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This paper studies the history of the Singapore Girls' Buddhist Institute, the first and only modern Buddhist education institution for women in Singapore and Malaysia. This paper aims to explore a dynamic transregional Buddhist network constructed by nuns, vegetarian nuns, and laywomen, with a particular emphasis on the prominent female figures and religious women communities involved. Through an analysis of the movements and religious practices of the Buddhist women community, the author demonstrates the contributions of Buddhist women to the transmission of religious knowledge and modern experiences. It is this paper's intention that the micro-history of the case could contribute to restaging the women-centered Buddhist community in the narrative of "South China Sea Buddhism". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Chan Monastery of the Golden Mountain (Dajinshan Chansi 大金山禪寺) is a large monastic complex for nuns located in Jiangxi province in southeast China and belonging to the Chan meditation school. The Jiangxi Dajinshan Buddhist Academy for Nuns (Jiangxi foxueyuan Dajinshan nizhong xueyuan 江西佛學院大金山尼眾學院), established at the monastery in 1994, is one of the few institutes for nuns in China to be especially axed on Chan studies and practice. What are the pedagogical goals and agenda of the Jiangxi Dajinshan Buddhist Academy for Nuns? What are the specificities of this academy as compared to other female academies, and to academies for monks? Why do nuns enroll at Dajinshan Buddhist Academy? What does this case study tell us about the gender balance in Chinese Buddhism today? This paper, based on fieldwork, will try to answer these questions by especially considering enrollment and scale, students and personnel, and curricula and schedule of the Jiangxi Dajinshan Buddhist Academy for Nuns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assumes that educators are now involved in a struggle for their souls and for the souls of their students. The idea of the soul in this case is not the religious one, but the soul invoked by Foucault (1977) to name that aspect of self, (subjectivity, psyche) that 'exists, or is produced ... within the body ... or born ... out of methods of punishment, supervision and constraint' (p. 29). Neoliberalising social policy not only aims to transform structures and enact new technologies of control but also involves the transformation of values and cultures, and hence the formation of new subjectivities. With that in mind this paper argues for an education understood as experiments with alternative modalities of self-formation (spirituality) that are responsive to the key challenges of our times. The paper experiments with as aphoristic style and hence is structured through six fragments that provide various takes on this problematic, including: an autobiographical moment; a brief rendering of Foucault's genealogy of the relationship between truth and the subject; Hadot's genealogy of philosophy; various definitions of spirituality; and an account of Buddhist epistemology that distinguishes knowing and realization. The paper concludes by arguing for a Buddhist inspired pedagogy that is defined in terms of the relationships between teacher, student and realization. From such a perspective, it is not identity work that is the ethico-political project of our times, but of learning how to quite literally get free of our self (ego). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey of the history of medieval Kōyasan, an important mountain-based headquarters for esoteric Shingon Buddhism since the early ninth century, cannot omit significant developments in the worship of kami (tutelary and ancestral gods) from the end of the Heian period (794–1185) to the Muromachi period (1333–1573). A fundamental aspect of kami worship at Kōyasan was the regular offering to the kami (shinbōraku 神法楽) of mondō-kō 問答講 (catechism/dialogue form, or 'question and answer' 'lectures') and rongi (debate examinations in the form of mondō). The relationship between Buddhist scholarship and kami worship has not been fully elucidated and such will enrich understanding of both subjects. The identities and meanings of the two oldest kami enshrined at Kōyasan, Niu Myōjin 丹生明神 (also called Niutsuhime) and Kariba Myōjin 狩場明神 (also called Kōya Myōjin), were delineated in texts produced by scholar monks (gakuryo 学侶) during a period when the debates were re-systematized after a period of sporadicity and decline, so the precise functions of this cinnabar goddess and hunter god in the related ritual offerings deserve attention. In this paper I examine ideas about the Kōyasan kami that can be