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This thesis, a comparison of the concepts of buddha-nature and dao-nature in the medieval period (from the 5th to the 10th centuries) of China, presents a historical investigation of the formation of the idea that insentient things are able to possess buddha-nature in medieval Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of buddha-nature was originally defined as a potential possessed by sentient beings that enabled them to achieve buddhahood. From the 6th century, the concept was reinterpreted within the Chinese Buddhist tradition so that insentient things were also able to possess buddha-nature. Recent scholarship has pointed out that the idea of insentient things having buddha-nature is a combination of Buddhist and Daoist ideas based on the concept of the all-pervading Dao found in the Zhuangzi 莊子. In this sense, buddha-nature seems to be interpreted as equivalent with the Dao of Daoism. My project suggests that the reinterpretation of buddha-nature in association with the insentient realm should be elucidated in a more nuanced way than the idea of all-pervasiveness of the Dao. A historical, doctrinal investigation of the intellectual formation of the concept of buddha-nature in Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism demonstrates a new interpretation of buddha-nature in the context of insentient things having buddha-nature. Further, through a historical investigation of intellectual exchange between Buddhism and Daoism, some evidence provided in this project illustrates that the idea of insentient things having dao-nature in Daoism was not inherited from Buddhism, but drawn from Daoist tradition. This new perspective is different from that of some contemporary scholars who have claimed that the idea of insentient things having dao-nature was borrowed from Chinese Buddhism. A chronological investigation of the discussion of nature in Chinese thought demonstrates that the idea of insentient things having buddha-nature incorporates earlier Daoist traditions found in Arcane Study. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Sydney, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed 28 March 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy to the Dept. of Indian Sub-Continental Studies, Faculty of Arts. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (D.D.)--Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., 1900. / Bibliography: p. [325]-344.

This doctrinal study demonstrates in what way the ‘Universal Applicability’ of Buddha Dhamma can be reflected in the intervention process in view of the contemporary situation of the Buddhist Mindfulness being integrated as a psychotherapeutic technique. In past few decades, the Western psychotherapists recognize Mindfulness as ‘the heart of Buddhist meditation’ and apply it as an impartial psychotherapeutic technique to serve their clients’ physical health and psychological wellness. As recorded in the Buddhist Pāli tradition, through practicing Mindfulness meditation, people are able to comprehend the ‘Universal Applicability’ of Buddha Dhamma, to realize three universal characteristics (lakkhanas) of sentient existence, namely impermanence (anicca), un-satisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anatta), and eventually to liberate their mind from suffering. From studying the Buddhist teaching of Mindfulness embedded in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and the Mahā-Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the researcher develops this tenet, “the Buddhist Mindfulness could be an effective psychotherapeutic technique when it is practiced within the Buddhist context and supported by the theoretical foundation, and when the ‘Universal Applicability’ of the Buddha Dhamma is reflected in the therapeutic process ”. Applying the tenet to study the case, the ‘Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program’ (the MBSR) initiated by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, she finds three issues which makes her hesitated to agree with the Western psychotherapists’ integrating the Buddhist Mindfulness as a stand-alone psychotherapeutic technique. The first two issues are the way the psychotherapists interpreting and implementing the Buddhist Mindfulness as a stand-alone technique without the Buddhist context and isolated from the Buddhist theoretical foundation. Resulted from the first two issues, the third one is the ‘Universal Applicability’ of Buddha Dhamma has no way to reflect in the treatment process to help people liberating from suffering. After identifying these three issues, the researcher carries on to incorporate ideas of practicing Mindfulness suggested by the Pali Buddhist tradition, and collaborate with the Social Work Profession with applying transferrable skills of the ‘Experiential Learning’ techniques to design a pilot service—the Buddhist Mindfulness-Based Social Service Project (the BMBSS). The BMBSS, consists of (1) an Orientation Meeting, (2) the six-session Prerequisite Training (the PRT-BMBSS) and, (3) the twenty-six-session Buddhist Mindfulness-Based Social Service Program (the BMBSS), aims at demonstrating the way to support the ‘Practicing Facilitators’ and the ‘Practicing Novices’ to apply the Buddhist teaching of Mindfulness into their daily activities. Moreover, the researcher designs the BMBSS Project in the way to promote interdisciplinary collaboration between Buddhist communities and the Social Work Profession to exchange ideas to benefit their services. The Social Work Profession may benefit from the Buddhist teaching on ‘non-self’ to apply its intrinsic technique of the ‘use of self’ to serve the clients, when the Buddhist communities may learn from the Social Work Profession to bring the Buddhist teaching to serve the society at large. Furthermore, ideas on supporting inter-disciplinary collaboration generated from developing the BMBSS may transfer into promoting dialogues and networking between the Buddhist communities and other professions to integrate the ‘Universal Applicability’ of Buddha Dhamma to serve the needs of the Buddhists and non-Buddhists. / published_or_final_version / Buddhist Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

As early as the fifth century C.E., the thousand buddha motif had become a prevalent feature in the art of many cave-temples in Gansu, China. Past scholarship concentrated on tracing the textual sources of the motif and with relating it to the practices associated with the devotion to the three thousand buddhas of the three ages. Past research has not considered how the thousand buddhas may have been a reflection of a wider range of religious practices and popular beliefs nor has it explored the motif's artistic origin. / By demonstrating that the earliest examples of the two-dimensional painted form of the thousand buddhas came from Gansu and that the motif was related to an iconographic and architectural design that existed between several Gansu cave-temple sites, this study proposes that the thousand buddha motif was a Gansu cave-temple art innovation that influenced cave-temple decor in areas west of Gansu. In addition, possible reasons for the prevalence of the motif are suggested by considering that it may have reflected the relationship between the thousand buddhas and meditative practices as well as the acts of chanting and circumambulation.

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Temple University, 1981. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 357-363).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

The thesis searches for the roots of the Chinese appreciation for the concepts contained in the early Mādhyamika texts in the currents in Chinese philosophy and the political climate in China during the Eastern Chin and Liu Sung periods. We also seek to account for the characteristic emphasis in hsüan-hsüeh thought on descriptions of a hypothetical sage-ruler and of "Non-being" (and in Buddhist thought on the divine saviour and the eternal life of the "spirit") in the social/political situation in China during this period. We examine the many points of correspondence and similarities between Taoist philosophy and concepts originating in the Prajnāpāramitā texts. Selected translations from the Ming-fo-lun (Treatise Illuminating the Buddha) by Tsung Ping (375-443) are used as examples of a Chinese layman's appraisal of the Buddhist "Path" vis-a-vis those of the philosophical Taoists and Confucianists and to give an overall picture of the philosophical climate of the period. The thesis concludes that there is a wealth of similarity between the Buddhist ideas being introduced to Chinese in the Post-Han period, and China's own philosophical output before and during this period. A continuity is identified between the tenets of hsüan-hsüeh and these Buddhist ideas. We further conclude that the Chinese interest in the limitless powers of the Buddha--like the emphasis in hsüan-hsüeh thought on the qualities of the sage-ruler--can be attributed to the social strife in the period and the erosion of faith in mundane political philosophies. The life of the "spirit" and the countenance of the Buddha offered truly lasting stability and reassurance which the more worldly doctrines had been unable to provide. As a final note, the thesis considers the common appreciation for Buddhism among Indians and Chinese as indicative of universal features of religious systems. We conclude that as common components of the Mādhyamika system practiced in India and China, the recognition of an all powerful deity and transcendent realm coupled with the idea of men's potential to interact and identify with these may be acknowledged as two of the fundamental features of a particular religious doctrine shared for a time by these two ancient civilizations. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate