One of the more interesting books I've read in the last several years has been
Buddhist Materiality by one Prof. F. Rambelli. It's a
nice piece of scholarship that focuses on the way medieval esoteric Buddhism in East Asia dealt with the physical world. There is a great deal about
the way ritual objects, mandalas, etc. were manipulated for spiritual purposes. Also, in Japan in particular, items such as tools, implements,
household items, etc. were seen as having "souls" of a sort, and they and had to be treated with and disposed of with respect and sometimes even
religious ritual. There is a ton of interesting stuff in there...aspects of Buddhist and Shinto doctrine were seen as being mapped on tools such as
scales, for example; books and texts had "non-hermeneutic" value beyond the information they contained, etc. etc. There was a lot of philosophical and
doctrinal exploration of the interface between the spritual and the physical, and different thinkers came at the issue from different angles. The book
is particularly refreshing because in most Western literature and imaginations, Buddhism is associated with an austere, minimalist aesthetic (Zen,
Theravada, etc.)...this is one form of Buddhism but there are also complex and ancient strands of Buddhist thought and practice that do not shy away
from engagement with the physical, the material, the imminent.
edit on 2/25/11 by silent thunder because: (no reason given)