found, specifically, in the institution and development of these mondō and rongi 論義. Placing them in this context yields new information, and offers new methods of understanding of not only related textual materials, but also of the icons used in the debates, and the related major ceremonies (hōe 法会) and individual ritual practices (gyōbō 行法) that were involved. Given that the candidates of a major ritual debate examination—to be discussed—that has been practiced from the Muromachi period up to the present day are said to 'represent' kami, and are even referred to by the names of kami, the history of the precise relationship between the kami and the debates invites more detailed explanation that has so far been largely lacking in the scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With over 90% of Thai citizens identifying as Buddhist, how are Buddhist values communicated to youth? In the past, the temple was the center for learning, where elders taught their grandchildren how to chant and pay respect to monks. But in contemporary Thailand, this system is quickly losing influence. Because of this, a number of strategies have recently developed to communicate Buddhist teachings to Thai youth. This paper investigates two significant strategies: private schools with Buddhist-inspired curricula and media targeted towards Thai youth. The first part of this article focuses on the Buddhist education philosophy of Than Ajahn Jayasaro, who is the spiritual director of two schools in Thailand. The second section highlights the media produced by Phra Maha Wutthichai Vajiramedhi and Phra Maha Sompong Talaphutto, who hope to reach younger generations with relevant topics, which they infuse with Buddhist teachings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the new system of lay Buddhist education revolutionizing the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism in the twenty-first century. Already involving over a half a million Buddhist laypeople and five hundred monasteries throughout the country, this system is now the hallmark of the Chogye Order's propagation agenda, and it has transformed lay Buddhist activities in contemporary Korea. It is grounded upon a novel lay registration network which requires attending a basic Buddhism course at a designated temple in order to receive an official Lay ID. It now involves a lay ranking structure based on educational achievements, and culminates in the yearly Lay Propagator Exam. Besides delineating the historical construction of this system, this paper will investigate lay attitudes and motivations for joining the programs, analyze official textbook agendas, and provide ethnographic snippets from classroom rituals, in an overall attempt to paint a picture of the new Korean Buddhist lay orthodoxy the Chogye Order is currently in the process of creating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper highlights the intellectual contributions of ancient Peshawar with special reference to eminent teachers in Mahayana Buddhism. It extracted data from the archives of National Library of Beijing and Peking University, China. It consists of the Chinese Royal histories, the oldest extant biographies of Buddhist teachers, and anthologies of the Chinese pilgrims to Gandhāra. Furthermore, an extensive literature review of renowned scholars; and other chronicles, e.g., the dictionaries of Chinese and Pali Buddhist terms, is also referred to in the study. The presen paper pinpoints Peshawar as a place of origin for renowned Mahayanists who had previously been placed under the generic name 'India'. It details the distinct Kavya style of Aśvaghosa; the philosophical contributions of Yogacāra school of Asanga and Vasubandhu, and intellectual contributions of Jinangupta who travelled to China in 6th century CE, and translated a number of scriptures from Gandhari Prakrit to the Chinese language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the history of the Singapore Girls’ Buddhist Institute, the first and only modern Buddhist education institution for women in Singapore and Malaysia. This paper aims to explore a dynamic transregional Buddhist network constructed by nuns, vegetarian nuns, and laywomen, with a particular emphasis on the prominent female figures and religious women communities involved. Through an analysis of the movements and religious practices of the Buddhist women community, the author demonstrates the contributions of Buddhist women to the transmission of religious knowledge and modern experiences. It is this paper’s intention that the micro-history of the case could contribute to restaging the women-centered Buddhist community in the narrative of “South China Sea Buddhism”.

