The received wisdom about Buddhism depicts it as an otherworldly religion that values the solitary monk or nun and devalues family life and the social world in general. Recent scholarship, however, reveals evidence that this picture is seriously flawed. Yes, there are many seminal Buddhist texts that suggest that monastics should destroy familial ties to whatever extent is possible. But there are many other texts, as well as inscriptions and other forms of material culture such as art and architecture, that indicate that in both the past and the present, Buddhist monks and nuns have remained embedded in family life in ways that might surprise us. Moreover, many Buddhist institutions have been modeled on the family and rely on familial loyalties for their strength and endurance. Familial ties have shaped the expression of Buddhism in every Buddhist society, structuring Buddhist institutions and providing a fundamental language and form of practice.

AI

Based primarily on Pali sources, this book deals with Topics like family, socialization, social institutions, social structure, Women in Buddhist society, etc. Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Methodology in Buddhist Thought 3. Family 4. Socialization 5. Social Stratification 6. Woman and Society 7. A Political Theory in the Buddhist Tradition? 8. Buddhist Economics 9. Buddhism and Education 10. Crime and Social Control 11. Violence, Terrorism and Buddhism 12. Alcohol and Intoxicants 13. Buddhist Philosophy of Health

Journal of Chinese Religions, 2019

This paper attempts to provide an overview of how modern Chinese Buddhists worked to blend self-cultivation and family life, with a focus on the ideal of the "Buddhicized family" (Fohua jiating 佛化家庭) as expressed in the writings of the lay Buddhist elite Chen Hailiang 陳海量 (1910-1983), which provided spiritual and material advice for readers striving to achieve equilibrium between religious requirements and social norms. Due to his extensive work with young Buddhist men and women who were seeking spouses, getting married, and starting their own families, Chen's works paid close attention to issues of gender and sexuality, including childbirth, menstruation, masturbation, etc. Chen's vision of modern Buddhist family life sheds light on significant processes of change taking place in the early twentieth century, with that religion's urban elites seeking to define their approach to Buddhism in such a way that both maintained their commitment to social activism yet established the basis for a rich religious life. The data below highlight the complexity of Buddhist thought during the modern era, the interaction between religious discourses and others circulating at that time, and the continuing relevance of these issues in present-day Chinese societies around the world.

This article challenges two connected notions in the study of Tibetan Buddhism: that Buddhist monasticism is characterized by a pronounced move towards individualism, systematically detaching monks from relational social life; and that Tibetan Buddhist doctrines of karma represent an alternative mode of identity to those constructed within household life. By comparing the ritual practices and inheritance patterns associated with household groups in Ladakh with tantric ritual forms in local Buddhist (Gelukpa) monasteries, it is argued that they demonstrate pronounced structural similarities, centred on the shared symbolic construct of the household/temple as the source of socialized agency. An analysis of the meditative disciplines of Gelukpa monasticism is used to show how such training serves not to renounce kinship and household values, but to transform them into modes of religious authority, essential to the social position of monks (trapa) and incarnate lamas (tulku) in Tibetan Buddhism.

Buddhist Research Institute: Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University Press, 2017

This qualitative research consists of two objectives, namely:- 1) To examine the concept of balance of family in Buddhism and the theory of family behavior in Psychology, and 2) To suggest human behaviors in promoting balance of Family according to Buddhist Psychology. The data collections together with the in-depth interviews were carried out with 10 key-informants from 5 countries with the Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) examined by 3 experts. The findings show that balance of family implies a group of persons who live together in relationships consisting either of spouse or parents and child. Family members adopt a similar pattern of Buddhist virtuous behavior existing in equal and mutually beneficial amounts that resulting in a balance relationship. Firstly, SPOUSE Family members need to have qualities as stated in gharavāsa-dhamma, equitable as in samajīvidhamma and self-responsibilities according to Sīgālovāda Sutta as well as living together as deity spouse instead of ghost. Secondly, PARENTS AND CHILDREN Family members should reciprocally practice filial piety (kataññūkataveditā) and self-responsibilities as in Sīgālovāda Sutta. They must also maintain the family wealth. However, both Family Systems Theory and Planned Behavior Theory (PBT) in psychology described systems, structure, relationships, beliefs, behaviors and equilibrium of the family. The fourfold human behavior in promoting balance of Family according to Buddhist Psychology signifies 1) Virtuous Behavior, 2) Responsible Behavior, 3) Reciprocal Behavior, and 4) Supportive Behavior respectively.

