Buddhisms: A Princeton University Press

Bernard Faure is Associate Professor of Religion at Stanford University. He is the author of The Rhetoric of Immediacy, Chan Insights and Oversights, and Visions of Power (all from Princeton University Press). Is there a Buddhist discourse on sex? In this innovative study, Bernard Faure reveals Buddhism's paradoxical attitudes toward sexuality. His remarkably broad range covers the entire geography of this religion, and its long evolution from the time of its founder, Xvkyamuni, to the premodern age. The author's anthropological approach uncovers the inherent discrepancies between the normative teachings of Buddhism and what its followers practice. Framing his discussion on some of the most prominent Western thinkers of sexuality--Georges Bataille and Michel Foucault--Faure draws from different reservoirs of writings, such as the orthodox and heterodox "doctrines" of Buddhism, and its monastic codes. Virtually untapped mythological as well as legal sources are also used. The dialectics inherent in Mahvyvna Buddhism, in particular in the Tantric and Chan/Zen traditions, seemed to allow for greater laxity and even encouraged breaking of taboos. Faure also offers a history of Buddhist monastic life, which has been buffeted by anticlerical attitudes, and by attempts to regulate sexual behavior from both within and beyond the monastery. In two chapters devoted to Buddhist homosexuality, he examines the way in which this sexual behavior was simultaneously condemned and idealized in medieval Japan. This book will appeal especially to those interested in the cultural history of Buddhism and in premodern Japanese culture. But the story of how one of the world's oldest religions has faced one of life's greatest problems makes fascinating reading for all. "Although many scholars strive to locate their research within the study of Chinese religions as a whole, and thus to incorporate perspectives, insights, and approaches derived from the fields of popular religious studies and poststructuralist anthropology, there is as yet only one scholar who has adopted this breadth of vision as the fundamental characteristic of his intellectual agenda. This is of course Bernard Faure."

Anne M. Blackburn is Assistant Professor of South Asia and Director of the Sinhala Program in the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University. Anne Blackburn explores the emergence of a predominant Buddhist monastic culture in eighteenth-century Sri Lanka, while asking larger questions about the place of monasticism and education in the creation of religious and national traditions. Her historical analysis of the Siyam Nikaya, a monastic order responsible for innovations in Buddhist learning, challenges the conventional view that a stable and monolithic Buddhism existed in South and Southeast Asia prior to the advent of British colonialism in the nineteenth century. The rise of the Siyam Nikaya and the social reorganization that accompanied it offer important evidence of dynamic local traditions. Blackburn supports this view with fresh readings of Buddhist texts and their links to social life beyond the monastery. Comparing eighteenth-century Sri Lankan Buddhist monastic education to medieval Christian and other contexts, the author examines such issues as bilingual commentarial practice, the relationship between clerical and "popular" religious cultures, the place of preaching in the constitution of "textual communities," and the importance of public displays of learning to social prestige. Blackburn draws upon indigenous historical narratives, which she reads as rhetorical texts important to monastic politics and to the naturalization of particular attitudes toward kingship and monasticism. Moreover, she questions both conventional views on "traditional" Theravadin Buddhism and the "Buddhist modernism" / "Protestant Buddhism" said to characterize nineteenth-century Sri Lanka. This book provides not only a pioneering critique of post-Orientalist scholarship on South Asia, but also a resolution to the historiographic impasse created by post-Orientalist readings of South Asian history. "An impressive accomplishment. . . . Blackburn's study of practices and texts associated with Buddhst education is an innovative work that recasts our understanding of religious change prior to the intensive colonization of Sri Lanka in the nineteenth century."---Stephen C. Berkwitz, The Journal of Religion "Anne Blackburn offers a powerful new way of thinking about Buddhist monasticism in general, one that takes seriously the role of academic study in the moral economy of Buddhist monks. This strategy has broad implications for all students of the Buddhist world. Blackburn also makes an important contribution to the field by showing the richness of Sinhala Buddhist literature in one time and place and teaching us how to read a variety of genres rhetorically: we not only learn about the contents of these works but also see how they were embedded in an elaborate educational milieu. Her work will prove to be exemplary and will educate the imagination of scholars investigating other areas of Buddhist history."-Charles Hallisey, Harvard University "This book brings forth a new and important voice in the ongoing debates about Theravada Buddhism, and it will also interest scholars outside this field. Anne Blackburn challenges, for example, many of the facile presuppositions of scholars working in colonialist and neocolonialist studies, and so makes an important contribution to the debates concerning Orientalism. Her nuanced literary critical examination of texts will make this book valuable to scholars in the field of the comparative study of religion who are just now beginning to utilize these methods to gain a greater understanding of religious texts of this kind as literary artifacts."-José Ignacio Cabezón, Iliff School of Theology

Richard M. Jaffe, a specialist in Japanese Buddhism, is Assistant Professor of Religion at Duke University. Buddhism comes in many forms, but in Japan it stands apart from all the rest in one most striking way--the monks get married. In Neither Monk nor Layman, the most comprehensive study of this topic in any language, Richard Jaffe addresses the emergence of an openly married clergy as a momentous change in the history of modern Japanese Buddhism. He demonstrates, in clear and engaging prose, that this shift was not an easy one for Japanese Buddhists. Yet the transformation that began in the early Meiji period (1868-1912)--when monks were ordered by government authorities to adopt common surnames and allowed to marry, to have children, and to eat meat--today extends to all the country's Buddhist denominations. Jaffe traces the gradual acceptance of clerical marriage by Japanese Buddhists from the premodern emergence of the "clerical marriage problem" in the Edo period to its widespread practice by the start of the Second World War. In doing so he considers related issues such as the dissolution of clerical status and the growing domestication of Japanese temple life. This book reveals the deep contradictions between sectarian teachings that continue to idealize renunciation and a clergy whose lives closely resemble those of their parishioners in modern Japanese society. It will attract not only scholars of religion and of Japanese history, but all those interested in the encounter-conflict between regimes of modernization and religious institutions and the fate of celibate religious practices in the twentieth century. "Jaffe does a masterful job of weaving together into a compelling narrative his extensive and well-documented historical sources. . . . This is an important contribution to modern Japanese religious history." "[A] richly detailed and clearly written work. . . Jaffe provides abundant material for anyone interested in state-religion issues. . . . A must read for anyone interested in Japanese religious history, Buddhism, or Japanese history."---Stephen G. Covell, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies "This work carefully integrates a deep understanding of Buddhist doctrine with historical detail and ethnographic description. On the issue of clerical marriage in Japanese Buddhism, not only is Jaffe's book the only show in town, but it is a show that no one interested in Japanese Buddhism, Meiji history, church-state relations, religious celibacy, modernization, or secularization would want to miss."---John S. LoBreglio, Journal of Asian Studies "One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of Japanese Buddhism involves the marriage of clerics. Buddhists from most other countries consider this a sign of the overall decline of Buddhism in Japan and think that Japanese clerics are simply incapable of controlling their desires. . . . Both sides of this complex issue are presented clearly, and the idea of over-all decline is thoroughly debunked. This cross-disciplinary book is important not only to studies of religion but also to those of anthropology and history."---Sarah Horton, Religious Studies Review "Jaffe's work is beautifully referenced and composed, full of illuminating sidelights and contextual explorations, and displaying powerful detail and tireless pursuit of textual evidence. . . . Jaffe's research performs a quite groundbreaking synthesis in any language."---Galen Amstutz, Journal of Japanese Studies "First-rate. Jaffe's research is utterly original; virtually none of the issues covered have been seriously investigated in any other Western-language study, and there are precious few Japanese secondary studies in the area. The book is well organized, well balanced, and a delight to read."-Robert Sharf, University of Michigan "That the male Buddhist clergy in Japan is almost entirely married is an anomaly within Buddhism as a whole. Jaffe's subject is the problem of how this came about. What we

John Kieschnick is an associate research fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, in Taipei. From the first century, when Buddhism entered China, the foreign religion shaped Chinese philosophy, beliefs, and ritual. At the same time, Buddhism had a profound effect on the material world of the Chinese. This wide-ranging study shows that Buddhism brought with it a vast array of objects big and small--relics treasured as parts of the body of the Buddha, prayer beads, and monastic clothing--as well as new ideas about what objects could do and how they should be treated. Kieschnick argues that even some everyday objects not ordinarily associated with Buddhism--bridges, tea, and the chair--on closer inspection turn out to have been intimately tied to Buddhist ideas and practices. Long after Buddhism ceased to be a major force in India, it continued to influence the development of material culture in China, as it does to the present day. At first glance, this seems surprising. Many Buddhist scriptures and thinkers rejected the material world or even denied its existence with great enthusiasm and sophistication. Others, however, from Buddhist philosophers to ordinary devotees, embraced objects as a means of expressing religious sentiments and doctrines. What was a sad sign of compromise and decline for some was seen as strength and versatility by others. Yielding rich insights through its innovative analysis of particular types of objects, this briskly written book is the first to systematically examine the ambivalent relationship, in the Chinese context, between Buddhism and material culture. "I fully recommend this book. . . . Kieschnick deserves high praise for a thoughtful and sustained presentation of a crucial element of the Chinese Buddhist tradition."---Alan Cole, Journal of Chinese Religions "John Kieschnick has produced a very good book on a topic that deserves attention. . . . He has opened up new areas of inquiry that will no doubt stimulate further investigation. One has every reason to expect that the book will be widely read and appreciated for years to come."---James A. Benn, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies "This book . . . makes a lasting contribution to our understanding of the diverse ways in which Buddhism and material culture interacted in China."---Koichi Shinohara, Journal of Asian Studies "The direct confrontation of the material expressions of [Buddhism] has finally materialized with the publication of John Kieschnick's The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. In this sense, the new book indeed breaks new ground in the studies of Chinese Buddhism. . . . Kieschnick has written an insightful, informative, and entertaining book. . . . He should be congratulated by us all for his admirable scholarship."---Yuet Keung Lo, Asian Journal of Social Science "A remarkable achievement. By applying his Buddhological training to a topic typically ignored by Buddhologists, material objects, John Kieschnick has produced an original and groundbreaking book-the first of its kind not only in the area of Chinese Buddhism, but in the field of Buddhism writ large. There is simply nothing like this available in any Western language. Despite the technical nature of the subject, he manages to keep the scholarly apparatus unobtrusive. I would not hesitate to make it required reading in all of my upper level and graduate courses on Chinese Buddhism."-Robert Sharf, University of Michigan

