Buddhism: sacred texts and revered writings Books

Book SynopsisLiberation is a fundamental subject in South Asian doctrinal and philosophical reflection. This book is a study of the discussion of liberation from suffering presented by Dharmakīrti, one of the most influential Indian philosophers. It includes an edition and translation of the section on the cessation of suffering according to Manorathanandin, the last commentator on Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika in the Sanskrit cosmopolis. The edition is based on the manuscript used by Sāṅkṛtyāyana and other sources. Methodological issues related to editing ancient Sanskrit texts are examined, while expanding on the activity of ancient pandits and modern editors.

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Book SynopsisText, History, and Philosophy. Abhidharma Across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions discusses Abhidhamma / Abhidharma as a specific exegetical method. In the first part of the volume, the development of the Buddhist argumentative technique is discussed. The second part investigates the importance of the Buddhist rational tradition for the development of Buddhist philosophy. The third part focuses on some peculiar doctrinal issues that resulted from rational Abhidharmic reflections. In this way, an outline of the development of the Abhidharma genre and of Abhidharmic notions and concepts in India, Central Asia, China, and Tibet from the life time of the historical Buddha to the tenth century CE is given. Contributors are: Johannes Bronkhorst, Lance S. Cousins, Bart Dessein, Tamara Ditrich, Bhikkhu Kuala Lumpur Dhammajoti, Dylan Esler, Eric Greene, Goran Kardaš, Jowita Kramer, Chen-kuo Lin, Andrea Schlosser, Ingo Strauch, Weijen Teng and Yao-ming Tsai.Trade Review"In my own evaluation, the most important aspect of this collection is that it addresses an absolutely central issue about the study of Buddhist rational inquiry. The collection examines Buddhist rational inquiry as such, rather than in a context in which the concerns, categories, and concepts of Euro-American philosophy (or psychology) are uncritically assumed as a universal structure into which Buddhist thought is expected to fit. Only since about the beginning of the twenty-first century (a symbolic marker rather than an exact historical one) has the study of Buddhist thought, or as Dessein says “Buddhist 'philosophy' begun to move out of the colonialist mode of viewing Buddhist thought as a resource for pre-existing conversations in Euro-American philosophy. More directly relevant to scholars of religious studies, the same dynamic applies to the treatment of Buddhism as a 'religion'." – Richard K. Payne, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, in Reading Religion (February 2018)

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Book SynopsisOver the centuries, Quakers have read non-Quakers regarded as mystics. This study explores the reception of mystical texts among the Religious Society of Friends, focusing in particular on Robert Barclay and John Cassian, Sarah Lynes Grubb and Jeanne Guyon, Caroline Stephen and Johannes Tauler, Rufus Jones and Jacob Boehme, and Teresina Havens and Buddhist texts selected by her. Points of connection include the nature of apophatic prayer, suffering and annihilation of self, mysticisms of knowing and of loving, liberal Protestant attitudes toward theosophical systems, and interfaith encounter.

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Book SynopsisChán Buddhism in Dūnhuáng and Beyond: A Study of Manuscripts, Texts, and Contexts in Memory of John R. McRae is dedicated to the memory of the eminent Chán scholar John McRae and investigates the spread of early Chán in a historical, multi-lingual, and interreligious context. Combining the expertise of scholars of Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur, and Tangut Buddhism, the edited volume is based on a thorough study of manuscripts from Dūnhuáng, Turfan, and Karakhoto, tracing the particular features of Chán in the Northwestern and Northern regions of late medieval China.Trade Review"Indeed, the volume is an extremely apt dedication to the late John R. McRae (1947–2011). Those with an interest in Chán Buddhism would find this volume utterly invaluable. Moreover, those with a wider interest in Buddhism, Chinese religion, and the general study of religious texts have much to gain from reading this." - Joseph Chadwin, University of Vienna, Religious Studies Review47:2, 2021.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Abbreviations List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors Introduction: Chán Buddhism in an Inter-religious and Cross-linguistic perspective  Christoph Anderl Part 1 Early Chán History Revisited 1 Early Chán Revisited: A Critical Reading of Dàoxuán’s Hagiographies of Bodhidharma, Huìkě and Their Associates  John Jorgensen 2 Northern Chán and the Siddhaṃ Songs  Christoph Anderl and Henrik H. Sørensen Part 2 The Spread of Chán in the Northwestern Region 3 The Old Uigur Translation of the Siddhaṃ Songs  Peter Zieme 4 Reconsidering Tibetan Chán  Sam van Schaik 5 The Great Master Tōnglǐ: The Texts by a Liáo Buddhist Master among the Khara-Khoto Findings  Kirill Solonin Part 3 Chán in an Interreligious Perspective 6 The Meeting and Conflation of Chán and Esoteric Buddhism during the Táng  Henrik H. Sørensen 7 Buddho–Daoist Interaction as Creative Dialogue: The Mind and Dào in Twofold Mystery Teaching  Friederike Assandri John R. McRae: A Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis“The echo of the stone/ where I carved the [Buddha’s] honorable footprints/ reaches the Heaven, […]”. This book presents the transcription, translation, and analysis of Chinese (753 AD) and Japanese inscriptions (end of the 8th century AD) found on two stones now in the possession of the Yakushiji temple in Nara. All these inscriptions praise the footprints of Buddha, and more exactly their carvings in the stone. The language of the Japanese inscription, which consists of twenty-one poems, reflects the contemporary dialect of Nara. Its writing system shows a quite unique trait, being practically monophonic. The book is richly illustrated by photos of the temple and of the inscriptions.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements List of Charts and Illustrations Abbreviations Introduction  1 Hōssō Sect of the Japanese Buddhism  2 Bussokuseki and Bussoku seki-no uta  3 Inscriptions on the Footprints Stone  4 Stele Inscription  5 Previous Research  6 Poetic Form 1 Translation of Chinese Inscriptions and Commentary 2 Translation, Glossing, and Morphemic Analysis of Old Japanese Poems A Commentary to the Old Japanese Poems 3 The Description of the Language of the Poems  1 Graphemics and Phonology  2 Grammar  3 Vocabulary  4 List of Grammatical Morphemes Appendix: Photographs of the Inscriptions Bibliography

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