Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of JapanPraying for practical benefits (genze riyaku) is a common religious activity in Japan. Despite its widespread nature and the vast numbers of people who pray and purchase amulets and talismans for everything from traffic safety and education success to business prosperity and protection from disease, the practice has been virtually ignored in academic studies or relegated to the margins as a uh_product of superstition or an aberration from the true dynamics of religion. Basing their work on a fusion of textual, ethnographic, historical, and contemporary studies, the authors of this volume demonstrate the fallacy of such views, showing that, far from being marginal, the concepts and practices surrounding genze riyaku lie at the very heart of the Japanese religious world. They thrive not only as popular religious expression but are supported by the doctrinal structures of most Buddhist sects, are ordained in religious scriptures, and are promoted by monastic training centers, shrines, and temples. |
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... produces the latter ; the latter reinforces the former and is central to the doctrines that one has faith in . We shall return in subsequent chapters to the question of faith . Here we want to emphasize that the concept of seeking ...
... produce differ- ent manifestations of the need for benefits and divine support : they do not produce different types of religion . Despite the differing re- quests of the rich and poor , the elite and the common , the pursuit of ...
... producing the patterns of worship and practice expressed among ordinary and not - so - ordinary people . To take but ... produced in Japan to explain the sutras ( and indeed virtually every aspect of re- ligion ) at a variety of levels ...
... produce a syn- cretism in Japan , since it is difficult to see the vaunted assimilation of the gods and the buddhas in shrines that are decidedly for kami and temples that are mostly reserved for buddhas and bodhisattvas . The Buddhist ...
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Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan Ian Reader,George J. Tanabe No preview available - 1998 |