A Pure Mind in a Clean Body : Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and China

Heirman, Ann; Torck, Mathieu

doi:10.26530/oapen_466590

Cited by 44 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The influence of Hippocratic rational medical traditions in the Hellenistic Middle East, its admixture with traditional religious practices, and diffusion through the Roman empire is discussed in Kottek and Horstmanshoff [ 105 ]. Strong awareness of the central importance of personal hygiene, public or group practices of washing, and relationship to religious rituals for purification or cleansing upon entry into temples or homes is known in almost all major cultures, in the East especially from the Buddhist traditions in India and China [ 106 ], and in the Islamic, Sikh, and other world religious traditions [ 107 ]. These issues of cleanliness and religion are considered as part of the WHO guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care [ 108 ].…”

Section: Historical Cultural Norms For Hygiene and Public Health: The Problem Of Unreliable Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemics: Historically Slow “Learning Curve” Leading to Biomedical Informatics and Vaccine Breakthroughs

Kulikowski

2021

Yearb Med Inform

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Background: The worldwide tragedy of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic vividly demonstrates just how inadequate mitigation and control of the spread of infectious diseases can be when faced with a new microorganism with unknown pathogenic effects. Responses by governments in charge of public health, and all other involved organizations, have proved largely wanting. Data infrastructure and the information and communication systems needed to deal with the pandemic have likewise not been up to the task. Nevertheless, after a year of the worldwide outbreak, hope arises from this being the first major pandemic event in history where genomic and related biosciences – relying on biomedical informatics – have been essential in decoding the viral sequence data and producing the mRNA and other biotechnologies that unexpectedly rapidly have led to investigation, design, development, and testing of useful vaccines. Medical informatics may also help support public health actions and clinical interventions - but scalability and impact will depend on overcoming ingrained human shortcomings to deal with complex socio-economic, political, and technological disruptions together with the many ethical challenges presented by pandemics. Objectives: The principal goal is to review the history of biomedical information and healthcare practices related to past pandemics in order to illustrate just how exceptional and dependent on biomedical informatics are the recent scientific insights into human immune responses to viral infection, which are enabling rapid antiviral vaccine development and clinical management of severe cases – despite the many societal challenges ahead. Methods: This paper briefly reviews some of the key historical antecedents leading up to modern insights into epidemic and pandemic processes with their biomedical and healthcare information intended to guide practitioners, agencies, and the lay public in today’s ongoing pandemic events. Conclusions: Poor scientific understanding and excessively slow learning about infectious disease processes and mitigating behaviors have stymied effective treatment until the present time. Advances in insights about immune systems, genomes, proteomes, and all the other -omes, became a reality thanks to the key sequencing technologies and biomedical informatics that enabled the Human Genome Project, and only now, 20 years later, are having an impact in ameliorating devastating zoonotic infectious pandemics, including the present SARS-CoV-2 event through unprecedently rapid vaccine development. In the future these advances will hopefully also enable more targeted prevention and treatment of disease. However, past and present shortcomings of most of the COVID-19 pandemic responses illustrate just how difficult it is to persuade enough people – and especially political leaders – to adopt societally beneficial risk-avoidance behaviors and policies, even as these become better understood.

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Section: Historical Cultural Norms For Hygiene and Public Health: The Problem Of Unreliable Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemics: Historically Slow “Learning Curve” Leading to Biomedical Informatics and Vaccine Breakthroughs

Kulikowski

2021

Yearb Med Inform

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“…As is apparent from the above, the overwhelming majority of the scholarship on the history of Chinese Buddhist medicine has focused on textual knowledge. However, one unique recent study has explored the material culture of Indian and Chinese monastic facilities for bathing, toilets, oral hygiene, and personal grooming (Heirman & Torck ). There has also been some interesting recent work on the iconography and ritual spaces associated with the Master of Medicines Buddha (Skt.…”

Section: History Of Buddhism and Medicine In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhism & Medicine in East Asian History

Salguero

2014

Religion Compass

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“…This latter passage adds one more detail: it says that while one cannot enter a stūpa either wearing boots or holding them in one's hands, one may wear them when walking in the vicinity of a stūpa (presumably because boots are allowed in very cold weather). The Mahāsāṃghikavinaya (T.1425: 498a15 -18) warns that shoes should not be worn in the vicinity of a stūpa.22 In this context, the Dharmaguptakavinaya (T.1428: 846a26 -27) warns that monks should not sit on shoes when wearing new clothes, to prevent the robes from getting dirty.23 On cleanliness of the body and purity of mind, see, in particular,Heirman -Torck (2012).24 A similar situation arises when monks stay at a potter's house and unwittingly sleep on leather (which has been used to cover the clay). On another occasion, monks cross a river on a boat with leather seats.…”

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Shoes in Buddhist monasteries from India to China: From practical attire to symbol

Heirman¹

2016

Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungarica

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One of the most visible identity markers of Buddhist monasticism is clothing. The robes of monks and nuns have been paid considerable attention by researchers. By contrast, other pieces of monastic clothing have attracted far less attention, and this is particularly the case with footwear. Although shoes certainly play a secondary role compared to robes, they still present the monastic community with a number of complex issues. Shoes touch the ground, so they inevitably get dirty. Hence, wearing shoes could be considered disrespectful when meeting someone or paying homage, but so could showing one's naked feet. Meanwhile, shoes protect the feet from dirt and injury on difficult roads, so they may be viewed as essential attire. Additional issues relate to the material and the shape of the footwear, and which shoes are the most appropriate in various situations. This study discusses early Buddhist disciplinary (vinaya) texts' guidelines on issues relating to footwear, and explores how these guidelines were later received within China. It also provides a detailed picture of early Indian and Chinese Buddhist communities' attitudes to shoes, a problematic element of monastic clothing.

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A Pure Mind in a Clean Body : Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and China

Cited by 44 publications

References 1 publication

Pandemics: Historically Slow “Learning Curve” Leading to Biomedical Informatics and Vaccine Breakthroughs

Pandemics: Historically Slow “Learning Curve” Leading to Biomedical Informatics and Vaccine Breakthroughs

Buddhism & Medicine in East Asian History

Shoes in Buddhist monasteries from India to China: From practical attire to symbol

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