Richard Karl Payne

While the tantric Buddhism found in the Indian and Tibetan traditions is increasingly recognized, in East Asia tantric Buddhism remains largely unknown. This collection brings together twelve key essays on tantric Buddhism in East Asia, drawn from sources that are not commonly available. The collection is organized into four sections: China and Korea, Japan, Deities and Practices, and Influences on Japanese Religion.

Payne's work, which brings together in one place a "critical mass" of scholarship, will create a sea change in the understanding of the history of East Asian Buddhism and Tantra.… (mehr)

The massive outpouring of consumer products available today might alone lead one to ask "How much is enough?" But at the same time, if we allow ourselves to see the social, political, economic and environmental consequences of the system that produces such a mass of "goods," then the question is not simply a matter of one's own personal choice, but points to the profound interconnectedness of our day to day decisions about "How much is enough?" The ease with which we can acquire massive quantities of food, clothing, kitchenware, and various electronic goods directly connects each of us with not only environmental degradation caused by strip mining in West Virginia, and with sweat shops and child labor in India or Africa, but also with the ongoing financial volatility of Western capitalist economies, and the increasing discrepancies of wealth in all countries.

This interconnectedness is the human environment, a phrase intended to point toward the deep interconnection between the immediacy of our own lives, including the question of "How much is enough?," and both the social and natural worlds around us. This collection brings together essays from an international conference jointly sponsored by Ryukoku University, Kyoto, and the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley. The effects of our own decisions and actions on the human environment is examined from several different perspectives, all informed by Buddhist thought. The contributors are all simultaneously Buddhist scholars, practitioners, and activists - thus the collection is not simply a conversation between these differing perspectives, but rather demonstrates the integral unity of theory and practice for Buddhism.… (mehr)

This book contains ten essays presented at a symposium in Berkeley, in 2003. The authors all seem to take an academic perspective rather than speaking from a committed point of view. Some of the articles focus on modern Japan, some on the modern West, and some on ancient Buddhism.

There seemed to be a general theme through these talks that Buddhism is not so simply aligned with a modern ecological perspective. Look at modern Asian countries - they've got their share of environmental problems! Buddhism tends to view a human life as more spiritually valuable than an animal life.

But these observations are balanced with examples of actions by modern Buddhist teachers and organizations that promote environmental values, and by facets of Buddhist doctrine that support a less domineering relationship to nature.

This isn't a book that will get a person impassioned to march out and commit to any sort of environmental crusade. This is a book that gets a person thinking. It sheds light on the complexity of the problem. Just exactly what the right answer is - I became less sure that I knew, by reading this book. Probably that is not such a bad thing!… (mehr)