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AR 25:45 - Buddhism's "idealized image" as a "rational religion"
In this issue:
BUDDHISM - are mindfulness and its therapeutic offshoots 'the closest thing to Buddhist magic in contemporary Western societies?'
ISLAM - the Arabic-speaking Muslim 'trend of giving up on Islam'
UNITY - when Catholics and Protestants agree in new ways
Apologia Report 25:45 (1,502)
November 12, 2020
BUDDHISM
Buddhist Magic: Divination, Healing, and Enchantment Through the Ages, by Sam van Schaik [1] -- this review by Roger R. Jackson (Lion's Roar, Aug 11 '20) opens with his experience in Sri Lanka when he "spoke with a monk at a bhikkhu training center near Colombo, and, without being specific, asked him, 'What would you think if you met a Buddhist monk [which, in fact, Jackson had a few days before] who only talked about astrology and amulets?' His reply was emphatic: 'That is not Buddhism!'
"These encounters typify the cultural and intellectual tension at the heart of Sam van Schaik's wonderfully readable and eye-opening new book.... As van Schaik <www.bit.ly/2IroySS> notes at the outset, magical practices in Buddhism 'are still one of the least studied aspects of the religion,' primarily because of 'the idealized image of Buddhism as a rational religion, essentially free from superstition and ritual.'"
Near the conclusion, Jackson reports that "Van Schaik considers the variety of practitioners who have employed magic across the Buddhist world." And, in addition finds: "Van Schaik's aim, then, is to counter the common modernist view that the varied 'magical' practices of Asian Buddhists are simply 'a lot of cultural baggage that is not really Buddhist.' He approaches his task as a textual and intellectual historian, plumbing a selection of written sources from premodern Asian societies...."
Van Schaik "refuses to theorize or give an 'essentialist' definition of the term ('magic is always and exactly x'), opting instead to search for 'family resemblances' among different instances of magical practices found in a range of premodern and modern cultures. ...
"At the end of his survey, van Schaik offers a working definition of magic, which, he says, applies to Buddhist contexts as surely as to others: '[Magical] practices … are focused on worldly ends, including healing, protection, divination, manipulation of emotions, and sometimes killing. ... Although magical practices may be practiced by laypeople, they often require a specialist: a shaman, seer, priest, adept, or monk.
"Van Schaik briefly analyzes the attitude toward magic at early Buddhist monastic sites in India, where statues of protective deities at entry points imply the magical invocation of divine forces to preserve the integrity of the sacred precincts. ... In some suttas, the Buddha condemns magical practices, while in others he offers protective and medicinal spells. ...
"Furthermore, birch bark scrolls and other early texts found in Gandhara, Kucha, Gilgit, and other parts of Central Asia show that magical practices of all kinds - whether for protection, health, divination, or to influence others - were part of the repertoire of a great many Buddhist monks. ...
"In a final chapter titled 'A Tibetan Book of Spells,' van Schaik translates and analyzes a thousand-year-old Tibetan spell book found in 1900 in the caves of Dunhuang in western China ... which 'may be the earliest surviving compendium of Buddhist magic'...."
Jackson recommends a "discussion of Tibetan tantric - and magical - assumptions about the 'softness' of reality, the invisible connections among things, and the mage's capacity to effect events at a distance, which seem to be the basis of magical practice in many places and times." He also points out "a missed opportunity that the author chose not to discuss the magical abilities or superpowers said by Buddhists to ensue from meditative concentration [where] (contemplative prowess is often a qualification for success in magic). Narrative and theoretical sources celebrating such powers go very far back in Buddhist history and would have added support to his general claim about the pervasiveness of magic in Buddhist cultures."
Jackson muses: "And if the true power of Buddhist magic is to ease the anxiety and suffering of ordinary Buddhists, then, as van Schaik says, 'perhaps, after all, mindfulness and other therapeutic offshoots of Buddhism are the closest thing to Buddhist magic in contemporary Western societies.'
"Or maybe not. As I completed this review, much of the world's social and economic life had been shut down by the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. ... Indeed, one Indian goddess mentioned in the Dunhuang text studied by van Schaik, Parnashavari, long reputed to have power over epidemics, has been revived as a focus of prayer in the present crisis...."
The title of Jackson's review also makes for a fitting conclusion: "Think Again Before You Dismiss Magic" <www.bit.ly/2TvkkLQ>
Looking back, in 2001 Apologia Report noted that "[t]he most extreme claims about Tibet as a kingdom of magic come from the writings of T. Lobsang Rampa [which have been] greeted with ridicule by Tibetan specialists, and their skepticism was confirmed when a private investigator revealed that Rampa was really Cyril Henry Hoskin, a native of Devonshire, England, who had never been to Asia. Despite the debunking, Rampa's first volume remains in print and is one of the most popular guides to Tibetan religion." <www.bit.ly/34EbGkK>
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ISLAM
"When Muslims Leave the Faith: Open apostasy can be dangerous, but those who risk it have an impressive reach" by Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum <meforum.org> (Wall Street Journal, Aug 6 '20) -- interestingly concludes that "those who leave Islam may ultimately influence the faith more than converts do."
To unpack this, Pipes <www.bit.ly/2HzC4Ud> notes: "There are about 3.5 million Muslims in the U.S., according to a 2017 <www.pewrsr.ch/38uTmg9> Pew Research Center survey [and] nearly a quarter of those raised in the faith have left, with Iranians disproportionately represented. ...
"Asked what their 'main reason' was for no longer identifying as Muslim, Pew found 25% had general issues with religion and 19% with Islam in particular. Some 16% said they prefer another religion, and 14% cited 'personal growth.' More than half of them abandon religion entirely, and 22% now identify as Christian. ...
"Ex-Muslims living in the West have developed an impressive reach into traditional Muslim communities in their countries of origin. ... Converts to Christianity often engage in religious disputation or eloquently explain their spiritual voyages.
"Converting, organizing, proselytizing - thus do vocal ex-Muslims in the West send shock waves to their countries of origin....
"As these boisterously opinionated apostates challenge their birth religion, they help modernize it and reduce its grip. Their efforts have substantially contributed to the trend of Arabic-speaking Muslims who appear, according <www.econ.st/3ozaRl5> to the Economist, 'to be giving up on Islam.' The ex-Muslims' role has only just begun." <www.wsj.com/3jEjG9v>
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UNITY
On October 11, Fr. Edward Meeks of Christ the King parish <ctktowson.org> in Towson, MD delivered a sober, courageous message to his flock. We found it a clear and powerful example why Catholics and Protestants may have united more significantly in our current American presidential election cycle than ever before in our country's history. <www.bit.ly/35EyfVK>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Buddhist Magic: Divination, Healing, and Enchantment Through the Ages, by Sam van Schaik (Shambhala, 2020, paperback, 240 pages) <www.amzn.to/2TAlExc>
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