Property:Abstract
From Bodhicitta
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C
No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:
The present work is rendered into the Chinese by Fâ-hu and Zih-khan A.D. 1004 1058 (Nanjio's Cat. No, 1298). It is done so carelessly that we very often meet with mechanical juxtapositions of words and phrases corresponding with the original, giving no connected sense at all, which render this translation so far untrustworthy. But large portions of the works cited by the author we find correctly translated into Chinese. Moreover in finding our way about the stock phrases or technical expressions and other terminology peculiar to Buddhism we Buddhists stand in a position of some advantage.<br> The main object of the present paper is to illustrate certain selected passages from Chinese sources, leaving to others whose knowledge of Buddhist Sanskrit may be more extended than my own, the criticism of the work from the Indian side.<br> At present, I must confess, I have no time to read through this treasury of Mahāyāna doctrine. My search is limited generally to those passages, which the editor noted as doubtful or obscure in their reading. In a few cases other portions are touched on when they came under my notice.<br> As to my use of the Chinese, I may explain that the latest Japanese edition of the Chinese Buddhist Tripiṭaka is divided into forty groups; each group is designated, as it formerly was, by the successive characters of the " Sentence of Thousand (different) Characters " Each group thus designated contains 9 to 15 fasciculi numbered by numerals. I denote each fasciculus by Roman figure in its order, discarding the original awkward numbering. As to the version of the Śikṣāsamuccaya I give only number of leaf, for the whole work is included in fasc. CLXXXV (1). (Wogihara, "Contributions," 96–97) +
Bodies play important and diverse roles in Buddhist ethics. Drawing upon an Indian Mahayana Buddhist compendium of bodhisattva practice, this paper explores the role bodhisattva bodies play in the ethical development of other living beings. Bodhisattvas adopt certain disciplinary practices in order to produce bodies whose very sight, sound, touch, and even taste transform living beings in physical and moral ways. The compendium uses a common South Asian and Buddhist metaphor to describe a bodhisattva's physical and moral impact on others. Bodhisattvas are said to "cook living beings." The paper considers how this metaphor suggests ways of nuancing modern Western conceptions of ethical self-cultivation, particularly as articulated by Michel Foucault in his studies of the technologies of the self. +
Cosmopolitanism in the Himalayas: The Intellectual and Spiritual Journeys of Khu nu bla ma stan 'dzin rgyal mtshan and His Sikkimese Teacher, Khang gsar ba bla ma O rgyan bstan 'dzin rin po che +
This article examines the extensive travels of Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen (1895-1977) and his Sikkimese teacher Khangsar Lama, arguing that their journeys across the Himalayas exemplify a form of "cosmopolitanism" in Tibetan Buddhist culture.
Khunu Lama traveled from his home in Kinnaur through Sikkim, Central Tibet, and Khams over approximately 30 years, studying with many of the greatest Buddhist masters of his time across all four Tibetan Buddhist traditions. He later became an important teacher to the Dalai Lama and played a significant role in preserving and transmitting Buddhist lineages in India after 1959, particularly regarding the study and practice of bodhicitta.
