This book is a study of the Mulamadhyamakakarika (Middle Stanzas), the chief work of Nagarjuna (2nd-3rd cent.), who established the theoretical foundations of Mahayana Buddhism and is known in Japan as ''the founder of the eight Sects.'' The Middle Stanzas is a treatise that integrates the concepts of dependent co-arising (Pratityasamutpada) and emptiness (Sunyata), fundamental to the thought of Mahayana Buddhism, but the manner in which Nagarjuna develops his arguments is unusual and the middle Stanzas has acquired a reputation as a difficult work. The present book attempts to elucidate the distinctive and abstruse arguments presented in the Middle Stanzas by means of an original method not previously used in this context. In addition to its examination of the logic of emptiness, this book also aims to explore the idea of emptiness from the perspective of religious studies. That is to say, the author seeks to situate the intuitive wisdom of emptiness within the full compass of religious experiences. Towards this end, he employs the concepts of ''the sacred'' and ''the profane,'' basic concepts in the field of religious studies, and proposes a method for considering the experience of the wisdom of emptiness within the same framework as Tantric practices such as mandala visualization and group rituals such as funeral rites.

Introduction to the Philosophy of Nagarjuna (English and Japanese Edition)

Religion & Spirituality

Musashi Tachikawa

Religious Studies

Motilal Banarsidass

This book treats two representative Hindu rituals of contemporary India, Puja (offering service) and Samskara (initiation rituals at important occasions of life). Samskara rites are performed at significant junctures of an individual`s life, from birth to death, by the individual`s family. Puja rites, rather than being performed in relation to the life cycle of an individual in a family, are more deeply related to the annual rituals of the cult to which an individual or the person`s family belongs. Persons may go to a temple and request priests to perform puja rites, or they may perform them themselves at home. For people living in India, Puja and Samskara are not at all uncommon. Puja rites are performed everywhere-at temples, in private homes, on street corners-and although in recent times families observing all the traditional Samskara rites have declined in number, almost all Hindu families still perform the major Samskaras. it is difficult, however, for those living outside India to know how these rites are performed. Hence, this book presents a large number of photographs that enable readers to gain an accurate grasp of them and indicates the place of ritual in the total structure of religion.

Puja and Samskara

Politics & Social Sciences

Shoun Hino

Lalita Deodhar

Sociology

<p>This book is an attempt to explain the most basic ritual called lsti with the help of the original texts and the photographs of the actual performance of that sacrifice that took place in Pune, India, in July 1979. The book contains in all 140 photographs showing various stages of the sacrifice with explanation of the rites.</p>

Indian Fire Ritual

Shrikant Bahulkar

Madhavi Kolhatkar

Essays in Buddhist Theology

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Books by Musashi Tachikawa