Chinese Buddhism Today - Conservatism, Modernism, Syncretism and Enjoying Life on the Buddha’s Light Mountain - Yu-Shuang Yao

Chinese Buddhism Today - Conservatism, Modernism, Syncretism and Enjoying Life on the Buddha’s Light Mountain - Yu-Shuang Yao

Ritual as Symphony

Chinese Buddhism Today - Conservatism, Modernism, Syncretism and Enjoying Life on the Buddha’s Light Mountain - Yu-Shuang Yao

Yu-Shuang Yao [+-]
Fo Guang University, Taiwan
Yu-Shuang Yao completed her PhD in Sociology of Religion at the University of London in 2001. She is a Professor at Fo Guang University, Taiwan, specializing in contemporary religions of Taiwan.
Richard Gombrich [+-]
University of Oxford / Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
Richard Gombrich is founder and President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. Before his retirement in 2004, he held the Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University and a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College for 28 years. He supervised nearly 50 theses on Buddhist topics, and is the author of 200 publications. He continues to lecture and teach at universities round the world.

Description

The authors begin this chapter by surveying the history of Buddhist attitudes toward ritual and contrasting this with the importance accorded to ritual in traditional Confucian society. This leads into a discussion of merit transfer. They point out thatItis hardly an exaggeration to say thatthe Mahāyāna was constructed by generalizing the transfer of merit and abolishing the condition that it is possible only when the person who receives the merit is aware that it is being transferred to them. In contrast, in the tradition of Chinese Buddhism, as followed by FGS, the commonest form of communal ritual centres on transferring merit to the dead, particularly to one’s own parents and other ancestors. They point out how busy FGS temples are and how much of the activity is communal and describe a number of common rituals including musical performances. Attention is also paid to funeral rituals and to rituals practiced overseas.

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Citation

Yao, Yu-Shuang; Gombrich, Richard. Ritual as Symphony. Chinese Buddhism Today - Conservatism, Modernism, Syncretism and Enjoying Life on the Buddha’s Light Mountain. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 95-109 Jun 2022. ISBN 9781800502321. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=43518. Date accessed: 12 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.43518. Jun 2022

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