‘Study Effortless-Action’

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-106
Author(s):  
George A. Keyworth

Today there is a distinction in Japanese Zen Buddhist monasticism between prayer temples and training centers. Zen training is typically thought to encompass either meditation training or public-case introspection, or both. Yet first-hand accounts exist from the Edo period (1603–1868) which suggest that the study of Buddhist (e.g., public case records, discourse records, sūtra literature, prayer manuals) and Chinese (poetry, philosophy, history) literature may have been equally if not more important topics for rigorous study. How much more so the case with the cultivation of the literary arts by Zen monastics? This paper first investigates the case of a network of eminent seventeenth- and eighteenth-century scholar-monks from all three modern traditions of Japanese Zen—Sōtō, Rinzai, and Ōbaku—who extolled the commentary Kakumon Kantetsu 廓門貫徹 (d. 1730) wrote to every single piece of poetry or prose in Juefan Huihong’s 覺範恵洪 (1071–1128) collected works, Chan of Words and Letters from Stone Gate Monastery (Ch. Shimen wenzichan; Jp. Sekimon mojizen). Next, it explores what the wooden engravings of Study Effortless-Action and Efficacious Vulture at Daiōji, the temple where Kantetsu was the thirteenth abbot and where he welcomed the Chinese émigré Buddhist monk Xinyue Xingchou (Shin’etsu Kōchū 心越興儔, alt. Donggao Xinyue, Tōkō Shin’etsu 東皐心越, 1639–1696), might disclose about how Zen was cultivated in practice? Finally, this paper asks how Kantetsu’s promotion of Huihong’s “scholastic” or “lettered” Chan or Zen might lead us rethink the role of Song dynasty (960–1279) literary arts within the rich historical context of Zen Buddhism in Edo Japan?

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Yanchao Zhang

This article explores transformations in the worship of popular goddess Mazu as a result of (religious) tourism. In particular, it focuses on the role of transnational tourism in the invention of tradition, folklorization, and commodification of the Mazu cult. Support from the central and local governments and the impact of economic globalization have transformed a traditional pilgrimage site that initially had a local and then national scope into a transnational tourist attraction. More specifically, the ancestral temple of Mazu at Meizhou Island, which was established as the uncontested origin of Mazu’s cult during the Song dynasty (960 to 1276), has been reconfigured architecturally and liturgically to function as both a sacred site and a tourist attraction. This reconfiguration has involved the reconstruction of traditional rituals and religious performances for religious tourism to promote the temple as the unadulterated expression of an intangible cultural heritage. The strategic combination of traditional rituals such as “dividing incense” and an innovative ceremony enjoining all devotees of “Mazu all over the world [to] return to mother’s home” to worship her have not only consolidated the goddess as a symbol of common cultural identity in mainland China, but also for the preservation of Chinese identity in diaspora. Indeed, Chinese migrants and their descendants are among the increasing numbers of pilgrims/tourists who come to Mazu’s ancestral temple seeking to reconnect with their heritage by partaking in authentic traditions. This article examines the spatial and ritual transformations that have re-signified this temple, and by extension, the cult of Mazu, as well as the media through which these transformations have spread transnationally. We will see that (transnational) religious tourism is a key medium.


