Buddhist Leader Research Articles

Xenophobia and Resignation in the Wake of the Mongol Conquest: Topical Allusions in Gong Kai’s Zhong Kui Scroll

Drawing on Zhong Kui’s legendary identity as a demon queller, this study suggests that Gong Kai (1222–1307) created a veiled autobiographical work, Zhongshan Going on Excursion in the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, that combines painting and inscription to project his unfulfilled aspiration to clear the nation of destructive evils. The demons to be expelled in his life as a Song patriot living into the Mongol Yuan were the powerful and abusive ethnic others, not limited to the ruling Mongols. Conflating himself with Zhong Kui by constructing a new, self-referential biography and image of the demon queller, Gong Kai conveyed his xenophobia during the dynastic transition through two topical allusions, the Muslim merchant-official Pu Shougeng’s fatal blow to the Song revivalist cause in Quanzhou in late 1276 and the Tibetan Buddhist leader Yang Lianzhenjia’s desecration of Song imperial tombs in Shaoxing in 1285. In the painting, Gong Kai confesses his resignation to the brutal new realities under alien rule by portraying Zhong Kui in an uncharacteristically subdued demeanor.

Family Ethics in Taixu's Humanistic Buddhism: The Wisdom of No-Self and the Action of the Bodhisattva

Abstract: The notion "Buddhism for Human Life" ( rensheng fojiao 人生佛教), coined by the influential Chinese Buddhist leader Taixu 太虛 (1890–1947), has had a great impact on shaping Buddhist life in the twentieth century. Much scholarly attention has been paid to Taixu's modernizing programs in monastic education and reformulation. This article instead examines Taixu's discourse about lay people, with a focus on family ethics. It discusses the way in which Taixu clarifies the role played by Buddhism in secular life. His discourse weaves together a range of intellectual themes. He elaborates on several previously lesser-known Buddhist scriptures, arguing that the Buddhist perspectives can help to reduce tensions between the individuals' quest for autonomy and their commitment to social responsibilities. He suggests that, compared to Confucianism and Western philosophies, Buddhism provides more coherent ideational grounds on which to deal with the challenges faced by individuals and families, thereby contributing to the welfare of Chinese society.

The Buddhist Philanthropist: The Life and Times of Lee Choon Seng

This article examines the life and times of Lee Choon Seng (李俊承), exploring his role as a prominent lay Buddhist leader in Singapore and the broader Chinese Buddhist world. Lee Choon Seng’s influence in society, as well as his adherence to Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, laid an important foundation for him to carry out philanthropic activities within the Buddhist community in Singapore. Before World War II, Lee Choon Seng acted as a patron of the Dharma, sponsoring Buddhist activities and advocating for the idea of revitalizing China in the spirit of Buddhism. During the Japanese Occupation, Lee Choon Seng initiated and led the Buddhist philanthropy movement, which converged into a huge developmental trend in society. In the postwar period, Lee Choon Seng established and served as the inaugural chairman of the Singapore Buddhist Federation, making him a key figure in unifying the Buddhist community in Singapore. As this article demonstrates, Lee Choon Seng’s socio-religious model, which was comprised of a combination of Mahayana Buddhism with social charity and welfare, was an important factor for the promotion of Buddhism among the Chinese community in Singapore.

