Beliefs About Tobacco, Health, and Addiction Among Adults in Cambodia: Findings from a National Survey

There remains a very high rate of smoked and smokeless tobacco use in the Western Pacific Region. The most recent findings from national adult tobacco surveys indicate that very few daily users of tobacco intend to quit tobacco use. In Cambodia, a nation that is predominantly Buddhist, faith-based tobacco control programs have been implemented where, under the fifth precept of Buddhism that proscribes addictive behaviors, monks were encouraged to quit tobacco and temples have been declared smoke-free. In the present study, we included items on a large national tobacco survey to examine the relation between beliefs (faith-based, other) about tobacco, health, and addiction among adults (18 years and older). In a stratified, multistage cluster sample (n = 13,988) of all provinces of Cambodia, we found that (1) 88–93% believe that Buddhist monks should not use tobacco, buy tobacco, or be offered tobacco during a religious ceremony; (2) 86–93% believe that the Wat (temple) should be a smoke-free area; (3) 93–95% believe that tobacco is addictive in the same way as habits (opium, gambling, alcohol) listed under the fifth precept of Buddhism; and (4) those who do not use tobacco are significantly more likely to cite a Buddhist principle as part of their anti-tobacco beliefs. These data indicate that anti-tobacco sentiments are highly prevalent in the Buddhist belief system of Cambodian adults and are especially evident among non-users of tobacco. Our findings indicate that faith-based initiatives could be an effective part of anti-tobacco campaigns in Cambodia.     

New Spirituality and Social Engagement

New spirituality has often been accused of being egocentric and thus lacking incentives for social engagement. The discussion on this subject is tangled because authors differ in specifying who they are writing about and what the criticism is. After seeking an adequate demarcation of the target group (people involved in new spirituality), we established a concept of social engagement that distinguishes between behavior that is and that is not driven by egocentric motivation. Using measures based on this conceptual model, we surveyed a representative sample of the Dutch population. We found that on most measures people involved in new spirituality are less socially engaged than affiliated or traditionally religious people but more engaged than “secular” people. However, they are more committed to organizations for environmental protection, peace, or animal rights than others. Overall, demographic factors—especially education, age, and gender—are stronger predictors for social engagement than religious and spiritual beliefs, experiences, or practices. The most important spirituality variable that predicts some social engagement measures is connectedness with self, others, and nature.     

Gentle Nazarene or Failure?

This paper argues through three case studies that representations of Jesus by practitioners of other religious traditions, in this case Buddhists, are conditioned by historical and social factors. The first two cases, David Hewavitarne/Anagārika Dharmapāla (1864–1933) and Allan Bennett/Ananda Metteyya (1872–1923), demonstrate that negative experience of Christian theology and practice broadly resulted in the judgment that Jesus was a failure. The more conciliatory and exploratory approach of my third case study, convert to Buddhism Maurice O’Connell Walshe (1911–1998), illustrates the factors that have led to (1) socially engaged cooperation between Buddhists and Christians and (2) the respectful dialogue on Jesus and the Buddha in the 21st century.     

从榜样到边缘--"佛教范式"在中国宗教中的地位变迁

从宗教范式而不是宗教势力的角度看,外来的佛教在中国的发展经历了一个其范式由榜样到边缘的过程。在中国古代宗教格局中,自从佛教在中国站稳脚跟后,“佛教范式”便成为各种宗教纷纷仿效的榜样;但是,在鸦片战争后中国近现代宗教格局中,由于西方基督教的传入和受“西方中心主义”的影响,“佛教范式”便被边缘化了,而“基督教范式”则取而代之成为各种宗教纷纷仿效的榜样。“佛教范式”在中国宗教史中的这一地位变迁折射出了中国社会所特有的没有西方式宗教对立的“不排异”的宗教文化氛围。     

Buddhism in America

This paper analyzes Buddhism in America from a social, rather than individual, perspective. In particular, an effort is made to move from informative but limited case studies of Buddhism to a national empirical study of the religion. Using the location of Buddhist organizations within the United States as the dependent variable, difference of means testing and logistic regressions are employed to determine what areas are the most receptive to Buddhism. Applying concepts from a variety of ethnographic and indirect approaches to Buddhism, as well as studies of the general success of new religions, I find that both individual and social factors influence the development of Buddhism in the United States. Specifically, significant Asian populations, more college graduates, the presence of schools of higher education and lower levels of conventional religious affiliation are all conducive to the success of Buddhist religious groups.     

