Right Thoughts at the Last Momentepub,mobi,azw3格式电子书下载，作者：Jacqueline I. Stone-读书派

Buddhists across Asia have often aspired to die with a clear and focused mind, as the historical Buddha himself is said to have done. This book explores how the ideal of dying with right mindfulness was appropriated, disseminated, and transformed in premodern Japan, focusing on the late tenth through early fourteenth centuries. By concentrating one’s thoughts on the Buddha in one’s last moments, it was said even an ignorant and sinful person could escape the cycle of deluded rebirth and achieve birth in a buddha’s pure land, where liberation would be assured. Conversely, the slightest mental distraction at that final juncture could send even a devout practitioner tumbling down into the hells or other miserable rebirth realms. The ideal of mindful death thus generated both hope and anxiety and created a demand for ritual specialists who could act as religious guides at the deathbed. Buddhist death management in Japan has been studied chiefly from the standpoint of funerals and mortuary rites. Right Thoughts at the Last Moment investigates a largely untold side of that story: how early medieval Japanese prepared for death, and how desire for ritual assistance in one’s last hours contributed to Buddhist preeminence in death-related matters. It represents the first book-length study in a Western language to examine how the Buddhist ideal of mindful death was appropriated in a specific historical context.

Practice for one’s last hours occupied the intersections of multiple, often disparate approaches that Buddhism offered for coping with death. Because they crossed sectarian lines and eventually permeated all social levels, deathbed practices afford insights into broader issues in medieval Japanese religion, including intellectual developments, devotional practices, pollution concerns, ritual performance, and divisions of labor among religious professionals. They also allow us to see beyond the categories of “old” versus “new” Buddhism, or establishment Buddhism versus marginal heterodoxies, which have characterized much scholarship to date. Enlivened by cogent examples, this study draws on a wealth of sources including ritual instructions, hagiographies, doctrinal writings, didactic tales, courtier diaries, historical records, letters, and relevant art historical material to explore the interplay of doctrinal ideals and on-the-ground practice.

Jacqueline I. Stone is professor of religion at Princeton University.

Yours, Miran

03-22

在宗教外做宗教的極佳作，我了解中古日本仏教死亡/臨終關懷的第一本書，「解脫的劍風痛摧肉身時，你要忘記一切」。無常磬敲響，終於無人再與將死的你交談，他們四下齊聲合唱gassatsu「合殺」。「合殺」其詞，很可能最開始是唐代人形容舞樂將終時結束的曲調。殺即為散，漸縮合其聲而終。過於震撼的用詞。讀著為中古的日本人落了很有幾滴眼淚，他們過於鄭重（雖然落到現實有滑稽的可能）地對待死，對待死人，對待謝幕。歸去聲終，一陣天風滿地紅。

纳西小伙

03-13

2024.3.12 EVGR B宿舍晚间读完。篇幅极为宏富之原因有二：围绕佛教临终实践涉及话题视角极多，且大量引用并概述案例。全书以矛盾争论的多元视角展开：佛教自平安时代开始接管贵族皇室临终实践并逐渐扩展至社会各阶层，强调临终念佛号并维持正念即可获得足以抵消生平所造孽业，随即却使因果报应公平性的受到质疑，同时他力说强调阿弥陀佛降临救赎而非自力召唤；临终景象被阐释为转生净土抑或堕入轮回之标志，由此产生确保临终实践符合正统的宗教专家和实践手册之需求和圣徒传记书写的神圣符号学修辞之必要（宗教社会学与历史编撰学面向），然而尸体之人类学污染属性又赋予专家以污浊替罪羊之阴影，同时临终业力和转生净土可通过社会网络扩散，使得临终实践与教派传承又产生关联。德川儒家之压制与明清心学对末后一招之强调可注意比较。

Right Thoughts at the Last Moment

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