Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism

Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism
Rennyo is undeniably one of the most influential persons in the history of Japanese religion and yet his thought remains somewhat enigmatic from the standpoint of what is considered orthodox Shinshu doctrine today. This book, which collects ten unpublished essays by both Japanese and non-Japanese scholars, will be the first to confront many of the major questions surrounding the phenomenal growth of Honganji under Rennyo's leadership, such as the source of his charisma, the soteriological implications of his thought against the background of other movements in Pure Land Buddhism, and the relationship between his ideas and the growth of his church. The volume is intended as an important first step in expanding the field of Rennyo studies outside Japan, and to provide significant stimulus to the fields of Japanese religion, Japanese social history, comparative religion, and sociology of religion.

Uploading

Depositfiles

Megaupload

Buddha, Bees and the Giant Hornet Queen

Buddha, Bees and the Giant Hornet Queen (BBC Natural World)
There's no fiercer looking or more dangerous insect than the giant Japanese hornet. The film follows the life of a giant hornet queen as she emerges from hibernation and starts to build her colony in an old temple garden. At first she is vulnerable, fighting bad weather as she painstakingly constructs her paper nest. But as workers hatch, her empire gains strength and desperate for food the hornets start to search for their favorite meal – honeybee grubs.

A beekeeper monk witnesses the rising power of the giant hornet colony, and despite the hornets' attacks on his own bees he reveals a deep respect for these incredible predators.

FYI: Frame Rate seems to be a little fast on this, so if your using VLC player slow the playback a bit.

Torrent

Hotfile 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism

Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism
For more than a thousand years, Buddhism has dominated Japanese death rituals and concepts of the afterlife. The nine essays in this volume, ranging chronologically from the tenth century to the present, bring to light both continuity and change in death practices over time. They also explore the interrelated issues of how Buddhist death rites have addressed individual concerns about the afterlife while also filling social and institutional needs and how Buddhist death-related practices have assimilated and refigured elements from other traditions, bringing together disparate, even conflicting, ideas about the dead, their postmortem fate, and what constitutes normative Buddhist practice.

The idea that death, ritually managed, can mediate an escape from deluded rebirth is treated in the first two essays. Sarah Horton traces the development in Heian Japan (794-1185) of images depicting the Buddha Amida descending to welcome devotees at the moment of death, while Jacqueline Stone analyzes the crucial role of monks who attended the dying as religious guides. Even while stressing themes of impermanence and non-attachment, Buddhist death rites worked to encourage the maintenance of emotional bonds with the deceased and, in so doing, helped structure the social world of the living. This theme is explored in the next four essays. Brian Ruppert examines the roles of relic worship in strengthening family lineage and political power; Mark Blum investigates the controversial issue of religious suicide to rejoin one's teacher in the Pure Land; and Hank Glassman analyzes how late medieval rites for women who died in pregnancy and childbirth both reflected and helped shape changing gender norms.

Rapidshare

Depositfiles

Sacred Koyasan: A Pilgrimage to the Mountain Temple of Saint Kobo Daishi and the Great Sun Buddha

Sacred Koyasan: A Pilgrimage to the Mountain Temple of Saint Kobo Daishi and the Great Sun Buddha
For more than one thousand years, the vast Buddhist monastery and temple complex on remote Mount Kōya has been one of Japan's most important religious centers. Saint Kōbō Daishi (also known as Kūkai), founder of the esoteric Shingon school and one of the great figures of world Buddhism, consecrated the mountain for holy purposes in the early 800s. Buried on Kōyasan, Kōbō Daishi is said to be still alive, selflessly advocating for the salvation of all sentient beings.

Located south of Osaka, Kōyasan has attracted visitors from every station of Japanese life, and in recent years, more than a million tourists and pilgrims visit annually. In Sacred Kōyasan, the first book-length study in English of this holy Buddhist mountain, Philip L. Nicoloff invites readers to accompany him on a pilgrimage. Together with the author, the pilgrim-reader ascends the mountain, stays at a temple monastery, and explores Kōyasan's main buildings, sacred statues, mandalas, and famous forest cemetery. Author and reader participate in the full annual cycle of rituals and ceremonies, and explore the life and legend of Kōbō Daishi and the history of the mountain.