POSTMORTEM POLITICS

This article discusses the connection between the political behaviour model of bereavement in Israel and the ability of the military to preserve its hegemonic standing under a veil of secrecy unchallenged by civil criticism. After the War of Independence (1948), with its heavy military death toll, a model of hegemonic bereavement made its appearance. A nationalist/collectivist ideology geared to nation‐building fostered widespread support of government institutions and mobilized grief on its behalf. In this framework, the activities of bereaved parents were channelled by the state to public sites and commemoration practices, and bereavement was, in effect, nationalized. After the Yom Kippur War (1973), and following the Lebanese incursion of 1982, a political bereavement model became dominant. Parents assigned guilt for the death of their sons to the formulators of security policy – principally the Defense Minister and the Prime Minister – and engaged in media and political activities against the state. In the 1990s, following a revolution in the media and the law, the awareness of liberal values and the beginnings of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, bereaved parents whose sons had been killed in training accidents and military failures adopted a model of confrontation bereavement vis‐á‐vis the army. They engaged in public activity aimed at exposing the army to civilian criticism. The article looks at the three models and the responses of the military to each one. It appears that a close connection exists between the dominant bereavement model, the quality of army and societal relations in Israel, and the degree of transparency of the military.     

The Gift Economy of Direct Transnational Civic Action: How Reciprocity and Inequality Are Managed in Religious “Partnerships”

How does religion help facilitate civic action in transnational contexts characterized by material inequality and spatial separation? Short‐term mission (STM) travel, a popular activity among U.S. religious groups, exemplifies a recently emerged form of transnational civic action characterized by face‐to‐face, decentralized, pragmatic activity. Our research analyzes how participants in STM‐based relationships manage inequality while pursuing an ideal of partnership across distance. We match data from a mixed methods study of Arizona congregations that produce STM travel with interview data from foreign religious organizations that host STM travelers in El Salvador. We engage gift exchange theory (GET) to show how a discursive repertoire combines with organized gift exchange practices to manage inequality and produce partnership in STM‐based relationships. Our data provide evidence of a unique cultural process, the spiritualization of reception, which emerges during gift reciprocation. This process converts unequal material gifts from foreign hosts into spiritual understanding among STM travelers, stabilizing status indebtedness that could threaten a partnership. This research increases knowledge of STM travel, shows how gift exchange structures can facilitate transnational religious partnerships, and suggests ways to use GET to understand transnational civic action in general.     

Social Psychology,War and Peace: Towards a Critical Discursive Peace Psychology

In this paper, I make two related arguments: that peace psychology and social psychological peace research should give greater attention to discourse, and that critical discursive approaches in social psychology should explore matters of international military conflict, an area which has hitherto been somewhat neglected in this tradition of work. These arguments are developed in relation to debates concerning the nature and status of psychological ‘science’, and the neglect of language in social and peace psychology. To illustrate the possibilities of a critical discursive approach, research on the discursive function of ‘peace’ is discussed. In conclusion, it is suggested that a critical discursive perspective enables analysts to interrogate a range of assumptions underpinning militaristic ideologies.     

“It's ok if it's hidden”: The discursive construction of everyday racism for refugees and asylum seekers in Wales

Wales has a long history of migration; however, the introduction of dispersed asylum seekers in 2001 has led to Wales becoming a more superdiverse nation. Wales has often been positioned as a more “tolerant nation” than England; however, the increasingly superdiverse nature of Wales in a postdevolution era may now be calling this tolerance thesis into question. Models of refugee and asylum seeker integration suggest that the absence of racism plays a key role in integration. This paper reports the findings of research that centres on refugee and asylum seeker integration in Wales. Nineteen interviews were conducted with refugees and asylum seekers who had been living in Wales for between 1 month and 12 years. Each interview was analysed using a discursive psychology approach. In this paper, I show that the interviewees appeared to negotiate a dilemma when talking about experiencing potentially racist incidents within the interviews, constructing them as trivial so as not to appear critical of the protection they have received in Wales. The findings also highlight the more everyday and banal forms of racism that are regularly experienced by refugees and asylum seekers living in Wales.     

