Text, History, and Philosophy Abhidharma Across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions
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Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna's Middle
Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna’s Middle Way 1994 Jonah Winters About this Book Any research into a school of thought whose texts are in a foreign language encounters certain difficulties in deciding which words to translate and which ones to leave in the original. It is all the more of an issue when the texts in question are from a language ancient and quite unlike our own. Most of the texts on which this thesis are based were written in two languages: the earliest texts of Buddhism were written in a simplified form of Sanskrit called Pali, and most Indian texts of Madhyamika were written in either classical or “hybrid” Sanskrit. Terms in these two languages are often different but recognizable, e.g. “dhamma” in Pali and “dharma” in Sanskrit. For the sake of coherency, all such terms are given in their Sanskrit form, even when that may entail changing a term when presenting a quote from Pali. Since this thesis is not intended to be a specialized research document for a select audience, terms have been translated whenever possible,even when the subtletiesof the Sanskrit term are lost in translation.In a research paper as limited as this, those subtleties are often almost irrelevant.For example, it is sufficient to translate “dharma” as either “Law” or “elements” without delving into its multiplicity of meanings in Sanskrit. Only four terms have been left consistently untranslated. “Karma” and “nirvana” are now to be found in any English dictionary, and so their translation or italicization is unnecessary. Similarly, “Buddha,” while literally a Sanskrit term meaning “awakened,” is left untranslated and unitalicized due to its titular nature and its familiarity. -
A Study of the Saṃskāra Section of Vasubandhu's Pañcaskandhaka with Reference to Its Commentary by Sthiramati
A Study of the Saṃskāra Section of Vasubandhu's Pañcaskandhaka with Reference to Its Commentary by Sthiramati Jowita KRAMER 1. Introduction In his treatise "On the Five Constituents of the Person" (Pañcaskandhaka) Vasubandhu succeeded in presenting a brief but very comprehensive and clear outline of the concept of the five skandhas as understood from the viewpoint of the Yogācāra tradition. When investigating the doctrinal development of the five skandha theory and of other related concepts taught in the Pañcaskandhaka, works like the Yogācārabhūmi, the Abhidharmasamuccaya, and the Abhidharmakośa- bhāṣya are of great importance. The relevance of the first two texts results from their close association with the Pañcaskandhaka in terms of tradition. The significance of the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya is due to the assumption of an identical author of this text and the Pañcaskandhaka.1 The comparison of the latter with the other texts leads to a highly inconsistent picture of the relations between the works. It is therefore difficult to determine the developmental processes of the teachings presented in the texts under consideration and to give a concluding answer to the question whether the same person composed the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya and the Pañcaskandhaka. What makes the identification of the interdependence between the texts even more problematic is our limited knowledge of the methods the Indian authors and commentators applied when they composed their works. It was obviously very common to make use of whole sentences or even passages from older texts without marking them as quotations. If we assume the silent copying of older material as the usual method of Indian authors, then the question arises why in some cases the wording they apply is not identical but replaced by synonyms or completely different statements. -
Remarks About the History of the Sarvāstivāda Buddhism
