Theory Practice Mantra Buddhism Buddha Buddhist Korea India
In most Asian countries esoteric Buddhism (Tantrayana) declined in the past, while the Tibetans alone preserved the full richness of tantric traditions to our times. Thus this study is based on several Tibetan sources never presented in any modern language - some of them were translated, some were given as a summary.
The main concern of this study is to exhibit and analyse the traditions of the Old School of Tibetan Buddhism i.e., the mying-ma-pa. For the first time there is shown that the history of the Old Schools goes far beyond the Padmasambhava; some sources hint at a non-Indian origin of some tantric cycles. The whole tradition of the Old School is divided into two lineages: one of the Pronouncements and the other of the Concealed Treasures. Each lineage is discussed in detail - more than twenty biographies of the famous masters of the Old School are on these facts and events aims at giving an impression of the spiritual life within the Old School and links the results of this study with the hitherto existing knowledge of esoteric Buddhism. This study exhibits a great deal of so far unknown facts and events that indispensable for understanding thought and history of Tantric Buddhism in Tibet.
About the Author:
The author Dr. (Mrs.) Eva Dargyay, is Reader in Tibetology at the University of Munich (West Germany). Being a German specialist in Tibetan and Buddhist studies, she is married to a Tibetan Geshay.
The author goes on to explain the place of the jhanas among the accomplishments of an arahat and elucidate their usefulness for a dedicated meditator.
Review:
...This is a work which combines sound scholarship with considerable practical experience.
Amadeo Sole-Leris
Buddhist Studies Review, 5.1 (1988)
...This should be a useful book for those interested in well-documented, traditional analysis of the cons
....For a long time in my experience newcomers to Buddhism have been confused about the position of the jhanas (absorptions) in Buddhist meditation practice. This is the first book... which deals clearly and exhaustively with the subject. -PHILIP M. EDEN, Middle Way"
About the Book:
Vasubandhu, one of the most famous Mahayana Buddhist Philosophers, wrote works on a vast variety of subjects. This collection of translations includes the Vada-Vidhi, a work on logic; the Panca-skandhaka-prakarana, which deals with the 'aggregates' making up 'personality'; the Karmasiddhi-prakarana, which in explaining psychic continuity, also attacks many features of earlier Buddhist Psychology; the famous Vimsatika and Trimsika, which take Buddhist psychology into hitherto unexplored areas; the Madhyanta-Vibhaga-bhasya, one of the most profound books for Mahayana realization; and the Tri-svabhava-nirdesa which shows a way for ridding consciousness of ensnaring mental constructions. A glossary of key words is included, as are the texts of those works which survive in Sanskrit. Each translation is prefaced by an explanatory introduction and is followed by notes. These include also references to other Indian philosophical systems and occasional comparisons with modern Western psychology systems, particularly where the latter seem inadequate in comparison with Vasubandhu's Yogacara.
About the Author:
Stefan Anacker, born in the USA of Swiss parents, received his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis., USA) in Buddhist Studies. He has also studied Sanskrit and Old Kannada at the University of Mysore. At present he is a research scholar living in Lausanne, Switzerland.
About the Author
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki was Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at the Otani University, Kyoto. He was probably the greatest authority on Buddhist Philosophy and Zen Buddhism.
About the Book
Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism of Dr. Suzuki is one of the finest introductory manuals to date on Mahayana school of Buddhism. As an introductory essays, Dr. Suzuki has endeavored, within the limitations space, to be as comprehensive as is possible: Written in a style that is lucid, transparent and easy to read, the book sets out to present the most intricate and complex Mahayana philosophical doctrines in such a manner that an average reader can grasp them. In this noble mission the author has greatly succeeded.
Introduction
The Mahayana and The Hinayana Buddhism
The terms "Mahayana" and "Hinayana" may sound unfamiliar to most of our readers, perhaps even to those who have devoted some time to the study of Buddhism. They have hitherto been induced to believe that there is but one form of Buddhism, and that there exists no such distinction as Mahayanism and Hinayanism. But, as a matter of fact, there are diverse schools in Buddhism just as in other religious systems. It is said that, within a few hundred years after the demise of Buddha, there were more than twenty different schools, all claiming to be the orthodox teaching of their master. These, however, seem to have vanished into insignificance one after another, when there arose a new school quite different in its general constitution from its predecessors, but far more important in its significance as a religious movement. This new school or rather system made itself so prominent in the mean time as to stand distinctly alone from all the other schools, which later became a class by itself. Essentially, it taught everything that was considered to be Buddhistic, but it was very comprehensive in its principle and method and scope. And, by reason of this, Buddhism was now split into two great systems, Mahayanism and Hinayanism, the latter indiscriminately including all the minor schools which preceded Mahayanism in their formal establishment.
