Asian Religions, page 1
Table of Contents
Praise for Asian Religions: A Cultural Perspective
Title page
Copyright page
List of Figures
Preface
Part I: Introductory Material
1: Religion
“Religion” and the Religions
2: Language
Part II: The Confucian Tradition
3: Defining “Religion”: The Confucian Response
Confucian Cultures in East Asia
The Confucian Program
4: The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism
5: The Self as a Center of Relationships
Lasting Relationships
6: Learning to Be Human
Survey 1 The Confucian Values of Li (禮) and Ren (仁)
7: The Lasting Influence of Confucianism in Modern East Asia
Education as a Primary Indicator of Social Status and Achievement
The Reluctance to Adopt Democratic Institutions, an Uncritical Acceptance of Political Authority, Conservatism in Politics and Economics
Filial Piety, Active Participation of Parents in Children's Affairs, Support of Parents in Old Age, Strong Extended Family Identity
Persistence of Filial Piety as an Abiding Cultural Value, though under Threat from New Family Models, Declining Marriage and Birth Rates, and Economic Changes
Self-Sacrifice for the Benefit of Others and the Rejection of Western Individualism, Privacy, and Self-Interest: An Ethic of Conformity
Public Support for the Arts and Civil Religion
Hospitality, Social Grace, Emphasis on Social Identity
Confucian Fundamentalism and the “National Studies Craze”
Part III: The Taoist Tradition
8: What Is Taoism?
Philosophical Taoism
Yin–Yang Cosmology
9: Philosophical Taoism
Major Themes of Philosophical Taoism
10: Temporal Dimensions of Yin–Yang Cosmology
The Beginning of Time
The Ritual Calendar
11: Spatial Dimensions of Yin–Yang Cosmology
Fengshui
Chinese “Elemental” Theory
Spatial Dimensions of Liturgical Taoism
12: Personal Dimensions of Yin–Yang Cosmology
The Self as a Psychosomatic Whole
Yin–Yang Souls and Spirits
Taoist Long Life and Immortality
Survey 2 Principles of Philosophical and Religious Taoism
13: Taoism as a Global Religious Phenomenon
Taoism as a World Religion
Part IV: The Hindu Tradition
14: What Is Hinduism?
The Three Margas
The Bhagavad Gita
The Three Margas as Religious Discipline (Yoga)
15: Karma-marga
Action and Its Consequences
Varna-āśrama-dharma
Karma-marga
16: Jñāna-marga
The puruārthas
Moksha as Unity with Brahman
17: Bhakti-marga
Krishna: Knowing Brahman in Human Form
Shiva: Knowing Brahman through Mystical Union
Survey 3 Religious Attitudes Based on Hindu Worldviews
18: Hinduism in the Modern World
Hinduism and Modern India
Part V: The Theravāda Buddhist Tradition
19: Buddhism and the Buddha
The Mythical Buddha
The Life of the Buddha as a Model for Spiritual Self-Cultivation
20: Suffering and Its Causes
Dukha
Tahā
21: Buddhist Ethics
The Eightfold Path
Ethical Practice
Survey 4 The Five Precepts Survey
22: The Fruits of Meditation
Meditation
Nirvāa
Meditation Practices and Experience of nirvāa
23: Monastic Practice
The Vinaya
Female Monasticism and the Treatment of Women in the Vinaya
Survey 5 Religious Dimensions of Gender and Sexuality
Part VI: The Mahāyāna Buddhist Tradition
24: Faith
Cosmic Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
The Bodhisattva Path
25: Principles of Zen Buddhism
Legends of the Patriarchs
Characteristics of Zen
26: Buddhism as a Global Religion
Buddhist Modernism: From Scientific Rationalism to Depth Psychology
Engaged Buddhism in Asia and the West
Part VII: Japanese Religions
27: Japanese Religion and Culture
Characteristics of Kami
28: Shrine Shintō: Dimensions of Sacred Time and Space in Japan
Sacred Space
29: Dimensions of Religion in Modern Japan
Religious Dimension of Japanese Aesthetics: Chanoyu and Haiku
Religion in Japanese Culture
Part VIII: Conclusions
30: “Religion” and the Religions
Final Thoughts
Survey 6 “Religion” and the Religions
Appendix: Suggestions for Further Reading
Shusaku Endo, Deep River, and John Dalton, Heaven Lake
Michio Takeyama, Harp of Burma, and R. K. Narayan, The Guide
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Films of Bae Yong-kyun (b. 1951) and Kim Ki-duk (b. 1960)
Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West and Robert van Gulik, The Haunted Monastery
Yasunari Kawabata, Thousand Cranes, and Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Glossary
Index
Praise for Asian Religions: A Cultural Perspective
“This book is a unique introduction to Asian religions, in that it combines the scholarly rigor of an established historian of Asian religions with the willingness to engage empathetically with the traditions and to suggest that readers do the same. Its focus is on the traditions in the modern world and their spiritual and experiential dimensions. It takes seriously the possibility that Asian religions, understood in their own contexts (not as mere screens on which to project Western needs and desires), can offer viable options to those in other cultures who may be seeking for meaning beyond the traditions into which they were born.”