The author argues that such extensive travel for learning created vast interpersonal networks that connected distant Himalayan regions and transcended sectarian boundaries, representing a uniquely Himalayan form of intellectual cosmopolitanism and modernity rooted in renewing connections to traditional Buddhist scholarship. +
This is an English translation of the story of Saṅgharakṣita (Saṅgharakṣitāvadāna) extracted from the ''Pravrajyāvastu'' (The Chapter on Going Forth) from the ''Vinayavastu'' of the ''Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya''. +
No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:
"Bodhisattva," or in Pāli, ''bodhisatta'', is a compound of bodhi, meaning "awakening"—as in the Bodhi tree—and sattva, meaning "being." Beginning already in the Pāli Canon, a bodhisattva has been understood as one who makes the intention to liberate beings from suffering. In Śāntideva's words, that the Dalai Lama is so fond of quoting: "As long as space abides and as long as the world abides, so long may I abide, destroying the sufferings of the world." To realize this intention, the aspiring bodhisattva seeks to cultivate a mind characterized by stability, insight, and an openness and compassion for others. This mind, ''bodhicitta'' (literally, "awakened mind") is attained through practicing virtues, or perfections. Śāntideva's ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' is an introduction to these practices. [https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/article/cultivating-bodhicitta/ Read more here] +
D
From the University of Hamburg Website regarding this publication:
Buddhism in Past and Present
From the winter term 1996/7 to the winter term 2005/6 the University of Hamburg conducted under changing academic leadership (Prof. Dr. Lambert Schmithausen, Prof. Dr. David Jackson, Prof. Dr. Eli Franco, Prof. Dr. Karin Preisendanz, Prof. Dr. Jan Sobisch, PD Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes) a non-curricular study program titled “Buddhism in Past and Present.” This program (lectures, group work, plenum discussions), initiated by the coordinator Prof. Dr. Klaus Glashoff for persons interested to study Buddhism after their academic education, was organised in collaboration with the Tibetan Centre in Hamburg, and temporary with the Buddhist Society Hamburg under the auspices of the Department for Continuing Academic Education (Arbeitsstelle für wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung), University of Hamburg, with the aim of acquainting participants with the rich historical, philosophical and practical aspects of Buddhism.<br> The lectures were delivered not only by teaching staff and other affiliated persons of the University of Hamburg but also by scholars from other German and European universities, and by representatives of various living Buddhist traditions as well.<br> The lectures covered a broad range of topics: the historical development of Buddhism from the beginning up to the teachings of Japanese Zen and various contemporary forms of Buddhism; Buddhist ethics; women in Buddhism; meditation; and violence and non-violence from a Buddhist perspective.<br> With the lecturers’ permission, we are here making transcripts of their lectures available. The lectures were meant for the participants of the study program and should not be considered publications in a strict sense. ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/publikationen/2-buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart.html Source Accessed Feb 18, 2021]) +
Skilton addresses the notoriously difficult problem of dating the ''Samādhirājasūtra'' (SRS), a Mahāyāna text whose composition history, like much of the genre, resists single-date generalizations. Rejecting linear models of textual development (e.g., Gilgit → Tibetan → Nepalese), he argues that the SRS in fact circulated in at least three—and by his fuller reckoning, four—distinct recensions simultaneously across a wide geographic area, each requiring its own independent chronology: (1) the version translated into Chinese by Narendrayaśas and witnessed in Central Asian Sanskrit fragments, known as the ''Candrapradīpasamādhisūtra''; (2) the untitled Gilgit manuscript version; (3) a longer recension (SRS I) preserved in Nepalese manuscripts and the Tibetan translation; and (4) a further revised long recension (SRS II), also Nepalese.
Working from datable Chinese translations (5th–6th century) as a baseline, Skilton then marshals a series of textual citations and allusions to push the evidence further back: quotations of the SRS in Nāgārjuna's ''Sūtrasamuccaya'' (if authentic, pointing to a 2nd-century terminus), an allusion in Nāgārjuna's ''Acintyastava'', borrowing from the SRS's "samādhi list" in a 7th-century sūtra (the ''Prasāntaviniścayaprātihāryasamādhisūtra''), and—his most original contribution—a previously unrecognized reference to the ''Samādhirājasūtra'' by name in Asaṅga's ''Mahāyānasaṃgraha'' (c. 310–390 C.E.), which he argues has been mistranslated by Lamotte as referring to meditative states rather than scriptural titles.
Skilton concludes that at least three recensions were circulating contemporaneously by the 6th century C.E., with the "long" recension (SRS I) attested by Candrakīrti's citations and confirmed by the 7th-century ''Prasāntaviniścayaprātihāryasamādhisūtra''<i>'</i>s borrowings. If Asaṅga's reference specifically denotes the recension known as the ''Samādhirājasūtra'' (as opposed to the ''Candrapradīpasamādhisūtra''), the date for that recension could be pushed back to the 4th century C.E.—considerably earlier than the 11th–12th century dates of the earliest surviving Sanskrit manuscripts (SRS I and SRS II respectively).
