Wrath of Wisdom and Buddhist Magic

(Benebell Wen) Wrath of Wisdom and Buddhist Magic: The Rites of Yamantaka

• Dharani in Vajrayana (Esoteric) Buddhism/Taoist mysticism
• Kwan Yin (Guanyin), Buddhism's Goddess of Compassion

(Benebell Wen) Asian folk magic and the power of mantra in Mantrayana

Monty Python: Peasants vs. Royals (TV)

How accurate is Monty Python's anarcho-syndicalist socialist collective commune peasant scene?

(Yestervid) March 19, 2021. Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s anarcho-syndicalist peasant scene is one of the funniest parts of the film. In it, two peasants claim that they’re living in an autonomous collective, a small self-governed society that doesn’t answer to a higher power, such as a lord, a king or a government. It seems like it’s a crazy idea and just part of the zany humour of the film. But how accurate is this scene? Could a society like this have existed back in the middle ages, and how would it work? It was a question recently posed on Reddit, and there were some truly fascinating answers. Let’s look into it.

Thanks to Redditors Wifi-Knight, Mike Dash, J-Force, and Airborne Walrus for their insights. Here's the original question on reddit: reddit.com/r/AskHistorian... See more great vids like this on our channel: yestervid, yestervid.com, facebook.com/yestervid, twitter.com/yestervid.

Protecting Dalai Lama from chemicals, poisons

IndianExpress.com; Wisdom Quarterly

People mistake poison chemtrails for rare rainbows or "Buddha lights" (zhaxihuoma.net)

  

14th Dali Lama (AFP)

The Dalai Lama -- who has made Dharamsala, India, his home ever since he fled China decades ago -- is possibly the most protected VIP in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Now a new perceived threat has taken his security to levels never before seen. These measures have been ramped up in the weeks since the 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner [who recently met fellow laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time] went public with a claim that Chinese agents may be plotting to poison him. Among the most significant of these new steps is the screening of the Dalai Lama’s food and medicines, while there is also a proposal to use chemical detectors on visitors. More

• Climbers dead on US's tallest mountain
• Human-Animal hybrids growing in UK labs 
• Site older than egyptian pyramids found in Wales
• Lights of Lake Erie: UFO footage (PHOTOS) 
• 3 reasons young Americans are giving up on God
• AUDIO: Mindfulness grows in popularity, profits
• Humanity (officially) escapes solar system
• Taft's Magic Tree 

SHAOLIN: Zen Kung-Fu Buddhist Monks (video)

(HopscotchFilmsEnt)

China is plunged into strife as feuding warlords try to expand their power by warring over neighboring lands. Fueled by his success on the battlefield, young and arrogant Hao Jie sneers at Shaolin's Zen masters when he beats one of them in a duel.

When his family is wiped out by a rival warlord, Hao is forced to take refuge with the Buddhist monks. As the civil unrest spreads and the people suffer, Hao and the Shaolin masters are forced to take a fiery stand against the evil warlords. They launch a daring plan of rescue and escape.

Not since the legendary kung fu film "Shaolin Temple" stormed the world in the 1970's has a movie been given permission to film in the actual Shaolin Temple of legend. The honor was bestowed on this lavish modern production, starring Andy Lau and Jackie Chan. This movie is one of Asia's most eagerly anticipated film events.

The Real Shaolin

(therealshaolin)

"The Real Shaolin" a moving, poetic, action-packed documentary feature about two Chinese and two Westerners who journey to China's Shaolin Temple inspired by the legends portrayed in kung fu movies with Bruce Lee and Jet Li. In the course of excruciating martial arts training, their fantasies to become kung fu warriors collide with harsh reality. Shaolin Temple is the ultimate test for martial artists from all over the world. Will they achieve their goal of living the Shaolin dream?

