Buddhist friendship, meditational practice and a painted mountainscape
E. Kindall
Studies in Chinese Religions April 2, 2024 DOI: 10.1080/23729988.2024.2383507 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Reception study (historical art-historical analysis) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century viewers and colophonists of a fourteenth-century Yandang mountains handscroll |
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that fifteenth- and sixteenth-century viewers used a fourteenth-century handscroll of the Yandang mountains as a meditation aid for relief from the ailments of old age, with distinct contemplative practices tied to unrolling and rerolling the scroll. Contends that combining knowledge of the mountain range's curative history with the scroll's painted imagery manifested a healing realm for the colophonists. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT This reception study argues that a fourteenth-century handscroll illustrating the Yandang mountains (Yandangshan 雁蕩山) in Zhejiang Province was used by fifteenth-and sixteenth-century viewers as an aid in their meditation practice to achieve relief from the ailments of old age. They engaged in one set of contemplative practices as the scroll was unrolled and another set as it was rerolled. As they unrolled the scroll, viewers achieved a somaesthetic viewing experience by considering the topographical identity, religious history, and numinosity of the site, while the aesthetic perfection of the scroll itself invited them to engage in a superior form of mind travel. As viewers rerolled the scroll, they participated in the meditational practices of walking and seated meditation associated with the legendary Chan Buddhist founder of the site, Nakula. The circumstances of the colophonists suggest they sought a realm devoted to healing, which the scroll manifested for them when they combined their knowledge of the curative history of the mountain range with the painted imagery of the scroll. Analysis of this scroll and its colophons allow us to reconstitute a rare episode in the larger tradition of belief in the restorative powers of mind journeys through painted landscapes.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |