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Hungry Ghost
Hungry ghost is a term in Buddhism and Chinese traditional religion, representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way. The term zh, c= 餓鬼, p=èguǐ, l=hungry ghost is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit term ''preta'' in Buddhism. "Hungry ghosts" play a role in Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, and in Chinese folk religion. The term is not to be confused with the generic term for "ghost" or damnation, (i.e. the residual spirit of a deceased ancestor). The understanding is that people first become a regular ghost when they dieVenerable Yin-shun. ''The Way to Buddhahood''. Massachusetts: Wisdom Publications: 1998. and then slowly weaken and eventually die a second time.Teiser, Stephen F. ''The Ghost Festival in Medieval China''. New Jersey: Princeton University Press: 1988. Hungry ghosts, by contrast, are a much more exceptional case, and would only occur in very unfortunate circumstances, such as if a whole family were killed or when a family ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Buddhism
Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, first=t, poj=Hàn-thoân Hu̍t-kàu, j=Hon3 Cyun4 Fat6 Gaau3, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism. The Chinese Buddhist canonJiang Wu, "The Chinese Buddhist Canon" in ''The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism'', p. 299, Wiley-Blackwell (2014). draws from the traditions of Confucianism and Taoism as well as the rituals of local Chinese folk religion, folk religions. Chinese Buddhism emphasizes the study of Mahayana sutras and treatises. Some of the most important scriptures in Chinese Buddhism include the ''Lotus Sutra'', ''Avatamsaka Sutra, Flower Ornament Sutra'', Vimalakirti Sutra, ''Vimalakirtī Sutra'', ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, Nirvana Sutra,'' and Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, ''Amitābha Sutra''. Chinese Buddhism is the largest institutionalized religion in mainland China.Cook, Sarah (2017). The Battle for China's Spirit: Religious R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghosts In Chinese Culture
Chinese folklore features a rich variety of ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural creatures. According to traditional beliefs a ghost is the spirit form of a person who has died. Ghosts are typically malevolent and will cause harm to the living if provoked. Many Chinese folk beliefs about ghosts have been adopted into the mythologies and folklore of neighboring East Asian cultures, notably Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Beliefs about ghosts are closely associated with Chinese ancestor worship, where much have been incorporated into Buddhism and in turn influenced and created uniquely Chinese Buddhist beliefs about the supernatural. Traditionally, the Chinese believed that it was possible to contact the spirits of deceased relatives and ancestors through a medium. It was believed that the spirits of the deceased can help them if they were properly respected and rewarded. The annual Hungry Ghost Festival, celebrated in China (including Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oral Tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reported statements from present generation which "specifies that the message must be oral statements spoken, sung or called out on musical instruments only"; "There must be transmission by word of mouth over at least a generation". He points out, "Our definition is a working definition for the use of historians. Sociologists, linguists or scholars of the verbal arts propose their own, which in, e.g., sociology, stresses common knowledge. In linguistics, features that distinguish the language from common dialogue (linguists), and in the verbal arts features of form and content that define art (folklorists)."Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: "Methodology and African Pre-history", 1990, ''UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desire Realm
The desire realm (Sanskrit: कामधातु, ''kāmadhātu'') is one of the trailokya or three realms (Sanskrit: धातु, ''dhātu'', Tibetan: ''khams'') in Buddhist cosmology into which a being caught in '' '' may be reborn. The other two are the Form Realm (Sanskrit: ''rūpadhātu'') and the Formless Realm (''ārūpadhātu''). Within the desire realm are either five or six domains (Sanskrit: ''gati'', also sometimes translated as "realm"). In Tibetan Buddhism, there are six domains (), and in Theravada Buddhism there are only five, because the domain of the Asuras is not regarded as separate from that of the Nāgas. The concept of these five realms is also to be found in Taoism and Jainism. The '' Śūraṅgama Sūtra'' in Mahayana Buddhism regarded the 10 kinds of Xian as separate immortal realms between the deva and human realms. The six domains of the desire realm are also known as the "six paths of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pratītyasamutpāda