Myths and Logic of Shaolin Monks (video)

(National Geographic/1309mw)

(Part 2) The origins of tong chi-gong based on yoga


(Part 3)


(Part 4) The importance of chi (energy)


(Part 5) Visitors train like Shaolin monks

Buddhism meets Taoism (videography)

Buddha in Bhutan (Michael Foley Photography)

Brenda Smage reads Prof. Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II's scholarship on Taoism, Buddhism, and medieval China. Buddhism spread "hippie-like" from Dharma bum wandering ascetic scholars on the Silk Road. They settled in Loyang, hanging around with the Taoists/Daoists. Before long they have taken over the spiritual-philosophical landscape. Confucianists came to the rescue: T'ang Dynasty persecution put an end to Theravada Buddhism. (It eradicated Sarvastivada Buddhism, the original and much maligned "Hinayana" school). As the original teachings from India and Central Asia were driven out of China, only the overly wooden Ch'an (Zen) and overly devotional "Pure Land" traditions survived.

(Open Source Buddhism)

• Buddhist India: landlocked Ladakh, the roof of the world
  

Buddhism is Sufism (Central Asia)

Historical Sketch of Buddhism and Islam...
Dr. Alexander Berzin (with archeological information by Sergei Sokolov)

Ancient India's influence reached deep into the west, and the Buddhism there spread throughout ancient Greece and Russia, eventually seeding Christianity.

Buddhism and Islam

Throughout the region [Russia, Central Asia, the New-istans], there are many indications of cultural borrowing between Buddhism and Islam. For instance, Kazakh Sufis not only believe in rebirth, but also identify reincarnations of past Sufi masters like the Tibetan and Mongol Buddhists do of their teachers.

The Sufis build shrines as graves for their masters, circumambulate them and light butter lamps, reminiscent of Buddhist practices around stupas of deceased masters.

Sufi meditation includes recitation of the Islamic equivalent of "mantras," often combined with breathing cycles, as well as visualization of the[ir] Prophet and spiritual masters.

Parthia and Bactria [Iran and Afghanistan]
Historically, Buddhism was found in all five former Soviet Central Asian Republics that constitute West Turkistan: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

It initially spread in the first century BCE from Gandhara (modern Pakistan) and Afghanistan to the kingdoms of Parthia [1] and Bactria. Turkmenistan and northeastern Iran constituted the Kingdom of Parthia; while southern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and northern Afghanistan constituted the kingdom of Bactria [2].

Sogdia
Buddhism spread to Sogdia [3] in central Uzbekistan and northwestern Tajikistan mostly from Bactria. The sixth century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang) reported two huge Buddhist monasteries at the Sogdian capital at Samarkand.

(qwiki.com)

Western Turk Empire
In the seventh century, when the Turkic people from Mongolia conquered most of Central Asia, Buddhism spread from the Sogdians and from Kashgar/Khotan in southern East Turkistan to the Taraz (Talas) River valley in southern Kazakhstan and the Chu River valley in northern Kyrgyzstan.... These regions constituted parts of the Western Turk Empire [4].

In the eighth century when Tibet ruled East Turkistan, the Tibetans also occupied eastern Kyrgyzstan, bringing with them early Tibetan Buddhism. [5]

Although Islam came to the southern part of these Central Asian republics in the ninth and tenth centuries, and to the northern part in the eleventh, Buddhism was not totally eliminated in the north.

Islam was always weak there and mixed with shamanism and even Buddhism. The main form of Islam throughout the region has always been Sufism [which many today treat as if it were a form of Buddhism, and Rumi a Buddhist, recognizing many similarities], a non-doctrinal sect that emphasizes meditation and a community of highly devoted practitioners living around a master. More

• A Buddhist Library: The Soul of Rumi (Sufism)
• People of Kyrgyzstan overthrow government
• Energy-Boosting Supplements: Myths and Facts

Sufism in Buddhist Bangladesh

PHOTOS: Girls "Planking" for Good in Taiwan
Sufism versus Islam (Iranian.com)
Gold, silver coins to be legal tender in Utah
Democracy in Kyrgyzstan (PRI's The World, June 7, 2011)

BERZIN ARCHIVES
Buddhism and Islam in East Turkistan
The Historical Context: Buddhism and Islam
Buddhism and Islam in Afghanistan

Tibetan New Year celebrations continue

Wisdom Quarterly, Chinahighlights.com, Wikipedia

The center of the Tibetan universe, Potala Palace in Lhasa, capital on the plateau

Tibetan New Year, Losar, begins March 5 this year and continues to be celebrated for two weeks. It is an important Buddhist festival on the Tibetan calendar. It usually falls during December or January (Tibetan New Year dates).