Editors' Introduction

Editors' Introduction Thomas Cattoi and Kristin Johnston Largen In 2018, Buddhist-Christian Studies published the proceedings of an international conference on Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733) that had been held in Pistoia in October 2017. Marking the two-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of the Tuscan Jesuit in Lhasa, the event explored from a variety of disciplinary perspectives the extraordinary contribution of a figure who effectively inaugurated the theological conversation between Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity. Desideri, however, was neither the only nor the first Catholic missionary to reach Tibet—a number of other Jesuits and a few members of other religious orders had visited the Land of Snows or even settled there before his arrival. In this issue of the journal, we are therefore glad to open this issue with the translation of another report by a missionary—this time, the author is the Capuchin Domenico da Fano, who authored his memories of his time in Tibet in 1713. The translation is by Michael J. Sweet and Leonard Zwilling—names many of our readers will recognize as the translator and the editor of Desideri's Relazione. As Luciano Petech's collection Il Nuovo Ramusio contains quite a few more reports by Italian Catholic missionaries to Asia, this may not even be the last such translation that the journal is going to publish. Continuing our long-established tradition, the first part of the issue contains a number of papers that were initially presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. For the second year in a row, because of the global health emergency, the meeting was held remotely, but the energy and the enthusiasm of both speakers and audience ensured that the sessions were both compelling and inspiring. A first set of essays touches on the relationship between Buddhist-Christian dialogue and the environmental crisis, exploring perspectives as diverse as process thought, hybridity, the interface between environmental activism and spiritual practice, and the need to listen to the environmental wisdom of the marginalized voices from the Global South. The second section explores different facets of the exchange between Japanese Buddhism and Christianity. Two contributions map the contribution of the Jesuit scholar and practitioner William Johnston, SJ (1925–2010), who played an important role in laying the foundations of dialogue between Japanese Zen and Catholic Christianity; another piece—also presented at the SBCS meeting in November 2021—addresses the fraught question of different responses to US nationalism during the Japanese-American conflict in World War II, while a final essay introduces us to the way women practitioners respond to [End Page vii] challenging aspects of Shin Buddhist teachings. The third and the last section of the first part includes four essays that sketch the contours of a number of interreligious encounters; one explores monastic obedience in Franciscan spirituality and Theravada Buddhism, one touches on the spirituality of victim souls and the Tibetan practice of gcod, and a final one brings into conversation Dignāga, Dharmakīrti, and Lonergan. In 2016, members of the Research Center for World Buddhist Cultures at Ryukoku University started an interreligious project under the title "Conversations in Comparative Theology: Shin Buddhism, Christianity, Islam." The goal was to organize a series of events where a few scholars from these three traditions would present papers on shared themes and discuss points of shared concerns. This initiative led to a series of four meetings that concluded in 2019. Thanks to Dennis Hirota and Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Buddhist-Christian Studies is glad to publish a series of eight essays that emerged from these conversations. Readers will notice that some of these essays are of an interreligious nature, but do not actually discuss the intersection of Buddhism and Christianity. In line with the policy adopted with the publication of the proceedings from the 2019 Lotus Sutra seminar organized in Tokyo by Risshō-Kōsei-Kai, the editors decided to publish all the contributions from these events, so as to make sure that the proceedings of these important interreligious exchanges would all be available in the same place. On January 22, 2022, the Vietnamese Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hahn reached the end of his life. Thich Nhat Hahn had devoted his...

Re-ordering the Cold War Cosmos: King Bhumibol's 1960 U.S. Tour

From the early Cold War, U.S. aid poured into Thailand. This flow of money, people, and expertise had a profound impact on the country’s social, political, and economic development. Payments and support to the Thai military proved instrumental in securing the power of Thailand’s authoritarian military leaders, while the proliferation of U.S.-funded road and infrastructure programs helped expand the control of the Thai state from the capital into rural areas.1 More broadly, U.S. support laid the foundations for a development trajectory that, while furnishing the country with impressive economic growth, hugely benefitted Thailand’s capitalist and royalist elite.2 Despite the implications of such payments, this article argues that during the 1960s, U.S. aid was subtlety recast into gifts of tribute that increased the legitimacy of the young King Bhumibol in the eyes of the Thai public. The focus of this article is the royal visit of King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit to the United States in 1960. During the trip, U.S. media portrayed King Bhumibol as a humble Buddhist leader and friend of the free world. However, over time, palace officials imposed new meaning onto the interactions between the royal couple and their American hosts. By drawing on existing notions of Thai-Buddhist space and inter-state relations, King Bhumibol was presented to Thai audiences as a universal monarch in the Theravada tradition.3 Moreover, by casting the United States as a distant but abundant and modern society, the trip helped reorder the known world within a new moral hierarchy that elevated the capitalist “free” world while discounting more radical alternatives.