Written for both the scholarly and general reader, Sacred Kōyasan will appeal to potential travelers, dedicated armchair travelers, and all readers interested in Buddhism and Japanese culture.

This is a well-rounded historical and contemporary account of one of the most important sacred sites in Japan. The author opens up a significant area of inquiry for those studying Buddhism and Japanese culture, and integrates the personal dimension with the historical materials in a fascinating and compelling way.

Uploading

Megaupload

The Long Search: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha-Japan

The Long Search

Ronald Eyre takes the viewer on a pilgrimage beginning in London and spanning 150,000 miles including India, Japan, Israel, Rumania, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, The United States, Egypt, and South Africa. Series of 13 programs, Producer: BBC/Time Life.

This sound and picture enhanced series has served as the basis of successful religious philosophy courses around the world. An American Film Festival Red Ribbon winner, the series gives a balanced treatment of a force that is sadly neglected in most educations, the basic beliefs of the major religions in the world today.
Ronald Eyre takes the viewer on a pilgrimage beginning in London and spanning 150,000 miles including India, Japan, Israel, Rumania, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, The United States, Egypt, and South Africa.

Series of 13 programs on 5 DVD's. Around 25 Gb total [DVDs 1 and 2 are single layer, DVDs 3, 4 and 5 are double layer] # Disk 1 Protestant Spirit USA (Vol. 1) Hinduism: 330 Million Gods (Vol. 2) # Disk 2 Buddhism: Footprint of the Buddha-India(Vol. 3) Catholicism: Rome, Leeds and the Desert(Vol. 4) # Disk 3 Islam: There is no God but God(Vol. 5) Orthodox Christianity: The Rumanian Solution(Volume. 6) Judaism: The Chosen People(Vol. 7) # Disk 4 Religion In Indonesia: The Way of the Ancestors(Vol. 8) Buddhism: The Buddhism: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha-Japan (Vol. 9) African Religions: Zulu Zion(Vol. 10) # Disk 5 Taoism: A Question of Balance-China(Vol. 11) Alternative Lifestyles in California: West Meets East (Vol. 12) Reflections on the Long Search (Vol. 13)


http://rapidshare.com/users/BHC6OO (Disks 1,2 and 3)
and
http://rapidshare.com/users/419LG3 (Disks 4 and 5 plus avi of episode vol.9 - Zen in Japan)

Buddhism: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha-Japan (Vol. 9)

If the Buddha of India met the Buddha of Japan, would they recognize each other? To find out, this program talks to the staff in a Tokyo restaurant who keep regular Zen meditation schedules as part of their job, then on to the classical Zen calligraphy, swordfighting, archery and tea ceremony.

Three great Rinzai Zen Masters of XX century appear in this video: Mumon Yamada (1900—1988), Omori Sogen (1904—1994) and Kobori Roshi Nanrei Sohaku (1918—1992)

Mumon Yamada has authorized for the first and the only time in history, that camera can film the sanzen ( stritly private encounter of Master and student where student gives his answer to a koan )

-this episode of "The Long Search" also shows others religions and practices in Japan, like Pure Land Buddhism, Shinto, Soka-Gakkai, Tea ceremony, Archery, Caligraphy etc.

Rapidshare
link
link
link
link

Sankyoku - Ensemble Yonin no Kaï

Sankyoku - Ensemble Yonin no Kaï
This ensemble of four musicians playing traditional music was created in 1957, when each of its four members was awarded a gold medal in Moscow at the international Competition of Traditional Instruments (three of them won awards for pieces of traditional repertoire up to the 19th century, and all four of them for contemporary pieces). Recently, two of its members have changed. Since then, The Yonin no Kai Ensemble have given many concerts, both in Japan and abroad. As evident from their discography, these artists have made an exceptional contribution to Japanese music, ancient as well as contemporary: they have recorded, so far, as much as fifteen albums with traditional music, and some ten albums with contemporary compositions.

Part 1
Part 2

Fanshî dansu (1989)

Fanshî dansu (1989)
Yohei, a punk rocker, has to become a Buddhist monk in order to inherit a mountain temple. Yohei though initially rebelling against the tough monastic discipline learns to adjust. Then his girlfriend shows up, enticing him to return to his rock 'n' roll roots.

