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There are two systems of Abhidharma, according to Tibetan tradition, lower and higher. The lower system is taught in the Abhidharmakosa, while the higher system is taught in the Abhidharmasamuccaya. Thus the two books form a complementary pair. Asanga, author of the Abhidharmasamuccaya, is founder of the Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism. His younger brother Vasubandhu wrote the Abhidharmakosa before Asanga converted him to Mahayana Buddhism. Yet the Kosa is written in verse, usual for Mahayana treatises, while the Samuccaya follows the traditional prose and answer style of the older Pali Abhidharma texts. Walpola Rahula, in preparing his 1971 French translation of this Mahayana text from the Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan, has brought to bear on its many technical terms his extensive background and great expertise in the Pali canon.
Andr Bareau (19211993) was one of the foremost scholars of Buddhism of his generation. Dissatisfied with piecemeal and contradictory information on early Buddhist schools, he set out to construct a coherent and authoritative overview, which has remained
The Suramgamasamadhi Sutra is one of the most important Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, probably composed at the beginning of the first millennium CE, and accepted as an expression of Mahayana spirituality in India, China, Japan, Mongolia and Tibet.
The History of Indian Buddhism is undoubtedly Msgr. E. Lamotte's most brilliant contribution to the field of Buddhist exegesis. The work contains a vivid, vigorous and fully-detailed description of early Buddhism and its teachings, the material organization of the Community, the formation and further developments of the writings, the conciliar traditions, the evolution of Buddhist sculpture and architecture, the origins of the sects, the Buddhist dialects and the constitution of the legends, and sets them in the historical background in which buddhist doctrines originated and expanded in India and in the neighbouring countries. Using the material evidence provided by Indian epigraphy and arc...
Setting Out on the Great Way brings together different perspectives on the origins and early history of Mahāyāna Buddhism and delves into selected aspects of its formative period. As the variety of the religion which conquered East Asia and also provided the matrix for the later development of Buddhist Tantra or Vajrayāna, Mahāyāna is regarded as one of the most significant forms of Buddhism, and its beginnings have long been the focus of intense scholarly attention and debate. The essays in this volume address the latest findings in the field, including contributions by younger researchers vigorously critiquing the reappraisal of the Mahāyāna carried out by scholars in the last decades of the 20th century and the different understanding of the movement which they produced. As the study of Buddhism as a whole reorients itself to embrace new methods and paradigms, while at the same time coming to terms with exciting new manuscript discoveries, our picture of the Mahāyāna continues to change. This volume presents the latest developments in this ongoing re-evaluation of one of Buddhism's most important historical expressions.
This is the first-ever in-depth study of the Soka Gakkai Buddhists in the United States of America (SGI-USA). Drawing on unprecedented access to the organization through surveys and interviews, it provides a definitive and revealing picture of one of the fastest-growing religions in the world. The authors shed light on contemporary American society and show how many members of SGI-USA are drawn from a growing `transmodern' subculture in America. In addition the book traces the development of the organization in the USA, examining how it adapted to the peculiar circumstances of America's cultural life and showing how SGI-USA became a very American phenomenon.
Guang Xing gives an analysis of one of the fundamental Mahayana Buddhist teachings, namely the three bodies of the Buddha (the trikaya Theory), which is considered the foundation of Mahayana philosophy. He examines how and why the philosophical concept of three bodies was formed, particularly the Sambhogakaya, which is the Buddha to be worshipped by all Mayahanists. Written in an accessible way, this work is an outstanding research text for students and scholars of Mayahana Buddhism and anyone interested in Buddhist philosophy.
The androgynous, asexual Buddha of contemporary popular imagination stands in stark contrast to the muscular, virile, and sensual figure presented in Indian Buddhist texts. In early Buddhist literature and art, the Buddha’s perfect physique and sexual prowess are important components of his legend as the world’s “ultimate man.” He is both the scholarly, religiously inclined brahman and the warrior ruler who excels in martial arts, athletic pursuits, and sexual exploits. The Buddha effortlessly performs these dual roles, combining his society’s norms for ideal manhood and creating a powerful image taken up by later followers in promoting their tradition in a hotly contested religiou...
The Buddhist scripture containing teachings that bestow heroic progress on the path to Enlightement The Suramgamsamadhisutra is an early Mahayana Buddhist scripture. Within a narrative framework provided by a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva Drdhamati it airs central issues of Mahayana Buddhism by means of philosophical discussion, edifying anecdote, marvellous feat, and drama. At its core is a description of the seeming conversion of Mara, the embodiment of all malign tendencies that obstruct advancement, and the prediction that he too will become a Buddha.