ROCZNIK ORIENTALISTYCZNY, T. LXVII, Z. 1, 2014, (s. 255–268) CHARLES WILLEMEN Remarks about the History of the Sarvāstivāda Buddhism Abstract Study about the history of a specific Buddhist monastic lineage known as “Sarvāstivāda” based on an overview of the history of its literature. Keywords: Sarvāstivāda, Buddhism, schism, Mahāyāna, Abhidharma, India, Gandhāra All scholars agree that the Sarvāstivāda (“Proclaiming that Everything Exists”) Buddhism was strong in India’s north-western cultural area. All agree that there was the first and seminal schism between the Sthaviravāda and the Mahāsāṅghika. However, many questions still remain to be answered. For instance, when did the first schism take place? Where exactly in India’s north-western area? We know what the Theravāda tradition has to say, but this is the voice of just one Buddhist tradition. Jibin 罽賓 The Chinese term Jibin is used to designate the north-western cultural area of India. For many years it has been maintained by Buddhist scholars that it is a phonetic rendering of a Prakrit word for Kaśmīra. In 2009 Seishi Karashima wrote that Jibin is a Chinese phonetic rendering of Kaśpīr, a Gāndhārī form of Kaśmīra.1 In 1993 Fumio Enomoto postulated that Jibin is a phonetic rendering of Kapiśa (Kāpiśī, Bagram).2 Historians have long held a different view. In his article of 1996 János Harmatta said that in the seventh century Jibin denoted the Kapiśa-Gandhāra area.3 For this opinion he relied on 1 Karashima 2009: 56–57. 2 Enomoto 1993: 265–266. 3 Harmatta (1996) 1999: 371, 373–379. 256 CHARLES WILLEMEN Édouard Chavannes’s work published in 1903. -
Buddhist Spiritual Practices
Buddhist Spiritual Practices Thinking with Pierre Hadot on Buddhism, Philosophy, and the Path Edited by David V. Fiordalis Mangalam Press Berkeley, CA Mangalam Press 2018 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA USA www.mangalampress.org Copyright © 2018 by Mangalam Press. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, published, distributed, or stored electronically, photographically, or optically in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-89800-117-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018930282 Mangalam Press is an imprint of Dharma Publishing. The cover image depicts a contemporary example of Tibetan Buddhist instructional art: the nine stages on the path of “calming” (śamatha) meditation. Courtesy of Exotic India, www.exoticindia.com. Used with permission. ♾ Printed on acid-free paper. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). Printed in the USA by Dharma Press, Cazadero, CA 95421 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 David V. Fiordalis Comparisons with Buddhism Some Remarks on Hadot, Foucault, and 21 Steven Collins Schools, Schools, Schools—Or, Must a Philosopher be Like a Fish? 71 Sara L. McClintock The Spiritual Exercises of the Middle Way: Madhyamakopadeśa with Hadot Reading Atiśa’s 105 James B. Apple Spiritual Exercises and the Buddhist Path: An Exercise in Thinking with and against Hadot 147 Pierre-Julien Harter the Philosophy of “Incompletion” The “Fecundity of Dialogue” and 181 Maria Heim Philosophy as a Way to Die: Meditation, Memory, and Rebirth in Greece and Tibet 217 Davey K. -
Chapter-N Cetasika (Mental Factors) 2.0. Introduction
44 Chapter-n Cetasika (Mental Factors) 2.0. Introduction In the first chapter, Citta (Consciousness) has been introduced. In this chapter, Cetasika (Mental factors) which means depending on citta will be discussed in detail with reference to the Abhidhamma pitaka by dividing topics and subtopics related to the present chapter. In the eighty-nine types of consciousness, enumerated in the first chapter, fifty-two mental factors arise in varying degree.There are seven concomitants common to every consciousness. There are six others that may or may not arise in each and every consciousness. They are termed Pakinnakas or Ethically variable factors. All these thirteen are designated Annasamanas, a rather peculiar technical term. Anna means other, samana means common. Sobhanas (Good), when compared with Asobhanas (Evil), are called Aiina (other) 'being of the opposite category'. Thus the Asobhanas are in contradistinction to Sobhanas. These thirteen become moral or immoral according to the types of consciousness in which they occur. 45 The fourteen concomitants are invariably found in every type of immoral consciousness. The nineteen are common to all type of moral consciousness. The six are moral concomitants which occur as occasion arises. Therefore these fifty-two (7+6+14+19+6=52) are found in all the types of consciousness in different proportions. In this chapter all the 52- mental factors are enumerated and classified. Every type of consciousness is microscopically analysed, and the accompanying psychic factors are given in details. The types of consciousness in which each mental factor occurs, is also described. 2.1. Definition of Cetasika Cetasika=cetas+ika When citta arises, it arises with mental factors that depend on it. -