Chishang Township, of Taitung County, is situated in the central part of the Hwadong Rift Valley in Eastern Taiwan, with a population of approximately 9,000 people. Minnan and Hakka groups that moved to this area from Western Taiwan after the 1920s are the major residents. The other 20 or so per cent consists of the Amis peoples, the most significant minority ethnic group in the Chishang area, who arrived from Southern Taiwan after the 1830s. The primary religion in this area is a folk religion blending Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. After the establishment of worship centred on the Yuqing Temple in the late 1950s, Han religion consolidated its dominance in Chishang Township. However, the Jehovah's Witnesses started to propagate their Kingdom Hall among the Amis in the late 1930s during the Japanese rule. In the 1950s to 1960s after Taiwan came under Chinese Nationalist (KMT) rule, at least 70 per cent of the local Amis accepted this branch of Christianity. Although there is presently a high proportion of Amis that have converted to the Han religion, there is still a significant Jehovah's Witnesses presence within the Amis community. This paper employs historical documentation and fieldwork data to explore the history and social background of the developments of different denominations of Christianity in Chishang Township and the changes in the local Amis religious landscape. I will focus on the rise and fall of different Christian denominations in Amis society under the dominance of Han religion, specifically the Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to know the situation of the target students and its problems related so that to seek for the solution to cope with to improve their English Oral Presentation and to be applicable for the similar scenarios, especially, those in the Buddhist Universities in South East Asia. In the context, it is found that anxiety and shyness are the key factors of the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Japanese influence upon Taiwanese Buddhist communities during the Colonial Period. I will discuss the interplay between monasticism, education, and politics by examining the process of institutionalisation of monastics and Buddhist educational programs in Taiwan between 1895 and 1945. In accord with pertinent historical developments, this paper is divided into five sections: (1) the Sōtō Zen lineage, (2) the Rinzai Zen lineage, (3) the Pure Land (Jōdo) lineage, (4) Taiwanese monastics who studied in Japan, and (5) Taiwanese nuns. Based on the strong Japanese sectarian tradition, different sects had disparate strategies in Taiwan. The Sōtō lineage arrived first, engaged in precept ceremonies, and started up a well-run Buddhist college. The Myōshinji Sect of Rinzai took Kaiyuansi in Tainan as the main headquarters in southern Taiwan for teaching Buddhist classes as well as holding monumental precept-conferral ceremonies. As for the Pure Land lineage, they came slightly later but eventually established 37 branches across Taiwan, implementing social-educational programs actively. Finally, the nuns and monks who went abroad to study Buddhism in Japan matured and took important roles in advancing Buddhist education in Taiwan. All of these cases demonstrate a profound Japanese influence upon Taiwanese Buddhist education and monastic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates core ideas and principles of teaching and learning as found in the Nidāna-Kathā, a sacred Buddhist text that describes the lives and learning journeys of the Buddha. A three-tiered, exhaustive textual analysis revealed the following themes: resolve and responsibility, supererogatory effort, pabbajja, tradition, becoming, pedagogy and joy. Due in part to the noteworthy openness of a Buddhist conceptualization of canonicity, teachers have seldom drawn upon Buddhist sources (either living or written) to establish what might be termed Buddhist approaches to teaching and learning. While the purpose of this article is not to essentialize Buddhism nor its approach to education, by focusing on a single, primary source text detailing the Buddha's teaching and learning journeys, we seek to put forth a few Buddhist educative principles that, though not representative of all Buddhisms, are at least grounded historically, mythically and archetypically. We hope this article acts as a call for future research to further explore Buddhist approaches to education based on either historical sources or the lived experiences of its generations of inheritor–practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Japanese influence upon Taiwanese Buddhist communities during the Colonial Period. I will discuss the interplay between monasticism, education, and politics by examining the process of institutionalisation of monastics and Buddhist educational programs in Taiwan between 1895 and 1945. In accord with pertinent historical developments, this paper is divided into five sections: (1) the Sōtō Zen lineage, (2) the Rinzai Zen lineage, (3) the Pure Land (Jōdo) lineage, (4) Taiwanese monastics who studied in Japan, and (5) Taiwanese nuns. Based on the strong Japanese sectarian tradition, different sects had disparate strategies in Taiwan. The Sōtō lineage arrived first, engaged in precept ceremonies, and started up a well-run Buddhist college. The Myōshinji Sect of Rinzai took Kaiyuansi in Tainan as the main headquarters in southern Taiwan for teaching Buddhist classes as well as holding monumental precept-conferral ceremonies. As for the Pure Land lineage, they came slightly later but eventually established 37 branches across Taiwan, implementing social-educational programs actively. Finally, the nuns and monks who went abroad to study Buddhism in Japan matured and took important roles in advancing Buddhist education in Taiwan. All of these cases demonstrate a profound Japanese influence upon Taiwanese Buddhist education and monastic culture.

