Revelry,Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal: The Fortunes of Hindu Festivals,by Rachel Fell McDermott,New York: Columbia University Press, 2011, xviii + 372 pp. ISBN 978-0-231-12918-3, US$90.00 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-231-12919-0, US$29.50 (paperback)

This article introduces a review symposium on Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism. I situate this book in the newly emerging field of Buddhism and sexuality, and also provide a discussion of previous works by the author that led to the current volume under review. I also provide a broad overview of the book itself for those unfamiliar with the work. The responses in this symposium are offered by Sarah H. Jacoby (Northwestern University), John Powers (Deakin University), and Amy Paris Langenberg (Eckerd College).     

Karma accounts: supplementary thoughts on Theravāda,Madhyamaka, theosophy,and Protestant Buddhism

This article supplements Jens Schlieter's discussion of the cognitive metaphor of a karmic bank-account, adding selected points on karma monetary/fiscal metaphors as preserved chiefly in Pāli and Sanskrit sources. It explores various strands of the history of South Asian religions where distinct economic metaphors for karma come closer to the late ‘bank-account of karma’: i.e., the Vedic ‘three debts,’ a Hindu concept of God as accountant, the varieties of weighing the (mis)deeds, the Buddhist monastic status of debt and fiscal transactions, the equivalence of karma and debt as discussed by Madhyamaka thinkers, and others. While endorsing Schlieter's point, it also takes into account such modern Western sources as early theosophical discourse and ‘Protestant Buddhism.’     

Spiritual robots: Religion and our scientific view of the natural world

Religion plays a powerful role in the formation of scientific theories. By comparing the goals and practice of robotics and artificial intelligence in the US and Japan, differences between the two countries can be traced to their religious environments. Christian expectations of cosmic purpose and hope for salvation in purified, unearthly bodies leads to US researchers' preference for artificial intelligence over humanoid robots, a desire to see cosmic meaning in the development of that intelligence, and salvation of human minds in virtual, non-biological bodies. In Japan, robots, which have been the subjects of ritual consecrations and religious transcendence, participate in a fundamental sanctity of the natural world. A positive outlook on being human promotes a preference for humanoid robots and a future in which robots serve human beings, who do not forsake their bodies for virtual lives. Divergent scientific strategies cannot be separated from the religious worlds of their practitioners.     

慈心禅在心理学视角下的应用

随着正念在西方心理学界的流行,慈心禅作为另一种颇具应用潜力的传统佛教禅修方式,正受到越来越多心理学家的关注。系统的慈心禅训练可以培养积极情绪、缓解消极的情绪反应,而即时的慈心禅练习也可以作为一种情绪调节策略。慈心禅可有效提升自我同情,培养对他人的共情能力和积极态度,此外还可辅助某些疾病的治疗。除进一步深入已有方向,未来研究可更多借鉴佛教视角提出新课题,如对慈心进行有效测量,探索慈心禅所诱发情绪的特殊性质,干预愤怒、嫉妒等负性情绪并探索慈心禅的应用方式与条件等。     

Where East meets West: in the house of individuation

The psychological process of individuation as experienced in Jungian work may lead to states of consciousness that resemble advanced spiritual developments across religious traditions and cultures. This is where Westerners may reach a common ground with the East. In the essentials and with respect to the final goal there is little difference among the many ways to the self, even if the cultural features in the landscape are disparate. In late stage Jungian analysis and individuation and in what Erich Neumann calls ‘centroversion’, the personal and the impersonal aspects of the personality accumulate around the ego‐self axis to form a composite identity. In this complex structure the ego does not vanish but is joined to the impersonal archetypal levels of the psyche and identity thus becomes at once individual and archetypal. This is the third stage of conjunction as described by Jung in Mysterium Coniunctionis and it is identical to the type of consciousness depicted in the final scenes of Zen Buddhism's Ten Ox‐Herding Pictures.     

易哲学发展史之一嬗变--陆王心学的易哲学思想探析

陆王心学的易哲学思想的出现,伴随了一定的时代特点,可谓是易哲学史上继王弼义理易之后的一次深刻嬗变.这表现为其以心释易统易、工夫简易直截的鲜明特征,其中蕴涵了心学派易学对象数易及程朱义理易的解构以及为一般易学研究所忽略的易佛沟通问题.从陆王心学的易哲学思想里面,我们可以发现,心学在宋时的诞生以及它最终的衰微,同样不是一个偶然的现象,它在解构"传统"易学的同时也解构了自身.     

Women's bodies,rebirth, and Shin Buddhism: Insights and challenges for Christianity

In this article, I examine a traditional Shin teaching on women and women's bodies as they relate to rebirth in Amida's Pure Land and ask how that teaching might inform Christian doctrines on women's bodies. After an analysis of the role of women's bodies in the broader Shin teachings around Amida's compassion and rebirth in the Pure Land, I conclude by raising questions for Christianity this analysis invites and suggest further lines of inquiry that might help open up more positive understanding of women and women's bodies in contemporary Christianity.     

Buddhist Narratives of the Great Debates

Western scholars have written on the theory of Buddhist argumentation. They have also analyzed examples of arguments found in philosophical and polemical writing. However, little has been written to date about what might have transpired when Buddhists and their opponents met in face-to-face debates in classical India. Drawing on Chinese and Tibetan historical and biographical writings about famous Indian debates, this essay analyzes the structure and conventions of these accounts as a literary form. While it is difficult to assess the historicity of particular narratives, an analysis of this literature as a whole gives us clues about what might have occured when Indian scholars faced their adversaries in live debates. These sources provide us with a picture of the etiquette, rules of engagement, and strategies that may have been used in such encounters. They also suggest what constituted defeat in ancient Indian verbal contests, and they point to some of the real-political and material benefits of victory. The essay ends by reflecting on the function of these narratives vis-à-vis Tibetan Buddhist scholastic identity.

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.