C. Pierce Salguero - Böcker

From its earliest days, Buddhism has been closely intertwined with medicine. Buddhism and Medicine is a singular collection showcasing the generative relationship and mutual influence between these fields across premodern Asia. The anthology combines dozens of English-language translations of premodern Buddhist texts with contextualizing introductions by leading international scholars in Buddhist studies, the history of medicine, and a range of other fields. These sources explore in detail medical topics ranging from the development of fetal anatomy in the womb to nursing, hospice, dietary regimen, magical powers, visualization, and other healing knowledge. Works translated here include meditation guides, popular narratives, ritual manuals, spells texts, monastic disciplinary codes, recipe inscriptions, philosophical treatises, poetry, works by physicians, and other genres. All together, these selections and their introductions provide a comprehensive overview of Buddhist healing throughout Asia. They also demonstrate the central place of healing in Buddhist practice and in the daily life of the premodern world.

Medicine, health, and healing have been central to Buddhism since its origins. Long before the global popularity of mindfulness and meditation, Buddhism provided cultures around the world with conceptual tools to understand illness as well as a range of therapies and interventions for care of the sick. Today, Buddhist traditions, healers, and institutions continue to exert a tangible influence on medical care in societies both inside and outside Asia, including in the areas of mental health, biomedicine, and even in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the global history of the relationship between Buddhism and medicine remains largely untold.This book is a wide-ranging and accessible account of the interplay between Buddhism and medicine over the past two and a half millennia. C. Pierce Salguero traces the intertwining threads linking ideas, practices, and texts from many different times and places. He shows that Buddhism has played a crucial role in cross-cultural medical exchange globally and that Buddhist knowledge formed the nucleus for many types of traditional practices that still thrive today throughout Asia. Although Buddhist medicine has always been embedded in local contexts and differs markedly across cultures, Salguero identifies key patterns that have persisted throughout this long history. This book will be informative and invaluable for scholars, students, and practitioners of both Buddhism and complementary and alternative medicine.

Medicine, health, and healing have been central to Buddhism since its origins. Long before the global popularity of mindfulness and meditation, Buddhism provided cultures around the world with conceptual tools to understand illness as well as a range of therapies and interventions for care of the sick. Today, Buddhist traditions, healers, and institutions continue to exert a tangible influence on medical care in societies both inside and outside Asia, including in the areas of mental health, biomedicine, and even in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the global history of the relationship between Buddhism and medicine remains largely untold.This book is a wide-ranging and accessible account of the interplay between Buddhism and medicine over the past two and a half millennia. C. Pierce Salguero traces the intertwining threads linking ideas, practices, and texts from many different times and places. He shows that Buddhism has played a crucial role in cross-cultural medical exchange globally and that Buddhist knowledge formed the nucleus for many types of traditional practices that still thrive today throughout Asia. Although Buddhist medicine has always been embedded in local contexts and differs markedly across cultures, Salguero identifies key patterns that have persisted throughout this long history. This book will be informative and invaluable for scholars, students, and practitioners of both Buddhism and complementary and alternative medicine.

Over the centuries, Buddhist ideas have influenced medical thought and practice in complex and varied ways in diverse regions and cultures. A companion to Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources, this work presents a collection of modern and contemporary texts and conversations from across the Buddhist world dealing with the multifaceted relationship between Buddhism and medicine.Covering the early modern period to the present, this anthology focuses on the many ways Buddhism and medicine were shaped by the forces of colonialism, science, and globalization, as well as ruptures and reconciliations between tradition and modernity. Editor C. Pierce Salguero and an international collection of scholars highlight diversity and innovation in the encounters between Buddhist and medical thought. The chapters contain a wide range of sources presenting different perspectives rooted in distinct times and places, including translations of published and unpublished documents and transcripts of ethnographic interviews as well as accounts by missionaries and colonial authorities and materials from the contemporary United States and United Kingdom. Together, these varied sources illustrate the many intersections of Buddhism and medicine in the past and how this nexus continues to be crucial in today’s global context.

The transmission of Buddhism from India to China was one of the most significant cross-cultural exchanges in the premodern world. This cultural encounter involved more than the spread of religious and philosophical knowledge. It influenced many spheres of Chinese life, including the often overlooked field of medicine. Analyzing a wide variety of Chinese Buddhist texts, C. Pierce Salguero examines the reception of Indian medical ideas in medieval China. These texts include translations from Indian languages as well as Chinese compositions completed in the first millennium C.E.Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China illuminates and analyzes the ways Chinese Buddhist writers understood and adapted Indian medical knowledge and healing practices and explained them to local audiences. The book moves beyond considerations of accuracy in translation by exploring the resonances and social logics of intercultural communication in their historical context. Presenting the Chinese reception of Indian medicine as a process of negotiation and adaptation, this innovative and interdisciplinary work provides a dynamic exploration of the medical world of medieval Chinese society. At the center of Salguero's work is an appreciation of the creativity of individual writers as they made sense of disease, health, and the body in the context of regional and transnational traditions. By integrating religious studies, translation studies, and literature with the history of medicine, Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China reconstructs the crucial role of translated Buddhist knowledge in the vibrant medical world of medieval China.

