{"product_id":"of-ancestors-and-ghosts-how-preta-narratives-constructed-buddhist-cosmology-and-shaped-buddhist-ethics-9780197748909","title":"Of Ancestors and Ghosts: How Preta Narratives Constructed Buddhist Cosmology and Shaped Buddhist Ethics","description":"In Buddhist cosmology, \u003cem\u003epreta\u003c\/em\u003es make up one of several categories of rebirth. They are best known as \"hungry ghosts,\" pitiful beings with miniscule mouths and bloated stomachs whose state of extreme starvation is a result of stinginess and immorality in a former life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut they were not always portrayed in this way. \u003cem\u003eOf Ancestors and Ghosts\u003c\/em\u003e traces the construction of the Buddhist realm of the \u003cem\u003epreta\u003c\/em\u003es through narrative literature composed in Pali and Sanskrit in the first millennium of Buddhism's development in South Asia. By exploring issues such as where the departed go after they die, how the living can assist the dead in the next world, and how the departed fits into a karmic cosmology, Buddhist monks used these stories to construct the \u003cem\u003epreta\u003c\/em\u003e realm and, with it, Buddhist cosmology as we know it today. In the process they established themselves as religious experts concerning the dead.\u003cem\u003e Of Ancestors and Ghosts\u003c\/em\u003e illustrates the importance of narrative for the construction of religious cosmologies, showing that cosmologies come into formation over a long, cumulative process. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFar from being simple morality tales, \u003cem\u003epreta\u003c\/em\u003e literature helped develop and articulate Buddhist understandings of actions and their fruits. In the process, these narratives portray ethical cultivation as inherently connected to the cultivation of bodies. As a result, stories about \u003cem\u003epreta\u003c\/em\u003es speak to the vast range of embodied experiences in the Buddhist cosmos, including the intersection of human\/non-human identity and class, caste, gender, and sexuality. These stories help model and elicit aesthetically informed embodied experiences that are themselves ethically formative. As a result, \u003cem\u003e preta\u003c\/em\u003e literature highlights the enduring importance of emotions and embodiment on the Buddhist path to awakening.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAdeana McNicholl\u003c\/strong\u003e is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University. She specializes in Buddhism in South Asia and in the United States. Her research engages with Buddhist conceptions of embodiment in the past and present.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50901249753362,"sku":"9780197748909","price":125.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_16a4cc99-2f6d-463b-98bd-84f2c79a5425.jpg?v=1738418481","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/of-ancestors-and-ghosts-how-preta-narratives-constructed-buddhist-cosmology-and-shaped-buddhist-ethics-9780197748909","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}