Asian DVD Club

Zen Koto - Michael Vetter

Zen Koto - Michael Vetter
Michael Vetter was born in 1943 in Oberstdorf Allgäu. He studied theology and between 1970 and 1982 spent most of his time in Japan as a Zen monk.

A self taught musician and painter he became known as a performer and composer of experimental music for recorder.
He was discovered by Karlheinz Stockausen in 1969 and was invited to participate in his then current "intuitive music".
Although Vetter dedicated himself in the 1970s to a systemmatic framework of musical concepts he was increasingly engaged in developing the expressive possibilities of the voice.

Depositfiles

Rapidshare

Master of Shakuhachi - Tajima Tadashi

Master of Shakuhachi - Tajima Tadashi
The shakuhachi has been much abused in the later half of the 20th century, by non-Japanese artists seeking to capitalize on its sensitive sound and hip Eastern origin to make incoherent mood music for health food stores. The reality of the instrument is one of quiet strength. The traditional version of this bamboo flute is large, over a foot and a half long with a large outside circumference. It achieves its unique sound from the musician's ability to balance the force needed to fill such a tool with air and the control to make it not only melodious, but contemplative. Tajima Tadashi performs a series of solo songs, all from the meditative tradition, created not for performance or ritual, but as a tool for the musician to achieve a state of meditation and to challenge himself in his art. These pieces show an accomplished artist pushing himself to the limit, not with wild virtuoso flights but with considered and complex melodies that are as ephemeral as snow and as strong as wind.

tracklist:
01 - Hon Shirabe.flac
02 - Shika no Tone.flac
03 - Shingetsu Cho.flac
04 - San An.flac
05 - Tsuru no Sugomori.flac
06 - Yamagoe.flac
07 - Ukigumo.flac
08 - Koku.flac

Depositfiles 1 2

Rapidshare 1 2

Meditation[Zen] - F.A.B.

Meditation[Zen] - F.A.B.

It is said that the chanting of the Buddhist sutras can open the chakras (energy centers) of the human body. Continue on your path to enlightenment with "Meditation [Zen]," Pacific Moon’s companion album to "Meditation [Satori]" and "Meditation [Rinne]." Like its predecessors, "Meditation [Zen]" is perfect for meditation, relaxation, yoga, bodywork and massage.
tracklist:
1.Hannya Shingyo
2.Miyama
3.Shiori
4.Somabito No Mura
5.Nagamichi
6.Konoma Yori
7.Yumeji

Depositfiles 1 2

Rapidshare 1 2

Okuribito (2008)

Okuribito (2008)
Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.

Torrentzap

Higashi kara (From the East) - Reiko Kimura

Higashi kara (From the East) - Reiko Kimura
This exquisite recording presents five pieces from the repertoire of koto performers in the field known as 'gendai hogaku,' or contemporary music for Japan's traditional instruments. Performers in this field play on the traditional 13-string koto and two of its 20th century variants: the jushichigen ('17 strings', bass koto) and nijugen (literally '20 strings' but now as a rule with 21).

Performers in this field have generally undergone early training in the classical repertoire, but it is very uncommon for them to include pieces from that repertoire in their solo or group recitals. This trend is indicative of a shift in direction, away from the vocal towards the instrumental that is currently shaping the future of new composition for the original and newly-developed versions of Japan's traditional instruments.

Rapidshare

Megaupload

Mourning the Unborn Dead A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America - Jeff Wilson

Mourning the Unborn Dead A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America - Jeff Wilson
Many Western visitors to Japan have been struck by the numerous cemeteries for aborted fetuses, which are characterized by throngs of images of the Bodhisattva Jizo, usually dressed in red baby aprons or other baby garments, and each dedicated to an individual fetus. Abortion is common in Japan and as a consequence one of the frequently performed rituals in Japanese Buddhism is mizuko-kuyo, a ceremony for aborted and miscarried fetuses. Over the past forty years, mizuko-kuyo has gradually come to America, where it has been appropriated by non-Buddhists as well as Buddhist practitioners.