The Meaning of “Zen”
MATSUMOTO SHIRÕ The Meaning of “Zen” MATSUMOTO Shirõ N THIS ESSAY I WOULD like to offer a brief explanation of my views concerning the meaning of “Zen.” The expression “Zen thought” is not used very widely among Buddhist scholars in Japan, but for Imy purposes here I would like to adopt it with the broad meaning of “a way of thinking that emphasizes the importance or centrality of zen prac- tice.”1 The development of “Ch’an” schools in China is the most obvious example of how much a part of the history of Buddhism this way of think- ing has been. But just what is this “zen” around which such a long tradition of thought has revolved? Etymologically, the Chinese character ch’an 7 (Jpn., zen) is thought to be the transliteration of the Sanskrit jh„na or jh„n, a colloquial form of the term dhy„na.2 The Chinese characters Ï (³xed concentration) and ÂR (quiet deliberation) were also used to translate this term. Buddhist scholars in Japan most often used the com- pound 7Ï (zenjõ), a combination of transliteration and translation. Here I will stick with the simpler, more direct transliteration “zen” and the original Sanskrit term dhy„na itself. Dhy„na and the synonymous sam„dhi (concentration), are terms that have been used in India since ancient times. It is well known that the terms dhy„na and sam„hita (entering sam„dhi) appear already in Upani- ¤adic texts that predate the origins of Buddhism.3 The substantive dhy„na derives from the verbal root dhyai, and originally meant deliberation, mature reµection, deep thinking, or meditation. -
What Is Time?: Yogācāra-Buddhist Meditation on the Problem of the External World in the Treatise on the Perfection of Consciousness-Only (Cheng Weishi Lun)
DOI: 10.4312/as.2016.4.1.35-57 35 What is Time?: Yogācāra-Buddhist Meditation on the Problem of the External World in the Treatise on the Perfection of Consciousness-only (Cheng weishi lun) Jianjun LI*1 Abstract Because it asserts that there is consciousness-only (vijñapti-mātratā), the difficulty in philo- sophically approaching the Yogācāra-Buddhist text Cheng weishi lun centers on the problem of the external world. This paper is based on a review by Lambert Schmithausen that, specif- ically with regard to the problem of the external world, questions Dan Lusthaus’s phenom- enological investigation of the CWSL. In it I point out that the fundamental temporality of consciousness brought to light by the Yogacaric revelation of the incessant differentiation of consciousness (vijñāna-parināma� ) calls into question every temporally conditioned, and hence appropriational, understanding of vijñapti-mātratā. Therefore, the problem of the external world cannot be approached without taking into account the temporality of con- sciousness, which, furthermore, compels us to face the riddle of time. Keywords: time, vijñapti-mātratā, Cheng weishi lun, Dan Lusthaus, Lambert Schmithausen Izvleček Budistično jogijsko besedilo Cheng weishi lun zagovarja trditev, da obstaja samo zavest (vijñapti-mātratā), zato se filozofski pristop tega besedila usmeri na problem zunanjega sveta. Ta članek temelji na recenziji Lamberta Schmithasena, ki se ob upoštevanju prob- lema zunanjega sveta ukvarja s fenomenološkimi preiskavami CWSL-ja Dana Lusthausa. V njem sem poudaril, da je zaradi odvisnosti zavesti od časa, ki jo poudarja razodevanje nenehnega spreminjanja zavesti pri jogi (vijñāna-parināma� ), vprašljivo vsako časovno po- gojeno, in zato večkrat prisvojeno, razumevanje pojma vijñapti-mātratā. -
Training in Wisdom 6 Yogacara, the ‘Mind Only’ School: Buddha Nature, 5 Dharmas, 8 Kinds of Consciousness, 3 Svabhavas
Training in Wisdom 6 Yogacara, the ‘Mind Only’ School: Buddha Nature, 5 Dharmas, 8 kinds of Consciousness, 3 Svabhavas The Mind Only school evolved as a response to the possible nihilistic interpretation of the Madhyamaka school. The view “everything is mind” is conducive to the deep practice of meditational yogas. The “Tathagatagarbha”, the ‘Buddha Nature’ was derived from the experience of the Dharmakaya. Tathagata, the ‘Thus Come one’ is a name for a Buddha ( as is Sugata, the ‘Well gone One’ ). Garbha means ‘embryo’ and ‘womb’, the container and the contained, the seed of awakening . This potential to attain Buddhahood is said to be inherent in every sentient being but very often occluded by kleshas, ( ‘negative emotions’) and by cognitive obscurations, by wrong thinking. These defilements are adventitious, and can be removed by practicing Buddhist yogas and trainings in wisdom. Then the ‘Sun of the Dharma’ breaks through the clouds of obscurations, and shines out to all sentient beings, for great benefit to self and others. The 3 svabhavas, 3 kinds of essential nature, are unique to the mind only theory. They divide what is usually called ‘conventional truth’ into two: “Parakalpita” and “Paratantra”. Parakalpita refers to those phenomena of thinking or perception that have no basis in fact, like the water shimmering in a mirage. Usual examples are the horns of a rabbit and the fur of a turtle. Paratantra refers to those phenomena that come about due to cause and effect. They have a conventional actuality, but ultimately have no separate reality: they are empty. Everything is interconnected. -
A Distant Mirror. Articulating Indic Ideas in Sixth and Seventh Century
Index pp. 535–565 in: Chen-kuo Lin / Michael Radich (eds.) A Distant Mirror Articulating Indic Ideas in Sixth and Seventh Century Chinese Buddhism Hamburg Buddhist Studies, 3 Hamburg: Hamburg University Press 2014 Imprint Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library). The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. The online version is available online for free on the website of Hamburg University Press (open access). The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek stores this online publication on its Archive Server. The Archive Server is part of the deposit system for long-term availability of digital publications. Available open access in the Internet at: Hamburg University Press – http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de Persistent URL: http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/purl/HamburgUP_HBS03_LinRadich URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-3-1467 Archive Server of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek – http://dnb.d-nb.de ISBN 978-3-943423-19-8 (print) ISSN 2190-6769 (print) © 2014 Hamburg University Press, Publishing house of the Hamburg State and University Library Carl von Ossietzky, Germany Printing house: Elbe-Werkstätten GmbH, Hamburg, Germany http://www.elbe-werkstaetten.de/ Cover design: Julia Wrage, Hamburg Contents Foreword 9 Michael Zimmermann Acknowledgements 13 Introduction 15 Michael Radich and Chen-kuo Lin Chinese Translations of Pratyakṣa 33 Funayama Toru -
The Depth Psychology of the Yogacara
Aspects of Buddhist Psychology Lecture 42: The Depth Psychology of the Yogacara Reverend Sir, and Friends Our course of lectures week by week is proceeding. We have dealt already with the analytical psychology of the Abhidharma; we have dealt also with the psychology of spiritual development. The first lecture, we may say, was concerned mainly with some of the more important themes and technicalities of early Buddhist psychology. We shall, incidentally, be referring back to some of that material more than once in the course of the coming lectures. The second lecture in the course, on the psychology of spiritual development, was concerned much more directly than the first lecture was with the spiritual life. You may remember that we traced the ascent of humanity up the stages of the spiral from the round of existence, from Samsara, even to Nirvana. Today we come to our third lecture, our third subject, which is the Depth Psychology of the Yogacara. This evening we are concerned to some extent with psychological themes and technicalities, as we were in the first lecture, but we're also concerned, as we were in the second lecture, with the spiritual life itself. We are concerned with the first as subordinate to the second, as we shall see in due course. So we may say, broadly speaking, that this evening's lecture follows a sort of middle way, or middle course, between the type of subject matter we had in the first lecture and the type of subject matter we had in the second. Now a question which immediately arises, and which must have occurred to most of you when the title of the lecture was announced, "What is the Yogacara?" I'm sorry that in the course of the lectures we keep on having to have all these Sanskrit and Pali names and titles and so on, but until they become as it were naturalised in English, there's no other way. -
