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Introduction

Welcome to Sculpting Humanity! I’ll be using this as a space to voice my understanding of topics covered in my East Asian Humanities course in the Fall of 2021. This is my first blog so this will be a journey in many ways. 

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Rise of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism

After Gautama Buddha's death, Buddhism would remain relatively local to India until adopted by King Ashoka during his rule (268-232 BCE). Upon his conversion to Buddhism, Ashoka would become a valuable sponsor for Buddhism and missionary work that spread Buddhism beyond India. One of the most notable accomplishments of this missionary work was the introduction and adoption of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, where Buddhism would strongly take root. After Ashoka's death, royal sponsorship of Buddhism ceased and Buddhism entered a period of decline, with one exception. "Only Theravada and its sister traditions, safely ensconced on the island of Sri Lanka, managed to survive and remain healthy." (Bresnan 251)  Theravada would establish itself as one of Buddhism's great traditions and, through dissatisfaction among some practitioners, would give rise to another great tradition called Mahayana. This post will outline what was happening to Theravada Buddhism that opened the way f...
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Perspective and Learning about the Indus Valley Civilization

Perspective is a funny thing. Consider a scenario where you have two sources of historical information covering the same topic. What information do they have in common? What information does one source choose to omit or condense that the other source focuses on? Why would there be significant differences between sources? This is what ran through my mind as I discovered more about the incredible Indus Valley Civilization using two main sources: chapter one of  Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought  by Patrick S. Bresnan and the video  Indus: The Unvoiced Civilization.  In this post I’ll briefly compare and contrast how Bresnan and  Indus  explored the Indus Valley people and consider why the two sources would vary. The achievements of the Indus Valley Civilization are astounding. Both Bresnan and Indus outlined the sophisticated and complex structures of the cities built by the Indus Valley people. These cities were built using a gri...
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Zen Buddhism in Japan: A Tale of Two Schools

Zen Buddhism is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China, as Chan Buddhism. Zen focuses on spiritual practice and the use of self-discipline, mindfulness, meditation ( zazen ), and dedication to understanding one's own "Buddha nature", in the hopes of attaining enlightenment. In the thirteenth century Zen Buddhism became deeply rooted in Japan and, as with Chan Buddhism, would develop into two main schools: Rinzai and Soto. Despite being distinct schools "Rinzai and Soto were not so much antagonistic rivals as they were different alternatives." (Bresnan 497) Springing from the same root stock these branches of Zen differ in ways that would appeal to different audiences in thirteenth century Japan, perhaps explaining the lack of antagonism. The fundamental differences between Rinzai and Soto includes the social class they appealed to when they became established in Japan and; more importantly, their specific meditative practices and how these practi...
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