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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: Prince Shōtoku (574-622): Politics and Religion in Early Japan
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2015/01/prince-shotoku-574-622-politics-and.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Prince Shōtoku (574-622): Politics and Religion in Early Japan. The 10,000 yen currency note issued in 1958 has a portrait of Shōtoku Taishi 聖德太子. 574-622), i.e., Prince Shōtoku. This underscores his prominence in the national history and identity of modern Japan, which is warranted given his achievements in consolidating a centralized government during the Asuka period 飛鳥. 593-710) to rule over what was a fractured and divided Japanese archipelago. Attributed to Nāgārjuna...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: 2014/05 - 2014/06
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Notes on the Six Schools of Nara Buddhism. Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva. Tōdai-ji, Nara. The term “six schools of the southern capital” 南都六宗. Refers to the mainstream and officially recognized Buddhist schools that flourished in the capital Heij ō-kyō. Nara) during the Nara period (710-794) in contrast to the “northern capital” of Heian- kyō. These schools were officially patronized by the Nara imperium which had earlier adopted a Chinese model of centralized government and wel...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: Less Known Bodhisattvas
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2013/07/less-known-bodhisattvas.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. There are a few noteworthy bodhisattva figures which are well represented in the ancient Japanese Buddhist artistic tradition which I want to take a look at here. They have served for many centuries as objects of devotion and inspiration, but also have had a role to play in Buddhist practice as well. Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Late Heian (794-1185). And the Sūtra of the Meditation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life. In the Garbhadhātu Maṇḍala 胎藏界曼荼羅. Bha, Avalokitēśvara will take h...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: 2014/09 - 2014/10
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Ptolemy in Heian Japan? As part of my ongoing PhD research here in Japan I picked up a copy of Mikky. Senseijutsu – Sukuy. Ō-dō to Indo Senseijutsu. Esoteric Buddhist Astrology – Sukuyō-dō and Indian Astrology. By scholar Yano Michio 矢野道雄. 1944-). It is essentially an introduction and analysis of the history behind Indian astrology in the East Asian cultural sphere, specifically with respect to the Xiuyao-jing. Which was used in esoteric Buddhism in China and Japan. While ...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: Ethnicity in Tang Buddhist Art
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2013/01/ethnicity-in-tang-buddhist-art.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Ethnicity in Tang Buddhist Art. In an earlier post we examined some Tang Dynasty (618-907) artwork depicting Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha before his enlightenment) as a Chinese prince complete with the appropriate attire and surroundings (see here. Let's take a look again at one of the pieces:. However, not all Buddhist art from the Tang Dynasty is like this. Here I want to take a look at some other examples from Dunhuang. 梵天火羅九曜 , as translated by Yijing. 一行 (683-727)&#...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: 2015/07 - 2015/08
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2015_07_01_archive.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Buddhism's Flat Earth Cosmology. Mt Meru and the Four Continents. In the Chinese Buddhist canon, there is an Abhidharma work entitled * Lokasthānābhidharma-śāstra. T 1644), the translation of which is attributed to Paramārtha 眞諦. 499–569). Michael Radich, however, has written that the “text certainly seems to show knowledge of Abhidharma lore and terms that should have been unknown before the translation of the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. And “Han lands” 漢地. It details a flat ea...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: 2015/04 - 2015/05
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Kūkai 空海 (774–835) is famous for founding the Shingon lineage of Buddhism in Japan, but he also can be noted as having introduced for the first time into Japan the system of primarily Indian astrology compiled by Amoghavajra (705–774) as the Xiuyao jing. 宿曜經 (T 1299) between 759 and 764 in China (see here for details. Kūkai brought back with him a copy of said text in 806. His biographical materials, the Kōya Daishi go kōden. 高野大師御廣傳 and Kōbō Daishi go den. The seven weekd...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: 2015/06 - 2015/07
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2015_06_01_archive.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Japanese Buddhist Astrologers: Sukuyō-dō 宿曜道. Literally, the 'Way of Constellations and Planets') was a. N influential tradition and lineage of Japanese Buddhist astrologers (. As I have discussed on this blog for some time now, astrology was quite significant in Buddhist history. Japanese Buddhism likewise took up this interest and also developed a unique tradition devoted to it. The Sukuyō-dō. Has been assumed in some modern scholarship to refer to Amoghavajra's. Fasc 58...
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Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏: 2015/03 - 2015/04
http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2015_03_01_archive.html
Flower Ornament Depository 華嚴藏. Constellations and Planets in Buddhist Astrology. In ancient India the lunar stations were and still are called nakṣatra. In early Vedic times nakṣatra. Originally just meant star and later came to refer to constellations constituting lunar stations along the ecliptic. A complete list of 28 nakṣatra. Comparisons in any case between ancient Chinese and Indian models is problematic because as David Pingree has shown (see here. In earlier Sanskrit works the list commences fro...