Broadly speaking, the difference between Mahayanism and Hinayanism is this: Mahayanism is more liberal and progressive, but in many respects too metaphysical and full of speculative thoughts that frequently reach a dazzling eminence: Hinayanism, on the other hand, is somewhat conservative and may be considered in many points to be a rationalistic ethical system simply.
Mahayana literally means "great vehicle" and Hinayana "small or inferior vehicle," that is, of salvation. This distinction is recognized only by the followers of Mahayanism, because it was by them that the unwelcome title of Hinayanism was given to their rival brethren, - thinking that they were more progressive and had a more assimilating energy than the latter. The adherents of Hinayanism, as a matter of course, refused to sanction the Mahayanist doctrine as the genuine teaching of Buddha, and insisted that there could not be any other Buddhism than their own, to them naturally the Mahayana system was a sort of heresy.
Geographically, the progressive school of Buddhism found its supporters in Nepal, Tibet, China, Corea, and Japan, while the conservative school established itself in Ceylong, Siam and Burma. Hence the Mahayana and the Hinayana are also known respectively Northern and Southern Buddhism.
En passant, let me remark that this distinction, however, is not quite correct, for we have some schools in China and Japan, whose equivalent or counterpart cannot be found in the so called Northern Buddhism, that is, Buddhism flourishing in Northern India. For instance, we do not have in Nepal or in Tibet anything like the Sukhavati sects of Japan or China. Of course, the general essential ideas of the Sukhavati philosophy are found in the sutra literature as well as in the writings of such authors as Acvaghosa, Asanga, and Nagarjuna. But those ideas were not developed and made into a new sect as they were in the East. Therefore, it may be more proper to divide Buddhism into three, instead of two, geographical sections: Southern, Northern, and Eastern.
From the Jacket
The common Western understanding of Buddhism today envisions this major world religion as one of compassion and tolerance. But as the author Droit reveals, this view bears little resemblance to one broadly held in the nineteenth-century European philosophical imagination that saw Buddhism as a religion of annihilation calling for the destruction of the self.
The Cult of Nothingness traces the history of the Western discovery of Buddhism. In so doing, the author shows that such major philosophers as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hegel, Cousin, and Renan imagined Buddhism as a religion that was, as Nietzsche put it, a “negation of the world.” In fact, says the author, such portrayals were more a reflection of what was happening in Europe at the time - when the collapse of traditional European hierarchies and values, the specter of atheism, and the rise of racism and social revolts were shaking European societies-than an accurate description of Buddhist thought. The author also reflects on how this history continues to echo in contemporary Western understanding of Buddhism. The book includes a Buddhism published in the West between 1638 and 1890.
Roger-Pol Droit is a researcher in Philosophy at the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and a columnist for Le Monde. His most recent book is 101 Experiences de philosophie quotidienne.
From the Jacket:
This is a book on basic Buddhism with a difference, for it is written by a monk who was native of Ceylon, a scholar and a well-known preacher and broadcaster in Ceylon. He had the Pali canon and the commentaries at his fingertips, so that his book is full of apposite stories and quotations of what the Buddha said - many of them appearing in English for the first time.
In recent years a number of expositions of the Buddha's teachings have been published in English, but most of them lack authenticity and do not represent what the Buddha taught correctly. Hence the need for this authentic book based on the Four Noble Truths about suffering which are the central conception of Buddhism and on the Noble Eightfold Path which is Buddhism in Practice.
This should prove the standard textbook from which basic Buddhism of the Theravada is taught for many years to come. It cannot be stressed too strongly that the Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, China and Japan is based on and developed out of this basic Buddhism of the Theravadins in Ceylon.
About the Author:
The Venerable Piyadassi Thera was born in Ceylon. He was educated at Nalanda College, one of the most important centres of Buddhist education in Ceylon. He then entered the Ceylon University on a scholarship and read philosophy, culture and civilization. After completing the course he left the university without sitting for his examination as it was not his intention to study for degrees.
At the age of twenty he joined the Order as pupil of the Venerable Vajiranana Sangha Nayaka. At the feet of this great authority on Buddhism he imbibed the knowledge of Buddhism. Having traveled widely as a Buddhist missionary both in the East and in the West, he was able to write in a manner that could appeal to both.
