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Fractal Journeys : Narrative Structure of the Path and of Tantric Practice |
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| Author |
Payne, Richard K.
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| Source |
Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies
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| Volume | n.14 Third Series |
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| Date | 2012 |
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| Pages | 277 - 297 |
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| Publisher | Institute of Buddhist Studies |
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| Publisher Url |
http://www.shin-ibs.edu/
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| Location | Berkeley, CA, US [伯克利, 加利福尼亞州, 美國] |
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| Content type | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Note | Richard K. Payne
Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley |
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| Abstract | Perhaps the way in which Buddhism is represented most frequently in both popular and scholarly literature is by equating it with meditation. Such representations marginalize the vast array of other kinds of practice found throughout the Buddhist tradition—so much so that the legitimacy as “Buddhist” of non-meditative forms of Buddhist practice is called into question. This is certainly the case with the recitative practices of Pure Land Buddhism (Jp. shōmyō nenbutsu 称名念仏), and with the ritual practices found in the tantric Buddhist tradition, where “ritualized meditation” (Skt. sādhana) is sometimes understood as efficacious, while other kinds of rituals, such as offerings (pūjā), may be treated as pious additions. This essay argues that the ritual practices of tantric Buddhism have a fractal self-similarity to the path (mārga), and as such have their own rationale for efficacy, distinct from that commonly given for silent, seated meditation. The argument proceeds in three steps: 1. Drawing on the work of Hayden White, an argument that praxis has a narrative structure; 2. An analysis of the narrative structure of Buddhist praxis in terms of a three-part structure of ground, path, and goal; and 3. An analysis of tantric ritual structure as reflecting the narrative structure of ground, path, and goal. While many expositions of the efficacy of silent, seated meditation employ a psychologized concept of how meditation works, the fractal self-similarity of ritual practice and the path reveals a different conception of the efficacy of practice. The goal here is to understand how the practices of tantric ritual may be seen as efficacious from within the tradition, rather than attempting to apply an external theoretical orientation with the presumption that the latter is in fact somehow fundamentally more explanatory than the traditions’ own ways of conceiving efficacy. |
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| Table of contents | I. THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
II. RITUAL IDENTIFICATION AND DEITY YOGA
III. THE CONTEXT OF PRACTICE: ŚĪLA AND EMPTINESS
IV. GROUND, PATH, AND GOAL AS THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF TANTRIC RITUAL
CONCLUSION: FRACTAL RELATIONS BETWEEN PRACTICE AND PATH
NOTES |
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| ISSN | 08973644 (E) |
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| Hits | 349 |
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| Created date | 2015.02.11 |
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| Modified date | 2021.02.03 |
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