Bernard FAURE is since 2006 the Kao Professor of Japanese Religion in the Departments of Religion and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.
關鍵詞
Japanese Buddhism; Buddhist Metaphors; Buddhist Relics; Buddhist Icons
摘要
This paper reexamines a problem that has until now eluded scholarship on Buddhist ritual, namely, the meaning and function of various rituals allegedly aimed at animating a Buddhist icon. In particular, the practice of inserting relics and various other objects inside an icon has been recently questioned by Robert Sharf, who argues that the ritual may be fundamentally meaningless. The author disagrees and goes on to describe a loose network of Buddhist metaphors centered around this and other similar practices and representations. The symbolism at work here provides in his opinion sufficient evidence to retrieve — albeit indirectly — the meaning of such practices.
目次
Abstract A Methodological Caveat 91 The Silence of the Texts 92 Western Projections 93 Two Scholarly Theories 95 An Elegant Solution? 95 A Call for Self-reflexivity 97 Metaphors Buddhists Live By 99 Container and Content 100 Concealing and Revealing 101 Interring 102 Centering and Circling 103 Descending and Entering 106 Sealing and Imprinting 108 Emptying and Filling 109 Incubation and Gestation 110 References 116
