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Explores the relationship between literature and philosophy in classical and contemporary Buddhist texts.
Nāgārjuna is the most influential of all Buddhist thinkers following the Buddha himself. Throughout his works, Nāgārjuna calls on us to completely abandon all our views. But how could anyone possibly do that? This book shows not only how Nāgārjuna's truly radical teaching of "abelief" makes perfect sense within his Buddhist philosophy, but how it stands at the summit of his religious mission to care for all living beings. Rather than treating any one aspect of Nāgārjuna's ideas in isolation, here he emerges as forging a single system of thought and practice, one that challenges the very ways in which we think about religion and philosophy.
Can literature reveal reality? Is philosophical truth a literary artifice? How does the way we think affect what we can know? Buddhism has been grappling with these questions for centuries, and this book attempts to answer them by exploring the relationship between literature and philosophy across the classical and contemporary Buddhist worlds of India, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, and North America. Written by leading scholars, the book examines literary texts composed over two millennia, ranging in form from lyric verse, narrative poetry, panegyric, hymn, and koan, to novel, hagiography, (secret) autobiography, autofiction, treatise, and sutra, all in sustained conversation with topics in m...
This book provides a philosophical account of the major doctrinal shift in the history of early Theravada tradition in India: the transition from the earliest stratum of Buddhist thought to the systematic of the Pali Abhidhamma movement.
Originally published in 1962. This book discusses and interprets the main themes of Buddhist thought in India and is divided into three parts: Archaic Buddhism: Tacit assumptions, the problem of "original Buddhism", the three marks and the perverted views, the five cardinal virtues, the cultivation of the social emotions, Dharma and dharmas, Skandhas, sense-fields and elements. The Sthaviras: the eighteen schools, doctrinal disputes, the unconditioned and the process of salvation, some Abhidharma problems. The Mahayana: doctrines common to all Mahayanists, the Madhyamikas, the Yogacarins, Buddhist logic, the Tantras.
'Buddhism as Philosophy' does more than just report what Buddhist philosophers said: it presents their arguments and invites the reader to assess their overall cogency.
Compelling exploration of how journeys to a Buddhist culture changed 30 Western writers as they explored the meaning of 'no-self'.
An updated, augmented, and illustrated study and translation of this landmark collection of Buddhist tales
Buddhism and Its Religious Others examines how Buddhist literature and art from pre-modern Asia understand and represent the character and value of other religions. It looks at the strategies employed by Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Southeast Asian Buddhists to challenge and claim authority over traditions that opposed Buddhism and its influence.
Dreyfus examines the central ideas of Dharmakīrti, one of the most important Indian Buddhist philosophers, and their reception among Tibetan thinkers. During the golden age of ancient Indian civilization, Dharmakīrti articulated and defended Buddhist philosophical principles. He did so more systematically than anyone before his time (the seventh century CE) and was followed by a rich tradition of profound thinkers in India and Tibet. This work presents a detailed picture of this Buddhist tradition and its relevance to the history of human ideas. Its perspective is mostly philosophical, but it also uses historical considerations as they relate to the evolution of ideas.