buddhist devis, Confucian exemplars, Daoist immortals, and mythic goddesses, establishing legitimacy within and beyond the confines of Confucian ideology. Tapping into powerful subterranean reservoirs of female power, Wu Zhao built a pantheon of female divinities carefully calibrated to meet her needs at court. Her pageant was promoted in scripted rhetoric, reinforced through poetry, celebrated in theatrical productions, and inscribed on steles. Rendered with deft political acumen and aesthetic flair, these affiliations significantly enhanced Wu Zhao's authority and cast her as the human vessel through which the pantheon's divine energy flowed. Her strategy is a model of political brilliance and proof that medieval Chinese women enjoyed a more complex social status than previously known.