Metaphor and Maṇḍala in Shingon Buddhist Theology

Buddhist maṇḍala that are made of colored sand or are painted on cloth have been well represented in Asian art circles in the West. Discussions of the role that they can play in stimulating religious contemplation or even as sacred icons charged with power have also appeared in English scholarship. The metaphorical meaning of the term maṇḍala, however, is less commonly referenced. This paper discusses how the founder of the Japanese school of Shingon Buddhism, the Buddhist monk Kūkai of the ninth century, uses this term in a metaphorical sense to convey the transformed nature of awareness that is the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice. Emphasis is also placed on the importance of metaphorical thinking to the religious path of transformation itself.

Psychoanalytische Gedanken zur europäischen Flüchtlingskrise und zum Fremden

There are many aspects – political, economic, legal, medical, cultural and religious ones – of the present refugee crisis in Europe. Difficulties in border crossing, settlement programs, life-saving issues and security measures present themselves immediately. The refugee crisis also needs to be examined from a psychological angle. In this paper I will describe psychoanalytic findings on voluntary and forced immigration and human responses to the Other. Change in the twenty-first century is occurring at an unprecedented pace and scale. Globalization, incredible advances in communication technology, fast travel, recourse limitations, and terrorist activities and now the refugee crisis in Europe make psychoanalytic investigation of the Other a major necessity.     

Bob and Carol and Tess and Ali

Conflicting religious experiences in different traditions do not necessarily defeat the rationality of conflicting beliefs sustained by those experiences in those traditions. The circularity that protects religious beliefs from such mutual defeat is not vicious. Moreover, the lack of ‘epistemological humility’ exhibited by such believers poses no threat to world peace. In fact, a campaign for compulsory humility would itself constitute a much greater threat.     

The Varied Trajectories of Engaged Buddhism: New Works on Buddhist Environmental Ethics,Interdependence, and Racial Karma

This book discussion reads three works in contemporary Buddhist social ethics alongside one another: Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s Interconnected, David Loy’s Ecodharma, and Larry Ward’s America’s Racial Karma. Each of these works contributes to the subfield of engaged Buddhism, which aims to bring Buddhist value theory to contemporary social and political issues in order to effect social change. The rapid development of engaged Buddhism constitutes a particularly rich moment in the history of Buddhist thought, as Buddhist ethics is showing itself to be actively in process—a tradition in the midst of rapid transformation, revision, and cross-cultural application. This book discussion interrogates these three works with that metaphilosophical and historiographical issue in mind, analyzing the particular ways in which they contribute to challenging and reshaping the traditional contours of Buddhist ethics into a contemporary social and political register. In exemplifying the approaches of translation, extending, and applying, these works demonstrate the creative and experimental moment in which Buddhist social ethics finds itself today. Such adaptations of the Buddhist tradition are historiographically significant as innovations, while also of a piece with Buddhism’s history of intercultural transmission.     

Minority elite formation in transnational perspective: A plea for a research program, illustrated by two Dutch cases

Since the 1950s nation-state building theories have dominated the debate on immigration in Europe and in the United States. The incorporation processes of “uprooted” immigrants into a new society are traditionally explained in terms of assimilaton or (ethnic) pluralization. Only recently has a new concept of transational migration been emerging. Following work done previously by Basch and Faist, in this article it is tentatively argued: (a) that cultural transnationalization among immigrants is as important as political and economic transnationalization; and (b) that political opportunity structures in the nation of residence facilitate not only cultural transnationalization, but also the formation of transnational cultural elites. These propositions are illustrated by the rise and expansion of Surinam Dutch soccer stardom and by the rise of a transnational Turkish/Moroccan Dutch Islam and of Turkish/Moroccan Dutch religious (Islamic) leadership.     