''Pratītyasamutpāda'' (Sanskrit: प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद, Pāli: ''paṭiccasamuppāda''), commonly translated as dependent origination, or dependent arising, is a key doctrine in Buddhism shared by all schools of Buddhism. It states that all dharmas (phenomena) arise in dependence upon other dharmas: "if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist". The basic principle is that all things (dharmas, phenomena, principles) arise in dependence upon other things. The doctrine includes depictions of the arising of suffering (''anuloma-paṭiccasamuppāda'', "with the grain", forward conditionality) and depictions of how the chain can be reversed (''paṭiloma-paṭiccasamuppāda'', "against the grain", reverse conditionality).Fuller, Paul (2004). ''The Notion of Ditthi in Theravada Buddhism: The Point of View.'' p. 65. Routledge.Harvey, Peter. ''The Conditioned Co-arising of Mental and Bodily Processes within Life and Betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sugar-cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. Sugarcanes belong to the grass family, Poaceae, an economically important flowering plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum, and many forage crops. It is native to New Guinea. Sugarcane was an ancient crop of the Austronesian and Papuan people. The best evidence available today points to the New Guinea area as the site of the original domestication of ''Saccharum officinarum''. It was introduced to Polynesia, Island Melanesia, and Madagascar in prehistoric times via Austronesian sailors. It was also introduced by Austronesian sailors to India and then to Southern China by 500 BC, via trade. The Persians and Greeks encountered the famous "reeds that produce honey without ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfram Eberhard
Wolfram Eberhard (March 17, 1909 – August 15, 1989) was a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley focused on Western, Central and Eastern Asian societies. Biography Born in Potsdam, German Empire, he had a strong family background of astrophysicists and astronomers. He taught a wide variety of courses specializing in the societies and popular cultures of Western, Central and Eastern Asia. He was especially interested in Chinese folklore, popular literature, Turkish history, minorities and local cultures in China and the relations between the Chinese and the peoples of Central Asia. Eberhard entered Berlin University in 1927 where he focused his attention to classical Chinese and Social Anthropology. Because Berlin University, where Eberhard studied, did not offer instructions on colloquial Chinese, Eberhard enrolled secretly and simultaneously at the Seminar for Oriental Languages. At the Seminar for Oriental Languages he studied with Ferdi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Preta
''Preta'' (, ''yi dags''), also known as hungry ghost, is the Sanskrit name for a type of supernatural being described in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion as undergoing suffering greater than that of humans, particularly an extreme level of hunger and thirst. They have their origins in Indian religions and have been adopted into East Asian religions via the spread of Buddhism. Preta is often translated into English as " hungry ghost" from the Chinese and East Asian adaptations. In early sources such as the ''Petavatthu'', they are much more varied. The descriptions below apply mainly in this narrower context. The development of the concept of the preta started with just thinking that it was the soul and ghost of a person once they died, but later the concept developed into a transient state between death and obtaining karmic reincarnation in accordance with the person's fate. In order to pass into the cycle of karmic reincarnation, the deceased's family mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diyu
''Diyu'' () is the realm of the dead or "hell" in Chinese mythology. It is loosely based on a combination of the Buddhist concept of Naraka (Buddhism), Naraka, traditional Chinese beliefs about the afterlife, and a variety of popular expansions and reinterpretations of these two traditions. The concept parallels purgatory in certain Christian denominations. Diyu is typically depicted as a subterranean maze with various levels and chambers, to which souls are taken after death to atone for the sins they committed when they were alive. The exact number of levels in Diyu and their associated deities differ between Buddhist and Taoist interpretations. Some speak of three to four "courts"; others mention "Ten Courts of Hell", each of which is ruled by a judge (collectively known as the Ten Yama (East Asia)#Yama in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese mythology, Yama Kings); other Chinese legends speak of the "Eighteen Levels of Hell". Each court deals with a different aspect of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flower Garland Sutra
Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants (angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, modified leaves; corolla, the petals; androecium, the male reproductive unit consisting of stamens and pollen; and gynoecium, the female part, containing style and stigma, which receives the pollen at the tip of the style, and ovary, which contains the ovules. When flowers are arranged in groups, they are known collectively as inflorescences. Floral growth originates at stem tips and is controlled by MADS-box genes. In most plant species flowers are heterosporous, and so can produce sex cells of both sexes. Pollination mediates the transport of pollen to the ovules in the ovaries, to facilitate sexual reproduction. It can occur between different plants, as in cross-pollination, or between flowers on the same plant or even the same flower ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soul
The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that describe the relationship between the soul and the body are Interactionism (philosophy of mind), interactionism, Psychophysical parallelism, parallelism, and epiphenomenalism. Anthropology, Anthropologists and Psychology, psychologists have found that most humans are naturally inclined to believe in the existence of the soul and that they have interculturally distinguished between souls and bodies. The soul has been the central area of interest in philosophy since Ancient history, ancient times. Socrates envisioned the soul to possess a rational faculty, its practice being man's most godlike activity. Plato believed the soul to be the person's real self, an immaterial and immortal dweller of our lives that continues and thinks even after d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
