The Appearance of the Earth Goddess and the Enlightenment of the Buddha

2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (0) ◽  
pp. 155-184
Author(s):  
Jung-tae Do
Keyword(s):  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Earth Goddess

A ‘milky mass’ and ‘uniform material’: white marble in eighteenth-century French discourses on sculpture and geology

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-225
Author(s):  
Marthe Kretzschmar
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Grain Size ◽  
Denis Diderot ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
White Marble ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interdisciplinary Network

Knowledge of the materiality of stone during the Enlightenment expanded following the exploration of mineralogical structure, to alter ideas about taxonomy and challenge the role of rocks in the history of the earth. Close studies of the material of marble sculpture generated expertise on grain size, surface varieties and stone deposits. This mode of reception became intertwined with contemporary controversies about the age of the earth. This article focuses on both French sculpture and geological discourses of the eighteenth century to reveal an international and interdisciplinary network centring on protagonists such as Denis Diderot, Paul-Henri Thiry d’Holbach and Étienne-Maurice Falconet; through these figures, debates can be connected concerning both geology and art theory. Within these contexts, the article discusses the translation processes between these artistic and geological interests.

Nothing Absolute

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
First Time ◽  
Point Of Reference

Staging for the first time in extant scholarship a rigorous encounter between German thought from Kant to Marx and new forms of political theology, this ground-breaking volume puts forward a distinct and powerful framework for understanding the continuing relevance of political theology today as well as the conceptual and genealogical importance of German Idealism for its present and future. Against traditional approaches that view German Idealism as essentially a secularizing movement, this volume approaches it as the first speculative articulation of the political-theological problematic in the aftermath of the Enlightenment and the advent of secularity. Via a set of innovative readings and critiques, the volume investigates anew such concepts as immanence, utopia, sovereignty, mediation, indifference, the earth, the absolute, or the world, bringing German Idealism and Romanticism into dialogue with contemporary investigations of the (Christian-)modern forms of transcendence, domination, exclusion, and world-justification. Over the course of the volume, post-Kantian German thought emerges as a crucial phase in the genealogy of political theology and an important point of reference for the ongoing reassessment of modernity and secularity. As a result, this volume not only rethinks the philosophical trajectory of German Idealism and its aftermath from a political-theological perspective, but also demonstrates what can be done with (or against) German Idealism using the conceptual resources of political theology today.

Knowledge From Underground: Leibniz Mines the Enlightenment

1997 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Hamm
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Administrative Work ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Mining Machinery ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Fantastic

The history of geology has focused largely on the foundations of geology in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Considerable attention has also been given to grand theories of the earth, or cosmogonies, of the seventeenth century. This approach has left out most of eighteenth-century mineralogy; it has also left out mining. The argument here is that Leibniz's Protogaea is best understood in the context of the Harz mines, where Leibniz spent considerable energy doing administrative work and inventing new mining machinery. By looking to the mines we not only make sense of Protogaea, but of most of German mineralogy in the eighteenth century. J. G. Lehmann, J. F. W. Charpentier, C. G. Delius and many other practitioners working in and around mines were deeply concerned with mapping the subterranean structure of the earth's crust and they contrasted their work with the "fantastic" world of theorists. The Freiberg Mining Academy, other institutions, and the way vocabularies of mining changed will also be considered. Finally there are some concluding thoughts on why mining has almost disappeared from the history of geology.

The Earth Goddess.

1939 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Raymond Firth ◽  
G. Howard Jones
Keyword(s):  
The Earth ◽  
Earth Goddess

Hoshi-No-Tama

Antiquity ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 20 (79) ◽  
pp. 113-121
Author(s):  
W. H. Riddell
Keyword(s):  
Far East ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Far East ◽  
The Buddha