Joseph A. Adler, Kenyon College
“Randall L. Nadeau has accomplished what only a few have tried, but which has been much needed in the study of religions. He has written a genuinely novel approach to the religions of Asia. The goal of the book is not primarily historical or phenomenological – the volume is designed to stimulate self-reflection and personal engagement to the “wired generation” reader, who wants to find out what kinds of spiritual resources are meaningful for them. The approach is more cultural than theological; practical than abstract; behavioral than conceptual; embedded than distinctive. This is a work that should find its way into Asian humanities, history, religion, and civilization courses.”
Ronnie Littlejohn, Belmont University
This edition first published 2014
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Cover image: Heian Jingu shrin
Cover designer: Simon Levy
List of Figures
2.1 “Travelers among mountains and streams” by Fan Kuan 范寬 (fl. 990–1020). National Palace Museum, Taipei.
2.2 The Sanskrit word om, composed of the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, and thus representing “all of the sounds of the universe.”
3.1 China's cultural diaspora: Confucian cultures in East Asia.
4.1 Li: ceremony, ritual; ceremonial living, propriety, conscientiousness, personal comportment.
4.2 Statue of Confucius at the Confucian Temple in Shanghai, China.
4.3 Ren: kindness, benevolence; human-heartedness, “co-humanity.”
5.1 Though traditional family courtyards, around which three generations lived “under one roof,” are now being replaced by urban high-rise apartments, the sense of family remains central: three of the five lasting relationships are within the family.
6.1 Engraving from the anonymous History of the Church, circa 1880. Augustine of Hippo (Saint Augustine) is represented in the middle.
6.2 “Confucius would not sit unless his mat was straight.”
8.1 Statue depicting the legendary meeting between Confucius and Laozi.
8.2 Taiji tu (太極圖), “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate.”
9.1 Ike no Taiga (池大雅, 1723–1776), Zhuang Zi dreaming of a butterfly.
10.1 Dao: The Path, Way, cosmic motion or principle.
11.1 Apartment complex, New Territories, Hong Kong.
11.2 Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong.
11.3 Aerial view of the National Gallery of Art's new East Building.
11.4 Yang order of production.
11.5 Yin order of overcoming.
13.1 Taoism is, increasingly, a viable religious alternative in the West.
14.1 Mural painting depicting Lord Krishna with Arjuna. Patora, Orissa, India.
17.1 Hindu temple featuring images of the Lord Krishna.
17.2 Krishna the Butter Thief: a portrait of Krishna painted on a truck in Jodhpur.
17.3 Krishna and Radha, surrounded by the gopis of Vrindavana. Painting miniature. Rajasthan, India.
17.4 Shiva-nataraja, “Lord of the Dance.”
17.5 Lord Shiva as Ardha-nārīśvara, “half-male, half-female.” Chola Period. Bronze Gallery, Chennai, India.
17.6 Aniconic image of Shiva as the unity of lingam and yoni.
19.1 Hand of the Buddha.
19.2 Reclining Buddha. Wat Than wall mural. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
20.1 Feeding deer at Tōdaiji Temple, Nara, Japan.
21.1 The wheel of the dharma (dharma-cakra).
22.1 Seated meditation.
23.1 Burmese monks protesting against the military government crackdown of 2007, Rangoon.
23.2 Buddhist nun, Tibet.
24.1 The Buddha Amitābha, Kamakura.
24.2 Statues of Thousand-Armed Kannon at Sanjūsangendō (三十三間堂), Kyoto.
24.3 Line of stone statues of the bodhisattva Jizō, carved by the disciples of archbishop Tenkai (1536–1643). Nikko, Japan.
