Browsing by Subject "Buddhism"
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Item Item A comprehensive study of anatta and its relative truth within Buddhism(2006-12) Stout, Jerry; Webb, Mark O.; Kim, SungsuOften-times we question how two rational, logical, and intelligent people can observe a scenario or argument and come away with varying degrees of belief. The question of personal identity is no different, the self maintains its critics and followers, it is well documented through argumentation, defense, and theory, but though these arguments exist on three sides as rational and passionate defenses, debate continues between the three unique and well-founded sides of this issue. Whether it's the reductionist, the non-reductionist, or the no-self theorist, debate and disagreement exists over the consistency of doctrine and the viability of the theories presented by each group. To understand and decipher the elements of the debate, I propose a relative understanding of the question of personal identity, one consistent with the doctrine of Philosophical Relativity advocated by Peter Unger. Through careful study of the critiques, counter-theories, and counter-arguments of the doctrine of anatta, I seek to provide compelling reasons to doubt that an absolute answer to the question of the self is possible but also that a relative understanding of the no-self doctrine is plausible. Moreover, I focus on a new and distinct interpretation of the teachings of the Buddha, one of the central proponents of the no-self theory, whereby we consider a connection between the doctrine of Philosophical Relativity and one of the core metaphysical doctrines of Buddhism. Thus, I seek to accomplish two important tasks: I seek to cast doubt upon the absolute assumptions which drive the debate within personal identity, and I further hope to argue for a new interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings that is both consistent with the possible relative nature of the question of personal identity and true to the doctrine of anatta itself.Item Buddhism east and west: Chinese Buddhism in Beijing and Houston(2009-05-15) Wilson, MelindaAlthough Buddhism was introduced in the United States over a century ago, only recently has it become part of the mainstream. In addition to the exponential increase in Buddhist practitioners in the United States, scholar Thomas Tweed argues that Buddhist images and references, devoid of religious context, have seeped into American society. The increasing popularity and prevalence of Buddhism in America is attributable to many factors including changes to the immigration laws in the 1960s and the episodic popularity of all things Eastern. This fascination with the East is epitomized by the current Dalai Lama, who has a pop-culture presence as well as political sway, as evidenced by his meeting with John McCain on July 25, 2008. Just as the pre-1965 immigration laws stifled Buddhism in the United States by limiting the number of Asian immigrants, Mao?s communist doctrines prevented the practice of Buddhism in China. As a result, in recent years Buddhism has emerged in the United States and remerged in China. By examining the state of Buddhism in Beijing and Chinese Buddhism in Houston this thesis shows that despite the comparable newness of the religion in both places, it is developing in very different ways, showing the impact region has on religion.Item Buddhist philosophy in the work of David Foster Wallace(2013-05) Piekarski, Krzysztof, active 2013; Kevorkian, Martin, 1968-This dissertation is about the ways David Foster Wallace's writing expresses Buddhist philosophy. Because Buddhism is a vast subject, sometimes I conflate several traditional "Buddhisms" into a common-denominator form, while other times I investigate Wallace's work through Zen Buddhism specifically. By close-reading his work in chronological order--starting with The Broom of the System, Girl With Curious Hair, "The Empty Plenum," Infinite Jest, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience," "The Suffering Channel," and The Pale King--I analyze the ways in which Wallace's writing focused on questions of the self-awareness of linguistic expression, the contemporary causes of addiction and suffering and their implied remedy, the ethical and moral implications of living out of self-consciousness, the principles of mutual causality, "co-arising" and ecological well-being, and the discernment of multiple forms of awareness, all of which are foundational concerns shared with Buddhist philosophy.Item Form and function(2010-05) Weisner, Christina Lorena; Stoney, John; Sawyer, MargoThis is a report concerning the body of artwork I have formulated in the last two of my three years spent as a graduate student in the M.F.A. program at the University of Texas at Austin. It provides a chronological description of key works and the influences drawn upon within this time frame. Broken into eight substantive sections, the report reflects an in-depth study on “object-hood.”Item Fragile families : kinship and contention in a community temple(2013-05) Delgaty, Aaron Christopher; Traphagan, John W.Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Ishimura, a small town in Japan’s rural northeastern Iwate Prefecture during the summer of 2012, this thesis pursues two objectives. (1) Building on observations found in recent Western scholarship on the nature of Japanese religious institutions (Covell 2005, Rowe 2011), this thesis contends that Japanese Buddhist temples operating in close-knit rural communities are, in addition to religious and social spaces, inherently domestic spaces characterized by familial networks that link the temple to the parish through real and imagined kinship relations. Family networks also define the internal structuring of temple leadership, consisting of actual nuclear or multigenerational families that live and work at the heart of a community temple. Importantly, these temple families directly influence the community perception of the temple as a religious and social institution. In short, this thesis contends that family defines and families represent community temples. This thesis demonstrates the domestic and familial characteristics of community temples by examining the families at the center of Ishimura’s three Buddhist institutions, Kamidera, Shimodera, and Nakadera. (2) This thesis then turns to explore the contentious nature of community temples as domestic spaces. Specifically, this thesis contends that the familial dynamics that define temple leadership carry potentially “disruptive, disintegrative, and psychologically disturbing” ramifications for temple leadership and parish families. Drawing on the case of Tatsu, the troubled and troublesome vice priest of Nakadera, this thesis seeks to understand how the failed succession of a head priest can generate dysfunction across the broader familial networks that constitute a community temple. The case of Tatsu and Nakadera ultimately illuminates the vulnerabilities inherent to community temples as family-mediated, domestic institutions.Item Nietzsche’s Buddhist leidmotive : a comparative study of Nietzsche’s response to the problem of suffering(2011-12) Roddy, Conor; Higgins, Kathleen Marie; Arens, Katherine; Gustafsson, Lars; Martinich, A. P.; Phillips, StephenI argue in this dissertation that Nietzsche’s struggle to free himself from Schopenhauer and Wagner’s influence interferes with his understanding of Buddhism, which he tends to tar with the same brush that he used on his mentors. I claim that Nietzsche has more in common with Mahayana Buddhism than he realizes, and suggest that he would have had more sympathy for Buddhist strategies for confronting suffering if his conception of such strategies had been more adequate. I offer a reading of the eternal recurrence according to which it promotes an existential reorientation towards the present moment that is very much in the spirit of Zen. I contend that the apparently irresoluble differences between the Nietzschean and Buddhist positions on questions relating to a karmic “moral world order” can be overcome on a careful interpretation, and that there are more than superficial parallels between the way that both Nietzsche and Zen thinkers ascribe spiritual significance to a certain kind of spontaneous action.Item Of rags and riches : Indian Buddhist patronage networks in the Early Historic Period(2016-08) Milligan, Matthew David; Leoshko, Janice; Freiberger, Oliver; Brereton, Joel; Olivelle, Patrick; Neelis, JasonMy interdisciplinary dissertation uses early Indian Buddhism from 300 BCE to 300 CE as a case study for discerning connections between emergent religious institutions and economic networks in ancient South Asia. Buddhist inscriptional, architectural, literary, and artistic evidence from this period of Indian history suggests that the early Indian Buddhist monastic institution was a burgeoning group of disparate monks who rapidly gained economic power for the sake of survival. As such, donative epigraphy reveals how the saṁgha may have used new, innovative economic strategies to eventually dominate the religious landscape of ancient India using commercial networks to catalyze the spread of religious values alongside a mercantile ethos. I argue that these economic strategies reveal some degree of active engagement with virtues traditionally maligned by monastic law, such as the accumulation of wealth and frequent exchange of coined money. Alternating between material and textual datasets, this dissertation identifies reliquary mounds (stūpa-s) used for worship as nodes within the economic networks that allowed charismatic monastic and non-monastic Buddhists to derive social capital through mobilizing financial resources. In turn, these charismatic individuals may have harnessed religious power imbued in auspicious religious locations to convert it to symbolic capital whereby they could permanently