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From the Jacket: This is a book on basic Buddhism with a difference, for it is written by a monk who was native of Ceylon, a scholar and a well-known preacher and broadcaster in Ceylon. He had the Pali canon and the commentaries at his fingertips, so that his book is full of apposite stories and quotations of what the Buddha said - many of them appearing in English for the first time. In recent years a number of expositions of the Buddha's teachings have been published in English, but most of them lack authenticity and do not represent what the Buddha taught correctly. Hence the need for this authentic book based on the Four Noble Truths about suffering which are the central conception of Buddhism and on the Noble Eightfold Path which is Buddhism in Practice. This should prove the standard textbook from which basic Buddhism of the Theravada is taught for many years to come. It cannot be stressed too strongly that the Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, China and Japan is based on and developed out of this basic Buddhism of the Theravadins in Ceylon. About the Author: The Venerable Piyadassi Thera was born in Ceylon. He was educated at Nalanda College, one of the most important centres of Buddhist education in Ceylon. He then entered the Ceylon University on a scholarship and read philosophy, culture and civilization. After completing the course he left the university without sitting for his examination as it was not his intention to study for degrees. At the age of twenty he joined the Order as pupil of the Venerable Vajiranana Sangha Nayaka. At the feet of this great authority on Buddhism he imbibed the knowledge of Buddhism. Having traveled widely as a Buddhist missionary both in the East and in the West, he was able to write in a manner that could appeal to both. |
From the Jacket
The book -make a brief survey of Buddhism in some of its interesting and important features in seven chapters. Beginning with the background it contains the life of Gautama Buddha, his Samgha and his basic teachings. It speaks how the religion propounded by Buddha got divided into various schools of thought with their doctrinal tenets within a few centuries after his Mahaparinirvana. The huge mass of Pali literature regarded as the great store-house of valuable information regarding the literary, social, political, economic, architectural and religious history of ancient India have been discussed herein. Here has also been pointed out the system of education which has widely prevalent and attracted men in quest of learning even from abroad.
True to its name the book presents many splendoured heritage of India embedded in Buddhist literature, the importance of which for the comprehensive study of our great civilization and culture can in no way be ignored or neglected. It will be useful illuminating to the scholars and the readers in general as well for a proper understanding of the cultural implications of Buddhism.
About the Author
Dr. Anukul Chandra Banerjee is one of the most distinguished scholars in the domain of Buddhist Studies and Tibetan History and Culture. He was the Professor and the Head of the Department of Pali and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Calcutta University. He has to his credit a number of books and research papers published in different periodicals in India and Abroad.
Preface
The book attempts to make a brief survey of Buddhism in some of is interesting and important features in seven chapters. Beginning with the background it contains the life of Gautama Buddha, his Samgha and his basic teachings. It speaks how the religion propounded by Buddha got divided into various schools of thought with their doctrinal tenets within a few centuries after his Mahaparinirvana. The huge mass of Pali literature regarded as the great store-house of valuable information regarding the literary, social, political, economic, architectural and religious history of ancient India have been discussed herein. Here has also been pointed out the system of education which has widely prevalent and attracted men in quest of learning even from abroad.
True to its name the book presents many splendoured heritage of India embedded in Buddhist literature, the importance of which for the comprehensive study of our great civilization and culture can in no way be ignored or neglected.
It will be useful illuminating to the scholars and the readers in general as well for a proper understanding of the cultural implications of Buddhism.
A Few of the chapters were published sometime back as articles in different journals.
About the Book:
This book gives an account of the life of the Buddha and an exposition of the religion and philosophy the Buddha propounded. This also analyzes the origins of Buddhist thought and traces its development from Hindu philosophical systems. Developments in Buddhist thought since the death of the Buddha are also dealt with as are Buddhist literature, sculpture and painting, both in India and in other pars of the world to which Buddhism spread.
"The aim of this," says the author, "is to set forth as simple as possible the Gospel of Buddhism according to the Buddhist scriptures, and to consider the Buddhist systems in relation, on the one hand, to the Brahmanical systems in which they originate, and, on the other hand, to those systems of Christian mysticism which afford the nearest analogies. At the same time the endeavour has been made to illustrate the part which Buddhist thought has played in the whole development of Asiatic culture, and to suggest a part of the significance it may still possess fro modern thinkers."
Dr. Coomaraswamy has succeeded in achieving this objective as only he could. With his genius for lucid exposition and with a beauty of style and exposition characteristically his own, he has succeeded in presenting some of the most complex concepts of Indian philosophy in terms which make them understandable even to the layman.