2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Damien Carraz

RESUMO: As ordens militares, como senhores eclesiásticos, exerceram a justiça temporal sobre populações das quais elas estavam encarregadas. A historiografia, se ele se interessou pelos conflitos de jurisdição que opuseram os poderes soberanos às comendadorias, subestimou, salvo exceções, as atividades judiciárias destas últimas. Os ricos arquivos das ordens do Hospital e do Templo, no Midi Francês, fornecem belas séries de atas da prática judiciária – clamores, inquéritos criminais, processos verbais de condenações... O caso dos dois senhorios templários de Lansac e de Montfrin e as comparações oferecidas pela importante jurisdição hospitalária de Manosque, recentemente e notavelmente estudada, autorizam uma contribuição sobre o papel dos irmãos guerreiros na difusão dos usos jurídicos e no controle social. O pessoal empregado no serviço destas pequenas justiças senhoriais, os procedimentos utilizados pela justiça criminal, a repressão da delinquência ordinária que assolava estes castra da Baixa Provença e, enfim, os limites opostos ao poder coercitivo do Templo pela organização das comunidades e pelo reforço do Estado foram sucessivamente evocados. O funcionamento, os ideais almejados, assim como a ação repressiva, pouco evidenciam a especificidade desta justiça da Igreja que não recusava o exercício do merum imperium e a aplicação das penas aflitivas. Centradas sobre o século XIII, período de transição na história do procedimento, estas primeiras observações desejariam ser prosseguidas para os dois séculos seguintes: a originalidade da justiça do Hospital, com a instauração de uma ordem moral, mais do que cívica, apareceria mais, tanto que seria necessário avaliar a resistência destes senhorios às reconquistas jurisdicionais do Estado principesco. ABSTRACT:The military orders, as ecclesiastical gentlemen, exercised the temporal justice over populations which they were in charge of. The historiography, if he got interested about the jurisdiction conflicts that have opposed the sovereign powers to the commanderies, underestimated, with some few exceptions, the judicial activities of these last ones. The rich archives from the orders of the hospital and the temple, at the French Midi, provide beautiful series of the judicial practices - clamors, criminal investigations, verbal processes of condemnations... The case of the two templary landlords of Lansac and of Montfrin and the comparisons offered by the important hospitaller jurisdiction of Manosque, recently and notably studied, authorize an contribution over the role of the warrior brothers on the difusion on the juridical uses and on the social control. The people who ar e employed on the service of those small stately justices, the procedures used by the criminal justice, the repression of the ordinary delinquency that plagued those castra of the Low Provence and, ultimately, the limits opposed to the coercive power of the temple for the organization of the communities and for the reinforcement of the state were successively evoked. The operation, the desired ideals, just like the repressive action, do not show at all the specificity of the church's justice which wouldn't refuse the exercise of merum imperium and the application of the afflictive feathers. Centered over the 13th century, period of transaction on the history of procedure, these first observations would desire to be pursued for the two following centuries: the originality of the hospital's justice, with the establishment of a moral order, more than civic, would appear so much more that it would be necessary to evaluate the resistance of tho se landlords to the court re-conquests of the princely State.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Н. Г. Гузынин

in the historical context of Russia, the correlation and interrelation of the concepts and values of freedom with justice and equality are considered. It is shown that in Russian society, historically, based on the Byzantine model of the relationship between the state and the Church, these institutions nurtured humility, patience, and asceticism to all the vicissitudes of life in the mentality and way of life of the Russian people. This is why the consciousness of the Russian ethnic group has a special craving for permanent affirmation of the values of equality and justice in everyday life at different times and periods. The discontent of the masses, which resulted in riots, uprisings, and other forms of protest, was the result of their feeling that the rich and the authorities were violating equality and justice in their way of life. The article shows the mediative role of justice in relation to equality and freedom and the constant mental perception of equality as justice in Russian historical realities. Special attention is paid to understanding the reasons for the ineradicable desire of Russian society for justice, which turns into opposites of injustice and inequality. An important statement is the idea that in Russian society it is necessary to form objective and subjective conditions that root the value of freedom, without which justice cannot be fully established. The author emphasizes the need to make a change in the culture and mentality of Russians in the understanding that justice without freedom is unfair, and justice is just only in Union with freedom. It is the transition from the confrontational model of “justice against freedom” to the model of “just justice based on freedom” that will largely determine the civilizational breakthrough to a successful future for Russia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-173
Author(s):  
Abraham Jacob Berkovitz

