School
Pure Land
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If Buddhism says there is no self, what exactly gets reborn?
This week's lecture was on Buddhism, and the speaker said two things that seem to contradict each other: there is no permanent self, and there is rebirth. If there's no self, what is reborn? Who carries the karma? If I do something…
Started by Serkan Aydoğdu4 replies -
Kūkai and Bhartṛhari: when a word is part of what is real rather than a label for it
Last spring I visited Kōyasan, the mountain monastery Kūkai founded, and sat in on the morning chanting. I don't understand Sanskrit and barely understand the Sino-Japanese readings, but it was obvious the monks didn't treat the syllables as labels for something else.…
Started by Rin Matsuda5 replies -
My grandmother’s Jōdo Shinshū, and why “grace” is not quite the word for other-power
My grandmother was a devout Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist. When I was a teenager and got interested in meditation, she told me, kindly but firmly, that trying to become enlightened by my own effort was a subtle kind of pride. For her the…
Started by Rin Matsuda4 replies -
What does ziran, “self-so”, actually mean, and why do people call it the centre of Daoism?
Maturana and Varela described living things as autopoietic, self-making: a cell produces the very components that produce it. A friend in Santiago told me that Daoism had a word for something similar, ziran, which she translated as “self-so” or “of itself so”.…
Started by Ignacio Cárcamo5 replies