Dazzling Displays and Hidden Departures: Bodhisattva Pedagogy as Performance in the Biographies of Two Twentieth Century Tibetan Buddhist Masters +
This article, part of a special issue on pedagogy and performance in Tibetan Buddhism, explores two closely-related yet apparently opposite Tibetan repertoires of virtuoso Buddhist mastery as sites of performative pedagogy. One of these modes of Buddhist mastery is connected with the ideal virtuoso figure of the yogic ''siddha'', or ''druptop'' (Tib. ''grub thob''), and with remarkable manifestations of yogic prowess (what are sometimes called yogic "miracles" in English). The other mode is connected with the ideal of renunciation, and the Tibetan Buddhist virtuoso figure of the renunciant hermit-wanderer, or ''chatralwa'' (Tib. ''bya bral ba''). In Indic and Tibetan literature, both of these repertoires of Buddhist mastery are classically associated with a bodhisattva's teaching activity in the world, and with a bodhisattva’s use of many kinds of skillful means (Skt. ''upāya''; Tib. ''thabs'') to develop individuals on the Buddhist path. (A bodhisattva, in Mahayana Buddhist terms, is someone who has vowed to achieve Buddhahood to benefit others.) I explore how these related modes of virtuoso pedagogical performance emerge in oral and textual life stories of two notable twentieth-century Tibetan masters. These modes of virtuoso Buddhist pedagogy and Tibetan ways of talking about them challenge our understandings of what it means to "perform" and what it means to "renounce," with renunciation emerging as a guarantor of the genuineness of someone’s altruism. +
In this article LaMacchia re-tells a group of nuns' oral account of Negi Lama's death and explores their story's meaning in the contexts of the literary genre of sacred biography and ideas about death in Buddhism. She asks, "What is the role of the after-death miracles in their accounts?" Unusually, the creators of sacred biography here are nuns, and they have embedded the lama's story in their own life stories. LaMacchia begins with the lama's relation to nuns; then defines the contexts; quotes excerpts from their translated accounts; and concludes. +
This article by Greg Forgues explores and contextualizes the philosophical debates between Mipham Rinpoche, representing the Nyingma tradition, and Geluk scholars like Drakar Tulku and Pari Lobsang Rabsel in nineteenth-century Tibet. The debates centered around interpretations of Madhyamaka philosophy, particularly focusing on Mipham's commentary, ''Ketaka Jewel'', on Śāntideva's ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''. Key points of contention included the nature of the two truths, the object of negation in Madhyamaka reasoning, the realization of emptiness by arhats, and the relationship between the six perfections on the bodhisattva path.
This examination offers valuable insights into the rich philosophical discourse on the "Wisdom Chapter" of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' that developed over the centuries within Tibetan Buddhism. It highlights fundamental differences between the Geluk and Nyingma schools in their approach to Buddhist philosophy and practice. By contrasting Tsongkhapa's Geluk interpretation with Mipham's Nyingma view, this article gives a detailed account of how these traditions interpret key concepts like the two truths, the nature of ultimate reality, and the path to enlightenment. +
Chapter 10 ends the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' with a concluding prayer, in which Śāntideva makes a dedication for the benefit of others, a dedication for the benefit of oneself, and a dedication for the flourishing of the teachings. +
This thesis examines Ratnākaraśānti's (ca. 970-1045 C.E.) explication of
Prajñāpāramitā in his doxographical works and his ''Sāratamā''. Based on extant
Sanskrit and Tibetan primary sources, it argues that Ratnākaraśānti's main teacher
was Dharmakīrtiśrī (late 10th C.E.) and that Ratnākaraśānti's ''Sāratamā'' sought to
replace his teacher's Yogācāra-Mādhyamika framework with a causal explanation of
''Prajñāpāramitā'' through redefining the term ''Prajñāpāramitā'' as the path to
awakening, rather than its goal. By unpacking that causal explanation in light of his
broader system, the thesis demonstrates the way that Ratnākaraśānti's own version of Nirākāravādin-Yogācāra-Mādhyamika refutes cognitive images (''ākāra'') as unreal
ultimately, but claims they are still perceived by buddhas out of compassion. This
conclusion debunks the long-standing theory that Ratnākaraśānti was an Indian
proponent of the controversial Tibetan ''gZhan-stong'' despite later ''gZhan-stong'' proponents' attempts to claim him as their own.