Motivation significantly influences students' learning outcomes. Changing their learning motivation improves their performance. This study used an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, with the participation of 140 adolescents attending retreats at three Zen monasteries belonging to the Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) Zen sect, to examine how they changed their motivation, what made them change, and how the change improved their learning outcomes. The study also evaluated the effect of gender and age on changes in motivation. The results indicated that many teenagers had changed from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation thanks to Dharma lessons, teacher support, and leisure activities. Compared to students who maintained their extrinsic motivation unchanged, they had better learning outcomes. Age, but not gender, had a considerable effect on changes in teenagers' motivation. These findings provide more evidence for extending Buddhist education and conducting further research on young Buddhist learners' motivation in various contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buddhism is popular worldwide. It has been taught both inside and outside schools to enhance teenagers' attitudes and behaviour. To evaluate how it works, identifying teenagers' religiosity and the factors that influence it is essential. This study surveyed 140 teenagers attending retreats at three Zen monasteries belonging to the Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) Zen sect in Vietnam, using a questionnaire to examine how the core dimensions constituting their religiosity associated with each other and with the demographics. Twelve in-depth interviews with teens were also conducted to explore how religious they were. The conclusion was that the religiosity of teenagers involved three core dimensions: religious understanding, faith and practice, which correlated with each other. Furthermore, age and gender had a considerable association with the teens' religiousness. These findings may help in expanding religious education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With over 90% of Thai citizens identifying as Buddhist, how are Buddhist values communicated to youth? In the past, the temple was the center for learning, where elders taught their grandchildren how to chant and pay respect to monks. But in contemporary Thailand, this system is quickly losing influence. Because of this, a number of strategies have recently developed to communicate Buddhist teachings to Thai youth. This paper investigates two significant strategies: private schools with Buddhist-inspired curricula and media targeted towards Thai youth. The first part of this article focuses on the Buddhist education philosophy of Than Ajahn Jayasaro, who is the spiritual director of two schools in Thailand. The second section highlights the media produced by Phra Maha Wutthichai Vajiramedhi and Phra Maha Sompong Talaphutto, who hope to reach younger generations with relevant topics, which they infuse with Buddhist teachings.

The Great Chan Monastery of the Golden Mountain (Dajinshan Chansi 大金山禪寺) is a large monastic complex for nuns located in Jiangxi province in southeast China and belonging to the Chan meditation school. The Jiangxi Dajinshan Buddhist Academy for Nuns (Jiangxi foxueyuan Dajinshan nizhong xueyuan 江西佛學院大金山尼眾學院), established at the monastery in 1994, is one of the few institutes for nuns in China to be especially axed on Chan studies and practice. What are the pedagogical goals and agenda of the Jiangxi Dajinshan Buddhist Academy for Nuns? What are the specificities of this academy as compared to other female academies, and to academies for monks? Why do nuns enroll at Dajinshan Buddhist Academy? What does this case study tell us about the gender balance in Chinese Buddhism today? This paper, based on fieldwork, will try to answer these questions by especially considering enrollment and scale, students and personnel, and curricula and schedule of the Jiangxi Dajinshan Buddhist Academy for Nuns.

A survey of the history of medieval Kōyasan, an important mountain-based headquarters for esoteric Shingon Buddhism since the early ninth century, cannot omit significant developments in the worship of kami (tutelary and ancestral gods) from the end of the Heian period (794–1185) to the Muromachi period (1333–1573). A fundamental aspect of kami worship at Kōyasan was the regular offering to the kami (shinbōraku 神法楽) of mondō-kō 問答講 (catechism/dialogue form, or ‘question and answer’ ‘lectures’) and rongi (debate examinations in the form of mondō). The relationship between Buddhist scholarship and kami worship has not been fully elucidated and such will enrich understanding of both subjects. The identities and meanings of the two oldest kami enshrined at Kōyasan, Niu Myōjin 丹生明神 (also called Niutsuhime) and Kariba Myōjin 狩場明神 (also called Kōya Myōjin), were delineated in texts produced by scholar monks (gakuryo 学侶) during a period when the debates were re-systematized after a period of sporadicity and decline, so the precise functions of this cinnabar goddess and hunter god in the related ritual offerings deserve attention. In this paper I examine ideas about the Kōyasan kami that can be found, specifically, in the institution and development of these mondō and rongi 論義. Placing them in this context yields new information, and offers new methods of understanding of not only related textual materials, but also of the icons used in the debates, and the related major ceremonies (hōe 法会) and individual ritual practices (gyōbō 行法) that were involved. Given that the candidates of a major ritual debate examination—to be discussed—that has been practiced from the Muromachi period up to the present day are said to ‘represent’ kami, and are even referred to by the names of kami, the history of the precise relationship between the kami and the debates invites more detailed explanation that has so far been largely lacking in the scholarship.