Translating the Buddha: Edwin Arnold’s Light of Asia and Its Indian Publics

In this article, I examine the popular Victorian poem The Light of Asia (1879) and its reception and adaptation in late nineteenth and early twentieth century colonial India. Authored by the popular writer, Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia is typically regarded as one of the foundational texts of modern Buddhism in the western world. Yet significantly less has been said about its influence in Asia and especially in India, where it has as an equally rich and varied history. While most scholarship has focused on its connections to the Sinhalese Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala and his popular campaigns to ‘liberate’ the MahaBodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, the singular focus on Dharmapala has obscured the poem’s much more expansive and enduring impact on a wide array of colonial Indian publics, regardless of caste, region, religion, ethnicity or language. The article explores the early history of its numerous adaptations, dramatizations, and translations in various regional languages. In providing an analysis of the poem’s Indian publics, the article shows how regional, political, and cultural idioms formed in multilingual contexts enable different readings and how literary and performative cultures interacted with colonial conceptions of religion, nation, and caste.

Forging sanctity: the way Laiguo became a saint

ABSTRACT This article uses the analytical framework of hermeneutic hagiography to analyze the autobiography of the eminent Chan monk, Laiguo 來果 (1881–1953), in Modern China, showing how a monk with charismatic characteristics constructed his sacred image step by step from his childhood, to his enlightenment in Chan and his mastery of deacons. Laiguo was a Buddhist leader who could turn the tide in a time of crisis. In him, the typical charismatic personality shows the individual’s rebellion against the legitimacy of the external world. The experiences Laiguo suffered are just as typical an aspect as charisma is in the processes of ‘dilemma’ and ‘passion.’ Those who experience suffering are trying to find a new beginning in the desperate situation of life and determine the fundamental principles of human social relations through their struggles and efforts when facing desperate situations.

Inter-(c)are: Höpfl and Hanh’s metaphorical mediation of intercorporeal ethicality

ABSTRACTWe identify one of Höpfl’s key contributions; her metaphorical mediation of intercorporeal ethicality. Höpfl uses metaphor to communicate an ethics that is not based on cognitive, calculative and theorising rationality but is a state of being ethical that proceeds from the heart and a recognition of interconnected bodies. We direct the research question that emerges from Höpfl’s work towards that of Thich Nhat Hanh, an Engaged Buddhist leader: how does his metaphorical discourse communicate the relationship between mindfulness and intercorporeal ethicality? Our analysis reveals how Hanh employs metaphors to mediate how mindfulness provides insight to our physical interdependence and thereby promotes mutual care: realising our indivisible unity, we care for each other. Key contributions are new theories of embodied ethicality (an ethics based on interconnected bodies) and embodying metaphor (metaphors that communicate the unity, interconnectedness and interdependence of bodies that care for one other).

Hazel Henderson: A Pioneer in Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research

Hazel Henderson D.Sc.Hon., FRSA, is President of Ethical Markets Media, (USA and Brazil), a Certified B Corporation she founded in 2004, Editor-in-chief and Producer of its TV series. She is a futurist, evolutionary economist, worldwide syndicated columnist, consultant on sustainable development, author of the award-winning Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006) and eight other books. She coedited, with Harlan Cleveland and Inge Kaul, The UN: Policy and Financing Alternatives, Elsevier Scientific, UK 1995 (US edition, 1996), and co-authored with Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, Planetary Citizenship (2004). Henderson’s concern with GDP and other narrow cash-flow based accounting in both government and corporate balance sheets began with her co-founding of Citizens for Clean Air in New York City in 1964 as a newly naturalized US citizen. She articulated the group’s concern that air pollution and other Bbads^ were included in Applied Research Quality Life (2015) 10:761–763 DOI 10.1007/s11482-015-9421-z

Buth Savong y la nueva proliferación de reliquias en Camboya

El artículo describe el movimiento en Camboya en torno del líder budista laico Buth Savong, quien adquirió prominencia en el país desde la década de 1990. Entre las características del movimiento está la atención prestada a la organización espacial de los templos y asram afiliados a Buth Savong y el interés en la instalación de las reliquias de Buda. El artículo expone el movimiento en el contexto del cambio sociopolítico de Camboya y discute la implicación de este nuevo interés en las reliquias con base en tres estudios de caso.

