Unfortunate Destiny

Unfortunate Destiny
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 265
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780190637569
ISBN-13 : 0190637560
Rating : 4/5 (560 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Unfortunate Destiny by : Reiko Ohnuma

Download or read book Unfortunate Destiny written by Reiko Ohnuma and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unfortunate Destiny focuses on the roles played by nonhuman animals within the imaginative thought-world of Indian Buddhism, as reflected in pre-modern South Asian Buddhist literature. These roles are multifaceted, diverse, and often contradictory: In Buddhist doctrine and cosmology, the animal rebirth is a most "unfortunate destiny" (durgati), won through negative karma and characterized by a lack of intelligence, moral agency, and spiritual potential. In stories about the Buddha's previous lives, on the other hand, we find highly anthropomorphized animals who are wise, virtuous, endowed with human speech, and often critical of the moral shortcomings of humankind. In the life-story of the Buddha, certain animal characters serve as "doubles" of the Buddha, illuminating his nature through identification, contrast or parallelism with an animal "other." Relations between human beings and animals likewise range all the way from support, friendship, and near-equality to rampant exploitation, cruelty, and abuse. Perhaps the only commonality among these various strands of thought is a persistent impulse to use animals to clarify the nature of humanity itself--whether through similarity, contrast, or counterpoint. Buddhism is a profoundly human-centered religious tradition, yet it relies upon a dexterous use of the animal other to help clarify the human self. This book seeks to make sense of this process through a wide-ranging-exploration of animal imagery, animal discourse, and specific animal characters in South Asian Buddhist texts.


Unfortunate Destiny Related Books

Unfortunate Destiny
Language: en
Pages: 265
Authors: Reiko Ohnuma
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-05-01 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

GET EBOOK

Unfortunate Destiny focuses on the roles played by nonhuman animals within the imaginative thought-world of Indian Buddhism, as reflected in pre-modern South As
The Unfortunate Destiny of Our Planet
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Lennart Wingardh
Categories: Bibles
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-07-20 - Publisher: Arpress

GET EBOOK

Prophecies of the end of the world began to interest Lennart Wingardh in 1981, after reading Prophecies & Predictions Everybody's Guide to the Coming Changes by
The Hermeneutics of Hell
Language: en
Pages: 328
Authors: Gregor Thuswaldner
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-09-15 - Publisher: Springer

GET EBOOK

This collection of essays analyzes global depictions of the devil from theological, Biblical, and literary perspectives, spanning the late Middle Ages to the 21
Ambrose and Eleanor; or, The adventures of two children deserted on an uninhabited island. Tr. [from Fanfan et Lolotte], with alterations, by L. Peacock
Language: en
Pages: 226
Publications of the Ballad Society
Language: en
Pages: 866
Authors: Ballad Society
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 1885 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK