Download e-book for kindle: Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of by Stephen Covell

By Stephen Covell

ISBN-10: 0824828569

ISBN-13: 9780824828561

ISBN-10: 143566552X

ISBN-13: 9781435665521

There were many stories that concentrate on features of the historical past of jap Buddhism. before, none have addressed vital questions of association and perform in modern Buddhism, questions akin to how eastern Buddhism got here to obvious as a faith of funeral practices; how Buddhist associations envision the position of the laity; and the way a married clergy has affected lifestyles at temples and clone of clergymen. This quantity is the 1st to handle absolutely modern Buddhist lifestyles and institutions—topics usually missed within the clash among the rhetoric of renunciation and the practices of clerical marriage and householding that represent a lot of Buddhism in today’s Japan. knowledgeable through years of box learn and his personal stories education to be a Tendai priest, Stephen Covell skillfully refutes this ''corruption paradigm'' whereas revealing the numerous (often contradictory) points of latest institutional Buddhism, or as Covell phrases it, Temple Buddhism.

Covell considerably broadens the scope of inquiry to incorporate how Buddhism is approached through either laity and clerics while he's taking into consideration temple households, group involvement, and the commodification of perform. He considers legislations and tax concerns, temple moves, and the politics of temple forums of administrators to make clear how temples are run and seen via their population, supporters, and society usually. In doing so he uncovers the industrial realities that form ritual practices and exhibits how mundane elements akin to taxes effect the talk over Temple Buddhism’s position in modern jap society. moreover, via interviews and analyses of sectarian literature and up to date scholarship on gender and Buddhism, he presents a close examine priests’ other halves, who've turn into quintessential within the administration of temple affairs.

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Extra resources for Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation

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A survey showing that not even their own danka members saw them in such a light was a shock to sect leaders. On the other hand, the survey awakened them to the fact that, given declining danka member numbers, even though some temples might survive as centers of ancestor worship, if better sect (“brand”) recognition could not be obtained, the sect itself might not survive. Other data confirm these early Sòtò findings. 53 Such findings point out the sect-danka split that exists in most sects of Temple Buddhism.

Thus was born the lasting view of “true” Buddhism as a rational philosophy that does not engage in ritual practices and other “premodern” activities. This view, of course, denied the Buddhism that was practiced by the majority of Japanese and at all Japanese temples. Funerals and other rituals conducted by priests came to be seen as embarrassing vestiges of a less-than-pure Buddhism. ”31 True Buddhists engaged in high philosophy, not funeral ritual. 33 For example, many popular books have appeared critiquing the Buddhism practiced in temples today, and newspapers often report on the high prices charged for funeral services by priests.

The temples and monasteries just became places of entertainment for sightseers rather than places of discipline for monks. . 17 Watanabe claimed that Buddhism came to lack meaningful content—that is, form dominated over “true nature” and performance over practice. Today, according to Watanabe, temples have become “places of entertainment” and priests performers for an audience. In 1963 Tamamuro Taijò, a renowned scholar of Japanese Buddhism, published his now classic work, Funeral Buddhism (Sòshiki Bukkyò).

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Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation by Stephen Covell


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