Is South Asia’s Buddhist Leader the Gyalwang Drukpa an Ecofeminist? Dialectical, Grounded Analysis of Eminent Feminist Theology Illuminates the Foundations for a Vajrayana Buddhist Ecofeminism

His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa (“the Drukpa”) is the spiritual head of the Drukpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, a Vajrayāna and Mahāyāna tradition of Buddhism dating back to the life of its founder, Tsangpa Gya-re a (1161–1211). The Gyalwang Drukpa is distinguished by his systemic support of both Buddhist nuns and the environment over the past decade, and his efforts have been recognized by the United Nations, the Government of India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and others . Under what circumstances, if any, could the Drukpa be legitimately characterized as an ecofeminist? Cross-cultural, cross-theological, and ethnic invariance of the constructs of feminism and ecofeminism remain unresolved, particularly in relation to dharma traditions primarily situated in Asia. One might assume that since feminism and women’s studies disciplines have long been established in the academy, that therefore the conventional, popular acceptance of a personal or social identity embodying the ethic of ending gender-based discrimination across multiple cultural, ethnic, and religions contexts is well known. However, neither universally-accepted definitions of feminism or ecofeminism constructs nor the functional dynamics underlying presumptions of such cross-cultural construct invariance have been established empirically among South Asian and Himalayan Vajrayāna Buddhist populations. For example, while psychologist Lisa Drogosz’s 1998 study investigated the validity of the Womanist Identity Attitude Scale (WIAS) and revised it based on her findings, the sample used was North American, of which only ~4% identified as Buddhist (Drogosz 1998). Similarly, Rose Marie Hoffman, “recognizing the lack of research concerning intersections of ethnic identity development and women’s identity development,” explored the relationship between ethnic identity, feminist, womanist, and gender selfdefinition and acceptance. The participants of this study, while racially diverse, c were all

Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of peace, education proposals, and Soka education: convergences and divergences in peace education

In this article, the authors introduce and explicate Daisaku Ikeda’s contributions to peace education. Ikeda is a Buddhist leader, peacebuilder, school founder, and prolific author whose six decades of contributions to peace education have had a global impact in practice but have remained unexamined in the extant, particularly Anglophone, literature. Using excerpts and bilingual discourse analysis of the Ikeda corpus, the authors focus on five aspects to trace the past, present, and future of Ikeda’s contributions to peace education: first, they trace the biographical roots of Ikeda’s contributions to his early educational experiences and encounter with Josei Toda (1900–1958). Second, they outline the Nichiren Buddhist philosophy informing Ikeda’s approach to peace education. Third, they explicate in the context of peace and peace education Ikeda’s concept of value-creating, or Soka education (soka kyoiku) relative to value-creating pedagogy (soka kyoikugaku) theorized by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871–1944). In light of this relation, they also trace the origin of the Soka Gakkai International, of which Ikeda is founding president. Fifth, they clarify Ikeda’s educational proposals made explicitly under the label of ‘peace education,’ namely, cultural exchange, a United Nations for Education, and education for disarmament and human rights (including anti-bullying, sustainability, and global citizenship). The authors conclude that Ikeda’s perspectives, proposals, and practices of Soka education and ‘peace education’ can be viewed as a tripartite ontological model of a process of becoming, moving from inner transformation by means of dialogue to global citizenship.

Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth Century Monk by James Carter (review)

