现代社会的多样性与慈悲实践的多样性——缅甸南传上座部佛教的田野考察

Diversity of Modern Society and Mercy Practice Diversity——Field Investigation of Southern Theravada Buddhism of Burma

与前现代社会相比,现代社会呈现出更为多元且更为复杂的特征,人类实践具有更多的可能性,宗教实践亦是如此。宗教的现代性之路是一条不断丰富自身内涵和外延之路。当今缅甸正处于社会文化的大转型时期,缅甸南传上座部佛教(以下简称“南传佛教”)在此过程中发生了深刻的变革,并发展出多种样态,以不同的形式嵌入缅甸社会文化的各个领域。本文持人类学的视角,采用实地考察的方法,呈现缅甸南传佛教在现代性过程中的不同面向,及其与转型社会再嵌入的方式与机制。

Compared with pre-modern society, the modern society shows more diversified and complicate features, human being has more possibilities on the practices, including religion practice. The road of religion modernity is a process to constantly enrich its oneself connotation and expansion. Burma is now in a big changing stage, profound change also happened in the southern Theravada Buddhism and appeared a variety of forms, which fit into different aspects of society and culture through diversified patterns. From the perspective of anthropology, adopted field investigation method, the paper described different aspects of southern Buddhism and its ways and systems of re-fitting into the changing society.