Dharma

This introductory work proposes a fresh take on the ancient Indian concept __dharma.__ By unfolding how, even in its developments as "law" and custom, __dharma__ participates in nuanced and multifarious understandings of the term that play out in India’s great spiritual traditions, the book offers insights into the innovative character of both Hindu and Buddhist usages of the concept. Alf Hiltebeitel, in an original approach to early Buddhist usages, explores how the Buddhist canon brought out different meanings of __dharma.__ This is followed by an exposition of the hypothesis that most, if not all, of the Hindu law books flowered after the third-century BC emperor Asoka, a Buddhist, made dharma the guiding principle of an entire realm and culture. A discussion built around the author’s expertise on the Sanskrit epics shows how their narratives amplified the new Brahmanical norms and brought out the ethical dilemmas and spiritual teachings that arose from inquiry into __dharma.__ A chapter on the tale of the __Life of the Buddha__ considers the relation between __dharma,__ __moksa/nirvana__ (salvation), and __bhakti__ (devotion). Here, Hiltebeitel ties together a thread that runs through the entire story, which is the Buddha’s tendency to present __dharma__ as a kind of civil discourse. In this sense, __dharma__ challenges people to think critically or at least more creatively about their ethical principles and the foundations of their own spiritual values. A closing chapter on __dharma__ in the twenty-first century explores its new cachet in an era of globalization, its diasporic implications, its openings into American popular culture, some implications for women, and the questions it is still raising for modern India.

New York City is also home to one of the largest overseas Japanese populations in the world. Among them are artists and designers who produce cutting-edge work. Part of the so-called "creative class" and a growing segment of the neoliberal economy, they are usually middle-class and college-educated. They move to New York in the hope of realizing dreams and aspirations unavailable to them in Japan. Yet the creative careers they desire are competitive, and many end up working illegally in precarious, low paying jobs. Though they often migrate without fixed plans for return, nearly all eventually do, and their migrant trajectories are punctuated by visits home.

This book offers an intimate, ethnographic portrait of these Japanese creative migrants living and working in NYC. How do adults reinvent their lives? In the absence of any material or social need, what makes it worthwhile for people to abandon middle-class comfort and home for an unfamiliar and insecure life? Olga Sooudi explores this in four different venues patronized by Japanese: a grocery store and restaurant, where hopeful migrants work part-time as they pursue their ambitions; a fashion designer's atelier and an art gallery, both sites of migrant aspirations. As Sooudi's migrant artists toil and network, biding time until they "make it" in their chosen industries, their optimism is complicated by the material and social limitations of their lives.

The story of Japanese migrants in NYC is both a story about Japan and a way of examining Japan from beyond its borders. The Japanese presence abroad, a dynamic process involving the moving, settling, and return to Japan of people and their cultural products, is still underexplored.

Contents Editor’s Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Dharma and South Asian Spirituality Chapter 2. King Aśoka’s Dhaṃma Chapter 3. Vedic Dhárman and Dharma Chapter 4. Early Buddhism: Three Baskets of Dharma Chapter 5. Classical Brahmanical Dharma Chapter 6. Two Dharma Biographies? Rāma and Yudhiṣṭhira Chapter 7. Two Dharma Biographies? Sītā and Draupadī Chapter 8. Dharma in the Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 9. Dharma and Bhakti Chapter 10. Reimagining the Dharma Hero: The Adventure of the Buddha Chapter 11. Dharma for the Twenty-first Century Glossary Further Reading Index