About the Author:
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, the greatest among the Indian art-historians, was born in Colombo on August 22, 1877. After graduating from the University of London he became the Director of the Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon. Between 1906 and 1917, when he joined as the Curator of Indian Art in the Boston Museum he was busy lecturing on Indian art and formed societies for the study of India art. In 1938, he became the Chairman of National Committee for India's Freedom. His contributions on Indian philosophy, religion, are and iconography, painting and literature are of the greatest importance as were his contributions on music, science and Islamic art. He died on September 9, 1947.
Art in Tibet is expression of the religion. It is regarded not as a work of art, but as a vehicle for expressing in a world of form the metaphysical concepts of religion. Most of the art in Tibetan religion or Lamaism is used for worship - the thangkas, images, votive tablets and ritual masks.
There are many things such as metal works, jewelry, charm boxes, musical instruments and other objects which are used for lay purposes, but are decorated with religious symbols. The materials and techniques employed by the monks are described in the Tibetan religious books, the Kanjur, the translated commandments and the Tanjur, the translated explanations.
Tibetan Religious Art, first published in 1952 is a simple book that answers such basic questions concerning Tibetan art, its origins, functions and symbolism. It was published at a time when, Tibetan canons dealing with the treatises on painting and sculpture were still not fully translated After all these years it still retains interest and authority.
About the Author:
Antoinette K. Gordon, was the research associate in anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. She made the study of Tibetan art and religion her life work. Her other works are: The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism http://www.exoticindiaart.com/The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism and Tibetan Tales: Stories from the Dsangs Blun.
From the Jacket:
The book contains a number of essays which D.T. Suzuki wrote from time to time concerning the specificity and uniqueness of Zen Buddhism, or the school of Buddhism that values meditative practice more than philosophical thinking. The book may be considered as an introduction to Zen on account of the concern shown for such themes which a beginner needs to know. In the very first essay is explained as to what Zen way of life denotes. Many find it difficult to comprehend the language of Zen. That is the author has made an attempt at clarifying the Zen idea of a koan, which is a paradoxical question verging almost on absurdity. It is believed that enlightenment or satori comes to be once a koan is understood. The book offers a rich banquet to those who want to taste the flavour of the feast of Zen.
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki was Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at the Otani University, Kyoto. He is probably the greatest living authority on Buddhist Philosophy and certainly the greatest authority on Zen Buddhism.
About the Book
This treatise on the growth and early development of the Sangha (Buddhist Monastic Order) has often been referred to by scholars as the most complete and masterly treatment of the subject and, as such, invaluable to students of Buddhism.
It has besides a peculiar importance in relation to the history of Indian culture, As the author says, "Indian culture is composite and the Buddhist contribution to it during the two millennia contribution to it during the two Millennia and a half that Buddhism was a living religion in India is so much a part and parcel of it that no true view of Indian culture is possible by ignoring the Buddhist contribution". This contribution was made through the organization of Buddhist monkhood. The author has shown with a wealth of masterly scholarship how this organization was established and developed in India. His chapters on the Patimokkha and Vinaya regulation of the monk community, the growth of conoebium among them, their internal polity and communal life, written from a scientific and historical point of view, are interestingly presented and will hold the general reader. First submitted anonymously as a prize-thesis to the University of Calcutta, it won the Griffith Memorial Prize in 1919. The verdict of the University examiners has been confirmed by Buddhistic scholars the world over who hailed it on its first publication as a work of exceptional originality and of great value in the study of Buddhism and Buddhist history
About the Author
Dr. Sukumar Dutt was born in 1891 at Barisal (now in Bangladesh). He specialized during his academic career in English literature in which he held doctorate. But his interest in Buddhism and ancient Indian history had been roused early in life by his uncle the late Aswini Kumar Dutt, a famous nationalist leader of Bengal of the first three decades of this century. Dr. Dutt had over many years carried on studies in this line and was recognized as one of the most accomplished scholars of Buddhism in this country. He was a Senior Research Fellow of the University of Delhi. His published works are The Buddha and Five After-centuries, Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Their Contribution to India Culture; Buddhism in History and Culture; Buddhism in History and culture of East Asian People; Mahaparinirbaner Katha (in Bengali).