Abstract This article examines in detail an Aramaic poem from M. Sokoloff’s and J. Yahalom’s magisterial Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity (SYAP) (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1999). It begins by offering a translation of the entire poem along with an overview of some of the poem’s key linguistic features. It then moves to an analysis of the poem’s literary artistry. The study continues by examining the poem’s central motifs; namely, the portrait of David as the learned composer of the Psalter, the role of prophecy and kingship, and their relationship to eschatology. The study then attempts to place the poem’s genesis and the practice of communal psalm recitation into an historical context. It concludes by showing how a careful analysis of a single piece of poetry can contribute to several debates about the nature and constitution of the poems collected in SYAP.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Pavel A. BUTYRIN ◽  

The historical context in which the State Plan for Electrification of Russia (GOELRO) was developed, establishment of the GOELRO Commission, the GOELRO Plan content, the specific features of its implementation, and the role of the plan in the soviet period of Russia’s history are considered. Attention is paid to the electrification plants of other countries and territories of all inhabited continents, and to the participation of states in the electrification of countries and regions with small-scale and agricultural production in the 1920 s. The specific features pertinent to the electrification of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic are pointed out, namely, low starting conditions (in 1923, the energy consumption per capita in Russia was 100 times lower than that in Norway), its being state-owned in nature and revolutionary in its purpose: to get done with the main upheavals in the country and to shift the national economy for fore efficient production. The role of V.I. Lenin and G.M. Krzhizhanovsky, who were the initiators of the electrification of Russia, is analyzed in detail. A conclusion is drawn about the need to study both the GOELRO Plan itself and the specific features and circumstances of its implementation within the framework of training modern specialists in electrical engineering.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadiehezka Paola Palencia Tejedor

This work focuses on a compared analysis of the South Afri- can decision related to the “peace and reconciliation act” of this country’s Parliament, and the Colombian decision regarding the amendment of the constitution called “The juridical framework for the peace.” Turning to the structure, it is developed in three major topics: 1. It provides a brief of the historical context, political background and an overview of the two decisions.2. It gives a structural analysis of the powers that each Court has and the nature of the constitutional mechanism through which both Courts decided the constitutionality of the said norms 3. It presents a critical analysis on the similarities and differences between the two systems and judgments. It presents some con- clusions. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (9) ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
N. V. Khalikovа

The article considers the functions of the system of verbal imagery’s in the creation of the scientific style of V.V. Vinogradov. The figurativeness of basic, background and metaphorical terms is described. The semantic structure of the image of the basic term «style» is analyzed, figurative paradigms of the concepts Language, Speech and Style are revealed. The article shows the relationship between scientific thinking and metaphorical style, the role of sustainable cognitive metaphors in the creation, storage and transfer of pragmatic information and the creation of a cultural and historical context.


This book addresses the central challenge facing rich countries: how to ensure that ordinary working families see their living standards and the prospects for their children improve rather than stagnate over time. It presents the findings from a comprehensive analysis of performance over recent decades across the rich countries of the OECD, in terms of real income growth around and below the middle. It relates this performance to overall economic growth, exploring why these often diverge substantially, and to the different models of capitalism or economic growth embedded in different countries. In-depth comparative and UK-focused analyses also focus on wages and the labour market and on the role of redistribution. Going beyond income, other indicators and aspects of living standards are also incorporated including non-monetary indicators of deprivation and financial strain, wealth and its distribution, and intergenerational mobility. By looking across this broad canvas, the book teases out how ordinary households have fared in recent decades in these critically important respects, and how that should inform the quest for inclusive growth and prosperity.


Author(s):  
Tim Henning

This brief chapter summarizes central findings regarding the role of parenthetical sentences in practical discourse. But it also provides historical context. It suggests that a precursor of parentheticalism may be found in Kant, especially in Kant’s views about the “I think,” especially as they are expressed in the B-Version of the “Transcendental Deduction” and the B-Version of the chapter on Paralogisms in the Critique of Pure Reason.


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