Inner Asia, 2022

Much has been written about the role of ‘shamanism’ in the making of Mongol kinship. This article aims to explore the role of Buddhism in constructing kinship, which has received less scholarly attention. In particular, I investigate the ways the ‘anti-family’ orientation of Buddhism was propagated in Buryat society, which had assigned great social importance to kinship networks. In didactic texts compiled by Buryat lamas for the laity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, lamas argued that, despite the impermanent character of kinship, kinship bonds nevertheless were to be arranged in a proper way to avoid multiplying sins. However, lamas did not offer a ready model or a special Buddhist ideal of the family organisation. Like in other regional contexts, Buddhist ethics were adapted to the existing cultural traditions and mostly emphasised proper roles and responsibilities in conjugal and parent-child relationships.

2015

As secularization and global consumerism corrodes the traditional monastic ideals and an ethical way of life, the concept of Buddhist monasticism as well as the roles of monastic members are undergoing review in the world today. This essay examines how Buddhist monasticism has changed in its engagement with modernity and postmodernity, and what relevance some of its modern adaptation has had especially on female monastic members who find meaning in their monastic way of life. To start with, I offer a brief background to understand the implication of Buddhist monasticism in modern times and examine whether the very foundation of its institution has changed or adapted in certain areas to accommodate modern demands while keeping its basic principles intact.

2016

Bowing to parents is a Buddhist home practice that links with the spread of religious-led attitudes across a notional border into the public sphere of young Buddhists’ lives. A quantitative study sought to map the attitudes corresponding with bowing to parents for teen self-identifying Buddhists in Britain. A variety of statements including those concerning personal well-being, discrimination, work, school, Religious Education, friends, family, substance use, collectivism, tradition and religion were rated for levels of agreement by 417 self-identifying Buddhists, aged between 13 and 20, using postal and online surveys. The 56% who bowed to parents were found to have stronger public-sphere attitudes such as work ethic, resilience to intoxicant use, valuing study and Religious Education. In the private sphere, they were found to have a more positive attitude towards family and Buddhism. Additionally the study found the significance of bowing differed with age – being linked particularly with an increased subjective well-being in early teens and acceptance of hierarchy and parental influence in late teens. Also, the attitudes corresponding with bowing depended on religious style – bowing being linked with Asian values and feeling more religious for convert Buddhist teens, whereas for heritage Buddhist teens it was linked more with ingroup mentality. Unlike non-Buddhist adolescents, bowing to parents in Buddhists was linked with wanting to look after parents in old age. The article argues that bowing to parents has the cultural function of bringing religiously-led good into society, acting as a perpetuating structure, binding the Buddhist community together, facilitating mutual respect from adults and a sense of social hierarchy and as such deserves to be considered an aspect of Buddhist religiosity.

Buddhist scholars like Kenneth Ch’en have argued that the teaching of filial piety was a special feature of Chinese Buddhism as a response to the Chinese culture. Others, among them John Strong and Gregory Schopen, have shown that filial piety was also important in Indian Buddhism, Strong does not consider it integral to the belief system and Schopen did not find evidence of it in early writings he examined. In this article, through an analysis of early Buddhist resources, the Nikāyas and Āgamas, I demonstrate that the practice of filial piety has been the chief good karma in the Buddhist moral teaching since its inception, although it is not as foundational for Buddhist ethics as it is for Confucian ethics. The Buddha advised people to honor parents as the Brahmā, the supreme god and the creator of human beings in Hinduism, as parents have done much for their children. Hence, Buddhism teaches its followers to pay their debts to parents by supporting and respecting them, actions that are considered the first of all meritorious deeds, or good karma, in Buddhist moral teachings. Moreover, according to the Buddhist teaching of karma, matricide and patricide are considered two of the five gravest bad deeds, and the consequence is immediate rebirth in hell. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed the idea of filial piety further and formulated the four debts to four groups of people—parents, sentient beings, rulers, and Buddhism—a teaching that became very popular in Chinese Buddhism and spread to other East Asian countries.