He was translating 'Bangalier Itihas' by Prof. Niharranjan ray when he died on April 9, 1970
The annals and chronicles are Important for a study of political, religious, cultural and literary history of a country. This book Introduces to the readers for the first time a new picture in the field of annals and chronicles. It gives, not only, the history and the development of the Buddhist annals and chronicles of South-East Asia but it also refers to the important role played by the chronicles in the field of Pali and Singhalese literature in Ceylon. Fortunately, this is a first attempt, to give a connected account of the Buddhist annals and chronicles of South and South-East Asia, on the basis of all available sources. The book should be found useful to readers interested in the religious and cultural history of South and South-East Asia.
From the Jacket:
The annals and chronicles are important for a study of political, religious, cultural and literary history of a country. This book introduces to the readers for the first time a new picture in the field of annals and chronicles. It gives, not only, the history and the development of the Buddhist annals and chronicles of South-East Asia but it also refers to the important role played by the chroniclers in the field of Pali and Singhalese literature in Ceylon. Fortunately, this is a first attempt, to give a connected account of the Buddhist annals and chronicles of South and South-East Asia, on the basis of all available sources. The book should be found useful to readers interested in the religious and cultural history of South and South-East Asia.
From the Jacket:
Buddhism as a religion of salvation is not so much concerned with the question of heaven and hell as much as with the existential question of suffering. It is, thus, the text of human suffering that has determined the soteriological goal of Buddhism, which is characterized as to how to obtain release from human suffering itself. Since suffering is a fact of life, so the aim has been to search for such ways and means by the application of which suffering may be overcome. It is this concern of Buddhism with suffering that is the focus of this book, that is, what basically suffering means to a Buddhist. It is on the basis of this insight of the Buddha that the Buddhist thinkers have attempted to find such a practical framework that would serve that purpose of reaching the transcendent goal of salvation. Whatever the Buddhists have spoken about suffering, it must be seen as a practical devise of reaching the goal of salvation.
About the Author:
Moti Lal Pandit has been engaged in the Indological research for last thirty years. Upon completing his studies, the author had the opportunity of studying the abstruse Vedantic texts from Dayananda Saraswati. Later he studied the important tantric texts of Kashmir Shaiviam from Dr. Baljinath Pandit. The author has contributed numerous papers on Comparative Religion. Theology, Spirituality and Mysticism. The earlier works of the author include Vedic Hinduism; Philosophy of the Upanishads; The Essentials of Buddhism; Beyond the Word; Transcendence and Negation; Sunyata: The Essence of Mahayana Spirituality; and The Hidden Way."
The Surangama Sutra, or Leng Yen Ching, is a Buddhist apocalyptic text, which, alongwith an abridged commentary by Ch' an Master Han Shan, has ably been translated from Chinese into English by Charles Luk. Containing apocalyptic thinking, it is asserted that this Sutra will disappear upon the disappearance of the dharma. The basic concern of the text is to point out as to how the law of causality terminates in the emergence of delusion, and on account of delusion Samsaric bondage is given rise to. The only way to overcome delusion, and thereby bondage, is to attain the state of enlightenment. Since the attainment of enlightenment is seen as the solution of the problem, the text, thus, engages in laying down the road map of specific practices that enable one to reach the liberative goal of salvation, which is freedom from the law of causality and thereby from delusion and bondage. Insofar as the store consciousness (alaya) continues to function, to that extent causality will remain operative. The methods, as developed in the text, are thus aimed at breaking the alaya. Upon the destruction of three marks of the alaya, which are self-evidencing, perception and form, the practitioner attains what is called the Surangama samadhi, or the gateway to perfect enlightenment. Upon the attainment of enlightenment is revealed the nature of the Tathagata store of one reality. Preface This important sermon contains the essence of the Buddha's teaching and, as foretold by Him, will be the first sutra to disappear in the Dharma ending age. It reveals the law of causality relating to both delusion and enlightenment and teaches the methods of practice and realization to destroy forever the roots of birth and death. It aims at breaking up alaya, the store consciousness, whose three characteristics are: self-evidencing, perception and form, by means of the three meditative studies of noumenon which is immaterial, of phenomenon which is unreal and of the 'Mean' which is inclusive of both, and leads to the all-embracing Surangama samadhi which is the gateway to Perfect Enlightenment and reveals the nature of the Tathagata store of One Reality
From the Jacket
Mrs Rhys Davids, A Manual of Buddhism delves deep into the Pali Pitakas and Sanskrit Sutras of Buddhism, removes the huge mass of arid theology accumulated during the passage of that religion through different periods, different tongues and different races of men, and presents, in its pristine purity, the original message of the Buddha, who so extended the concepts of "way" and "Dharma" in the Upanishads, as to suit all men who "eddy about here and there, striving blindly, achieving nothing." He showed a way, which steered clear of the two extremes of self-indulgence and severe austerities; which was not an adage of worldly wisdom and prudence, no better than Aristotle's "the middle character is in all cases to be praised", which gave equal emphasis to all the joys and opportunities of life; which involved "a long steep journey through sunk gorges, over mountain in snow"; which became clear as one progressed; which required Dhamma as its only guide, which was one of advance to a clear goal; which was one of advance to a clear goal; which was no less adventurous than the one pursued by the prince in Kusa Jataka to win back his lost soulmate. His original teaching is so simple and direct that it is irresistible, which is the reason why Buddhism has survived as a world-religion to this day.