Donald K. Swearer is the Charles & Harriet Cox McDowell Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Swarthmore College. His recent books include The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia and The Legend of Queen Cama. Becoming the Buddha is the first book-length study of a key ritual of Buddhist practice in Asia: the consecration of a Buddha image or "new Buddha," a ceremony by which the Buddha becomes present or alive. Through a richly detailed, accessible exploration of this ritual in northern Thailand, an exploration that stands apart from standard text-based or anthropological approaches, Donald Swearer makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Buddha image, its role in Buddhist devotional life, and its relationship to the veneration of Buddha relics. Blending ethnography, analysis, and Buddhist texts related to this mimetic reenactment of the night of the Buddha's enlightenment, he demonstrates that the image becomes the Buddha's surrogate by being invested with the Buddha's story and charged with the extraordinary power of Buddhahood. The process by which this transformation occurs through chant, sermon, meditation, and the presence of charismatic monks is at the heart of this book. Known as "opening the eyes of the Buddha," image consecration traditions throughout Buddhist Asia share much in common. Within the cultural context of northern Thailand, Becoming the Buddha illuminates scriptural accounts of the making of the first Buddha image; looks at debates over the ritual's historical origin, at Buddhological insights achieved, and at the hermeneutics of absence and presence; and provides a thematic comparison of several Buddhist traditions. "Wide-ranging. . . . Although this study concentrates on one ritual in one region of Thailand, Donald K. Swearer extrapolates from the relatively small area of focus to illuminate a large area of debate."---Catherine Newell, Journal of the Siam Society "A thorough and magisterial study. . . . This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhism, Buddhist 'theology,' images, and the material culture of religions."---John E. Cort, Religious Studies Review "In Becoming the Buddha Donald Swearer has provided a multifaceted historical, ethnographic, and comparative study of an image consecration ritual that lies close to the very heart of popular Buddhist piety. Drawing on more than four decades of textual research and field experience in northern Thailand, Swearer provides compelling descriptions and probing analyses that will command the attention of scholars in Buddhist studies and ritual studies for many years to come."-Frank Reynolds, co-translator of Three Worlds of King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology "Reading Becoming the Buddha was an exciting, note-taking, eye-opening experience that stimulated my thinking about the field and about my own work. This book is the product of a mature scholar whose many years in the field and whose prolific writings have made him one of the world's top authorities on Thai religion and culture, and yet it retains a freshness in the approach it takes, the topic it tackles, and the conclusions it upholds. There is nothing like it in print that I know of. I have every confidence that it will become, in a few years' time, a much referred to, often quoted, classic."-John S. Strong, Bates College, author of The Legend and Cult of Upagupta "This is the first major book-length study of image consecration for Indian or Southeast Asian Buddhism that is accessible to a general readership. The scholarship behind it is enormous. Donald Swearer has collected a great range of texts and translated them adeptly while also incorporating ethnographic materials that are not only excellent but at times quite delightful."-Richard Davis, Bard College, author of Lives of Indian Images

Bernard Faure is George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. He is the author of Visions of Power, The Red Thread, Chan Insights and Oversights, and The Rhetoric of Immediacy, (all Princeton). Innumerable studies have appeared in recent decades about practically every aspect of women's lives in Western societies. The few such works on Buddhism have been quite limited in scope. In The Power of Denial, Bernard Faure takes an important step toward redressing this situation by boldly asking: does Buddhism offer women liberation or limitation? Continuing the innovative exploration of sexuality in Buddhism he began in The Red Thread, here he moves from his earlier focus on male monastic sexuality to Buddhist conceptions of women and constructions of gender. Faure argues that Buddhism is neither as sexist nor as egalitarian as is usually thought. Above all, he asserts, the study of Buddhism through the gender lens leads us to question what we uncritically call Buddhism, in the singular. Faure challenges the conventional view that the history of women in Buddhism is a linear narrative of progress from oppression to liberation. Examining Buddhist discourse on gender in traditions such as that of Japan, he shows that patriarchy--indeed, misogyny--has long been central to Buddhism. But women were not always silent, passive victims. Faure points to the central role not only of nuns and mothers (and wives) of monks but of female mediums and courtesans, whose colorful relations with Buddhist monks he considers in particular. Ultimately, Faure concludes that while Buddhism is, in practice, relentlessly misogynist, as far as misogynist discourses go it is one of the most flexible and open to contradiction. And, he suggests, unyielding in-depth examination can help revitalize Buddhism's deeper, more ancient egalitarianism and thus subvert its existing gender hierarchy. This groundbreaking book offers a fresh, comprehensive understanding of what Buddhism has to say about gender, and of what this really says about Buddhism, singular or plural. "The questions Faure raises are important ones: Is Buddhism a tool of liberation or oppression for women? What might a more egalitarian Buddhist practice consist of? Faure approaches his subject in his usual thorough manner. The wealth of historical, sociological, and cultural references may be daunting to some readers, but those who persevere will be rewarded."---Martine Batchelor, Tricycle "Well organized and very well written, Faure's book is unique. It will certainly stir up controversy in Buddhist studies and in American Buddhism. The style is perfect: brief, punchy, to the point."-Steven Collins, University of Chicago

Duncan Ryūken Williams is Assistant Professor of East Asian Buddhism and Culture at the University of California, Irvine. Popular understanding of Zen Buddhism typically involves a stereotyped image of isolated individuals in meditation, contemplating nothingness. This book presents the "other side of Zen," by examining the movement's explosive growth during the Tokugawa period (1600-1867) in Japan and by shedding light on the broader Japanese religious landscape during the era. Using newly-discovered manuscripts, Duncan Ryuken Williams argues that the success of Soto Zen was due neither to what is most often associated with the sect, Zen meditation, nor to the teachings of its medieval founder Dogen, but rather to the social benefits it conveyed. Zen Buddhism promised followers many tangible and attractive rewards, including the bestowal of such perquisites as healing, rain-making, and fire protection, as well as "funerary Zen" rites that assured salvation in the next world. Zen temples also provided for the orderly registration of the entire Japanese populace, as ordered by the Tokugawa government, which led to stable parish membership. Williams investigates both the sect's distinctive religious and ritual practices and its nonsectarian participation in broader currents of Japanese life. While much previous work on the subject has consisted of passages on great medieval Zen masters and their thoughts strung together and then published as "the history of Zen," Williams' work is based on care ul examination of archival sources including temple logbooks, prayer and funerary manuals, death registries, miracle tales of popular Buddhist deities, secret initiation papers, villagers' diaries, and fund-raising donor lists. "This book is required reading for any student of Zen Buddhism or Japanese religion and will remain a standard reference for years to come."---David E. Riggs, Monumenta Nipponica " [This book] presents so much new information in such an insightful and accessible manner. By doing so, The Other Side of Zen helps us to begin to realize just how much we do not know and do not understand. Williams shows us several previously unexplored landscapes and gives us a tour of a few of their notable features. One can only hope that the terra incognito he reveals will attract future scholars to map in more detail its ways and byways."---William M. Bodiford, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies "The Other Side of Zen offers a rich, ground-breaking contribution to the history of the Soto Zen sect and of Tokugawa Japan."---Cristina Rocha, Philosophy East & West "The Other Side of Zen brings to light the vital but little studied social dimension of early modern Japanese Zen. Drawing on a wealth of hitherto untapped sources, Williams offers insightful analyses of how Soto Zen temples won and maintained broad lay support by providing rites for healing and protection in this world and salvation in the next. This fascinating study will be essential reading for students and scholars of Buddhism and Japanese religion and has much to offer anyone interested in the social roles of religion."-Jacqueline Stone, Princeton University "This is the first significant contribution in a Western language on Soto Zen of this period. The author's approach is innovative. His use of recently discovered sources, well synthesized, has helped the author succeed in demythologizing the Soto tradition. The book reflects the best of Japanese scholarship."-Michel Mohr, independent scholar "This book-well argued, well documented and filled with fascinating material-demonstrates the strengths of a social history approach to the study of Buddhist life and contributes to the field of Zen studies in a dramatic way."-Charles Hallisey, University of Wisconsin, Madison.