enshrine objects and deceased individuals of their choosing for worship. As these religious figureheads gained fame and power so too did their newly fashioned style of Buddhism. Centralized around stone monumental architecture, the Buddhist community became a great force in shaping future historical trajectories for religion in South Asia. These findings serve the fields of Buddhist Studies and the History of Religions in several ways. First, they emphasize the need to read Buddhist and religious sources with ongoing cultural changes such as economic growth, urbanization, and expanding communication networks. Next, these conclusions expand our understanding of one of the earliest forms of Buddhism accessible through extant evidence and attempt to reconfigure how religions employ legitimizing processes for the sake of survival. Lastly, I delineate three seeds of institutionalized religion important for the expansion of early Buddhism: 1.) the advent of writing; 2.) charismatic entrepreneurship; and 3.) increased societal and institutional complexity.Item Rational belief in classical India : Nyaya's epistemology and defense of theism(2010-05) Dasti, Matthew Roe; Phillips, Stephen H., 1950-; Sosa, Ernest D.; Koons, Robert C.; Bonevac, Daniel; Juhl, Cory; Bryant, Edwin F.Nyāya is the premier realist school of philosophy in classical India. It is also the home of a sophisticated epistemology and natural theology. This dissertation presents a distinctive interpretation of Nyāya’s epistemology and considers how it may be developed in response to various classical and contemporary challenges. I argue that it is best understood as a type of reliabilism, provided relevant qualifications. Moreover, I show that a number of apparently distinct features of Nyāya’s approach to knowledge tightly cohere when seen as components of a thoroughgoing epistemological disjunctivism. I defend Nyāya epistemology as a viable contemporary option, illustrating how it avoids problems faced by generic reliabilism. In the second portion of the dissertation, I examine the way in which Nyāya’s knowledge sources (perception, inference, and testimony) are deployed in support of a theistic metaphysics, highlighting Nyāya’s principled extension of its views of knowledge acquisition. In an appendix, I provide a full translation and commentary on an argument for God’s existence by Vācaspati Miśra (a 10th century philosopher who is unique in having shaped several distinct schools), found in his commentary on Nyāya-sūtra 4.1.21.Item Reckoning up the body : logics of enumeration and arrangement in Buddhist and Āyurvedic inventories of anatomy(2013-12) Johnson, Dana Noel; Selby, Martha AnnIndian accounts of anatomy from the early centuries of the Common Era display a shared desire to enumerate the parts of the human body. Two such accounts occur in the foundational texts of āyurveda --- the Caraka-saṃhitā and Suśruta-saṃhitā --- and another in the Buddhist commentarial text, the Visuddhimagga. Scholars have mined these medical sources in particular to determine the extent and accuracy of anatomical knowledge in ancient India. But little has been done to understand the logics that these sources apply in dismembering, enumerating, and rearranging the body. A close reading reveals three distinct ways by which the materiality of the body could be interpreted in ancient India to conform to broader ideologies and epistemologies. Moreover, through examining both āyurvedic and Buddhist sources, it soon becomes clear that generalizations like "religion" and "medicine" mask the constellation of complex and often-overlapping concerns present in these various studies of anatomy.Item The role of Buddhism, theosophy, and science in František Kupka’s search for the immaterial through 1909(2012-05) Jones, Chelsea Ann; Henderson, Linda Dalrymple, 1948-; Leoshko, JaniceCzech painter František Kupka (1871-1957), who spent his active years in Paris, remains one of the most under-researched artists, given his important status as one of the first painters of totally abstract works of art, beginning in 1912. As such, his philosophical and iconographical sources have yet to be fully discussed. This thesis examines how three of Kupka's sources, Buddhism, Theosophy, and science, demonstrate his belief in the existence of an immaterial reality, which shaped his art and theory. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the notion of invisible realities was a widespread concern of individuals aware of science and/or interested in mysticism and occultism. In this context, Buddhism would have offered another model for new ways of envisioning existence and consciousness. Two of Kupka's early works, The Soul of the Lotus (1898) and The Beginning of Life (1900), show his knowledge of Buddhist, and possibly Hindu, iconography. The Musée Guimet in Paris offered a rich supply of material by which an individual could learn about Buddhism, and Kupka's imagery likely drew upon such sources. In addition to the Musée Guimet, it is likely Kupka also encountered Buddhism through popularized Eastern thought--in part through books published in Paris on that subject as well as on Theosophy. The writings of Theosophical authors regularly addressed themes related both to Buddhism and to contemporary science, which was equally concerned with the invisible and the immaterial. Discoveries such as the X-ray, for example, affirmed the inaccuracy of human vision and the existence of a reality beneath surface appearances, which supported Theosophy in its reaction against materialism. I argue that Kupka's 1909 painting The Dream serves as a culmination of his concern for alternative conceptions of reality. Painted using a formal language of transparency, The Dream demonstrates Kupka's interest in Buddhism, Theosophy, and science and represents his belief in the immaterial as a critical stage in his philosophical and artistic evolution.Item A study of inscribed reliefs within the context of donative inscriptions at Sanchi(2010-08) Milligan, Matthew David; Freiberger, Oliver; Leoshko, JaniceInscribed relief art at the early Buddhist archaeological site of Sanchi in India exhibits at least one interesting quality not found elsewhere at the site. Sanchi is well known for its narrative reliefs and reliquaries enshrined in stūpas. However, two inscribed images of stūpas found on the southern gateway record the gifts of two prominent individuals. The first is a junior monk whose teacher holds a high position in the local order. The second is the son of the foreman of the artisans of a king. Both inscribed stūpa images represent a departure from a previous donative epigraphical habit. Instead of inscribing their names on image-less architectural pieces, these two particular individuals inscribed their names on representations of stūpas, a symbol with a multiplicity of meanings. In this thesis, I use two perspectives to analyze the visual and verbal texts of these inscribed reliefs. In the end, I suggest that these donations were recorded as part of the visual field intentionally, showing the importance of not only inscribing a name on an auspicious symbol but also the importance of inscribing a name for the purpose of being seen.Item The Borobudur Vessels in Context(2014-07-28) Inglis, Douglas AndrewEleven boats are depicted in the bas-reliefs that cover the walls of Borobudur, a ninth century C.E. Buddhist monument located in central Java. These vessels are an important source of information about the complexities of classical Indonesian shipbuilding, and contain data about rigging elements, rope use, fastening, rowing configurations, and outrigger construction. They represent critical evidence of physical structures that have not survived in the archaeological record. Scholars such as Hornell, Mookerji, Needham, Horridge, Manguin, Ray, and others have used the reliefs to improve our understanding of maritime trade, seafaring, and ship construction in ancient Southeast Asia. While the technical merits of the Borobudur Ships have been thoroughly discussed, a great deal of cultural data has been overlooked. The objective of this thesis is to place the Borobudur Vessels in their proper religious, artistic, and narrative context. It addresses three central questions: 1.) What can the Buddhist narratives tell us about the seafaring scenes depicted at Borobudur? 2.) How did the artistic framework influence the representation of the vessels in the reliefs? 3.) What do Borobudur?s reliefs tell us about contemporaneous seafaring in the region? This study will demonstrate that the narrative and religious context of the Borobudur Vessels directly influenced how the panels were designed, how the ships were portrayed, and how we should interpret them. The Buddhist narratives associated with the vessels provide deeper context for everything we see happening on board. The stories reveal the stakes involved in seafaring, explain what was expected of a mariner, and illustrate the skills and mindset needed to survive on an ocean-going vessel. The reliefs themselves provide a window on how seafaring stories were envisioned in ninth century C.E. Java. The 94 mariners depicted aboard the ships portray emotions, such as fear, courage, torpor, and astonishment, as well as abstract concepts such a teamwork, self-sacrifice, and leadership. This thesis will show that the Borobudur Vessels represent a concentrated effort to capture the struggles, heroism, and drama of sailing. They are material evidence of the intimate connection between Buddhism and seafaring, and provide unique insights into the Javanese perception of sailing, the ocean, and its dangers.Item The Dragon King's daughter: Sinfonietta for jazz nonet, strings, and soprano(2010-08) Berg, Jason W.; Fischer, Peter; Smith, Christopher; Berry, Michael F.; Borshuk, Michael; Durham, GenevieveThe Dragon King’s Daughter: Sinfonietta for Jazz Nonet, String Orchestra and Soprano is an original musical