Description
Book SynopsisOne of the first attempts ever to present in a systematic way a non-western semiotic system. This book looks at Japanese esoteric Buddhism and is based around original texts, informed by explicit and rigorous semiotic categories. It is a unique introduction to important aspects of the thought and rituals of the Japanese Shingon tradition. Semiotic concerns are deeply ingrained in the Buddhist intellectual and religious discourse, beginning with the idea that the world is not what it appears to be, which calls for a more accurate understanding of the self and reality. This in turn results in sustained discussions on the status of language and representations, and on the possibility and methods to know reality beyond delusion; such peculiar knowledge is explicitly defined as enlightenment. Thus, for Buddhism, semiotics is directly relevant to salvation; this is a key point that is often ignored even by Buddhologists. This book discusses in depth the main elements of Buddhist semiotic
Trade ReviewSumming up, the main strength of this book is its success in offering a new analytical apparatus to clarify the semiotic structures that underlie the transmissions and practices of Shingon lineages, so often dismissed out of hand as rand and irrational. Rambelli manages admirably to avoid two pitfalls: he neither stays too close to the original texts, losing the analytical edge that makes this enterprise valuable, nor does he stray away from them that he ends up constructing a semiotic abstraction that forces alien concepts onto Shingon doctrine. -- Mark Teeuwen, Oslo University, Norway * Monumenta Nipponica 69:2 *
Table of ContentsPreface: Semiotics and Buddhism 1. The Episteme of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism 2. Semiotics and Ontology: A Pansemiotic Universe 3. Mantra and Siddham: Esoteric Linguistics and Grammatology 4. The Semantic System of Esoteric Buddhism 5. Mandala and the Representation of Reality 6. Semiotic Soteriology 7. Conclusion: Buddhist Semiurgy Bibliography Index