Book Reviews 97 This richly documented and well-written book will be of interest to scholars of contemporary China, and also could be adopted for undergraduate and graduate courses in religion and/or Chinese society and culture. JEAN DEBERNARDI, University of Alberta Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth Century Monk JAMES CARTER. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. viii, 221 pages. ISBN 978-0-19-539885-4. US$29.90, £18.99 hardcover. Heart of Buddha, Heart of China is about the life of the Buddhist monk Tanxu 倓虛 (1875– 1963) and his efforts to strengthen Buddhism in North China in the first half of the twentieth century. Tanxu, not to be confused with the more famous Taixu 太虛 (1890–1947), entered monkhood relatively late in life, leaving his wife and children to join the Buddhist order. His name is remembered mainly for the construction of temples in the northern cities of Yingkou 營口, Harbin 哈爾濱, and Qingdao 青島, which had little previous Buddhist heritage and were developed rapidly under colonialist pressure from Europe and Japan. The chapters are arranged chronologically and Carter follows Tanxu’s life closely. He outlines Tanxu’s story before a historical background that is at least as important as the actions of Tanxu himself. Tanxu’s travels are the red thread which Carter uses to “explicate the patterns of Chinese history and society over the past century” (p. 3). For every move of Tanxu, Carter provides the historical background information that helps the readers understand the circumstances of his actions. The result is a vivid and accessible account of a monk’s life in a turbulent period in China’s history. With Tanxu we experience the Japanese occupation of North China in Harbin, see famine in Shaanxi 陝西, witness a bandit raid on a river at night, and get a glimpse of life in late-colonial Qingdao and Hong Kong 香港. Carter carefully gives only enough information to account for Tanxu’s actions; the background story never takes over or turns into a digression. Carter makes a special effort to interpret two elements in Tanxu’s life that a modern reader is likely to find problematic: Tanxu’s relationship with his family and the question in how far his activities abetted Japanese rule before and during the Sino-Japanese war. 98 Journal of Chinese Religions The first is a “traditional” problem in Buddhism. The tension between a life dedicated to religion and one’s family ties has been with Buddhism since its inception. It is thematized in early Indian texts such as the Vessantara Jātaka and addressed in later Chinese Buddhist customs, such as asking one’s parents’ permission before receiving ordination. The second problem, that of Buddhist collaboration under colonial rule, is quite new and owes its existence to our changed perception of the role of Buddhism in society. At the end of the Ming dynasty, Confucian literati and officials unwilling to serve the Manchu regime could opt out of public life and become Buddhist monks. It was widely seen that by entering the Buddhist order one removed oneself from the realm and demands of politics. Modernity affords no such comforts. The biographies of Chinese monks under Japanese—or indeed Communist—rule are now increasingly questioned as to the ethical implications of their “accommodation” with the new rulers. With regard to Tanxu, Carter treats both dilemmas in his biography tactfully and sensibly, addressing them with respect for the complex web of motivations and events that makes up not only Tanxu’s life, but our own. The book is mainly geared to readers interested in history; students of modern Chinese Buddhism or religious culture can choose to be delighted at an account of a hitherto neglected Buddhist leader in a hitherto neglected region in China, or to bemoan the lack of references to primary and secondary literature beyond the absolute minimum. This is a carefully managed book and it seems there was a conscious effort to eliminate all information outside a narrow focus on Tanxu and political history. Unmentioned go the many studies of modern Chinese Buddhism and religion that have appeared in recent years (e.g. Goossaert’s work on temple culture)1 or...