composition in four movements combining the textural, harmonic, melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of both jazz and contemporary classical music. The blending of genres creates several problems in terms of notation and performance that the score and this accompanying document attempt to explore and address. These include the concept of “swing” and issues of improvisation versus interpretation. As a score written for a specific group of performers, certain inconsistencies are present based on the knowledge base of the given musicians. This concept is also explained in more detail within the body of the paper. The piece was created in conjunction with artist Christian Conrad, writer Kathleen Blackburn, and choreographer Rachel Spaugh and collaboration deeply informs the work. This document investigates how the collaborative process influenced the composition of the musical score but also seeks to demonstrate how it stands on its own, to be evaluated and analyzed based on the elements of orchestration, form, harmony, melody and rhythm. The form of the piece is drawn loosely from the structure of a classical symphony with an opening fast movement and a slower second. It departs from the typical format because of the programmatic nature of the piece. The third movement in particular, rather than being a stylized dance, like the traditional symphonic minuet and trio, is an actual piece of music for dance written to accompany choreography by Rachel Spaugh. As a result, it is much more complex and indepth than a standard third movement. The final movement also does not follow the typical symphonic model of an allegro or rondo to conclude the piece. Instead, it is slow, broad, and introspective, providing resolution to the conflict presented in the third movement and embodying the internal nature of wisdom and enlightenment. The text for The Dragon King’s Daughter is based on the story of the Dragon Girl from the Lotus Sutra, a seminal work in the Mahayana Buddhist cannon. It comes from the “Devadatta” chapter of this sutra and tells the tale of the daughter of the Dragon King, Sagara, who attained enlightenment at the tender age of eight. The Dragon Girl’s manifestation of her innate Buddhahood represents the great internal potential that all living beings possess, as is taught by Buddhism. The music of The Dragon King’s Daughter is intentionally programmatic in nature and focuses on telling her story through sound. The first movement helps us to imagine her fantastic undersea world; the second reveals her seeking mind that leads her to pursue the wisdom of the Buddha. In the third movement, we experience aurally (as well as visually and physically when performed with the accompanying choreography) her confrontation of those internal and external obstacles which would deter her efforts. The final movement concludes with the Dragon Girl’s own dramatic demonstration of her enlightenment before the assembly of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and magical beings that make up the crowd assembled to hear Shakyamuni Buddha preach the Lotus Sutra at Eagle Peak.Item The Religiosity of Vietnamese Americans(2012-07-16) Le, Jennifer LinhReligion is a deeply important tradition in many people's lives, especially for those forced to leave abruptly their homes and loved ones and resettle in a foreign land. Religion not only provides spiritual guidance but also social networks, comfort, and moral standards, among many others things. I chose to study the beliefs and practices of Vietnamese American Buddhists and Catholics as well as the relationship between those two groups in the U.S. The Vietnamese present an interesting case because of their collective status as a well-publicized immigrant, formerly refugee, population that is now well-established in this country. With my research, I was able to test five hypotheses. I wanted to determine the degree of transnationality, tension between the religious groups, conversion, and ancestor worship. Secondarily, I assessed any differences regionally. In order to test my hypotheses, I conducted 60 quantitative surveys. I sampled from the Houston and Minneapolis-St. Paul Vietnamese communities. Transnationality, or ties to the homeland, was more prevalent for Buddhists than Catholics as I had hypothesized. There was a minute degree of tension present, however, generally with older members of the first generation cohort. Traditional Vietnamese ancestor worship was not more prevalent with Buddhists than with Catholics. I was unable to sample enough religious converts in order to test my conversion hypothesis. In terms of differences across regions, all variables other than national identity as well as an indicator of transnationality were statistically insignificant. This data helps fill a nearly 30-year gap in the research in this area and focuses specifically on the Vietnamese population which many studies have been unable to do. In addition to my quantitative