Rebirth

Death and rebirth was of vital importance to early Christians in late antiquity. In late antiquity, death was all encompassing. Mortality rates were high, plague and disease in urb...

This chapter explores animal involvement in Hindu ritual and ideology as described in Dharmaśāstra, investigating how and why descriptions and enactments of dharma require and util...

Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters argues that Huxley is not a man of letters engaged in politics, but a political thinker who chooses literature to spread hi...

In addition to being a great composer, Richard Wagner was also an important philosopher. Julian Young begins by examining the philosophy of art and society Wagner constructs during...

This chapter explores the nature of ‘karma/action’ in Buddhism, and of cetanā, which is the heart of karma; factors affecting ethical assessment of an action as wholesome or unwhol...

This chapter is divided into six sections. The first examines five stages in the development of Yogācāra: the early Yogācāra sūtras, the Yogācāra works of Maitreya, Asaṅga, Vasuban...

Pure Land Buddhism uses the term jinen rather than shizen to refer to the supernatural power of Amida’s compassion that facilitates rebirth in the Pure Land. Often dismissed as unr...