An Interview with Arjia Rinpoche

An Interview with Arjia Rinpoche Pamela D. Winfield In 1952, at the age of two, Arjia Rinpoche was recognized as the eighth reincarnation of the head abbot of the culturally rich and historically powerful Kumbum Monastery in Amdo, Eastern Tibet (alt. Qinghai province, China). His training was cut short, however, in 1958 when the Great Leap Forward and subsequent Cultural Revolution ushered in an unprecedented period of persecution and destruction of Tibet’s living and material Buddhist heritage. After sixteen years of forced manual labor, Arjia Rinpoche was allowed to receive Dharma instruction again and resumed his previously ordained role as Kumbum’s head abbot. Assisted by the Panchen Lama (second only to the Dalai Lama in terms of institutional authority and the highest‐ranking Buddhist leader still in Tibet at the time), Arjia Rinpoche successfully navigated the political minefield of the Chinese Buddhist bureaucracy to protect and advance Buddhism from within. His story and the story of the Politburo’s sinister and cynical attempt to control Tibetan politics through its own puppet Panchen Lama “reincarnation” are chronicled in his autobiographical Surviving the Dragon: A Tibetan Lama’s Account of 40 Years Under Chinese Rule. The following conversation informs and updates readers of the political situation in Tibet and further explains his political involvements and crisis of conscience that compelled him to flee Tibet in 1998. At the time, this made him the highest‐ranking lama to leave since the Dalai Lama in 1959. Question: What are the major political challenges facing Buddhism in Tibet/China today? Response 1 The Communists are not only non‐religious, they are also afraid of religion. The main reason is that a religion gathers people together under its umbrella, and any group of people gathered together may be a threat against the regime. For example, the Falung Gong organization has been persecuted by the Chinese Government because it fears that its members are being obedient and are controlled by someone other than the government. The same is with Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism as the Government fears the power of the Pope and the Dalai Lama. The Government is not afraid of Taoism as it is a very Chinese religion. Taoists are of the Chinese culture and speak the Chinese language. The actual beliefs of a religion are not the reason for the fear; instead, it is the fear of losing power over the people. 2 The monasteries have lost their religious mission and have become tourist traps. In the 1950s, before the Cultural Revolution, the Communists tried to stomp out religion, but they couldn’t succeed. They managed to stop overt religious practices, but the hearts of the people were not affected. In the 1980s, the “open policy” appeared to lessen control, but instead the control merely became more subtle. The Communists turned the monasteries into commercial ventures. The economy is the main thing. Kumbum Monastery in Amdo, Tibet, has 10,000 visitors each day, and the monks are constantly doing pujas for money and have become businessmen. 3 The Communists do not really follow their Constitution. The leaders follow their laws only if they find the laws useful. Most of the Chinese people today do not care about religion, and there is a general lack of morality in the populace. For example, human organs are sold for profit; prisoners are sometimes killed for their organs. Monks don’t practice ethical behavior and care only about wealth, have wives, and have become the “protectors” of big businessmen. Question: What solutions are Buddhists finding to these challenges? Response 1 There are no black and white solutions. Everything is a grayish tinge. You may say that 50% of the people are bad and 50% are good. Of the “good 50%,” 30% percent of these are very good. In some places, small monasteries focus intently on their spiritual practices. Even in some of the larger monasteries, you will find some earnest practitioners. 2 Some monasteries are involved in charity work. “Engaged Buddhism” is a new, but very good thing. For example, many monks have worked hard at relief work for those devastated by the recent earthquakes. This is very good and very positive. 3 In recent years...

Neural substrates of self-referential processing in Chinese Buddhists

Our recent work showed that self-trait judgment is associated with increased activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in non-religious Chinese, but in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) in Chinese Christians. The current work further investigated neural substrates of self-referential processing in Chinese Buddhists. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we scanned 14 Chinese Buddhists, while they conducted trait judgments of the self, Zhu Rongji (the former Chinese premier), Sakyamuni (the Buddhist leader) and Jesus (the Christian leader). We found that, relative to Zhu Rongji judgment, self-judgment in Buddhist participants failed to generate increased activation in the VMPFC but induced increased activations in the DMPFC/rostral anterior cingulate cortex, midcingulate and the left frontal/insular cortex. Self-judgment was also associated with decreased functional connectivity between the DMPFC and posterior parietal cortex compared with Zhu Rongji judgment. The results suggest that Buddhist doctrine of No-self results in weakened neural coding of stimulus self-relatedness in the VMPFC, but enhanced evaluative processes of self-referential stimuli in the DMPFC. Moreover, self-referential processing in Buddhists is characterized by monitoring the conflict between the doctrine of No-self and self-focus thinking during self-trait judgment.

Preservation by ‘Letting Go’

Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism contain rich teaching and motivational resources that pertain directly to the struggle for environmental justice in this age of what Engaged Buddhist leader Sulak Sivaraksa identifies as global militaristic capitalism. Guided by the work of ecofeminist theologian Rosemary Ruether and Buddhist scholar Rita Gross, this paper explores meanings and symbols within Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism that promote environmental values and practice. The paper begins with an overview of Ruether’s interpretation of the covenantal and sacramental traditions in Judaism and Christianity (1992 and 2000) followed by a close look at the dialogue between Gross and Ruether (2001) in which the relevance of the Buddhist teachings concerning impermanence (anicca) and interdependence for the environmental movement is unfolded. This article concludes by articulating a different interpretive strategy for accessing the Christian community than that provided by Ruether while at the same time building on her work.