25.1 The “empty circle” of Zen.
25.2 The kare-sansui (枯山水, dry landscape) rock garden at Ryōanji (龍安寺).
26.1 The 14th Dalai Lama.
26.2 Exiled Tibetans chant slogans in front of mock coffins as they hold pictures of Tibetans who allegedly have either died by self-immolation or were killed in a Chinese police firing during a protest march in New Delhi, India, on Sunday, January 29, 2012. More than 100 Buddhist monks, nuns, and other Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest since February 2009, mostly in traditionally Tibetan areas of southwestern Sichuan Province.
27.1 Izanagi and Izanami, by Kobayashi Eitaku, circa 1885.
27.2 “South Wind Clear Sky” (凱風快晴). From Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji (富嶽三十六景, Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei), by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾 北斎), 1760–1849.
28.1 The centrality of sacred space.
28.2 Mizuya at the entrance to a Shintō shrine.
28.3 Omamori.
29.1 Japanese tea whisk.
29.2 Tokonoma with hanging scroll and ikebana. Tenryū-ji (天龍寺), Kyoto.
Preface
I am sitting in a second-story coffee shop, one franchise of thousands around the world. The shop overlooks a busy intersection in central Taipei, a steady stream of busses, private cars and taxis, motorcycles and bicycles passing beneath me, skirting the construction of a new trunk line of Taipei's ultra-modern rapid transit system. Customers around me are scanning the internet via Wi-Fi, and I see open social network pages in both Chinese and English. Students chat excitedly about their school friends, young men and women relax at the end of a hectic day, and small groups engage in earnest debate about the recent elections.
I have just come from a study session of the Whole Earth Society, one of hundreds of syncretistic groups dedicated to the “dual cultivation” of body and spirit. These groups promote a holistic conception of physical and spiritual well-being that integrates traditional religious teachings with new expressions of human flourishing. Taipei, like many Asian cities, faces challenges to traditional values and lifestyles alongside new opportunities for self-expression and personal growth. In East Asia, education levels are expanding (college enrollments are approaching 90 percent of students of college age), young people are delaying marriage to age 30 and beyond (and the ratio of women choosing not to marry at all is at its highest level in history), and childbirth rates are far below the level of sustainability (Japan's population is expected to fall by two thirds in the next 20–30 years). These changes have brought about a new focus on self-actualization and personal enrichment, as traditional values of marriage and family are replaced by a search for purpose and meaning that is often at odds with conventional expectations. This is true of every modernizing Asian city – from Seoul and Tokyo to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong and on to Bangkok, Delhi, and Colombo. The thirst for spiritual self-cultivation, satisfied by groups like the Whole Earth Society, is a pan-Asian phenomenon.
The Whole Earth Society sponsors lectures on world religions, teaches techniques of meditation and physical exercise (massage, yoga, and deep breathing), and offers courses on healthy eating and traditional arts and crafts. At the same time these traditional pursuits are adapted to modern needs and interests, responding directly to the hectic lifestyles of modern urbanites, the single status of most of its members, and modern technologies of communication and entertainment. Today's syncretistic religious organizations succeed only to the extent that they are able to marry traditional principles and practices with the individualist values of working young people in the modern world.
The aim of this book is not to describe the Whole Earth Society and similar groups across Asia, but rather to follow their lead in recognizing both the lasting viability and the remarkable adaptability of Asian religions in the modern world. The Whole Earth Society is in some ways representative of a much wider phenomenon: a newly enlivened, global thirst for meaning and purpose. The integration of nature, self, and cosmos has been the goal of Asian religious traditions for centuries, and their practices and insights are rapidly becoming universal in themselves, as cultural globalization has come to include Europeans and Americans (not to mention educated urbanites in other parts of the world) among adherents of Hinduism, Buddhism, and East Asian religious traditions. What is inspiring about the Whole Earth Society (as one representative example) is its ability to respond directly to the interests and aspirations of increasingly cosmopolitan populations, whose members see themselves not just as citizens of Taipei, or Taiwan, or China, or Asia, but as citizens of the world. In this respect they are no different from their Euro-American analogues (the young urban professionals of the “wired generation”), forming a generational cohort that shares an increasingly overlapping set of needs and aspirations. What are these common needs and aspirations? And how are they shared across cultures? Perhaps they are best expressed by a set of common questions:
No longer satisfied by the unselfconscious religious practices of my parents and grandparents, what kind of spiritual resources are most meaningful to me?
As I am less interested (for the time being at least) in the traditional religious focus on family responsibilities and domestic life, how can my religious practice inspire me as an individual?
Busy as I am with my education and career, I do not want to “live to work” but rather to “work to live,” inspired by new experiences and new perspectives – but what kind of life do I want to lead?
