Karma (Dimensions of Asian Spirituality, 4)

Karma has become a household word in the modern world, where it is associated with the belief in rebirth determined by one’s deeds in earlier lives. This belief was and is widespread in the Indian subcontinent as is the word “karma” itself. In lucid and accessible prose, this book presents karma in its historical, cultural, and religious context.Initially, karma manifested itself in a number of religious movements―most notably Jainism and Buddhism―and was subsequently absorbed into Brahmanism in spite of opposition until the end of the first millennium C.E. Philosophers of all three traditions were confronted with the challenge of explaining by what process rebirth and karmic retribution take place. Some took the drastic step of accepting the participation of a supreme god who acted as a cosmic accountant, others of opting for radical idealism. The doctrine of karma was confronted with alternative explanations of human destiny, among them the belief in the transfer of merit. It also had to accommodate itself to devotional movements that exerted a major influence on Indian religions.The book concludes with some general reflections on the significance of rebirth and karmic retribution, drawing attention to similarities between early Christian and Indian ascetical practices and philosophical notions that in India draw their inspiration from the doctrine of karma.

History

Bronkhorst, Johannes

Asia

University of Hawaii Press

Karma has become a household word in the modern world, where it is associated with the belief in rebirth determined by one’s deeds in earlier lives. This belief was and is widespread in the Indian subcontinent as is the word “karma” itself. In lucid and accessible prose, this book presents karma in its historical, cultural, and religious context. Initially, karma manifested itself in a number of religious movements―most notably Jainism and Buddhism―and was subsequently absorbed into Brahmanism in spite of opposition until the end of the first millennium C.E. Philosophers of all three traditions were confronted with the challenge of explaining by what process rebirth and karmic retribution take place. Some took the drastic step of accepting the participation of a supreme god who acted as a cosmic accountant, others of opting for radical idealism. The doctrine of karma was confronted with alternative explanations of human destiny, among them the belief in the transfer of merit. It also had to accommodate itself to devotional movements that exerted a major influence on Indian religions. The book concludes with some general reflections on the significance of rebirth and karmic retribution, drawing attention to similarities between early Christian and Indian ascetical practices and philosophical notions that in India draw their inspiration from the doctrine of karma.

The earliest records we have today of what the Buddha said were written down several centuries after his death, and the body of teachings attributed to him continued to evolve in India for centuries afterward across a shifting cultural and political landscape. As one tradition within a diverse religious milieu that included even the Greek kingdoms of northwestern India, Buddhism had many opportunities to both influence and be influenced by competing schools of thought. Even within Buddhism, a proliferation of interpretive traditions produced a dynamic intellectual climate. Johannes Bronkhorst here tracks the development of Buddhist teachings both within the larger Indian context and among Buddhism's many schools, shedding light on the sources and trajectory of such ideas as dharma theory, emptiness, the bodhisattva ideal, buddha nature, formal logic, and idealism. In these pages, we discover the roots of the doctrinal debates that have animated the Buddhist tradition up until the present day.

Buddhist Teaching in India (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism)

Wisdom Publications

Extreme Religious Behaviours: Where Religious Practice and Biological Evolution Clash (Religion and Reason, 70)

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

de Gruyter

Extreme Religious Behaviours

Boston : De Gruyter

This book argues for the central role played by absorption in the functioning of the human mind. The importance of absorption makes itself felt in different ways; the two studies combined in this book concentrate on two of them. The first study, The Symbolic Mind, argues that, largely as a result of language acquisition, humans have two levels of cognition, which in normal circumstances are simultaneously active. Absorption is a (or the) means to circumvent some, perhaps all, of the associations that characterize one of these two levels of cognition, resulting in what is sometimes referred to as mystical experience, but which is not confined to mysticism and plays a role in various "religious" phenomena, and elsewhere. In the second study, The Psychology of the Buddha, Prof. Bronkhorst provides a theoretical context for the observation that absorption is a source of pleasure, grapples with Freud, and illustrates his observations through translations of ancient Buddhist texts from the Pali and Sanskrit languages along with his psychological commentary. Johannes Bronkhorst is emeritus professor of Sanskrit and Indian studies at the University of Lausanne. He has published widely in the history of Indian religious, philosophical and scientific thought, and in religious studies in general. Among his recent books: Greater Magadha (2007), Aux origines de la philosophie indienne (2008), Buddhist Teaching in India (2009), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism (2011), Karma (2011).

Absorption. Human Nature and Buddhist Liberation

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Alternative Medicine

UniversityMedia

This book argues that the Indian ascetic traditions have two independent sources, the one Vedic, the other non-Vedic. This point of view has been expressed here and there in the scholarly literature, but it has never yet been argued in detail on the basis of textual evidence. The primary evidence is as follows: Early Indian literature - primarily the Epics, Buddhist and Jaina literature - explicitly differentiates between two types of ascetics, who distinguish themselves from each other in their aims, as well as in various other respects.

The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism (Schweizer Asiatische Studien / Etudes asiatique suisse)

Religion & Spirituality

Hinduism

Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften

For many centuries Buddhism and Brahmanism coexisted in the Indian subcontinent. This book concentrates on the way in which the two, after an initial period of relative independence, confronted each other, both in and around the royal courts and in society at large. In this confrontation, Buddhism was strong in philosophical debate, but could not compete with Brahmanism in the services it could provide to the centres of political power, primarily ritual protection and practical advice. Buddhism evolved in both areas, providing practical advice to lay people and rulers from early Mahayana onward, and ritual protection in its Tantric developments. Some of these developments came too late, though, and could not prevent the disappearance of Buddhism from the subcontinent.

Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section 2: South Asia, 24)

Brill Academic Pub

This book explores the conviction shared by almost all Indian philosophers regarding the close connection between language and reality. It shows that the main currents of Indian philosophy can be understood as answers to a problem that this conviction entailed.

Language and Reality: On an Episode in Indian Thought (Brill's Indological Library, 36)

This is the first study to systematically confront the question how Brahmanism, which was geographically limited and under threat during the final centuries BCE, transformed itself and spread all over South and Southeast Asia. Brahmanism spread over this vast area without the support of an empire, without the help of conquering armies, and without the intermediary of religious missionaries. This phenomenon has no parallel in world history, yet shaped a major portion of the surface of the earth for a number of centuries. This book focuses on the formative period of this phenomenon, roughly between Alexander and the Guptas.

How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas (Handbook of Oriental Studies)

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Books by Bronkhorst, Johannes

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bronkhorst, Johannes. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Karma (Dimensions of Asian Spirituality, 4)

Karma (Dimensions of Asian Spirituality, 4)

Buddhist Teaching in India (Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism)

Extreme Religious Behaviours: Where Religious Practice and Biological Evolution Clash (Religion and Reason, 70)

Extreme Religious Behaviours

Absorption. Human Nature and Buddhist Liberation

The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism (Schweizer Asiatische Studien / Etudes asiatique suisse)

Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section 2: South Asia, 24)

Language and Reality: On an Episode in Indian Thought (Brill's Indological Library, 36)

How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas (Handbook of Oriental Studies)