22nd Niwano Peace Prize Commemorative Address

22nd Niwano Peace Prize Commemorative AddressTokyo, November 5, 2005 Hans Küng There are dreams that never come true, and on the other hand one can experience realities in life which one would never have dreamt of. Indeed, when I first traveled to Japan as a young professor in 1964 and later when I visited Rissho Kosei-kai headquarters and had the privilege to meet founder Nikkyo Niwano in 1982, it never came to my mind that I might once stand here as a laureate of the prestigious Niwano Peace Prize. This prize is an extraordinary honor for me and I am deeply grateful to the Niwano Peace Foundation for having selected me as this year's laureate. I consider this distinction as a threefold encouragement: 1. For me personally as an acknowledgment of my life-long activities for ecumenism among the Christian churches and for dialogue among religions. 2. For the Global Ethic Foundation for intercultural and interreligious research, education, and encounter, of which I am the president. 3. For all those around the world who strive for a global ethic as a basis of harmony among human beings and thus a more peaceful world. I receive this prize precisely for my efforts to promote a global ethic and I would therefore like to recall some of its dimensions. Certainly you are all aware that: 4 Global Ethic is not a new ideology or superstructure. 5 It will not make the specific ethics of the different religions and philosophies superfluous; it would be ridiculous to consider Global Ethic as a substitute for the discourses of the Buddha, the sayings of Confucius, the Bhagavadgita, the Torah, the Sermon on the Mount, or the Qur'an. 6 Global Ethic is nothing but the necessary minimum of common values, standards, and basic attitudes. In other words, a minimal basic consensus relating to binding values, irrevocable standards, and moral attitudes that can be affirmed by all religions despite their undeniable dogmatic or theological differences and should also be supported by nonbelievers. [End Page 203] This consensus is formulated in the Declaration Toward a Global Ethic (Parliament of the World's Religions, Chicago 1993). The Global Ethic as presented in the Chicago Declaration is based on two principles without which no human community or society can survive. First, what is common to all human beings is their humanity, and therefore "Every human being should be treated humanely," according to his or her inalienable human dignity, a foundation also of universal human rights. This principle still remains very formal and therefore the declaration recalls a second principle, "which is found and has persisted in many religious and ethical traditions of humankind . . ." This is known as the "Golden Rule" of reciprocity: "What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others," or, in positive terms, "What you wish done to yourself, do to others." It is striking to discover that this basic rule of human behavior appears already in the Analects of the Chinese master Confucius, five centuries BCE, and can indeed be found, in slightly differing formulations, in the teachings of all religions.1 In the scriptures of Buddhism it reads: "A state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must be so for him also; and a state which is not pleasant or delightful for me, how could I inflict that on another" (Samyutta Nikaya). These guidelines of humane behavior exist in all religions and also in nonreligious ethics and can therefore form the basis for a humanist ethic, in the sense that it should be acceptable for all human beings. A Buddhist leader at the Chicago Parliament told me that through the four directives he could hear the voice of the Buddha. He certainly thought of the four precepts formulated in the Dhammapada (183): "I vow to abstain from killing living beings. I vow to abstain from taking what is not given. I vow to abstain from sexual misconduct. I vow to abstain from lying" (a fifth precept—"I vow to abstain from taking intoxicants"—does not encounter consensus among religions; it only occurs in Buddhism and some other religions and is therefore not included in the Global...

Neuroscientists Welcome Dalai Lama With Mostly Open Arms

NEUROSCIENCEA controversy over the Society for Neuroscience's decision to invite the Dalai Lama to its annual meeting faded last week when the Buddhist leader gave a talk presenting meditative practice as an empirical way to investigate the mind and emphasizing his preference for scientific inquiry over religious dogma.

Neuroscience meeting draws fire over Dalai Lama lecture

Critics say the scientific venue is a cover for the Buddhist leader's political and religious views.

Dalai Lama gets go-ahead for meditation lecture

Neuroscientists will hear Buddhist leader speak.