Losar is marked by merriment and the pageantry of ceremonies representing the struggle between Good and Evil. People dance and chant as they pass fire torches through the crowd through the din of period instruments excitedly playing in celebration. The dance of the deer, for example, recounts amusing battles between the king and his ministers.

Heap of money, Lama Temple, Beijing, China 2011 (Valeria Gentile/Flickr.com)

The the last two days of the year leading up to Losar, called Gutor, is when preparations begin in Tibet. Gutor begins with house cleaning, particularly focusing on the kitchen. The chimney is swept free of dirt. Special dishes are prepared: a sweet desert called dresyl/deysee, momo (dumpling) soup, wheat, rice, sweet potatoes, cheese, peas, peppers, vermicelli, and radishes.

The second day of Gutor is when religious ceremonies are held. Tibetans visit local monasteries to worship and give gifts to monastics. Firecrackers are set off to rid the area of harmful spirits (haints, banshees, ogres, demons, reptilians) that may be lurking around.

Chinese Army troops march in a show of force since usurping, colonizing, and destroying Tibet. Human rights abuses are rampant. And the players and subterfuge in this game of geopolitical intrigue is staggering. It involves not only the CIA and CIA operatives like the world-revered Dalai Lama, but China, India, Pakistan, Islamic insurgents, but ancient technologies and unearthly entities as well.

On New Year's Day, Tibetans get up early, bathe, put on new clothes, and recollect the devas by placing sacrificial offerings in front of their household shrines. The offerings usually consist of animals and demons made from a kind of dough called torma. Family members exchange gifts and have a reunion dinner, which usually includes a kind of cake called kapse, a strong drink called changkol, and a beer called chang used with the excuse of keeping warm.

The Origins of Losar
Lo-Sar is Tibetan for "New Year," lo meaning year or age, sar new or fresh. Its celebration goes back to Tibet's pre-Buddhist era. Prior to Buddhism's arrival, Tibetans followed a kind of voodoo called Bön, a set of indigenous beliefs and practices that have now fallen into obscurity and been merged with Buddhism the way the original beliefs of South America survived by merging with colonial Catholicism while retaining worship of "pagan" deities.

Bon encouraged a large spiritual ceremony every winter during which people burned massive amounts of incense to appease local spirits, devas, and protectors or wrathful deities. This religious festival developed into an annual Buddhist festival during the reign of Pude Gungyal, the ninth king of Tibet.

The festival is thought to have begun when an old woman named Belma introduced the measurement of time to Tibet based on the phases of the Moon. It was held in autumn when the apricot trees blossomed. It may have been the first celebration of the traditional Farmers' festival when the art of soil cultivation, irrigation, metallurgy, and other technologies were first introduced. Religious ceremonies began to celebrate these important cultural milestones that eventually became the Losar festival.

Tibet was once a sovereign power extending its influence far beyond the enormous Tibetan plateau all the way down to the shores of Bangladesh, encompassing much of the Himalayan region and its peoples.

The New Calendar
The Tibetan calendar consists of 12 lunar months, with Losar beginning on the first day of the first month and major celebrations beginning on the 29th day of the 12th month in Tibetan monasteries. On the day before Losar's Eve, monasteries hold a special ritual in preparation making a special noodle dish called guthuk made of nine ingredients including dried cheese and various grains.

Various ingredients and items such as chilies, salt, wool, rice, and coal are placed in dough balls then handed out. What one finds hidden is supposed to be a lighthearted comment on one's character. For example if a person finds a chili, that means one is talkative. White-colored ingredients, such as salt or rice, is believed to be a good sign. Coal is like finding a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking, the Pagan origin of which was shamans distributing hallucinogenic mushrooms dried near warm hearths in Siberia. This gift reveals a "black heart" or dark past.

On the first day of the New Year, housewives get up very early, cook a pot of barley in a cauldron for their family, and sit by a window waiting for sunrise. As the first ray of sunshine touches the earth, she takes a bucket and heads for the well or river to fetch the year's first bucket of water, which is seen as the clearest and most sacred. The first family to do so is believed to be blessed with good luck for the coming year.

