Both a demonstration of and critical self-reflection on method, this book explores how methodologies shape our understanding of the diversity of Buddhist traditions in the past and the present. International contributors from the West and Asia explore case studies and reflect on methods in the study of Buddhism, united in their debt to Richard K. Payne, the influential Buddhist studies scholar.Methods in Buddhist Studies features new translations of Buddhist works as well ...

As of 2010, there were approximately 3-4 million Buddhists in the United States, and that figure is expected to grow significantly. Beyond the numbers, the influence of Buddhism can be felt throughout the culture, with many more people practicing meditation, for example, than claiming Buddhist identity. A century ago, this would have been unthinkable. So how did Buddhism come to claim such a significant place in the American cultural landscape? The Making of American Buddhism offe...

Explores facets of North American Buddhism while taking into account the impact of globalization and increasing interconnectivity.Finalist for the 2015 ForeWord INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award in the Religion CategoryBuddhism beyond Borders provides a fresh consideration of Buddhism in the American context. It includes both theoretical discussions and case studies to highlight the tension ...

First brought to the United States in the nineteenth century by Chinese and Japanese immigrants, Buddhism has become a major feature of the North American religious, cultural, and social landscape. Nearly every form of Asian Buddhism has some presence in North America in addition to a variety of Buddhist “convert” communities, hybrid communities, and “secular” Buddhist networks. Buddhist-derived practices such as mindfulness meditation have been deployed in health care and educational sett...

Buddhism in America provides the most comprehensive and up to date survey of the diverse landscape of US Buddhist traditions, their history and development, and current methodological trends in the study of Buddhism in the West, located within the translocal flow of global Buddhist culture.Divided into three parts (Histories; Traditions; Frames), this introduction traces Buddhism's history and encounter with North American culture, charts the landscape of US Buddhist commu...

Hinduism is practised by nearly eighty per cent of India's population, and by some seventy million people outside India. In this Very Short Introduction, Kim Knott offers a succinct and authoritative overview of this major religion, and analyses the challenges facing it in the twenty-first century. She discusses key preoccupations of Hinduism such as the centrality of the Veda as religious texts, the role of Brahmins, gurus, and storytellers in the transmission of divine truths, a...

Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations takes readers on a thoroughly researched and extremely readable journey through Japan's cultural history.This much-anticipated sequel to Roger Davies's best-selling The Japanese Mind provides a comprehensive overview of the religion and philosophy of Japan. This cultural history of Japan explains the diverse cultural traditions that underlie modern Japan and offers readers deep insights...

The most essential insight that Buddhism offers is that all our individual suffering arises from three and only three sources, known in Buddhism as the three poisons: greed, ill-will, and delusion. In The Great Awakening, scholar and Zen teacher David Loy examines how these three poisons, embodied in society's institutions, lie at the root of all social maladies as well. The teachings of Buddhism present a way that the individual can counteract these to alleviate personal sufferin...

A great deal of Buddhist literature and scholarly writing about Buddhism of the past 150 years reflects, and indeed constructs, a historically unique modern Buddhism, even while purporting to represent ancient tradition, timeless teaching, or the "essentials" of Buddhism. This literature, Asian as well as Western, weaves together the strands of different traditions to create a novel hybrid that brings Buddhism into alignment with many of the ideologies and sensibilities of the post-Enlight...

Engaged Buddhism is founded on the belief that genuine spiritual practice requires an active involvement in society. Engaged Buddhism in the West illuminates the evolution of this new chapter in the Buddhist tradition - including its history, leadership, and teachings - and addresses issues such as violence and peace, race and gender, homelessness, prisons, and the environment.Eighteen new studies explore the activism of renowned leaders and organizations, such as Thich Nh...

This book is an analysis of the Amar Chitra Katha genre, historical comic-books that capture and promote a middle class masculine identity, as culture became the new site for right-wing hegemonic politics in India over the last 4 decades of the 20th century.

The term dalit means downtrodden and trampled. In fact the dalits in India, the lowest of the lower castes and the poorest of the poor, are being trampled (socially, politically and economically) by the rich, especially those belonging to the upper castes.Roughly the dalits in India comprise about 16.6 per cent of India's population. But their share of ownership of land and property, and access to education and employment and basic social amenities is miserably lower. The worst inhu...