In this book, Jeff Wilson examines how and why Americans of different backgrounds have brought knowledge and performance of this Japanese ceremony to the United States. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork in Japan and the U.S., as well as the literature in both Japanese and English, Wilson shows that the meaning and purpose of the ritual have changed greatly in the American context. In Japan, mizuko-kuyo is performed to placate the potentially dangerous spirit of the angry fetus. In America, however, it has come to be seen as a way for the mother to mourn and receive solace for her loss. Many American women who learn about mizuko-kuyo are struck by the lack of such a ceremony and see it as filling a very important need. Ceremonies are now performed even for losses that took place many years ago. Wilson's well-written study not only contributes to the growing literature on American Buddhism, but sheds light on a range of significant issues in Buddhist studies, interreligious contact, women's studies, and even bioethics.

Link removed at authors request

Living Buddhist Statues in Early Medieval and Modern Japan - Sarah J. Horton

Living Buddhist Statues in Early Medieval and Modern Japan - Sarah J. Horton
Large numbers of Buddhist believers regarded Buddhist statues in surprising ways in late- tenth and early eleventh century Japan. Examination of such questions of functionality contributes to a broader view of Buddhist practice at a time when Buddhism was rapidly spreading among many levels of Japanese society. This book focuses particularly on the function of the following types of images: “secret Buddhas” (hibutsu), which are rarely if ever displayed; Buddhas who exchange bodies with sufferers (migawari butsu); and masks of bodhisattvas used in a ritual called mukaeko. Primary sources for these topics include collections of popular tales (setsuwa), poetry, ritual texts, and temple histories (engi).

uploading.com

depositfiles.com

Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation - Stephen G. Covell

Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation - Stephen G. Covell
There have been many studies that focus on aspects of the history of Japanese Buddhism. Until now, none have addressed important questions of organization and practice in contemporary Buddhism, questions such as how Japanese Buddhism came to seen as a religion of funeral practices; how Buddhist institutions envision the role of the laity; and how a married clergy has affected life at temples and the image of priests. This volume is the first to address fully contemporary Buddhist life and institutions—topics often overlooked in the conflict between the rhetoric of renunciation and the practices of clerical marriage and householding that characterize much of Buddhism in today’s Japan. Informed by years of field research and his own experiences training to be a Tendai priest, Stephen Covell skillfully refutes this "corruption paradigm" while revealing the many (often contradictory) facets of contemporary institutional Buddhism, or as Covell terms it, Temple Buddhism.

Rapidshare

Depositfiles

The Mystery Of The Tibetan Mummy - The History Channel

The Mystery Of The Tibetan Mummy - The History Channel

High in the Himalayan Mountains a mysterious part of Tibet’s lost history is about to be unearthed. Revealing ancient secrets about the human mind that could have an impact on the way we live today. At 12,000 feet, the body of a Tibetan man has been found seated as if in a state of meditation. He’s perfectly preserved, even a right eye remains, locked in an eternal stare. Authorities know nothing of him, but locals worship him like a God. So who was he and how has his corpse survived today?

His existence is a mystery that Victor Mair, one of the world’s top mummy experts and his team of scientists, are determined to solve. Is it possible that this man could have actually mummified his own body? The Scientific team journey to the site of the mummy armed with the latest medical equipment and perform further tests at the world’s top laboratories.

The investigation reveals secret meditation rituals that can slow the body’s metabolism by forty percent. The wisdom hidden within this ancient culture could forever change our health by initiating a radical new approach to 21st century medicine.

Victor Henry Mair is Full Professor and a Consulting Scholar at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Mair entered the United States Peace Corps in 1965 and served as a volunteer in Nepal for two years. In the fall of 1967, Mair entered a program of Buddhist Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied Indian Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, Tibetan, and Sanskrit.