Women are crucial to the first day of the New Year as the center of the household.

The Days of Losar
Lamas at Ta'er Monastery hold religious celebrations, which include worship and a banquet. On the second day, people visit friends and relatives. At night, Tibetans whirl burning torches at home to drive away evil spirits. On the third day of Losar Tibetans visit local monasteries, where Tibetans make offerings, particularly in the capital city of Lhasa with the great Potala Palace. Tibetans continue celebrating for two weeks, with many major events now taking place in exile in India.

Mongolian Motorcycle Nomads (video)

When one speaks of a "divine" mission, we hear extraterrestrial intereference in human affairs -- the introduction of technology and tactics and a directive to conquer for demigods to rule by proxy. Superpowers then retreat to walled cities.

Genghis Khan (BIO) once tore through the fertile grasslands of Asiatic animist and Buddhist nomads spread across an endless expanse of blankness between empires. The entire area was more shaman and animistic than the majority group in China but quite similar to the countless indigenous tribespeople related to Tibetans, Siberians, and Native Americans.

"He guaranteed freedom of religion, protecting the rights of Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus alike. Genghis Khan himself worshipped the sky [ETs?]..."

• Slideshow: Visiting Mongolia

Today Mongolian nomads ride motorcycles
Sisi Tang (AP)
CHIFENG, China – It's no longer about the armed warriors, Genghis Khan and the robed nomads prancing through lush greenery on horseback. In China's barely populated Inner Mongolian grasslands, what had defined Mongolian culture for outsiders have long been swapped for leather outfits, motorbikes, cell phones, and tourism.

Five hours outside Inner Mongolia's southeastern city of Chifeng and deep in the grasslands, I chanced upon a local couple riding a mule-pulled cart on a quiet road, heading toward their coal-heated yurt.

The old woman said she loves watching drama shows on TV, gesturing toward the dish propped up against her roof. On the freeway nearby, cars and buses seem to be the only other form of transportation, with horse-riding existing mostly for tourists.

The old storybook nomad life has dwindled, with most nomads now farming, living in compact brick huts, tending to tourists, or working in nearby cities. Desertification, too, is real and apparent... More>>

(Blacktreemedia) Award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov illuminates the life and legend of Genghis Khan in his stunning historical epic, MONGOL. Based on leading scholarly accounts and written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev, MONGOL delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows him from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. Filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan, MONGOL transports us back to a distant and exotic period in world history, to a nomad's landscape of endless space, climatic extremes, and ever-present danger.

Buddhist Economics: money & interest

How money and charging interest debased Buddhism

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quang Ðu'c burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection on June 11, 1963. David Halberstam, a New York Times reporter, witnessed his self-immolation: " I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being...human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think.... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him."

Early Indian to Medieval Chinese Economies

Economic ethics in Mahayana Buddhism show both continuities and differences with those in Theravada Buddhism. Many of the changes are related to transformations in Mahayana understandings of nirvana/Samsara, enlightenment, and the bodhisattva ideal (delaying one's salvation to save others).

For example, within Mahayana the absolute difference or separation between nirvana and Samsara disappears. As a result, charitable activities within Samsara grow to have more value in themselves and the bodhisattva idea becomes the ideal.

• Hong Kong investors protest financial losses (1:25)

At the same time, a more positive view of Samsara tends to lead to an acceptance of status quo conditions "in the world," while the primary focus of efforts toward enlightenment are put upon change in one's perception of things. This focus on enlightenment as primarily a change in one's way of perceiving things implied that the main effort towards enlightenment must be made towards effecting such perceptual change (through meditation and the like), rather than Theravada Buddhism's focus on change in individual ethical/moral behavior leading to a gradual betterment of karma.29

Economics

Another implication of these shifts in Mahayana versus Theravada [metaphysics] was a greater acceptance of economic activity by the Sangha. The most obvious instances of this were the increased economic activities of the Buddhist monasteries in China and Japan and the acceptance of monk labor in the Ch'an/Zen school. At the same time, in terms of lay economic ethics, values toward wealth continued to remain focused upon religious giving (dana). Accumulation and possession of wealth was "good" as long as one remained unattached to it. In terms of the Buddhist Sangha's relationship with the state, the previous pattern of cooperation and a comforting approach to social change, along with support for the status quo distribution of wealth, remained the governing outlooks.

