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Enantioselective Synthesis of the Active Sex Pheromone Components of the Female Lichen Moth, Lyclene dharma dharma, and Their Enantiomers
The Lichen moth, Lyclene dharma dharma (Arctiidae, Lithosiinae), plays a significant role in forest ecosystem dynamics. A concise and novel method to synthesize the active sex pheromone components, (S)-14-methyloctadecan-2-one ((S)-1), (S)-6-methyloctadecan-2-one ((S)-2), and their enantiomers has been developed. Key steps in the synthesis include the use of Evans’ chiral auxiliaries, Grignard cross-coupling reactions, hydroboration–oxidation, and Wacker oxidation. The synthesized sex pheromone components hold potential value for studies on communication mechanisms, species identification, and ecological management.
Journal Article
The “IAdbhuta-Dharma/I” Narratives in Translated Chinese Sarvāstivāda Texts
The concept of “adbhuta-dharma” (Ch. weicengyou fa 未曾有法) has developed and changed throughout Buddhism’s history. Indeed, the subject and the content of adbhuta texts as well as the meaning of the term “adbhuta” (marvelous phenomenon) varies across the scriptures. Looking through the scriptures, it would seem that they originated as narrative elaborations on various aspects of the Three Jewels—the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha. Then gradually, “adbhuta-dharma” came to encapsulate those narrative elements in the scriptures related to the miraculous in the life of the Buddha as well as the careers of his disciples. As one of the twelve divisions of the Buddhist canon, the literary form of the adbhutas overlaps with other canonical genres, namely the nidānas, the avadānas, and the jātakas tales. This article will provide a careful analysis of adbhuta-dharma narratives in important Sarvāstivād in Sūtras, Vinayas, Abhidharmas, and other texts such as the Chuyao jing 出曜經 and the Buddhacarita (Ch. Fo suoxing zan 佛所行贊). These narratives are important because, while many monks and laypeople might have been left uninspired by the complexities of Buddhist thought and doctrine, miracle narratives were more accessible, playing an important role in popularizing Sarvāstivāda ideas and doctrines. These miracle stories reached audiences that other Sūtra narratives and exegetical works could not, helping in the dissemination of Buddhist thought and practice, as well as the later development and spread of Mahāyāna works in India and beyond.
Journal Article
Dharma : the Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh traditions of India
\"Dharma is central to all the indigenous religious traditions of India, which cannot adequately be understood apart from it. Often translated as \"ethics\", \"religion\" or \"religious law\", dharma possesses elements of each of these but is not confined to any single category. Neither is it the equivalent of what many in the West might usually consider to be \"a philosophy\". This much-needed analysis of the history and heritage of dharma shows that it is instead a multi-faceted religious force, or paradigm, that has defined and that continues to shape the different cultures and civilizations of South Asia in a whole multitude of forms, organizing many aspects of life. Experts in the fields of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh studies here bring fresh insights to dharma in terms both of its distinctiveness and its commonality as these are expressed across, and between, the several religions of the subcontinent. Exploring ethics, practice, history, and social and gender issues, the contributors engage critically with some prevalent and often problematic interpretations of dharma, and point to new ways of appreciating these traditions in a manner that is appropriate to and thoroughly consistent with their varied internal debates, practices and self-representations.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Protocols of Conversion: Indigenous Gods and Eminent Monks in East Asian Buddhism
This article examines the relationships between eminent monks and local gods in East Asian Buddhism, problematizing the ill-defined and much-employed concept of “protector deity of the dharma” (Skt. dharmapāla). By carefully examining various stories of the interactions between eminent monks and various gods found mostly in the biographies of eminent monks in Buddhist literature, we find three recognizable patterns when an indigenous god transforms into a “Buddhist” god. This study illustrates the ways in which local gods obtain Buddhist identities and deciphers how the “conversion” becomes possible via the spiritual power of the eminent monks, whose drive from their moral strength serves as the foundation of their spiritual essence. In this long process of localization of the dharma, the most effective narratives link the idea of the dharmapāla with the virtue of eminent monks. Hence, these narratives in GSZ, XGSZ, and Samugykusa contain colorful examples of taming local gods and malicious spirits with their mental power and moral virtue, finding a place for those gods to fit into the new Buddhist order. This study provides insights into the complex interactions between different religious traditions and sheds light on the ways in which religious ideas and practices are adapted and transformed in new cultural contexts.
Journal Article
Rituals in the Last Days of the Dharma: Connections Between the Thousand Buddhas of Zhag Cave in Western Tibet and Silk Road Relics at Dunhuang
The Zhag Cave in western Tibet, dated to the 11th to 12th centuries, features four walls fully adorned with images of the Thousand Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa (Fortunate Aeon). According to the Tibetan inscriptions, the arrangement of the Thousand Buddhas creates a circumambulatory space for worship and confession, enabling practitioners to purify their sins. Four aspects of the Zhag Cave are comparable to those of Dunhuang. First, among the inscriptions is the Pratītyasamutpāda-gāthā, elaborated in the Śālistamba Sūtra, the Tibetan manuscripts of which have been unearthed in both western Tibet and Dunhuang. Second, the way of depicting Thousand Buddhas on four walls inside the cave could be found in earlier caves from the 5th to 6th centuries at Dunhuang. Third, the specific practice of only depicting the Bhadrakalpa Thousand Buddhas on the walls parallels similar caves from the mid-10th to early 13th centuries at Dunhuang. Fourth, the motifs depicted along the wall edges correspond with the prevalent themes found in the Bhadrakalpa Thousand Buddhas transformation tableaux during the 9th to 13th centuries, reflecting the apogee of Bhadrakalpa Thousand Buddhas devotion. These connections prompt us to think about the ways in which Western Tibet was part of the Silk Road network. I argue that this shared iconographic and ritual framework embodies the intertwined religious practices of the Dharma-ending Age (Mofa 末法) thought and Buddhist revival movements along the Silk Road, explaining these complex interconnections between the Zhag Cave and the Dunhuang relics within the broader context of religious beliefs and socio-cultural patterns.
Journal Article
A Posthuman IDharma: Enthiran 2.0/I
S. Shankar's 2018 Tamil language science fiction film 2.0, the stand-alone sequel to his 2010 blockbuster Enthiran, presents a bleak vision of a near-present time when obsession with technology has led to deteriorating human relationships as well as destruction of the natural world. The film articulates a posthuman dharma founded on the understanding that humans have an ethical obligation towards all living things, not merely other humans. The film posits the individual as fractured and unstable but valorizes the interconnectivity of humans and non-humans, which is underscored by the film's innovative evocation of the rasas of classical Indian aesthetics in the context of non-human agents. This essay argues that 2.0 presents a Hindu-inflected ecological posthumanism as the only viable alternative to a dystopian future.
Journal Article