Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu

An eminently readable and interesting book¿this is a scholarly book based on a great deal of specialised research, but it's surprisingly accessible to anyone with an interest in Buddhism and its development in China. James A. Benn, McMaster University:In this thoughtful and astute study, McGuir...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: McGuire, Beverley Foulks (Author)
Format: Electronic Book
Language:English
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Published: New York, NY Columbia University Press [2014]
In:Year: 2014
Series/Journal:The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Zhixu 1599-1655 / Buddhism / Karma
Further subjects:B Buddhism
B Spiritual Life
B Religion, Jewish Studies, Theology
B Andere Religionen
B Religion
B Theology / Judaism / Religion
B Zhixu, 1599-1655
B Spiritual Life Buddhism
B Religion Comparative Religion
B Buddhist literature, Chinese History and criticism
B Karma
B Buddhist literature, Chinese
Online Access: Cover (Verlag)
Volltext (Resolving-System)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:An eminently readable and interesting book¿this is a scholarly book based on a great deal of specialised research, but it's surprisingly accessible to anyone with an interest in Buddhism and its development in China. James A. Benn, McMaster University:In this thoughtful and astute study, McGuire shows how a fundamental Buddhist doctrine--karma--shaped the practice life of a major Chinese Buddhist thinker whose ideas remain significant for the tradition today. Her sensitive readings of Ouyi Zhixiu's ritual texts and personal writings provide an intimate perspective on this monk's ideas and his intense bodily practices such as 'filial slicing,' burning of his arms and head, and the writing of texts in his own blood. Robert M. Gimello, The University of Notre Dame:This important new book is doubly valuable. In offering the first Western language monograph devoted to the teachings of Ouyi Zhixu, Beverley Foulks McGuire has employed the best tools of sinology and Buddhist studies to rescue a major Chinese Buddhist teacher not only from the obscurity of scholarly neglect but also from the doldrums of conventional intellectual history. McGuire demonstrates the value of applying to the study of religious ethics the insights and methods of anthropology and the study of religious narrative. This book is 'must reading' for scholars of Chinese religions, especially Buddhism, and deserves serious attention in the wider field of religious studies. Timothy Brook, University of British Columbia:An ingeniously conceived and deeply researched study of one of the four great Buddhist masters of the late Ming dynasty. The book reveals Ouyi Zhixu to be a far mo
Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655) was an eminent Chinese Buddhist monk who, contrary to his contemporaries, believed karma could be changed. Through vows, divination, repentance rituals, and ascetic acts such as burning and blood writing, he sought to alter what others understood as inevitable and inescapable. Drawing attention to Ouyi's unique reshaping of religious practice, Living Karma reasserts the significance of an overlooked individual in the modern development of Chinese Buddhism.While Buddhist studies scholarship tends to privilege textual analysis, Living Karma promotes a balanced study of ritual practice and writing, treating Ouyi's texts as ritual objects and his reading and writing as religious acts. Each chapter addresses a specific religious practice--writing, divination, repentance, vows, and bodily rituals--offering first a diachronic overview of each practice within the history of Chinese Buddhism and then a synchronic analysis of each phenomenon through close readings of Ouyi's work. This book sheds much-needed light on a little-known figure and his representation of karma, which proved to be a seminal innovation in the religious thought of late imperial China
ISBN:0231537778
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.7312/mcgu16802