An excellent example of both these continuities as well as differences with Theravada [views] can be found in the Indian Mahayana work by Nagarjuna called the "Jewel Garland of Royal Counsels." In this work Nagarjuna presents counsel to his friend and disciple, King Udayi, about the ideal Buddhist state. In such a state the enlightened king begins with his understanding of the truth of egolessness and based upon this understanding acts benevolently and without "self" [selfishness, egotism, self-aggrandizement, greed, etc.] to carry out compassionate measures for the sick, elderly, farmers, children, mendicants, and beggars, based upon the karmic premise that such giving of wealth will produce more prosperity and wealth for the kingdom in the future. He also cooperates with the Sangha to spread the Dharma.30

In this way Nagarjuna takes up the themes of karma, egolessness, compassionate giving, and Sangha/state cooperation and puts them into an overall viewpoint of how Mahayana economic and social ethics should be carried out by the benevolent king. In the process, he also presents both the continuities and differences between Mahayana and Theravada: the similarities consisting of a common stress on Sangha/state cooperation and doctrinal ideas, the differences being a much greater stress on the importance of the initial perceptual change in an individual's thinking as the key to all later benevolent actions.

Confucian Heritage
In China, Mahayana continued along similar lines of Sangha/state cooperation. However, it must also be understood in terms of Buddhism's entry into China as a foreign religion and its efforts to accommodate itself to an already existing Confucian heritage.

This accommodation ultimately resulted in a Chinese transformation of Buddhism which left much more Confucian influence and less Indian, although it was still clearly recognizable. Specifically, what this meant was a greater emphasis on filial piety (dedication to parents and elders) -- the cornerstone of Confucian ethics -- as well as on the values of social harmony and hierarchical social relationships between ruler and subject, husband and wife, teacher and student, and so on.

This Confucian influence was seen most strongly during the beginning of the introduction of Buddhism into China, in the translations of Indian sutras during the Later Han (25-220 C.E.) and Eastern Chin (317-420 C.E.) periods. But it continued even after Buddhism was established and accepted in the more cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Sui (581-618) and T'ang (618-907) periods.31 As a result, filial piety, although not unknown in earlier Buddhism and already praised as a virtue there, came to be much more emphasized in the Chinese environment.

For the Chinese Buddhist laity, this fit in well with social expectations for behavior. For the monk, it presented a huge challenge in terms of justifying such seemingly unfilial behavior as following the traditional Buddhist ideal of leaving home and joining the Sangha, in the process cutting ties and obligations to parents.32

Buddhism's position in China and the need for accommodation also led to a greater emphasis upon those strands of earlier Buddhist ethics (for monk and laity) referring to gratitude and loyalty, especially to family and sovereign.33 The ideal of harmony, so strong in Confucianism, was adopted by Chinese Buddhists and applied to all social relationships, as well as becoming the cornerstone of some Chinese Buddhist metaphysical systems, such as the Hua­Yen school established in the seventh century.

In this way, both Chinese Buddhist ethics and metaphysics were subtly transformed in the process of assimilation and accommodation to indigenous Confucian ideas, and as a result diverged somewhat from their Indian Mahayana predecessors.

There were large areas of continuity between Chinese Mahayaana and earlier Indian Mahayaana (and Theravada) lay and monastic social ethics. For example, giving to the Sangha (dana) remained the most virtuous and merit­making activity for people. Also economic ethics for the monk in the form of Vinaya rules governing economic matters generally were the same as in Indian Mahayana. Moreover, for both monk and layperson karuna ("compassion") as an individual virtue continued to be an extremely important.

Midieval temple splendor (photo)

Temple Economics: Charging interest

Yet in practice, Chinese Buddhist economics took on new forms. These new forms could be seen in various commercial activities of Chinese temples which had not existed in India: grain milling, oil seed pressing, money lending, pawnshops, loans of grain to peasants (charging interest), mutual financing associations, hotels and hostelries, and rental of temple lands to farmers in exchange for some percentage of the crop.