There are two parts to the study. The first part introduces Ratnākaraśānti's life,
philosophy and doxography based upon evidence from a Tibetan colophon to his
Mādhyamika commentary and the Tibetan hagiography of his student Adhīśa (a.k.a.
Atiśa) and upon a comparative analysis of his doxographical works that are
prerequisites for reading his ''Sāratamā''. The second part consists of an annotated
translation of the Sāratamā's introductory section, contrasted with the prior standard
interpretation by Haribhadra's (9th century C.E.).
In the two appendices are included a Tibetan critical edition and a separate hybrid Sanskrit and Tibetan critical edition of the Sāratamā's first ''parivarta'' based on
the extant 11th and 13th century incomplete MSS and on the Tibetan translations in the sDe dge, Peking and sNarthang editions. The hybrid edition also includes my
provisional critical edition of the root text—i.e. the first ''parivarta'' of the ''Āryāṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra''—and my own translation of two small sample sections of the ''Sāratamā'', which are extant only in Tibetan, back into Sanskrit.
This paper reconstructs an Indian Buddhist response to the overdemandingness objection, the claim that a moral theory asks too much of its adherents. In the first section, I explain the objection and argue that some Mahāyāna Buddhists, including Śāntideva, face it. In the second section, I survey some possible ways of responding to the objection as a way of situating the Buddhist response alongside contemporary work. In the final section, I draw upon writing by Vasubandhu and Śāntideva in reconstructing a Mahāyāna response to the objection. An essential component of this response is the psychological transformation that the bodhisattva achieves as a result of realizing the nonexistence of the self. This allows him to radically identify his well-being with the well-being of others, thereby lessening the tension between self and others upon which the overdemandingness objection usually depends. Emphasizing the attention Mahāyāna authors pay to lessening moral demandingness in this way increases our appreciation of the philosophical sophistication of their moral thought and highlights an important strategy for responding to the overdemandingness objection that has been underdeveloped in contemporary work. +
Nāgārjuna, who lived in South India in approximately the first century C.E., is undoubtedly the most important, influential, and widely studied Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher. He is the founder of the Mādhyamika, or Middle Path, schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. His considerable corpus includes texts addressed to lay audiences, letters of advice to kings, and the set of penetrating metaphysical and epistemological treatises that represent the foundation of the highly skeptical and dialectical analytic philosophical school known as Mādhyamika. Most important of these is his largest and best-known text, the ''Mūlamādhyamikakārikā-in English, ''Fundamental Stanzas on the Middle Way''. This text in turn inspires a huge commentarial literature in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Divergences in interpretation of the ''Mūlamādhyamikakārikā'' often determine the splits between major philosophical schools. So, for instance, the distinction between two of the three major Mahāyāna philosophical schools, Svātantrika-Mādhyamika and Prāsaṅgika-Mādhyamika, reflect, ''inter alia'', distinct readings of this text, itself taken as fundamental by scholars within each of these schools.
The treatise itself is composed in very terse, often cryptic verses, with much of the explicit argument suppressed, generating significant interpretative challenges. But the uniformity of the philosophical methodology and the clarity of the central philosophical vision expressed in the text together provide a considerable fulcrum for exegesis. The central topic of the text is emptiness-the Buddhist technical term for the lack of independent existence, inherent existence, or essence in things. Nāgārjuna relentlessly analyzes phenomena or processes that appear to exist independently and argues that they cannot so exist, and yet, though lacking the inherent existence imputed to them either by naive common sense or by sophisticated, realistic philosophical theory, these phenomena are not nonexistent-they are, he argues, conventionally real.
