Over the past month I have enjoyed learning about some of the social implications of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.  I was  specifically interested to learn how religion helped shape social hierarchies and constructed certain roles women were supposed to play.

Initially I used the library catalog’s “one search” feature to find relevant sources.  I used keywords combinations like, “women, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism.”  Initially I found some very obscure titles but after some browsing I began to useful articles and essays in Journals.  Though the texts were not books, some off these periodicals had relevant titles such as, “Women’s wealth and worship: female patronage of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism in medieval Tamilna.”

Eventually I came across a book titled, “Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India.”  The book was published in 2000 and had a plain black cover with a simple title on the spine.  It was found on the second floor in a section with other books about women and feminism around the world.  The books adjacent to the one I found had titles such as, “Resurgence of Indian Women,” “Feminism in India”, and “Portraits of Chinese women in Revolution.”  The shelves above and bellow contained books about women in other regions of the globe such as, “Women in Kuwait.”

After looking through the table of contents, I found a section titled, “Usable Women” which discusses the portrayal of women in the epics.  It looks to be a very useful chapter especially for a potential essay topic on women and the social heirachy dictated by religion.  I found the chapter interesting because the author argued that women only marginally enjoyed a more free life in the in ancient India.  The epics testify to the subordination of women’s interests to those of their male counterparts, noting that women did not have decision-making roles and were often absent from the narrative all together.  It used the dharmaśāstras as an example.  They were a code of conduct formulated by men for the supposed purpose of governing the lives of both men and women.  In the dharmaśāstras, women’s lives were bound by much more rigid requirements. I think a close analysis of ancient texts and their influence on women could be very useful in my paper.

Something that has always captivated my interest is how the social aspect of religion affects the daily lives of modern people. Hinduism is a religion that has strict social classes set up by ancient doctrines that would seem to cause issues in our modern society. For this reason, I used the Library Catalog to search “Modern Hinduism.” After looking through some of the titles, the book “Modern Trends in Hinduism” caught my eye.

When I first saw the book, I noticed there was no elaborate cover, not even a title was on the front. The only text was on the spine of the book, but it appeared to be somewhat old. In the preface, it explained that this text was the result of a series of lectures given between 1968 and 1969 by the Committee on the History of Religions of the American Council of Learned Societies. This made the book more interesting to me because it was written in a time when social issues were at the forefront of the American public. Given the historical context, I found this book to be more intriguing.

After looking through some of the pages, I found that this book could be helpful to me in the near future. The beginning gives a brief introduction to the Hindu Religion, followed by more specific aspects of the religion. For example, it has a chapter about Hinduism in recent years, how contemporary Indian youths practice Hinduism, as well as how Hinduism affects Indian politics. These are all things that relate to how Hinduism affects the daily lives of people in the modern world. The main issue I could see with this book would be that it may be hard to relate to since it was written so long ago. India is a rapidly developing country so it is likely that many of the “contemporary” things the books explains are very outdated. Despite this fact, I could see this book helping me with my paper.

Originally I was interested in the different interpretations of the relationship between Atman and Brahman in Hinduism. I started searching with the term “Atman and Brahman.” This turned out to be too specific and the search only turned up one physical book, the blurb of which described it more as an introduction to Hinduism. I used the broader term “moksha,” but that was too broad and turned up a number of books on topics other than the relationship between Atman and Brahman. The last term I used was “Hinduism Dualism,” and while I did not find a book specifically about Atman and Brahman, I did find Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, which piqued my interest.

Although the book had a rather unassuming plain red cover, a brief reading of its introduction and a flip through some of its pages revealed an argument  against attempts to present Hinduism as a single unifying set of philosophies and beliefs. The book seemed to portray Hinduism as a religion in a more nuanced light, discussing diversity in philosophies and practices within Hinduism, as well as the notion of Hinduism as an inclusive culture. This topic on inclusiveness within Hinduism seemed particularly interesting, as from what I read, it appeared to discuss how followers of certain philosophies of Hinduism acknowledged and incorporated differing beliefs and philosophies into their own practice. Overall, even though it did not focus on the topic I was originally searching for, the book appeared to cover interesting subject matter that relates to the way we might view religions as we study them.

Near where I found the book, there were a number of other books focusing on various topics related to Hinduism. I found a number of volumes related to epics we discussed in class, such as the Ramayana. There was also a book that seemed to be an introduction to Hinduism located right next to the book I found.

Nicholson, Andrew J., Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Print.