Mrs Rhys Davids' clarity of thought and diction, in combination with her deep erudition, have contributed in making this manual unique.
About the Author
Mrs Rhys Davids (27 September 1857 - 26 June 1942), a well-known authority on Buddhism, undertook the difficult task of translating from original Pali a number of Buddhist works which justifiably earned her a place among the foremost scholars of Buddhism. She was a pupil of Prof. T.W. Rhys Davids whom she later married. Besides her translation of the Dhamma-Sangani under the title of A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics, she undertook the translation and interpretation of a number of works on Abhidhamma. As the editor of the Pali Text Society, a number of other works were published under her guidance. She was also the author of a number of books and articles: the more well-known are: Buddhist Psychology, translation of Thera-Therigatha in English verse entitled Psalms of the Early Buddhist Brothers and Sisters, and The Wayfarers' Words (in three Vols.) and What was the Original Gospel in Buddhism?
From the Jacket:
In this book the author has tried to trace the relationship which exists between Zen and the two chief Mahayana Sutras the Gandavyuha and Prajnaparamita, and then the transformation, through which Indian Buddhism had to go while adapting itself to Chinese psychology. The Chinese are a practical people quite different from the Indian, who are highly endowed with the power of abstraction as well as an inexhaustible mine of imagination. It was natural that the Mahayana teachings had to be transformed as to make them appreciated by the Chinese. This meant that the Gandavyuha and Prajnaparamita were to be converted into Zen dialogues.
(Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki was Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at the Otani University, Kyoto)
Preface
In this Third Series of Zen Essays I have tried to trace the relationship which exists between Zen and the two chief Mahayana sutras, the Gandavyuha and the Prajnaparamita, and then the transformation through which Indian Buddhism had to go while adapting itself to Chinese psychology. The Chinese are a practical people quite different from the Indian, who are highly endowed with the power of abstraction as well as an inexhaustible mine of imagination. It was natural that the Mahayana teachings had to be so transformed as to make them appreciated by the Chinese. This meant that the Prajnaparamita and the Gandavyuha were to be converted into Zen dialogues.
As regards Zen contributions to Japanese culture, a special volume has been written.1 Apart from Buddhism, apart from Zen after the Kamakura era, Japanese cultural history has no significance, so deeply has Buddhism entered into the lifeblood of the people. My attempt here is merely tentative. The section on 'The Zen Life in Pictures' is also a suggestion; a fuller and more systematic treatment awaits another opportunity.
A few facts are to be mentioned concerning the matter treated in this Series, which have come up while it was in the press. (I) The Tun-huang MS. of the Sayings of Shen-hui mentioned in p. 2 I fn. and p. 37 fn. has already been re-produced in facsimile, while its printed and fully revised edition will be published before long. (2) Dr. Keiki Yabuki has published a book giving detailed explanations of the Tun-huang MSS. collected in his Echoes of the Desert. He supplies us with a wealth of useful information regarding them. (3) All page references to the Gandavyuha are either to the Idzumi MS. or to the R.A.S. one. (4) The Tun-huang MS. of Hui-neng's Tim-ching (p. 15 fn.) will be printed and made accessible to the general public. It will be accompanied by the Koshoji copy of the same. The latter is an old Japanese reprint of the fifteenth or sixteenth century, the Chinese original of which was probably printed some time in the tenth or the eleventh century. Quite likely it is the 'older edition' referred to in a preface to the current edition of the Tan-ching, Its historical importance is beyond dispute.
The author's thanks are, as usual, due to his wife, Beatrice Lane Suzuki, for reviewing the whole MSS. and reading the proofs, and to Mrs. Ruth Fuller Everett, of Chicago, who also kindly read the proofs.
Reference to the generous encouragement of the author's friend, Yakichi Ataka, is not to be omitted just because he is always ready to respond unhesitatingly to all the requests of the author and to make the teachings of Zen Buddhism universally approachable within the limits of literary interpretation.