This dual thesis of the conventional reality of phenomena together with their lack of inherent existence depends upon the complex doctrine of the two truths or two realities-a conventional or nominal truth and an ultimate truth-and upon a subtle and surprising doctrine regarding their relation. It is, in fact, this sophisticated development of the doctrine of the two truths as a vehicle for understanding Buddhist metaphysics and epistemology that is Nāgārjuna's greatest philosophical contribution. (Garfield, introduction, 219)
Read more [https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=phi_facpubs here].
This article explores the basic import of the doctrine of dependent arising, based on relevant discourses and in the light of an apparent antecedent in a Vedic creation myth. The principle of dependent arising in the form of specific conditionality (and its ceasing) can be distinguished from applications of this principle in a series of dependently arising links, the most common instance of which covers twelve links leading from ignorance to old age and death.
Read the full article [https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/article/dependent-arising/ here]. +
A common conceptualization of development as a binary relationship between trustees and target groups is inadequate. This article proposes the metaphor of development as an entangled cultural knot, constituted by multiple power relations. It uses this concept to analyze a recent slaughter renunciation movement, in which some leading Tibetan Nyingma masters from Larung Gar have suggested that Tibetan herders give up selling their livestock to the slaughter market for religious reasons. The movement reflects an alternative form of development articulated by several leading Tibetan Buddhist teachers, particularly Khenpo Tsultrim Lodroe, yet it goes against the state project of developing the yak meat industry. This movement has been criticized not only by state officials, but also by secular Tibetan intellectuals, as well as by herders. This article argues that the complex relationships among Tibetan Nyingma teachers, state officials, Tibetan secularists, and herders; their shared and competing interests; and the apparently contradictory positions they take on various issues require a much more sophisticated conceptual tool than the simple dichotomous conceptualization of development. +
One of the most influential figures of precolonial Southeast Asia was the monk known as
Dharmakīrti of the Golden Isles. In the early 11th century ce, the famous Atiśa, “Dīpaṃkara”
(986–1054), sailed across the Bay of Bengal to study with him. Today this Dharmakīrti is
remembered as the forefather of a religious tradition that was brought to Tibet by his illustrious
student. However, few attempts have been made to locate his life and work in his nominal
homeland. Little is known about what he taught, his exact whereabouts, or why Atiśa searched
for him across the seas. This paper looks into and beyond Tibetan hagiography to examine
potential traces of the Golden Isles Dharmakīrti in the Malay Peninsula, South India and China,
as well as in the vast literature of late Buddhism. Accordingly, the authorship of 10th- and
11th-century works attributed to figures called Dharmakīrti will be investigated here, including
the Āryācalasādhana, Vajrasūcī and Rūpāvatāra. Secondary studies routinely state that the
Golden Isles Dharmakīrti lived in Sumatra, but the only part of the region that is definitely
linked to him is Lembah Bujang in Kedah. It has already been established that a king of Kedah,
Cūḍāmaṇivarman (fl. 1003–05), sponsored the major work of the Golden Isles Dharmakīrti, the
Durbodhālokā. Here it will be shown that Kedah’s location is also consistent with the itinerary
of Atiśa’s hazardous ocean voyage, and with information in an illuminated manuscript created
in 1015 with unusual knowledge of the region. Tradition states that South Asian students were
drawn to the Dharmakīrti of the Golden Isles by his reputation; however, they clearly also sought
to travel to the Golden Isles at a time when Buddhism on the subcontinent was starting to be
engulfed in chaos. +
The question in the title has recently been answered in the affirmative by Paul Williams in his book on ''Altruism and Reality: Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryāvatāra''. Williams assumes that Śāntideva attempted to justify the bodhisattva’s universal altruism on the basis of a reductive conception of a person, and that this entails a number of absurd consequences that are destructive of the bodhisattva path. Williams concedes that Śāntideva might have avoided these consequences if he had adopted a non-reductive conception of the person as a conventional truth, but Williams seems to assume that this would have to be an individualistic conception, and in that case it would have prevented Śāntideva from reaching his desired conclusion.