Text, History, and Philosophy Abhidharma Across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions
iii Text, History, and Philosophy Abhidharma across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions Edited by Bart Dessein Weijen Teng LEIDEN | BOSTON For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV ContentsContents vii Contents Preface ix List of Figure and Tables xi Notes on Contributors xii Introduction 1 Part 1 Mātṛkā and Abhidharma Terminologies 1 Abhidharma and Indian thinking 29 Johannes Bronkhorst 2 Abhidharmic Elements in Gandhāran Mahāyāna Buddhism: Groups of Four and the abhedyaprasādas in the Bajaur Mahāyāna Sūtra 47 Andrea Schlosser and Ingo Strauch 3 Interpretations of the Terms ajjhattaṃ and bahiddhā: From the Pāli Nikāyas to the Abhidhamma 108 Tamara Ditrich 4 Some Remarks on the Proofs of the “Store Mind” (Ālayavijñāna) and the Development of the Concept of Manas 146 Jowita Kramer Part 2 Intellectual History 5 Sanskrit Abhidharma Literature of the Mahāvihāravāsins 169 Lance S. Cousins 6 The Contribution of Saṃghabhadra to Our Understanding of Abhidharma Doctrines 223 KL Dhammajoti For use by the Author only | © 2016 Koninklijke Brill NV viii Contents 7 Pratītyasamutpāda in the Translations of An Shigao and the Writings of His Chinese Followers 248 Eric M. Greene 8 Abhidharma in China: Reflections on ‘Matching Meanings’ and Xuanxue 279 Bart Dessein 9 Kuiji’s Abhidharmic Recontextualization of Chinese Buddhism 296 Weijen Teng 10 Traces of Abhidharma in the bSam-gtan mig-sgron (Tibet, Tenth Century) 314 Contents Dylan Esler Contents vii Preface ix List of Figure and Tables xi Notes on Contributors xii Introduction 1 Part 1 Mātṛkā -
The Oral Transmission of the Early Buddhist Literature
JIABS Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume 27 Number 1 2004 David SEYFORT RUEGG Aspects of the Investigation of the (earlier) Indian Mahayana....... 3 Giulio AGOSTINI Buddhist Sources on Feticide as Distinct from Homicide ............... 63 Alexander WYNNE The Oral Transmission of the Early Buddhist Literature ................ 97 Robert MAYER Pelliot tibétain 349: A Dunhuang Tibetan Text on rDo rje Phur pa 129 Sam VAN SCHAIK The Early Days of the Great Perfection........................................... 165 Charles MÜLLER The Yogacara Two Hindrances and their Reinterpretations in East Asia.................................................................................................... 207 Book Review Kurt A. BEHRENDT, The Buddhist Architecture of Gandhara. Handbuch der Orientalistik, section II, India, volume seventeen, Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2004 by Gérard FUSSMAN............................................................................. 237 Notes on the Contributors............................................................................ 251 THE ORAL TRANSMISSION OF EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE1 ALEXANDER WYNNE Two theories have been proposed to explain the oral transmission of early Buddhist literature. Some scholars have argued that the early literature was not rigidly fixed because it was improvised in recitation, whereas others have claimed that word for word accuracy was required when it was recited. This paper examines these different theories and shows that the internal evi- dence of the Pali canon supports the theory of a relatively fixed oral trans- mission of the early Buddhist literature. 1. Introduction Our knowledge of early Buddhism depends entirely upon the canoni- cal texts which claim to go back to the Buddha’s life and soon afterwards. But these texts, contained primarily in the Sutra and Vinaya collections of the various sects, are of questionable historical worth, for their most basic claim cannot be entirely true — all of these texts, or even most of them, cannot go back to the Buddha’s life.