Damien Keown, author of Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, tells us ten things we need to know about buddhism. From the Sangha to reincarnation, discover fascinating facts about Buddhism below.
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Buddhist moral psychology represents a distinctive contribution to contemporary moral discourses. Most Western ethicists neglect to problematize perception at all, and few suggest that ethical engagement begins with perception. But this is a central idea in Buddhist moral theory. Human perception is always perception-as. We see someone as a friend or as an enemy; as a stranger or as an acquaintance. We see objects as desirable or as repulsive. We see ourselves as helpers or as competitors, and our cognitive and action sets follow in train.
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The creepy beauty of The Hanging Monastery statues part 2
Part 1
Becky wrote about the temple itself here
The creepy beauty of The Hanging Monastery statues part 1.
The Hanging Monastery in Datong, China is a completely incredible building in every way. A temple that hangs from the side of a cliff and is traversed by rickety walkways and steep stairs, with only waist high railings to keep you from plunging hundreds of feet, would be fascinating and worth a visit even if empty inside. But it wasn’t empty, it held ghosts.
Ghosts in the form of the strangest statues I’ve yet to see in China (or anywhere). These were statues that stared vacant eyed across the ages with ghoulish expressions of the living dead. I might be making it sound like thought of these statues as grotesque horrors, but that is not true at all. I found them beautiful. Some of the most beautiful and unique statues I’ve yet to see in a temple. They are not beautiful in the shining gold-leaf smiling Buddha way, but in a completely unique way that gouged out eyes and missing hands cannot detract from (in many ways it actually enhances their appearance). Standing in the little rooms they live in, mostly alone with them, I felt in awe in a way the giant Buddhas don’t make me feel.
I spent a lot of time taking pictures of these Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian emissaries from centuries past, and I am going to put most of them on here in two parts.
Becky wrote about the temple itself here.
I said I would give you more about this place and its amazing architecture and design, and here you go. This is the incredible Dazhao temple (or Lamasery) in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. We have been to A LOT of temples all around China in our two years here (I mean a ridiculous amount) and usually they all have something special about them, like location, an special statue, kung-fu monks, but all in all, their design and architecture are usually pretty similar. So much so that details of the different temples start to blend into each other and I feel like now I have one giant temple in my mind made up of all the cool parts of other temples.
The thing is, I don’t think Dazhao temple will easily fit into my mind temple because it is as cool as that place all on its own. It was easily the most uniquely decorated and designed temple we’ve seen (only beat by one very outstanding exception I’ll blog about later). I don’t know why it was so much more colorful, detailed, bling crazy and whimsical than others, but there was definitely some different thinking going on. I can only speculate that it has something to do with the fact that it is a Mongolian style temple instead of a “Chinese” style temple. But I don’t know for sure because we don’t travel tour guide style and so I don’t know a lot of history about it, only that I like it. Which, in the end, is all that matters to me.
I have so many pictures from this place that I will do three posts about it. This post is the Architecture and design. The next will be the statues and the final one will be the monks.
Note: It was a overcast day and and these picture make it look brooding and melancholy, but that is only the weather and my style of photography and not a completely accurate representation of the place.