Filial piety is regarded the most fundamental values of the Chinese culture, and the root of all good virtues. When Buddhism first came to China, it faced the criticisms from Chinese scholars, especially from the Confucianism, the dominant ideology of Chinese society, on ethical grounds. Confucian scholars criticized the life of Buddhist monks, who were required to leave their homes and families, shave their heads, and live in celibacy, was incompatible with the Confucian practice of filial piety. In order to survive in Chinese society, Buddhism had to search for the converging point with the Confucianism. This thesis attempts to explore the importance and practice of filial piety in early Buddhism. It also discusses how Chinese Buddhists responded to the criticisms both in theoretical argumentation and in practice. Finally, it concludes the main content and features of filial piety in Chinese Buddhism. This thesis divides into four chapters. The first chapter discusses the origins of filial piety in Chinese society, from particularly due to the agriculture economy, worship of ancestors, patriarchal clan system, and the development of ideology of filial piety from Confucius. The second chapter mainly illustrates the importance and practice of filial piety in early Buddhism. The third part concentrates on Chinese Buddhists’ respondents on the “unfilial practice” accusations by (i) translations of and references to Buddhist sutras that taught filial behavior; (ii) writing scholarly refutations to defend the “unfilial practices” charges, and (iii) interpreting Buddhist precepts are equivalent of the concept of Confucian filial piety. In practice, they responded by (i) composing apocryphal scriptures, (ii) annual celebration of the Yulanpen (ghost) festival, popularizing stories and parables as by way of painted illustrations, public lectures. The third chapter discuss the main content and features of filial piety in Chinese Buddhism, which are(i)to requite parents and all sentient beings with gratitude and equality; (ii) to differentiate “this worldly filial piety” and “supramundane filial piety”; (iii) to infuse Buddhist precepts and Confucian filial piety together;(iv)to chant the name of Amitābhaḥ Buddha as a way of religious discipline and the practice of filial piety. / published_or_final_version / Chinese Language and Literature / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M.A.). / Written for the Faculty of Religious Studies. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2009/06/12). Includes bibliographical references.

Despite its considerable influence Damien Keown's The Nature of Buddhist Ethics has not received an extended criticism, and the goal of this thesis is to attempt this task. I direct two general criticisms against the text. The first questions its teleological model of Buddhist ethics and the second interrogates its binary model of human psychology, which excludes the notion of the will.

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published_or_final_version / Buddhist Studies / Master / Master of Buddhist Studies

The thesis examines the encounter between the normative ideology of sustainable development on the one hand, and Buddhist Ladakh’s older ceremonial landscape on the other, whereby the reproduction of material and religious life is managed with the assistance of enlightened monastic rulers, transcendental Buddhist protector deities, sacred technology, and supernatural beings inhabiting the landscape. It narrates the religious historical discourse of a decline into an “era of demerit”, evidenced through aspects of economic and technological transformation, increasing climate instability, and the threat of conflict along the disputed national borders with Pakistan and China. It examines also the participation of supernatural beings in the political landscape; as guardians of religious law, governors of weather, and landlords of the soil and water, supernatural beings can dictate the delivery of development by punishing transgressions that upset the moral order or pollute their abodes. This was profoundly experienced when Ladakh’s settlements were devastated by a cloud burst and flooding previously unwitnessed, and expressed locally as a sign of religious demerit and supernatural retribution for ritually and morally unchecked social transformation. When this occurs, ritual intervention from monastic specialists is required to restore order. The thesis is thus an account of two distinct approaches to history operating in the same social and political landscape: an objective, evidential account of history in which progress is determined by the existence of a rationally-organised modern economy and bureaucratic structures of governance; and a mythical historical narrative of progress and decline, requiring ceremonial offering and ritual intervention to maintain blessing and prevent religious decline. It examines how the two approaches to history and governance combine to produce a locally-contextualised modern identity in which the discourses and technologies of modern government are utilised to ensure that the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, and their attendant ceremonies, remain relevant in the contemporary era.

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The extent of the ethical component in the Buddha's teachings is often commented upon but has received disproportionately little attention from scholars. This thesis is intented to make a contribution in this area by (i): examining the substantive content of Buddhist ethical categories; (ii) locating ethics and the goal of ethical perfection in the context of the overall soteriological framework elaborated by the Buddha; (iii) offering a characterisation of the formal structure of Buddhist ethics according to the typology of philosophical ethical theory. The scope of the enquiry will include ethical data from both the Small and Large Vehicles. Previous research has concentrated almost exclusively on the Theravāda system and this has resulted in a truncated presentation of Buddhist ethics which has failed to reveal the underlying structure and its development through time. The present discussion therefore proceeds in a roughly chronological sequence in the selection of its data, considering first of all material from Theravādin sources (both Canonical and commentarial) and passing on to an investigation of the systematisation of ethical categories in the Abhidharma of the Small Vehicle as found in the scheme of the Sarvāstivāda preserved in the Abhidharmakośa. Subsequently, in Chapter 4, an account of Mahayana ethics is offered drawing mainly on the Śila-paṭala of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. The final two chapters (5 and 6) discuss two influential theories of ethics elaborated in the Western tradition which bear a prima facie resemblance to the theoretical structure of Buddhist ethics. Chapter 5 will deal with Utilitarianism and its resemblance to Buddhism, and Chapter 6 will be devoted to the Aristotelian ethical system. My conclusion will be that the Aristotelian model provides the closest analogue to Buddhism and a preliminary attempt will be made to pursue certain points of contact as an indication of the direction for future research. The overall argument, which is cumulative throughout the thesis, will be that ethical perfection in Buddhism is an integral and inalienable component in the perfection of human nature envisaged and attained by the Buddha. This, together with the intellectual perfection epitomised by the attainment of insightful knowledge (paññā). constitutes the Summum Bonum or complete good for man.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-249). / Microfiche. / viii, 249 leaves, bound 29 cm

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