In this Book
- Establishing a Pure Land on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist Perspective on Modernization and Globalization
- Book
- 2004
- Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
- Series: Topics in Contemporary Buddhism
Based on direct observations, private interviews, and careful textual and historical analysis, Stuart Chandler looks at the challenges faced by Foguangshan’s leader, Master Xingyun, and his followers as they try to adhere to traditional practices and values while tapping into the advantages afforded by modern, global society. Foguangshan’s slogans (“Humanistic Buddhism” and “Establishing a Pure Land on Earth”) are placed in historical context to reveal their role in shaping the group’s attitudes toward capitalism, women’s rights, and democracy, as well as toward the traditional Chinese virtue of filial piety and the Chinese Buddhist concept of “links of affinity” (jieyuan).
Chandler goes on to analyze Foguangshan’s educational system and its understanding of how precepts relate to contemporary problems such as abortion and capital punishment. The book’s final chapters consider the cultural and political dynamics at play in Foguangshan’s ambitious attempt to spread Humanistic Buddhism around the world and how its followers have reinterpreted the Buddhist ideal of homelessness to take advantage of the spiritual potentialities of people’s lives as global citizens.
illus.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xv-xvii
- Introduction
- pp. 1-7
- 2 Master Xingyun: Foguang Patriarch
- pp. 28-42
- 3 Foguang Humanistic Buddhism
- pp. 43-77
- 4 Humanistic Buddhism in Practice
- pp. 78-117
- 5 Cultivating Talent through Education
- pp. 118-136
- 6 Cultivating Faith through Discipline
- pp. 137-190
- 7 Institutionalizing Buddhism
- pp. 191-235
- 8 Perpetuating Traditional Modernism
- pp. 236-259
- Conclusion: Global Homelessness
- pp. 301-306
- Glossary of Chinese Buddhist Terms and Names
- pp. 345-351
- References
- pp. 353-364