The Eleven-Headed Avalokitevara is a study of the many origins that may have played a part in arriving at this number of heads, based on forms and powers: male and female forms; origins based on name; in scriptural evidence and images, as well as Hindu deities, and finally origin seen in Rock-cut litanies in caves of India.
Manifold as the sources are, they led to consideration of this Bodhisattva as the highest form of compassion in the widest sense of the word, the savior for humanity of eight to ten dreads, which assail and defeat humankind, especially for exposed travelers, be they pilgrims going to visit and pray at Buddhist shrines, or monks seeking new temples or to find new masters to teach them.
This essay weaves together a panorama in South Asia, moving up to Central Asian and Chinese cultures who contributed their own examples from caves in China (Tun Huang) that also held depositories of paintings brought back to modern cultures for study in Paris and London; long scrolls such as the Yunan Tali Kingdom’s treasure from the late Sung period, all told tales of Buddhist iconography and styles that most often harked back to earlier Indian models.
Korea found influence from China and Japan had the Eleven-Headed in metal and also of lacquer and wood in splendid examples from seventh and eighth centuries on. Still, most astounding is a theory weaving the thread back to the Indian cave litanies, showing how the Bodhisattva as savior caused in practice of art to furnish the model for how the ten scenes of dreads plus the great Avalokitevara’s own face led to an eleven-headed” giants” seen in Indian Gupta styles.
Tove E. Neville is a Buddhist scholar who has spent nine years in research of Eleven-Headed Avalokitevara in Asia. After traveling in more than 30 countries, visiting important sites of both occidental and oriental art, she settled for fifteen years in Japan. While living in the Orient, she examined especially Chinese and Japanese examples of Buddhist art but also made repeated study trips to India and Southeast Asia, and to special oriental art collections and sites in Taiwan, Korea, France, England and Switzerland Intermittently she pursued her graduate studies in oriental art history at the University of Hawaii.
Ms Neville has received initiation in Theravada Buddhism in Thailand, in Tibetan Buddhism in India and in Shingon (Esoteric) Buddhism in Japan, and has practiced these and Zen meditation over a period of twenty-five years.
About the Book : Sakya or Buddhist Origins by Mrs. Rhys Davids is as relevant today as it was in 1928, the year of its first publication. Time has added to its value. The remarkable progress in the realm of Science has not abated man's yearning for the call of the quest.
As the title implies, its aim is to unravel the genuine message of Gotama, the Buddha, from the accretions in the Pali scriptures, by adopting the techniques of archaeologist. It is divided into two parts. Part one treats of "the discovery, the reconstruction, the rehabilitation of that which, at its birth, was a new and true word from very man to very man, true always and everywhere." Part two tells how this gospel came to be dressed "to suit a monastic set of ideals." An appendix dealing with Pali Pitakas is added.
Over the years, in spite of a large number of books, the horizons of knowledge about Buddhism have remained stationary. This book takes a further step in widening that Knowledge and thus provides an impetus for further research.
About the Author : Mrs. Rhys Davids (27 September 1857 - 26 June 1942), a well-known authority on Buddhism, undertook the difficult task of translating from original Pali a number of Buddhist works which justifiably earned her a place among the foremost scholars of Buddhism. She was a pupil of Prof. T.W. Rhys Davids whom she later married. Besides her translation of the Dhamma-Sangani undertook the translation and interpretation of a number of works on Abhidhamma. As the editor of the Pali Text Society, a number of other works were published under her guidance. She was also the author of a number of books and articles: the more well-known are: Buddhist Psychology, translation of Thera-T
The book was originally submitted to Banaras Hindu University in 2012 for the award of Doctor in Philosophy. R.C. Pradhan, Professor of Philosophy from University of Hyderabad, after examining this thesis, writes "... this is an excellent study of the recent interpretations of Nagarjuna's philosophy. This study bears the stamp of deep scholarship in Buddhism, especially in the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nagarjuna. This work covers the vast literature on Nagarjuna's Philosophy and its interpretations by the scholars both Indian and Western and has critically examined all sorts of interpretations from the nihilistic to the absolutistic, logico-linguistic and deconstructionistic. Mr Joy rejects all interpretations with critical and detailed examinations of their viewpoints. His wide survey of literature and deep understanding of the problems posed by them has made him understand Nagarjuna without an intermediary. Nagarjuna's sayings quoted from original sources have put his philosophy in clearer light.... Mr Joy's arguments are convincing and based on wide scholarship. His excellent bibliography is a standing testimony to his wide reading and reflections. He has organized the chapters well with detailed footnotes. He has, on the whole, developed an original approach to the understanding of Nagarjuna's Philosophy of Sunyata...."