I argue that there may be a way out of this dilemma if we interpret Śāntideva’s conception of the person in the direction of an interpersonal holism. In this view, others are perceived not only as more or less similar to oneself, but as parts of oneself. The bodhisattva path is understood as a transformation from the small to the big self within the framework of conventional truth, and eventually to non-self within the highest truth. I believe that this approach takes better care of those few verses in chapter eight of Śāntideva’s book, on which Williams has based his interpretation, and that it is supported by a number of other verses in this context, to which Williams has not paid much attention. +
From the University of Hamburg Website regarding this publication:
Buddhism in Past and Present
From the winter term 1996/7 to the winter term 2005/6 the University of Hamburg conducted under changing academic leadership (Prof. Dr. Lambert Schmithausen, Prof. Dr. David Jackson, Prof. Dr. Eli Franco, Prof. Dr. Karin Preisendanz, Prof. Dr. Jan Sobisch, PD Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes) a non-curricular study program titled “Buddhism in Past and Present.” This program (lectures, group work, plenum discussions), initiated by the coordinator Prof. Dr. Klaus Glashoff for persons interested to study Buddhism after their academic education, was organised in collaboration with the Tibetan Centre in Hamburg, and temporary with the Buddhist Society Hamburg under the auspices of the Department for Continuing Academic Education (Arbeitsstelle für wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung), University of Hamburg, with the aim of acquainting participants with the rich historical, philosophical and practical aspects of Buddhism.<br> The lectures were delivered not only by teaching staff and other affiliated persons of the University of Hamburg but also by scholars from other German and European universities, and by representatives of various living Buddhist traditions as well.<br> The lectures covered a broad range of topics: the historical development of Buddhism from the beginning up to the teachings of Japanese Zen and various contemporary forms of Buddhism; Buddhist ethics; women in Buddhism; meditation; and violence and non-violence from a Buddhist perspective.<br> With the lecturers’ permission, we are here making transcripts of their lectures available. The lectures were meant for the participants of the study program and should not be considered publications in a strict sense. ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/publikationen/2-buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart.html Source Accessed Feb 18, 2021]) +
From the University of Hamburg Website regarding this publication:
Buddhism in Past and Present
From the winter term 1996/7 to the winter term 2005/6 the University of Hamburg conducted under changing academic leadership (Prof. Dr. Lambert Schmithausen, Prof. Dr. David Jackson, Prof. Dr. Eli Franco, Prof. Dr. Karin Preisendanz, Prof. Dr. Jan Sobisch, PD Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes) a non-curricular study program titled “Buddhism in Past and Present.” This program (lectures, group work, plenum discussions), initiated by the coordinator Prof. Dr. Klaus Glashoff for persons interested to study Buddhism after their academic education, was organised in collaboration with the Tibetan Centre in Hamburg, and temporary with the Buddhist Society Hamburg under the auspices of the Department for Continuing Academic Education (Arbeitsstelle für wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung), University of Hamburg, with the aim of acquainting participants with the rich historical, philosophical and practical aspects of Buddhism.<br> The lectures were delivered not only by teaching staff and other affiliated persons of the University of Hamburg but also by scholars from other German and European universities, and by representatives of various living Buddhist traditions as well.<br> The lectures covered a broad range of topics: the historical development of Buddhism from the beginning up to the teachings of Japanese Zen and various contemporary forms of Buddhism; Buddhist ethics; women in Buddhism; meditation; and violence and non-violence from a Buddhist perspective.<br> With the lecturers’ permission, we are here making transcripts of their lectures available. The lectures were meant for the participants of the study program and should not be considered publications in a strict sense. ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/publikationen/2-buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart.html Source Accessed Feb 18, 2021]) +