Mettābhāvanā in Traditional and Popular Buddhist Contexts

Some have referred to relatively recent forms of popular Buddhism as an ‘engaged’ Buddhism that has revived or redirected traditional Buddhist ideas and practices found in meditation texts to reflect a greater social or worldly emphasis than suggested in earlier historical moments. One of these ideas is the quadripartite framework of the ‘immeasurable states’ (aprameya/appameya) or ‘divine abidings’ (brahmavihāra), the most prominent of which in popular Buddhism is mettā (friendliness/loving-kindness). This article traces the philosophy of the ‘immeasurable states’ found in meditation texts from various Indic traditions (Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu) and then presents the ways in which these traditional ideas (especially mettā) have informed popular Buddhist movements in the twentieth century. Points of discussion include: ‘engaged’ Buddhism's relationship with traditional Buddhist ethics; arguments concerning the coalescence of monastic-centred meditation practices with popular Buddhist notions of social service; and the distinct utilization of mettā in contemporary Buddhist societies in contrast to the mobilizing impulses of comparable religious communities (Hindu and Jain) with a similar heritage of mettā discourse in South Asia.     

Rescuing the Baby from the Bathwater: Continuing the Conversation on Gender, Risk, and Religiosity

In this short response, we selectively address some of the key issues and criticisms raised by our esteemed commenters. First, we clarify our standpoint vis à vis "biological" arguments, underscoring that our article is not to be read as hostile to all forms of explanations that incorporate biology into the explanation of religious behavior and belief, but only against those explanations that attempt to imply that socialization plays no role ("the it's all biology" argument). Second, we defend the explanatory scope of our proposal by showing that our argument is not vulnerable to the "simpler" counterexplanation proposed by Hoffmann. Finally, we contextualize where our contributions fit in terms of more encompassing arguments regarding the operation of gender and gendering processes as multicausal, multilevel phenomena, as well as explicitly stating our perspective on the role that "risk" should play in the explanation of religious behavior and belief.     

Whether a religious group membership is shared and salient influences perceived similarity,political support,and helping intention toward refugees,but not charitable donation

This research investigates the ways in which (un)shared religious group memberships contribute to individual helping responses through perceived similarity in the context of a refugee emergency. Across three studies (N = 762), we examined religious sub-groups of British people's helping responses to religious subgroups of Syrian refugees, in quasi-experimental and experimental designs. Overall findings suggest that sharing a religious group membership with refugee targets increases perceived similarity, political support, and helping intention, but not charitable donation—regardless of shared group membership being subtle or salient. However, when refugee targets' religious identity is that of a salient unshared group membership, not sharing a religious group membership reduces perceived similarity, political support, and helping intention, among those who are religious—with again charitable donation remaining unchanged. These results provide critical insights into developing more effective and unique strategies to promote and mobilize support for refugees among different groups of potential helpers.     

Secular,Radically Engaged Buddhism: At the Crossroads of Individual and Social Transformation

In this article I offer a perspective—secular, radically engaged Buddhism—which incorporates two important trends within Western Buddhism: secular Buddhism and an ‘engaged’ Buddhism oriented toward radical social change. I argue that secular, radically engaged Buddhism challenges two key tenets of Buddhism as it is currently practised in the West. On the one hand, secular Buddhists not only reject the transcendent divine entities and cosmological realms found in the various Asian Buddhisms, but also consider problematic the notion of an ‘absolute’ or ultimate reality—nirvana—whether understood as the dualistic opposite to the relative, conditioned world of samsara or apprehended as an underlying ground which integrates the diversity of forms. Radically engaged Buddhists critique another tenet shared by most Western Buddhists: the view that the root cause of social problems is primarily due to individuals’ thoughts, emotions, and actions being determined by greed, hatred, and delusion. Based on this dual critique, I propose an alternative approach, one which provides a more solid foundation for facilitating the intertwined processes of individual and social transformation.     

A Buddhist Bouncer: Monastic Adaptation to the Ethos of Desire in Today's Cambodia

Buddhist teachings have much to say about the disciplining of desire. In lived Buddhism, however, there may be considerable contestation over how canonical tenets should be understood and flexibility in the way precept is related to practice. This article uses ethnographic data recently gathered from a rural setting in Cambodia to discuss how religious legitimacy is shaped by the complex fabric of village culture and history and the contemporary ethos of the laity. Today's entrepreneurial Cambodian monks are a telling model of the times. The monk who is the key figure of this article maintains a finely balanced position at the interstices of the local and non-local; he must remain responsive to the interests of both those ‘above’ him, including the politicized ecclesiastical hierarchy, and those ‘below’ him in the village, with their desires for security and order.