study, I also conducted qualitative fieldwork at four primary research and three secondary research sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Houston metropolitan areas. Twenty-five to thirty hours were spent at each primary location observing the members, volunteers, dress, interactions, normative and deviant behaviors during services, socialization, languages spoken, attentiveness, racial diversity, and additional activities provided by the religious organization to the membership. This fieldwork gave me a better understanding of this community in a religious context.Item Visualizing the power of wisdom : Mañjuvajra Mandala, an eleventh century Pāla period sculpture from Bengal(2013-05) Langberg, Hillary Anne; Leoshko, JaniceAmong the extant examples of carved-stone deity mūrtis from Pāla-period Bengal, few express their subject matter in such dynamic and aesthetically refined visual terms as a sculpture now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Entitled Mañjuvajra Mandala, the stele depicts a three-faced six-armed form of the bodhisattva of wisdom, Mañjuśrī. It dates from the latest phase of Vajrayāna Buddhism in India and likely reflects sādhana practices that entail mandala visualization rituals and union with a female consort. Although a superbly carved piece and an unusual form, it has not yet been fully studied. Surviving relevant texts locate Mañjuvajra primarily within a mandala diagram as the focus of sādhana visualization rituals. The purpose of this thesis is to explore aspects of the sculpture's execution that add to its meaning and, in turn, provide an enriched understanding of Vajrayāna practice. The innovative composition and metonymic forms of this Mañjuvajra sculpture demonstrate the congruency of religious content and artistic depiction in a powerful and multivalent manner.Item Vultures of Tibet : lessons in clandestine filmmaking(2012-12) Bush, Russell O.; Raval, P. J. (Paul James); Howard, Donald W; Campbell, Craig AOver the course of nearly three years I created a documentary film titled, Vultures of Tibet. My film investigates sky burial, a private ritual where the bodies of Tibetan dead are offered to wild griffon vultures. The tradition is becoming a paid tourist attraction as Chinese modernization in Tibet continues. I have tried with this film to illuminating an ideological conflict often hidden to the outside world through the intimate yet inherently voyeuristic lens of the camera. This report chronicles my experience as a filmmaker bringing this project into reality.Item When the horse runs off(2011-05) Maguire, Randy Allen; Welcher, Dan; Pinkston, Russell"When the horse runs off" is a one-act chamber opera, which features an original libretto by playwright Sarah Saltwick, and is based on a Buddhist fable. The piece is scored for four singers and six instrumentalists. Similar to the manner in which the original fable is used as a point of departure, the opera incorporates folk music of Nepal and China into a larger, more varied palette of sounds. These are places from which this fable could have originated, so this is a natural way to create a world within the piece that feels organic.Item Women and Buddhism in Playwriting: Two Theatre Scripts(2011-08) Lelanuj, Orada; Bert, Norman A.; Chansky, Dorothy; Fehr, Dennis; Marks, Jonathan; Webb, Mark O.Since the time of Buddhism’s inception, women have occupied an ambiguous position in the religion, partially because Buddhist arts and literature are almost always created and written by men. The professional problem in playwriting for this project is, therefore, to write two theatre scripts that present certain Buddhist teachings while at the same time emphasizing female characters and their experiences. One of the scripts is an original and the other is an adaptation from a novel. Arya, the original script, tells the story of a spirit and her three different past lives. The adaptation, Under A Sorrowless Tree, focuses on the journey Vasitthi, a character from Karl Gjellerup’s The Pilgrim Kamanita, takes toward the Buddhist enlightenment. Upon completing this project, I hope to contribute works that bring focus to the role of women and Buddhism in the field of contemporary playwriting. The dissertation is divided into five chapters, with the two scripts included as appendices. Chapter I introduces my background and my approach to the scripts and the dissertation. Chapter II surveys selected Buddhist-related dramas in certain countries in Asia and discusses how this project fits into these historical practices. Chapter III relates the details of the writing processes of the two scripts. Chapter IV contains the account of the production of Arya, which was presented at Texas Tech University in November of 2009. Chapter V displays the results of the survey of the audience’s responses to the production of Arya and the analysis of the survey, with an emphasis on the audience’s reception of the Buddhist content in the script.