This book is a pioneering study on the contribution of Eastern Chalukyas to the art and architecture of Andhradesa. Bikkavolu is located in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh where a group of six fine temples are existing. The Bikkavolu temples though not included in the pancharamas, form the earliest group and typical examples of the Dravidian style of architecture in the heart of coastal Andhra. The three temples located on the outskirts of the Bikkavolu village form the early group, with cognate architectural features and the other temples located within the village belong to a later group. On a comparison of the art and architectural features the Early Chalukya and Rastrakuta temples the early group of temples is dated to late ninth century AD, particularly to the reign of Gunaga Vijayaditya (AD 848-92) and the later group to late eleventh century AD, particularly to the reign of Rajaraja Narendra (AD 1022-61) or Vijayaditya VII (AD 1061-75). The work is fully based upon field study of the temples, profusely illustrated with photographs of the temples, the architecture sculpture and iconography along with the ground plans. Printed Pages: 157 with 58 b/w plates.
About the Author:
Dr. S. Nageswara Rao took his M.A., Ph.D. degrees in Ancient History and Archaeology from the Andhra University in 1976 and 1983 respectively. After serving a brief period (1982-85) in the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Andhra Pradesh, he joined the teaching faculty of History and Archaeology of Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam in 1985. He is at present Associate Professor and a member of the P.G. Board of Studies in History and Archaeology. His specialization includes Indian Art and Architecture and Conservation and Museology.
This a revised edition of the book, first published in 1995. It deals with crucial though controversial question in Buddhist art: the origin of the Buddha image– its transformation from aniconism to anthropomorphism– and the iconography of the Buddha images.
The earliest Buddhist art of Sanchi and Bharhut is anicionic; the Buddha is represented in symbols only. In the later Buddhist art of Gandhara and Mathura, the Buddha is represented in human from; he is the principle subject of sculptural art. The book seeks to explore the geographical area in which the image of the Buddha first emerged and whether ideology of the Buddhist doctrines–Hinayana or Mahayana –had anything to do with this transformation and whether anthropomorphism of the Buddha image is of Greek inspiration.
The Buddha image, as developed eventually at Sarnath, became the model for the Buddha images in whole of Asia–Southeast, Central, and Eastern.
The iconographic features of the Buddha images are superficially an aberration, being in apparent conflict with the doctrine. The Buddha had cut off his hair at the time of his renunciation; the rules of the order enjoin that a monk must be tonsured and must discard and eschew all ornamentation. However, in his images, the Buddha has a luxuriant crop of hair on his head; later he also came to be endowed with a crown and jewels which, strictly speaking, are a taboo for a renunciant.
After an exhaustive examination of the views of various scholar, the book answer these questions and resolves the controversies on the basis of literary, sculptural, numismatic, and epigraphic sources. More importantly, it makes use of the valuable evidence from the contemporaneous and parallel religious tradition–Jainism and jaina art: aniconism of early Jaina art and the iconographic features of later Jaina images. The implications of this study are also important: does India owe idolatry to Buddhism? Was this of foreign inspiration, Greek to be precise? Was the Buddha image fashioned after the Vedic Brahma and whether the Buddha’s usnisa and Buddhist art motifs are rooted in the Vedic tradition?
The book is profusely illustrated and provides rich and stimulating fare to students of Indian art in general and of Buddhist art in particular.
About the Author : Y.Krishan is a scholar in Indology –Indian history, religion, philosophy and art. He has published over 150 research papers on these subjects in leading journals in India and abroad.He has also published a book Audit in India's Democracy.
Hinduism and Buddhism is divided into two parts with copious notes added to each part. In the first part, dealing with Hinduism, Coomaraswamy has examined in detail the fundamental concepts like karma, maya, reincarnation, the darsanas, the sacrifice, social order, etc., and in the second part, dealing with Buddhism, he shows that in essentials it was the same as Hinduism and that Buddha did not strive to establish a new order to restore an older form. In sum, the basic philosophy of great religions is drawn from a common fount and the new religions are but the recognition of the common thought manifested under different forms.
Cover:Hard Cover
Edition : 1996
Publisher : Munshiram Manoharlal Publication Pvt.Ltd
ISBN : 9788121500371
Language : English
Pages : 96