Description
Book SynopsisThis selection of essays demonstrates that, in the study of Buddhism, a concern with detailed accuracy in philological and textual specifics can be combined with wider philosophical and sociological issues. The essays are divided into three parts: (1) Pali Literature, (2) The Theory and Practice of Not-Self, and (3) Buddhism and Society. The last part builds on but goes beyond the work of Dumont and Max Weber in considering “world-renunciation” as a phenomenon of society and culture.
Table of ContentsPreface
Pali Literature
1. On the Very Idea of the Pali Canon
2. Notes on Some Oral Aspects of Pali Literature
3. What Is Literature in Pali?
The Theory and Practice of Not-Self
4. What Are Buddhist Doing When They Deny the Self?
5. The Body in Theravada Buddhist Monasticism
6. A Buddhist Debate About the Self, and Remarks on Buddhism in the Work of Derek Parfit and Galen Strawson
7. Of Death and Trees
Buddhism and Society
8. Monasticism, Utopias and Comparative Social Theory
9. Louis Dumont and the Study of Religions
10. Buddhist "Nuns" (Mae chi) and the Teaching of Pali in Thailand (With Justin McDaniel)
Bibliography
Index
