Your search for: buddhism AND beliefs

In this book, Richard Gombrich shows how Theravada Buddism has affected and been afected by its social surroundings. He explains what the Buddha owed to his predecessors and what he was arguing against. Many issues are raised and discussed.The Buddha preached in north-east India in about the ...

In this book, Richard Gombrich shows how Theravada Buddism has affected and been afected by its social surroundings. He explains what the Buddha owed to his predecessors and what he was arguing against. Many issues are raised and discussed.The Buddha preached in north-east India in about the fifth-century BC. He claimed that human beings are responsible for their own salvation, and put foward a new ideal of the holy life, establishing a monastic Order to enable men and women to pursue that ideal. For most of its history the fortunes of Theravada, the most conservative form of Buddhism, have been identified with those of that Order. Under the great Indian emperor, Asoka, himself a Buddhist, Theravada reached Sri Lanka in about 250 BC. There it became the religion of the Sinhala state, and from ther it spread, much later, to Burma and Thailand.In this book, Richard Gombrich, a leading western authority on Buddhism, shows how Theravada Buddhism has affected and been afected by its social surroundings. He explains what the Buddha owed to his predecessors and what he was arguing against. Buddhism began as a largely urban religion, appealing to a new middle class, but in Sri Lanka it became the culture of the agricultural society. In the nineteenth century, British colonial rule, and especially contact with Protestant missions, initaited fundamental change. Now, as Gombrich shows, in independent Sri Lanka the rapid urbanization of an exploding population threatens to schange the religion beyond recognition.

This is the first scholarly treatment of the emergence of American Buddhist Studies as a significant research field. Until now, few investigators have turned their attention to the interpretive challenge posed by the presence of all the traditional lineages of Asian Buddhism in a consciously ...

This is the first scholarly treatment of the emergence of American Buddhist Studies as a significant research field. Until now, few investigators have turned their attention to the interpretive challenge posed by the presence of all the traditional lineages of Asian Buddhism in a consciously multicultural society. Nor have scholars considered the place of their own contributions as writers, teachers, and practising Buddhists in this unfolding saga. In thirteen chapters and a critical introduction to the field, the book treats issues such as Asian American Buddhist identity, the new Buddhism, Buddhism and American culture, and the scholar's place in American Buddhist Studies. The volume offers complete lists of dissertations and theses on American Buddhism and North American dissertations and theses on topics related to Buddhism since 1892.