The written curriculum of Tibet's prestigious Mindrölling monastery, composed in 1689, marries a firm pedagogical structure with flexibility for individual students. This reflects the monastery's balance of institutional priorities, shaped by its religious, cultural, and political climate. The curriculum's author was Terdak Lingpa, a charismatic visionary and systematizer of the "Ancient" or Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism who forged alliances with the Fifth Dalai Lama's government in Lhasa starting in the seventeenth century. As part of Mindrölling's formal constitutional document, the curriculum commits students and teachers to a distinctive approach to Buddhist training and helps to constitute the monastery and its members as a Buddhist "field of merit." As such, Mindrölling is presented as a worthy recipient of support and protection from patrons and of respect from the community. The curriculum reflects a variety of overarching priorities for a relatively diverse student body over time and therefore calls for individual flexibility within a reliable and sustainable institutional structure. In this way, the curriculum demonstrates Mindrölling's identity as a bridge between the potentially competing values of the Tibetan Buddhist schools of the author's day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, part of a special issue on pedagogy and performance in Tibetan Buddhism, explores two closely-related yet apparently opposite Tibetan repertoires of virtuoso Buddhist mastery as sites of performative pedagogy. One of these modes of Buddhist mastery is connected with the ideal virtuoso figure of the yogic siddha, or druptop (Tib. grub thob), and with remarkable manifestations of yogic prowess (what are sometimes called yogic "miracles" in English). The other mode is connected with the ideal of renunciation, and the Tibetan Buddhist virtuoso figure of the renunciant hermit-wanderer, or chatralwa (Tib. bya bral ba). In Indic and Tibetan literature, both of these repertoires of Buddhist mastery are classically associated with a bodhisattva's teaching activity in the world, and with a bodhisattva's use of many kinds of skillful means (Skt. upāya; Tib. thabs) to develop individuals on the Buddhist path. (A bodhisattva, in Mahayana Buddhist terms, is someone who has vowed to achieve Buddhahood to benefit others.) I explore how these related modes of virtuoso pedagogical performance emerge in oral and textual life stories of two notable twentieth-century Tibetan masters. These modes of virtuoso Buddhist pedagogy and Tibetan ways of talking about them challenge our understandings of what it means to "perform" and what it means to "renounce," with renunciation emerging as a guarantor of the genuineness of someone's altruism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Covid-19 pandemic has altered many aspects of life in South Korea over 2020, its impact on South Korea's religious landscape has been enormous as the country's three major religions (Catholicism, Buddhism, and Protestant Christianity) have suffered considerable loses in both their income and membership. Despite these challenges, however, Buddhism's public image has actually improved since the start of the epidemic due to the rapid and proactive responses of the nation's largest Buddhist organization, the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism (K. Daehan bulgyo jogyejong). This article critically examines the Jogye Order's response to the epidemic and its impact on the order thus far, along with discussions regarding the order's future. In particular it will examine the results of three conferences held by the order in response to the epidemic and the resulting recommendations on how Korean Buddhism should adapt to effectively address the many challenges brought by the pandemic. These recommendations include establishing an online Buddhist education system, further engaging the order's lay supporters through various social media platforms, upgrading the current lay education program with virtual learning options that directly address problems faced by the general public during the pandemic, and distributing virtual meditation classes world-wide for those who remain in quarantine or social isolation. By adopting these changes, the Jogye Order will be able to play a crucial role in promoting mental stability and the cultivation of positive emotions among the many suffering from anxiety, social isolation and financial difficulties during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]