Abstract The received wisdom about Buddhism depicts it as an otherworldly religion that values the solitary monk or nun and devalues family life and the social world in general. Recent scholarship, however, reveals evidence that this picture is seriously flawed. Yes, there are many seminal Buddhist texts that suggest that monastics should destroy familial ties to whatever extent is possible. But there are many other texts, as well as inscriptions and other forms of material culture such as art and architecture that indicate that in both the past and the present, Buddhist monks and nuns have remained embedded in family life in ways that might surprise us. Moreover, many Buddhist institutions have been modeled on the family and rely on familial loyalties for their strength and endurance. Familial ties have shaped the expression of Buddhism in every Buddhist society, structuring Buddhist institutions and providing a fundamental language and form of practice.

IJAS, 2016

t has been well noted at this point that Buddhist studies has suffered from a disproportionate emphasis on its idealized ascetic representations. Family life has, as a result, been marginalized (if not entirely ignored).

icundv.com

Review of Shayne Clarke’s Family Matters in Indian Buddhist Monasticism (Hawai’i University Press 2014). South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2017, 40/1: 211-213. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2017.1279727?scroll=top&needAccess=true

Buddhism for Sustainable Development and Social Change. , 2014

This presentation explores the attitudes, religiosity, self-esteem and Psychological Type Buddhist teens in Britain have experienced in correspondence with going through a parental divorce. A quantitative study compared attitudes of teens with divorced parents with those from intact families. A variety of attitude statements concerning school, RE, family, friends and religion were rated for levels of agreement by 413 self-identifying Buddhists aged between 13 and 20. Buddhists were found to have an average divorce rate lower (31%) than the average divorce rate in Britain (42%), although divorce rate for Buddhists from heritage families was much lower (18%) and for converts higher (51%) than the average. Buddhists from 'broken' families were generally less positive in their attitudes towards school & authority and had lower self-esteem. Any upside of divorce came in the form of motivation to ordain (for late teens), more sense of empowerment to solve problems in the world, increased spirituality and less reliance on the internet and TV. Divorce in Buddhists did not damage affective religiosity or attitude to RE, even for low income families, but changed the manner of religious engagement from the Psychological Type preference of Judging (J) to Perceiving (P)-which is reflected in certain attitudes to authority and morality. This is different from findings in Christianity where disillusionment with church followed divorce. The paper reflects how RE teachers might rekindle interest in religion for teens left disillusioned by divorce and to leverage adversity to stimulate them to become more spiritually reflexive and mature.

The relationship between Buddhist psychology and the Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapeutic model is notable. Both assert that what we commonly think of as our 'self' is actually an aggregate of myriad parts acting from unmet desires, fears, and delusions. Both also maintain the possibility of actualizing a healthier, wiser, more compassionate 'self' by changing how we understand and relate to these internal parts. What may not be so apparent at first glance, is how the IFS notion of 'Self,' with a capital 'S,' reconciles with the Buddhist notion of non-self or anatta. Rather than being contradictory, Dr. Flint Sparks, psychotherapist and Zen priest, holds they are one and the same, and the Buddhist point of view brings a more nuanced approach to Self that IFS accommodates. 1

Like in other cultures, the Hindu family also represents a social institution that developed in passage of time and has always been practiced as a core element in the development and maintenance of the value and ethics systems and lifeways for an individual as well as for the close clan and castes and altogether in making the societal world that further influence the state and nation. That is how the changes in family structure and its values are given much attention for understanding social scenario and state of development. In fact, the development of an individual, society, and state very much depends on the family and related lifeways and inherent life philosophy. The structure and function of the family is not any more traditional product of cultural history but it also indicates changing and shifting relation to wider niches of social and economic developments. Of course, the family is the foundational institution in societies ― an institution which is a frame or gaze of identity, emotion, cultural expression, care, despair, reproductive labour, systemic and systematic violence, repression, and domination in ways that other institutions are not. Moreover, it is foundational where constantly run contestations over life and culture. In India the position of family, especially of Hindus, has been central and critical. The family performs important task which contribute to society’s basic needs and helps to perpetuate social order. Family is also described as “a group of persons directly linked by kin connections, the adult members of assume responsibility for caring for children”.

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