From its inception in northeastern India in the first millennium BCE, the Buddhist tradition has advocated a range of ideas and practices that were said to ensure health and well-being. As the religion developed and spread to other parts of Asia, healing deities were added to its pantheon, monastic institutions became centers of medical learning, and healer-monks gained renown for their mastery of ritual and medicinal therapeutics. In China, imported Buddhist knowledge contended with a sophisticated, state-supported system of medicine that was able to retain its influence among the elite. Further afield in Japan, where Chinese Buddhism and Chinese medicine were introduced simultaneously as part of the country's adoption of civilization from the "Middle Kingdom," the two were reconciled by individuals who deemed them compatible. In East Asia, Buddhist healing would remain a site of intercultural tension and negotiation. While participating in transregional networks of circulation and exchange, Buddhist clerics practiced locally specific blends of Indian and indigenous therapies and occupied locally defined social positions as religious and medical specialists.In this diverse and compelling collection, an international group of scholars analyzes the historical connections between Buddhism and healing in medieval China and Japan. They focus on the transnationally conveyed aspects of Buddhist healing traditions as they moved across geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. Simultaneously, their work also investigates the local instantiations of these ideas and practices as they were reinvented, altered, and re-embedded in specific social and institutional contexts. Investigating the interplay between the macro and micro, the global and the local, this book demonstrates the richness of Buddhist healing as a way to explore the history of cross-cultural exchange.

This rich collection focuses on the nexus between Buddhism and healing in the modern and contemporary world, highlighting the many ways Buddhists have adapted in response to and in dialogue with modern science, biomedicine, and other facets of modernity from the nineteenth century to today. Buddhist healing activities are much more diverse than the narrow range of mindfulness techniques that have dominated scholarly and popular focus. From the community-based healing practices of Asian American Buddhists and transnational Tantric sex therapy retreats to concerns about balancing being contemporary with being authentically Buddhist, contributors explore how Buddhists have rethought the mind-body relationship against the backdrop of the modernization and globalization of Buddhism. They examine Buddhists navigating the differences and commonalities that exist in their practice and modern systems of mental and physical healthcare, paying attention to how they have negotiated shifting configurations of legitimacy, authority, and authenticity. Through historical and ethnographic case studies, the work details these ruptures and reconciliations in Japan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Korea, and the U.S., in addition to mapping the transnational pathways of exchange as knowledge about Buddhism and medicine has traveled between Asia and the West.Buddhism and Healing in the Modern World encompasses a wide range of Buddhist ideas about health and health-seeking practices that remain a vital part of the everyday practice of modern Buddhism across the globe.

Drawing from Thai history, cultural studies, Buddhist religion, and yogic practices, as well as a modern understanding of anatomy and physiology, this guidebook bridges the gap between theory and practice while presenting bodywork as it is understood in Thailand—as a therapeutic medical science.Presenting detailed analysis of each step in a Thai massage routine, the history, spiritual traditions, and ethical codes are offered in an engaging, informal style. Numerous photographs and diagrams illustrate the variety of techniques used, and examples of routines for treating specific disorders are discussed. Updated with new layout, photos, and expanded text, this exhaustive handbook is complete with a section on the main energy meridians and diagrams of acupressure points, making it the perfect tool to accompany anyone studying this popular healing modality.

Thai herbs are part of a vibrant culture of healing that has been practiced and preserved over the centuries in traditional medicine schools, Buddhist monasteries, and village homes all over Thailand. Many quite ancient herbal traditions continue to be practiced throughout Thailand to this day, and some of these have now been recognized by the Ministry of Public Health as an important facet of the country’s national healthcare system. This revised and updated edition provides an overview of traditional Thai medicine--including both the theory and the practical application of Thai cuisine, bodywork, and herbal medicine. Of interest to herbalist, massage therapists, and practitioners of other alternative healthcare systems, the book introduces the basic principles of Thai herbal healing in simple and clear terms, and it includes a detailed compendium of individual herbs. Best of all, this book is fun, offering easy recipes for home remedies, healthcare products, and cuisine that will make the world of Thai tradition come alive in your home.

Everyone knows that meditation is good for your health and wellbeing. However, a percentage of people practicing meditation experience psychotic breaks and related adverse mental and physical side-effects. Are these symptoms of improper practice or an unavoidable part of spiritual cultivation? While contemporary scientific literature is just beginning to document such phenomena, Buddhist communities have for centuries warned practitioners about "meditation sickness," "wind illness," "demonic attack" and other potential dangers. Due to language barriers, their important writings have remained virtually unknown in western medical, scientific, and practitioner communities. Here, for the first time, historical and contemporary teachings on the topic from around the Buddhist world have been brought together. The works not only identify these ailments as possible side-effects of meditation practice, but also explain why they arise and how they can be effectively prevented and treated. Meditation Sickness will transform the way we think about meditation in the west.