Mani, the Sacred Jewel (Shansi in Chinese; Shinshi in Japanese) is that one of the Sapta Rapta (Seven Treasures) which is the emblematic symbol of the Buddha and his doctrine. Defined as a supernatural pearl, spherical, self-luminous, and of unfading lustre, it sheds a brilliant light on all its surroundings and is therefore an appropriate simile for the Enlightenment which Buddhists seek. In the Iconography of the Far East this fabulous gem is an attribute of several persons in the Ruddhist hierarchy; the principal one being K'shitigarhba (Chin: Ti Sang, Jap: Jizo Bosatsu) who is the Bodhisattva of Compassionate Help in the same way that Avalokitesvara (Chin: Kwanyin, Jap: Kwannon) is the Bodhisattva of Mercy. The latter may at times be shown as a holder of the Jewel—see for an example, the well-known Yumadono Kwannon of Horiuji (1)—but more often her chosen attribute is a slender vase. One of the sixteen Arhats (Chin: Lohan, Jap: Rakan) is also represented holding the Sacred Jewel in his hand. This is Panthaka, the tenth on the list, whose constant companion is a Dragon—the divinely appointed guardian of the Gem. Sometimes a Dragon alone holds the Gem in his claw: sometimes the Gem appears in solitary splendour with two Dragons in the role of heraldic supporters on either side. The illusion that they are fighting for it (like the Lion and Unicorn) is due to the querulous expression Dragons habitually wear, and not necessarily to rivalry.

The Vajrakīla Tantras

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Boord
Keyword(s):  
Complete System ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Total Destruction ◽  
Sanskrit Word ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Vital Element

Belonging to an esoteric corpus of Buddhist texts known as the teachings of secret mantra (Skt. guhyamantra), the tantras of Vajrakīla have been carefully guarded through the centuries and handed down from teacher to disciple under a strictly ethical code of conduct. Although the texts themselves often seem to advocate a violent and unrestrained lifestyle, under the skillful guidance of a suitably qualified guru, who must be seen by the disciple as none other than the Buddha himself, one who seriously engages in the systematic practice of their profound series of meditations becomes quickly and thoroughly purified in body, speech, and mind. The wrathful deity Vajrakīla is described in all the tantras that bear his name as the manifestation of heroic power for the overthrow of Māra. During times of peace he manifests as Vajrasattva, and his mind abides in tranquility. During times of activity he manifests as “Vajra of Total Destruction” (Skt. *Ativināśanavajra) and, when manifesting as a bodhisattva, he is Vajrapāṇi, “the One with a Vajra in his Hand.” With regard to his name “Vajrakīla”: vajra as a prefix is found everywhere within the Buddhist tantras. Originally meaning “the hard or mighty one” and referring in particular to the thunderbolt as a weapon of Indra, it subsequently became so intimately associated with the development of tantric ideas in Buddhism that the entire system of practice came to be known as the Vajrayāna or Vajra Vehicle. Indeed, as a symbol within the Buddhist tantras it is as pregnant with meaning as the very texts themselves. Characterized as abhedya, “unbreakable,” and acchedya, “indivisible,” the term may be said to represent nothing less than the full enlightenment of the samyaksaṃbuddha, who himself came to be referred to as Vajradhara, “Holder of the Vajra.” The Sanskrit word kīla means “nail,” “peg,” or “spike,” and thus Vajrakīla may be taken to mean “the unassailable spike” or, on a higher level, “(He who is) the nail of supreme enlightenment.” Introduced to Tibet during the 8th century ce, the Buddhist tantras of Vajrakīla were received with great enthusiasm and quickly became established as a vital element in the religious life of the Tibetan empire. Said to encompass every aspect of the ground, path, and goal, the Vajrakīla tantras present a coherent and complete system of spiritual practice that culminates in the attainment of perfect liberation from the round of rebirth. The roots of Kīla mythology, however, may lie buried deep within the pre-Buddhist religion of ancient India where, in the Ṛgveda, the story is told of the god Indra who slew the demon Vṛtra. It is said that, at that time, Indra stabilized the earth and propped up the heavens with a kīla and thus, at the outset, we have clearly discernible indications of a path along which a simple wooden stake might travel so as eventually to become deified as a terrifying god of awesome power, one by whom all demons are vanquished and enlightenment realized for the benefit of the world.

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