In other areas, Chinese temples carried over previously existing Indian Mahayana commercial practices such as loans (with interest) against pledges, auction sales of clothing and fabrics, use of lay servants within the monastery to carry out commercial transactions on behalf of the Sangha, and allowing goods donated to the Sangha that were not used by the monks to be sold or loaned out to earn profits for the Sangha. Even in these practices, which were carryovers from India, new forms developed in China as monks came to be allowed to handle gold and silver and carry out commercial transactions including usury (charging interest) on an individual basis. In most cases such transformations were less a result of changes in the Indian Disciplinary Rules (Vinaya) than a disregarding of it in practice in China.34

Of all the commercial activities of the Chinese monasteries, usury in one form or another was clearly one of the most profitable. Part of such interest-charging was from loans to peasants in the form of grain at the beginning of the farming season, with repayment of principal along with a 50 percent interest due at the harvest. Other loans with interest went out in the form of cash to members of the upper classes, soldiers and others, except in the case of those with whom the monastery had a close relationship (based upon lay giving), who would get their loans interest­free.

Loans were also made to temple serfs attached to the monastery. They were not charged interest due to the risk­-free nature of such transactions since serfs were bound to temple lands anyway. Due to misuses of usury (not only by monasteries but by other lenders) leading to hardships for peasants, the government during the T'ang period (618-907 C.E.) put limits on interest rates at 4 to 5 percent per month. But both private moneylenders and the temples often went beyond these limits.35

As time passed such usury was not only undertaken by the monastery itself but by individual monks and became a major activity of many of them. Monasteries apparently condoned such individual usury because even though it led to the development of wealthy individual monks, these monks tended to practice religious giving to the monastery, and after their death their assets usually were inherited by the monastery.36 In this way individual monk usury was justified in terms of its ultimate benefit to the Sangha.

As a result of such usury activities, as well as generous donations from wealthy clans and the Imperial family from the fifth to the seventh centuries in particular 37, Buddhist monasteries in medieval China became extremely wealthy and the number of monasteries and monks increased considerably. Such wealth resulted in turn in monasteries coming to wield a significant amount of political power as well.

From the state's point of view, however, all of this brought about a considerable loss of tax revenue due to the tax­free status of monastic lands, and a considerable loss of unpaid government service and tax-like labor (corvée) brought about by the huge increase in monks (exempted from such labor), many of whom were former peasants. In addition, there was an increasingly lavish consumption of wealth occurring in Buddhist festivals and feasts and construction of temples, burial mounds (stupas), family mortuaries, and statues.

Urged on by Confucians and Taoists, who decried these trends as leading to the impoverishment of the empire, the state engaged in periodic persecutions of Buddhism by forcibly reverting monks to lay status (laicization), seizure of monastery wealth (especially gold, silver, and copper), and placing limits on the number of monasteries and temples. Major persecutions of this type occurred in the years 446, 574, and 845. In each case the main goal was to shore up the finances of the empire by forcibly returning monks to peasant life (some of whom had taken up monkhood to avoid taxes and tax-like labor), converting some temple lands to taxable status, and melting down some of the enormous numbers of gold, silver, and copper Buddhist statues, the making of which had led to extreme shortages of these materials available for coinage of money by the empire.38

Another reason behind some of the persecutions was the occasional political involvement of monasteries in rebellions or intrigues against the state. This occurred even though "official" Buddhism in the form of state-­sponsored temples and monasteries tended to support the state unequivocally. Smaller regional temples and those tied to local great families, however, occasionally got involved in political movements against the state and thus provided a very different example of Buddhist/state relations than the traditional cooperative Sangha/state ideal.39

The occurrence of rebellions during the Sui, T'ang, and later periods tied to worshipers of Maitreya (the future Buddha) illustrated how particular Buddhist sects or movements using Buddhist symbols for their own purposes could adopt adversarial relationships with the state and use advocacy of greater economic equality (or at least relief from heavy taxation) as part of their appeal for rebellion against state authority.40

--

WQ edited excerpt from Continuity and Change in the Economic Ethics of Buddhism: Evidence From the History of Buddhism in India, China, and Japan

By Gregory K. Ornatowski, Boston University, appropriate-economics.org