The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk

2013-12-01 Religion

Author : Justin Thomas McDaniel
Release : 2013-12-01
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 775/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk by : Justin Thomas McDaniel

Download or read book The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk written by Justin Thomas McDaniel. This book was released on 2013-12-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on representations of a famous ghost and monk from the late eighteenth century to today, Justin Thomas McDaniel builds a case for interpreting modern Thai Buddhist practice through the movements of these transformative figures. He follows embodiments of the ghost and monk in a variety of genres and media, including biography, drama, ritual, art, liturgy, film, television, and the Internet. Sourcing nuns, monks, laypeople, and royalty, McDaniel shows how relations with these figures have been instrumental in crafting histories and modernities, particularly local conceptions of being "Buddhist," and the formation and transmission of such identities across different venues and technologies.

Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words

2010-12-01 Religion

Author : Justin Thomas McDaniel
Release : 2010-12-01
Genre : Religion
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 22X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words by : Justin Thomas McDaniel

Download or read book Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words written by Justin Thomas McDaniel. This book was released on 2010-12-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Henry J. Benda Prize sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words examines modern and premodern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand. Through five centuries of adaptation and reinterpretation of sacred texts and commentaries, Justin McDaniel traces curricular variations in Buddhist oral and written education that reflect a wide array of community goals and values. He depicts Buddhism as a series of overlapping processes, bringing fresh attention to the continuities of Theravada monastic communities that have endured despite regional and linguistic variations. Incorporating both primary and secondary sources from Thailand and Laos, he examines premodern inscriptional, codicological, anthropological, art historical, ecclesiastical, royal, and French colonial records. By looking at modern sermons, and even television programs and websites, he traces how pedagogical techniques found in premodern palm-leaf manuscripts are pervasive in modern education. As the first comprehensive study of monastic education in Thailand and Laos, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words will appeal to a wide audience of scholars and students interested in religious studies, anthropology, social and intellectual history, and pedagogy.

Living Buddhism

2015-12-18 Social Science

Author : Julia Cassaniti
Release : 2015-12-18
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 979/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Living Buddhism by : Julia Cassaniti

Download or read book Living Buddhism written by Julia Cassaniti. This book was released on 2015-12-18. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Living Buddhism, Julia Cassaniti explores Buddhist ideas of impermanence, nonattachment, and intention as they are translated into everyday practice in contemporary Thailand. Although most lay people find these philosophical concepts difficult to grasp, Cassaniti shows that people do in fact make an effort to comprehend them and integrate them as guides for their everyday lives. In doing so, she makes a convincing case that complex philosophical concepts are not the sole property of religious specialists and that ordinary lay Buddhists find in them a means for dealing with life's difficulties. More broadly, the book speaks to the ways that culturally informed ideas are part of the psychological processes that we all use to make sense of the world around us.In an approachable first-person narrative style that combines interview and participant-observation material gathered over the course of two years in the community, Cassaniti shows how Buddhist ideas are understood, interrelated, and reinforced through secular and religious practices in everyday life. She compares the emotional experiences of Buddhist villagers with religious and cultural practices in a nearby Christian village. Living Buddhism highlights the importance of change, calmness (as captured in the Thai phrase jai yen, or a cool heart), and karma; Cassaniti's narrative untangles the Thai villagers' feelings and problems and the solutions they seek.

Wayward Distractions

2021-10-15

Author : Justin Thomas McDaniel
Release : 2021-10-15
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 502/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Wayward Distractions by : Justin Thomas McDaniel

Download or read book Wayward Distractions written by Justin Thomas McDaniel. This book was released on 2021-10-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays engaging with Buddhism in Thailand and the virtues of distraction and variety within the materialist turn in studies of religion. In Thailand, Buddhism is deeply integrated into national institutions and ideologies, making it tempting to think of Buddhism in Thailand as a textual, institutional, cultural, and conceptual whole. At the same time, religious expression in the country reflects anything but a single order. Often gaudy, cacophonous, variegated, and jumbled, diversity and apparent contradiction abound. A more open engagement with Buddhism in Thailand requires a willingness to be distracted, to step away from received hierarchies and follow the intriguing detail in the ornate design, the odd textual reference, and to prefer "thin description" over a search for meaning. Justin McDaniel's well-known book-length writings in Buddhist and Theravada studies cannot be fully understood without taking into account his shorter writings, what he calls his wayward distractions. Collected together for the first time, these essays cover subjects ranging from ornamental art to marriage and emotion, the role of Hinduism, neglected gender and ethnic diversity, Buddhist inflections in contemporary art practice, and the boundaries between the living, dead, and undead. These writings will be of importance to students of Theravada and Thailand, of religion in Southeast Asia and more generally, of the materialist turn in studies of religion.

The Buddha's Wizards

2018-10-16 History

Author : Thomas Nathan Patton
Release : 2018-10-16
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 374/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Buddha's Wizards by : Thomas Nathan Patton

Download or read book The Buddha's Wizards written by Thomas Nathan Patton. This book was released on 2018-10-16. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wizards with magical powers to heal the sick, possess the bodies of their followers, and defend their tradition against outside threats are far from the typical picture of Buddhism. Yet belief in wizard-saints who protect their devotees and intervene in the world is widespread among Burmese Buddhists. The Buddha’s Wizards is a historically informed ethnographic study that explores the supernatural landscape of Buddhism in Myanmar to explain the persistence of wizardry as a form of lived religion in the modern era. Thomas Nathan Patton explains the world of wizards, spells, and supernatural powers in terms of both the broader social, political, and religious context and the intimate roles that wizards play in people’s everyday lives. He draws on affect theory, material and visual culture, long-term participant observation, and the testimonies of the devout to show how devotees perceive the protective power of wizard-saints. Patton considers beliefs and practices associated with wizards to be forms of defending Buddhist traditions from colonial and state power and culturally sanctioned responses to restrictive gender roles. The book also offers a new lens on the political struggles and social transformations that have taken place in Myanmar in recent years. Featuring close attention to the voices of individual wizard devotees and the wizards themselves, The Buddha’s Wizards provides a striking new look at a little-known aspect of Buddhist belief that helps expand our ways of thinking about the daily experience of lived religious practices.

Popular eBooks

The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk

Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words

Wayward Distractions

The Buddha's Wizards

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