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A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā)
Book
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Description
A Few Good Men is a study and translation of The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā), one of the most influential Mahāyāna sutras on the bodhisattva path, but also one of the most neglected texts in Western treatments of Buddhism. To achieve a better understanding of the universe of ideas, activities, and institutional structures within which early self-proclaimed bodhisattvas lived, the author first considers the Ugra as a literary document, employing new methodological tools to examine the genre to which it belongs, the age of its extant versions, and their relationships to one another. She goes on to challenge the dominant notions that the Mahāyāna emerged as a "reform" of earlier Buddhism and offered lay people an “easier option.”
A Few Good Men will be compelling reading for scholars and practitioners alike and others interested in the history of Indian Buddhism and the formation of Mahāyāna. (Source: University of Hawai'i Press)
Citation
Nattier, Jan. A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā). Studies in the Buddhist Traditions. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2003.
Publisher Link
Interconnections
1 Other editions
A study and translation of the Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchāsūtra), one of the most influential Mahāyāna sūtras, by Jan Nattier.
1 Scholarship on
A group of wealthy householders led by Ugra ask the Buddha for guidance on the proper conduct for married, male, lay practitioners. The Buddha answers by laying out, in great detail, the many challenges presented by remaining in a household as compared to the many advantages of going forth as an ordained monk and renouncing worldly life. Instructions are also given on how laymen should behave when visiting a monastery. Convinced of the superiority of monastic renunciation, Ugra and the other householders request to go forth and receive monastic ordination. The Buddha then lays out the proper conduct for renunciant bodhisattvas while living in retreat in the wilderness. (Source: 84000)
