The use of locks and keys is probably not thought to be a characteristic of monasticism. In fact, such usage has rarely received much attention at all, and this makes what can be seen in a Buddhist Monastic Code (Vinaya) appear to be unusual, even when it is not. To demonstrate this, references to the use of locks and keys in one Buddhist Monastic Code will be surveyed, and their various functions and roles noted. Then a brief sketch will be presented of their strikingly similar roles and functions in other monasticisms, which points to them being an integral part of what monasteries everywhere typically were as wealthy propertied institutions and how they worked on a daily basis.
This articles examines the response of the Japanese Zen master Shaku S & omacr;en (sic) (1860-1919) to his experience of British colonialism on Sri Lanka from the point of view of a global history of religions. Previous scholarship has situated S & omacr;en in the context of the Zen school and more generally has conceptualized the formation of modern Japanese Buddhism in the framework of "from the West to the rest" theories of modernization. The present article instead builds on recent work recovering the agency of Asian actors. It demonstrates that S & omacr;en was deeply indebted to the Sri Lankan Christian intellectual James d'Alwis (1823-78), who mediated Western influences on S & omacr;en and conditioned his understanding of Buddhism's potential as an anticolonial force. The article consequently shows S & omacr;en's thinking as arising from an entanglement of modern Japanese Buddhist politics, Western discourses on Buddhism, and, crucially, Sri Lankan Buddhist and Christian perspectives. It concludes by tracing the legacies of S & omacr;en's politics, especially his conception of a metaphysically grounded social equality, to explicitly totalitarian or autocratic understandings of the Japanese polity in the first half of the twentieth century.
