This book comprises fifteen research articles primarily based on the discipline of Indian and Buddhist Studies. The collection is designed to propose a Buddhist philosophy of religion--that the insight of Prajna and Sunyata initiates a future religion which is freed both from conflict between reasoning and believing, and from goal-oriented cycles of life. It addresses transformation from the conflict-ridden quest for a supreme being, to the search for a non-theistic nature of spirituality that provides a foundation for universal human happiness and salvation. For the discipline of Buddhist Studies, this collection also demonstrates the productive value of drawing upon cross-cultural and cross-racial literary sources and traditions.

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A monumental work in the history of religion, the history of the book, the study of politics, and bibliographical research, this volume follows the making of the Chinese Buddhist canon from the fourth century to the digital era. Approaching the subject from a historical perspective, it ties the religious, social, and textual practices of canon formation to the development of East Asian Buddhist culture and enlivens Chinese Buddhist texts for readers interested in the evolution of Chinese writing and the Confucian and Daoist traditions. The collection undertakes extensive readings of major scriptural catalogs from the early manuscript era as well as major printed editions, including the Kaibao Canon, Qisha Canon, Goryeo Canon, and Taisho Canon. Contributors add fascinating depth to such understudied issues as the historical process of compilation, textual manipulation, physical production and management, sponsorship, the dissemination of various editions, cultic activities surrounding the canon, and the canon's reception in different East Asian societies. The Chinese Buddhist canon is one of the most enduring textual traditions in East Asian religion and culture, and through this exhaustive, multifaceted effort, an essential body of work becomes part of a new, versatile narrative of East Asian Buddhism that has far-reaching implications for world history.

The process of Buddhism’s transmission to China in the distant past and its present transmission to the West have striking parallels. The Buddhist scriptures and practices that crept gradually into China from India had developed in different historical periods and in different environments. The ways in which the ancient Chinese made sense of the bewildering array of Buddhist doctrines that had developed over hundreds of years in India and adapted them to their own circumstances ultimately gave rise to a uniquely Chinese Buddhism. The West now seems to be much like ancient China, encountering many different threads of Buddhism coming from distant lands, threads which reflect many permutations of Buddhist thought and practice that developed in Asia over the past 2500 years under circumstances quite foreign to the present. Do these various forms have anything in common? What, then, is Buddhism? How will it adapt to Western culture and still be Buddhism? What does it have to offer people living a twenty-first century modern life? In this book, the eminent Chinese Buddhist Master Yinshun gives us some answers.

Death rituals and Buddhist imagery of the afterlife have been central to the development and spread of Buddhism as a social and textual tradition. Bringing together ethnographic, historical and theoretically informed accounts, the book presents in-depth studies of the Buddhist funeral cultures of mainland Southeast Asia and China.

This study of Tsung-mi is part of the Studies in East Asian Buddhism series. Author Peter Gregory makes extensive use of Japanese secondary sources, which complements his work on the complex Chinese materials that form the basis of the study.

Studies on Humanistic Buddhism II: Practical Applications: Venerable Master Hsing Yun on Humanistic Buddhism contains articles that explore Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s model of Humanistic Buddhism as developed through the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist order, and how it is applied in human lives. The articles look at the past, present, and future of Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s ideas on Humanistic Buddhism and how they are applied to management, music, meditation, gender equality, economics, community colleges, etc. As stated by Venerable Master Hsing Yun: “I want to humanize, modernize, and incorporate Buddhism into people’s lives.”

The Chinese Buddhist canon is a systematic collection of all translated Buddhist scriptures and related literatures created in East Asia and has been regarded as one of the “three treasures” in Buddhist communities. Despite its undisputed importance in the history of Buddhism, research on this huge collection has remained largely the province of Buddhologists focusing on textual and bibliographical studies. We thus aim to initiate methodological innovations to study the transformation of the canon by situating it in its modern context, characterized by intricate interactions between East and West as well as among countries in East Asia. During the modern period the Chinese Buddhist canon has been translated, edited, digitized, and condensed as well as internationalized, contested, and ritualized. The well-known accomplishment of this modern transformation is the compilation of the Taisho Canon during the 1920s. It has become a source of both doctrinal orthodoxy as well as creativity and its significance has greatly increased as Buddhist scholarship and devotionalism has utilized the canon for various ends. However, it is still unclear what led to the creation of the modern editions of the Buddhist canon in East Asia. This volume explores the most significant and interesting developments regarding the Chinese Buddhist canon in modern East Asia including canon formation, textual studies, historical analyses, religious studies, ritual invention, and digital research tools and methods.