LEADER 04749nam 22005655 450 001 9910153136503321 005 20230808200605.0 010 $a0-8248-7298-3 010 $a0-8248-6785-8 010 $a0-8248-6765-3 024 7 $a10.1515/9780824867652 035 $a(CKB)3710000000960168 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC4669051 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0001659928 035 $a(DE-B1597)484297 035 $a(OCoLC)964549965 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780824867652 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000960168 100 $a20190828d2016 fg 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $2rdacontent 182 $2rdamedia 183 $2rdacarrier 200 10$aRight Thoughts at the Last Moment $eBuddhism and Deathbed Practices in Early Medieval Japan /$fJacqueline I. Stone; Robert E. Buswell 210 1$aHonolulu : $cUniversity of Hawaii Press, $d[2016] 210 4$d©2016 215 $a1 online resource (633 pages, 8 unnumbered pages pf plates) $cillustrations 225 0 $aKuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism ;$v26 300 $a"A Kuroda Institute book." 300 $aPreviously issued in print: 2016. 311 $a0-8248-5643-0 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tIllustrations -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tAbbreviations and Conventions -- $tIntroduction -- $t1. The Beginnings of Deathbed Practice in Japan -- $t2. A Realm Apart -- $t3. Exemplary Death -- $t4. Interpreting the Signs -- $t5. Anxieties -- $t6. Deathbed Attendants -- $t7. The Longue Durée of Deathbed Rites -- $tConclusion -- $tAppendix: Annotated Bibliography of Deathbed Manuals -- $tNotes -- $tCharacter Glossary -- $tBibliography -- $tIndex -- $tAbout the Author 330 $aBuddhists 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. 410 0$aStudies in East Asian Buddhism ;$v26. 606 $aDeath$xReligious aspects$xBuddhism$xHistory 606 $aBuddhism$zJapan$xCustoms and practices$xHistory 615 0$aDeath$xReligious aspects$xBuddhism$xHistory. 615 0$aBuddhism$xCustoms and practices$xHistory. 676 $a294.3/423 676 $a294.3423 700 $aStone$b Jacqueline I., $0690309 702 $aBuswell$b Robert E., 801 0$bDE-B1597 801 1$bDE-B1597 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910153136503321 996 $aRight Thoughts at the Last Moment$92894581 997 $aUNINA