Deals With 2 Important Concepts-Bodhisattva And Sunyata In Mahayana Texts Which In Fact Had Their Routes In Pali Nikayas. The Study Helps In Understanding The Doctrines Of Mahayana And Those Found In Pali Nikaya. Contains 9 Chapters.

During the time of my sojourn in India to pursue Ph.D. course of Buddhist Studies in the University of Delhi, I received from Ven. Tri Quang, Late Ven. Tinh Vien, Ven. Nhu Dien, Ven. Minh Chon, Late Ven. Minh Thanh, Ven. Hai Trieu Am... not only in terms of the generous material supports, but also that of the warm spiritual, have in deed created comfort and smooth conditions for me to keep mental peace and light-hearted in order to put whole my mind and will in study. I could not express my debt of gratitude to these most venerable Monks in words. In the course of writing this research work, I would like to express my deep gratitude specially to Dr. I. N. Singh, my respected supervisor - the Lecturer of Buddhist Philosophy in Department of Buddhist Studies, Delhi University, whose scientific method of guidance has developed in me a critical point of view, with self-confidence and inspired me to do my research work easily without his guidance, I could not be able to do this heavy task. I should also like to show my deep thankful to all the other professors, readers and lecturers of the Department, who directly or indirectly instructed me during the period of my study Buddhism from M.A. to Ph.D. courses at the place of its origination. I am also very grateful to all my friends - Venerable monks and nuns, lay-men and lay-women and Buddhist disciples have been kindly helpful in one way or another for my knowledge accomplishments, but their names are too many to be mentioned here. At last, my sincere acknowledgements go to those whose books have been well used for quotations and references in my research work and my thanks are also due to the library staff of Delhi University Library System and Research Services Section, Central Reference Library for research facilities and their helping hands. Delhi, March 30, 2003 Bhikkhuni Gioi Huong ([email protected])

A national bestseller and acclaimed guide to Buddhism for beginners and practitioners alike In this simple but important volume, Stephen Batchelor reminds us that the Buddha was not a mystic who claimed privileged, esoteric knowledge of the universe, but a man who challenged us to understand the nature of anguish, let go of its origins, and bring into being a way of life that is available to us all. The concepts and practices of Buddhism, says Batchelor, are not something to believe in but something to do—and as he explains clearly and compellingly, it is a practice that we can engage in, regardless of our background or beliefs, as we live every day on the path to spiritual enlightenment.

A text of basic importance, the Mahayana Buddhist Lankavatara Sutra (c. 400 AD) contains the fundamental principles of Mahayana and is famous for its exposition of the Mind-only doctrine of Vijnana-vada. Accompanied by elaborate notes and critical apparatus, Suzuki's translation is the definitive English version of this intricate Sanskrit text.

The book proposes the hypothesis that six generic ways of being religious may be found in any large-scale religious tradition such as Christianity or Buddhism or Islam or Hinduism: sacred rite, right action, devotion, shamanic mediation, mystical quest, and reasoned inquiry. These are recurrent ways in which, socially and individually, devout members of these traditions take up and appropriate their stories and symbols in order to draw near to, and come into right relationship with, what the traditions attest to be the ultimate reality.

Guang Xing gives an analysis of one of the fundamental Mahayana Buddhist teachings, namely the three bodies of the Buddha (the trikaya Theory), which is considered the foundation of Mahayana philosophy. He examines how and why the philosophical concept of three bodies was formed, particularly the Sambhogakaya, which is the Buddha to be worshipped by all Mayahanists. Written in an accessible way, this work is an outstanding research text for students and scholars of Mayahana Buddhism and anyone interested in Buddhist philosophy.

Description: This work is a textual based discourse on the Cittavisuddhi-prakarana of Aryadeva, a seminal text which describes the principle and philosophy of Buddhist Tantra. The dispute on the question of Tantric meditative practices having any philosophical foundation or whether those practices have been introduced into the ethico-religious praxis of various religious traditions as a later introduction is a continuing discussion. In this work, it is trying to prove that the introduction of Tantra into Madhyamika philosophy is a natural development and it is proved beyond doubt by reviewing an important work in the Buddhist tradition written by Aryadeva, the Cittavisuddhi-prakarana. The unique dialectical method introduced and used by the Madhyamikas to interpret their philosophy and the conception offunyatd is the guiding principle in this regard. Madhyamika envisages that the conception of sunyata can be interpreted as the proper understanding of the insubstantial nature of object of the world (dharma-nairatmya) and the insubstantial nature of the subjective self which perceives such objects of the world (pudgala-nairdtmya). The dialectics advanced by the Madhyamika is efficient in deconstructing the substantiality of the phenomenal world of objects, but that is effectively possible only after reconstructing the notion of a substantive self using Tantric spiritual practices. The sunyata as the conception of dharma-nairatmya is achieved through reconstructing the substantive notion of the phenomenal world using dialectics, while it as the conception of pudgala-nairatmya is achieved using Tantric spiritual practices.

The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugrapariprccha) is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras, preserved and transmitted in both India and China over many centuries and actively quoted in treatises on the bodhisattva path. It is, nevertheless, one of the most neglected texts in Western treatments of Buddhism. The Ugra appers to be one of the earliest bodhisattva scriptures to come down to us, and as such it offers a particularly valuable window on the process by which the bodhisattva path came to be seen as a distinct vocational alternative within certain Indian Buddhist communities. The Bodhisattva Path is a study and translation of the Ugra that will fundamentally alter previous perceptions of the way in which Mahayana was viewed and practiced by its earliest adherents. 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 belong, the age of its extant versions, and their relationships to one another. She goes on to challenge the dominant notions that the Mahayana emerged as a reform of earlier Buddhism and offered lay people an easier option. On the contrary, the picture that emerges is of the early Mahayana as a more difficult and demanding vocation, initially limited to a small contingent of monastic males. Combining a detailed critical study and translation of an important Buddhist scripture with a sweeping re-examination of the relationship between the Buddha and the practitioners alike and other interested in the history of Indian Buddhism and the formation of Mahayana.

Nagao invariably focuses on the core of Mahāyāna Buddhism--the path of the Bodhisattva, the doctrine of śūnyatā, and the system of Trisvabhāva are explained. Important technical terms used in the Mahayana textual tradition, whose exact understanding is imperative for the study of Mahāyāna Buddhism, are skillfully presented, making the book indispensable to scholars of Buddhist studies.