I actually started researching just “world religions” to get a basic idea of what types of book s were in in the library. I found a lot of really interesting books on violence and war in religion but they were all online editions and not in the library. After that, I searched for “afterlife” because I was really interested in reincarnation and wanted to learn more about different interpretations of it. When I found this book it was by accident. I was looking for The Book of Miracles: The meaning of miracle stories in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. 

I ended up finding section after section on religion and I just searched the stacks for a while. I ended up finding the section on afterlife and looked there for a while. I found this book called Tales of Lights and Shadows about the dualities of afterlife interpretations such as bright vs dismal and reincarnation vs heaven. I was drawn to the chapter about  “Circling Paths and Endless Journeys” taking about reincarnation through different religions. There was a comparative subsection about Nirvana and other religions that was really similar to things we have gone over in class already.

Sasson, Vanessa R., ed. Little Buddhas-Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts 
     and Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.

The study of children and Buddhism was never something I thought about until I saw Vanessa Sasson’s book “Little Buddhas.” After reading the summary on the back cover of the book, I became interested in the everyday life of Buddhist children and how they learn, grow, and develop in Buddhist culture as compared to other religions.

Through the library catalogue I searched the key work Buddhism and found a few titles that I thought sounded interesting. I thought that a lot of the books that were about Buddhism in America were interesting. I found them in the upper level of library, but when I got there I saw “Little Buddhas” and after reading the summary and thinking about what I would be most interested in reading about and writing a paper about, I decided to choose this book instead of “Race and Religion in American Buddhism.”

Through the various readings about Buddhism this semester, we have learned about Buddhist culture, traditions, rituals, and beliefs, but I thought it would be interesting to expand my knowledge on Buddhism by learning about what it’s like to grow up in a Buddhist culture and how it differs from growing up with different religious backgrounds or other specific religions.

From reading the table of contents of this book, I found that this book covers most of the traditions, rituals, and teachings of Buddhism that we covered in class and through our readings but focuses on children’s roles in these aspects of Buddhism. learning this about the book  was the point at which I decided I would like to choose it as my shelfie because it would be helpful in expanding my knowledge on Buddhism in a different way than our previous readings did.

Although “Little Buddhas” is a long book and I did not get the chance to read every chapter, it seems as thought it would be a very good source to use for a research paper if I decide to write my essay on the topic of children and Buddhism. I don’t know any specifics on the topic but I know that this book would be a good guide on learning them and I could gain a lot of knowledge on the culture of Buddhism as a whole by reading it.

Cabezón, José Ignacio, ed. Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. Print.

After reading Sallie King’s, “Awakening Stories of Zen Buddhist Women,” I became very interested in the role, and standing of women in Buddhism. I first visited the Lafayette College Library Catalog and used the keyword “Buddhism” in my initial search. I then was able to look through the list of books given and try to find one that incorporated the role of gender that plays in Buddhism. After looking through a few of the titles, I came across, “Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender”. This title really got my attention because it was the only book I found that discussed not just the role of gender, but also the role of sexuality.

The role of sexuality in Buddhism had never crossed my mind, but after reading the title of this book, it became a topic I was thoroughly interested in. I then decided that I would search for this book among the shelves at Skillman Library using the book’s call number, and skim through a few of the pages to see if this was still something that drew my attention.

After reading the table of contents, several topics that I wanted to read further were, “Gender and Contemporary Buddhist Culture”, and “Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts,”. I never thought that homosexuality would ever be mentioned in Buddhism texts, but after skimming through the chapter that focused on it, I realized that I was wrong. The role of sexuality, and thus homosexuality, in buddhism discussed in this book, made me realize that this was a book I would want to potentially use in the future to use in my paper.

After finding this book, my idea of wanting to write my paper about gender in Buddhism has been solidified, and has also expanded to the role of sexuality in Buddhism as well.

Shankman, Richard. The Experience of Samādhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation. Boston: Shambhala, 2008. Print.

While on One Search, I decided to look up the terms “Buddhism” and “meditation” because I found the focus on Buddhist meditation to be extremely interesting. This search led me to find this book that is centered around the importance of meditation. While we may have not covered a lot of Buddhism so far, I felt the desire to explore its practice in a little more depth, and this book delves deep into a main practice of the faith.

After flipping through the book for a little, I found that one specific section on the three levels of concentration and its three signs to be most interesting. This section provides insight on the two different paths one can go on while meditation so that they may achieve a true sense of rationality. To achieve nirvana, one must dedicate their life to exploring their true self through meditation, and Shankman’s book is extremely helpful to my understanding of this specific practice.