Rapidshare: 1 2 3 4

Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China - Christine Mollier

Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China - Christine Mollier
Christine Mollier reveals in this volume previously unexplored dimensions of the interaction between Buddhism and Taoism in medieval China. While scholars of Chinese religions have long recognized the mutual influences linking the two traditions, Mollier here brings to light their intense contest for hegemony in the domains of scripture and ritual. Drawing on a far-reaching investigation of canonical texts, together with manuscript sources from Dunhuang and the monastic libraries of Japan - many of them studied here for the first time - she demonstrates the competition and complementarity of the two great Chinese religions in their quest to address personal and collective fears of diverse ills, including sorcery, famine, and untimely death.

uploading.com

depositfiles.com

Zen Garden - Kokin Gumi

Zen Garden - Kokin Gumi
"Tucked into the sheltered of a quiet courtyard lies a small rectangular plot of carefully raked white gravel..."
So begins the introduction to this CD of meditative music written entirely by Masa Yoshizawa for Kokin-Gumi, whose traditional Japanese instruments and artistry creates a seamless blend of old and new, east and west.

Inspired by the simple beauty of a Zen Garden, a Japanese ensemble performs twelve original compositions, that make the perfect mood for peaceful meditation and enlightenment. Instrumentation includes shakuhachi, shinobue, hichiriki, kotsuzumi, bamboo flutes, koto, bass koto, shamisen & piano.

Rapidshare

password: neosacred

Japanese Religion:The Ebook - Robert Ellwood

Japanese Religion: The Ebook - Robert Ellwood
This volume is intended to present both information about the religion traditions of Japan and an experience of their world. For that reason it contains data, descriptions, quotations, anecdotes, and a few philosophical reflections. It is hoped also that working with this book will introduce students to some academic ways of looking at the religions of the world. Japanese Religions: The eBook should be accessible to all motivated college and university students, whether they have had previous courses in Japanese or Religious Studies topics or not. Nonetheless, a little background reading in Japanese history, and in Buddhism and Confucianism, would obviously be helpful. Some students may have had more background in European and American history than in Japanese. To my mind, at least, despite very minimal direct contact until modern times, interesting parallels between Japanese and western social, intellectual, and religious history, from the feudal Middle Ages on up, suggest themselves; a few speculations in this direction appear. Each chapter is followed by a list of study questions and a short representative bibliography. More specialized books and articles will be found cited in the notes; they are also generally recommended for further research. Much information can now be found online as well. Japanese names are given in the Japanese way, with surname first, except in the case of authors of English-language, or translated, books (e.g. Susumu Shimazono), in which case the name is given as it appears on the book’s title page and in library catalogs. It should be noted, however, that many premodern Japanese historical figures are normally referred to by their given name (e.g. Ieyasu rather than Tokugawa Ireyasu), and after first identification they are so named here. Also, Buddhist teachers and writers usually go by their name in religion rather than their birth-name, and to make matters more confusing, sometimes change that name to mark different ordinations or stages of life, including a posthumous (after-death) name (e.g. Saeki Mao? birth-name; Kukai, religious name; Kobo daishi, posthumous name). For the sake of clarity, the name most commonly recognized (e.g. Shinran, Nichiren, Basho) is used consistently, regardless of whether the individual actually was known by that name at the point in life under discussion.

Link removed at Publishers request

Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999)

Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999)
Noted German filmmaker Doris Dorrie directs this understated comedy about two middle-aged brothers who go to study at a Zen monastery in Japan. The two brothers could not be more different. Uwe (Uwe Ochsenknecht) is a bored husband and kitchenware salesman, while Gustav (Gustav Peter Wohler) is a flighty feng shui consultant and Eastern religions devotee. Just as Gustav is preparing to leave for the land of the rising sun, Uwe, whose wife just dumped him, begs his brother to let him tag along. The first night in Tokyo proves to be a disaster. After a night of drinking, the pair get lost, spend the last of their cash on an ill-fated taxi ride, lose their credit cards, and end up sleeping in some boxes on the city streets. But this deprivation prepares them for the hard living of monastic life, including 4:30 a.m. wake up calls, elaborate dining rituals, long periods of silent mediation, and a punishing cleaning routine. As the days wear on, Gustav soon finds himself buckling under the strain while Uwe demonstrates himself to be much more adaptable to a monk's life. The experience eventually brings the night-and-day brothers closer together. This film was screened at the 2000 Rotterdam Film Festival.
English, French and Spanish Subtitles.

BTJunkie

TorrentPortal

Rapidshare Links