Besides the step by step analysis of Buddhist meditation and its importance, Shankman also includes multiple interviews with Buddhist teachers. By doing so, the reader is able to understand zazen on a more personal and relatable level. Overall, reviewing “The Experience of Samādhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation,” will really guide me in understanding the importance of meditation while writing my essay.

Lopez, Donald S. Buddhism & Science : A Guide For The Perplexed / Donald S. Lopez, Jr. n.p.: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008., 2008. Lafayette Library Catalog. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.

Initially, I was searching for Hinduism and its ethics in the modern world. I wanted to know how Hindus treat and view many modern political issues that are frequently debated upon in the United States. I searched the Lafayette Library for “Hinduism” and “Ethics.” That search gave me thousands of results. So then I narrowed it down to Hinduism and euthanasia. This search helped a lot and I fund a book that I thought would be incredibly helpful. But I couldn’t find it. But in the same section that it was supposed to be in, I found another book that is fairly interesting.

It is titled Buddhism and Science and it is written by a man named Donald Lopez. Just doing some brief research on Lopez, I found that he is a renowned professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. Upon a quick skimming of some of the chapters, I found that this book is very helpful and informative of how buddhist practices are supposedly somewhat in tune with science. Some buddhists claim that the Buddha had predicted the theory of relativity and Lopez’s mission is to find out how, if this is true, he did so, and how this can be related to the argument of relevancy of religion. Lopez is also interested in the discourse that has existed over the past few centuries between Science and Buddhism.

I am sure that there is more to this book than I have discovered at a quick glance. I think that this can be very helpful for me in writing my essay because it shows a different perspective on Buddhism than we normally see in class readings. There are some more interesting books on the same shelves where I found this book, and I am sure that I will find those useful while writing my essay. 

Collett, Alice. Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.

In beginning my search for the perfect “Shelfie” book, I used the keyword “Buddhism” to find the area in the library where the books about Buddhism were located. I knew I wanted to find a book about Buddhist women, so I chose the book Women in Early Indian Buddhism. I chose this book because for my research paper, I would like to compare and contrast women in Buddhism with women in Hinduism, so I thought beginning to assess some potential sources wouldn’t hurt.

In the Table of Contents, I found chapters about the Order of Nuns, female sexuality in Buddhism, womanly virtue, marriage, Nanda (Sister of Buddha), and other similar topics pertaining to women’s role in Buddhism. Flipping through the book, I discovered many graphics and images to enhance understanding of the text on the opposite page. I expected there to be many quotations and excerpts from several early Buddhist texts, as the subtitle of the book is Comparative Textual Studies. This reminded of the work we’ve done in class where we have extracted information about Buddhist women from the ancient texts, rather than reading a list of facts about them. Other texts surrounding this book were titles such as “Buddhist Women in Social Justice”, “Buddhist Goddesses of India”, “Religious Feminism and the Future of the Planet”. After seeing these titles, I am even more inclided to pursue this topic and hope that there are similar titles in the Hinduism section of the library.

I was interested in the role that gender plays in Hinduism and its teachings and canons. So I searched I searched the Lafayette library catalogue for “Gender in Hinduism” and it lead me to this book. This book is extremely interesting and discusses aspects of the Hindu epic the Mahabharata from both the female and male perspective.

This whole book was exciting.  Gender is a heavily discussed topic in many different cultures and religions; this book provides an interesting insight into how gender is constructed in an ancient Hindu epic and how that affects gender in the Hindu religion. Its cover art beautifully depicts both male and female characters that I believe are depicting a scene from the Hindu epic. The book is split into 12 different chapters. The chapters dealt with topics ranging from the basics of the Mahabharata, conducting ones self, kings, queens, marriage, tran sexuality and other ambiguities. As I skimmed through the book I noticed that this book brings together the ideas and teachings of many different scholars who are using the Mahabharata to structure the discussion on gender. I believe that if I choose to focus my essay on the aspect of gender in Hinduism that this book would be an invaluable resource.

In the same isle as this book I found a few other interesting books that could be useful when writing a paper. I especially found a few books that focused on the issue of gender in both Hinduism and Jainism. I found books entitled “women as fire, women as sage”, and “gender and salvation”. Additionally I found a book that focused on the Hindu dharma, which is another topic and possible resource for my paper.

Brodbeck, S, Black, B. Gender and Narrative in the Mahabharata. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.