Genealogies of Mahayana Buddhism offers a solution to a problem that some have called the holy grail of Buddhist studies: the problem of the "origins" of Mahayana Buddhism. In a work that contributes both to a general theory of religion and power for religious studies as well as to the problem of the origin of a Buddhist movement, Walser argues that that it is the neglect of political and social power in the scholarly imagination of the history of Buddhism that has made the origins of Mahayana an intractable problem. Walser challenges commonly-held assumptions about Mahayana Buddhism, offering…mehr
Genealogies of Mahayana Buddhism offers a solution to a problem that some have called the holy grail of Buddhist studies: the problem of the "origins" of Mahayana Buddhism. In a work that contributes both to a general theory of religion and power for religious studies as well as to the problem of the origin of a Buddhist movement, Walser argues that that it is the neglect of political and social power in the scholarly imagination of the history of Buddhism that has made the origins of Mahayana an intractable problem. Walser challenges commonly-held assumptions about Mahayana Buddhism, offering a fascinating new take on its genealogy that traces its doctrines of emptiness and mind-only from the present day back to the time before Mahayana was "Mahayana." In situating such concepts in their political and social contexts across diverse regimes of power in Tibet, China and India, the book shows that what was at stake in the Mahayana championing of the doctrine of emptiness was the articulation and dissemination of court authority across the rural landscapes of Asia.
This text will be will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars of Buddhism, religious studies, history and philosophy.
Mahayana in Retrospect: From My House to the Dalai Lama (looking back from 2017 - 1930)
Assessing the Essence
Tibet as Buddhist: Tracing the Lines of Power
Emptiness and the Analytic of Power
Inculcating Dispositions to Authority: the Kalacakra
Mahayana in the Republic, Mahayana in the Empire: Tracing "Religion" from Republican China to the Early Qing Dynasty (1920's - 1723)
Religion vs. Superstition in 20th Century East Asia
The Fin de Siècle Turning Point
The Qing Imperium and the Usefulness of Mahayana
The Yonghegong Temple in Beijing and the Political Work of Monuments
Emperor Qianlong: the Tantric Initiate and the Tantric State
Tantra, Emptiness and the Reincarnate Emperor/Lama, or why it's never too late to have a venerable past.
Yongzheng Emperor and the Great Ming Debate
The Image of Emptiness across the Landscape of Power (China: 11th Cent. B.C.E - 15th Cent. C.E.)
The Ancestor Image
The Image of Emptiness: Di, Space and the Celestial Pole
The Image of the Earth and control of the cults
Exorcism and the State: When possession is nine-tenths
Religion in the Service of Taxation
Buddhist Exorcism and the Heart of Mahayana
Conclusion
Buddha Veda: an Indian Genealogy of Emptiness (20th century - 6th century CE.)
Emptiness and Power in Orissa: From Mahima Dharma Sampradaya to Jagannatha of Puri
Buddhism and Brahmanism in Maitripa (ca. 1010-1097 CE)
Bhaviveka's 6th Century Mahayana
Bhaviveka, Mahayana and Yogacara
Bhaviveka, Mahayana and Brahmanism
Preliminary Conclusion
Part II: The Genealogy of the Perfection of Wisdom
What did the text of the Perfection of Wisdom look like?
The Versions
The Quest for the Ur-Sutra
The Core Pericope
The Ending
Subhuti's Non-Apprehension
The Mindlessness Section
The Message of the Original Perfection of Wisdom
Mahayana
Bodhisattvas
What's missing?
Mahayana Sutra as Palimpsest: Discerning Traces of the Tripi aka
Beyond "origin" as mere event
Heteroglossia and Textual Rationale
Intertextuality and Adaptation in Buddhist Literature
The Non-Apprehension section and its Intertexts
Sermon on Selflessness?
Nominalism?
Cessation of Cognition
Selflessness... but differently
The Perfected as Untraceable
Fearlessness
Abhidharma echoes
Conclusion: The Perfection of Wisdom
Palimpsest Part Two: Brahmanical Writings on the Tripi aka
The Importance of Incoherence
The Context of Abhidharma Literature?
The Context of Other Schools?
The Context of Luminous Thought and Varieties of Unaware Thought
The Context of Acitta Neither Existing nor Not Existing as Anti-Brahmanical Dependent Origination
The Context of Absence of Mental Construction (avikalpa)
Nirvikapla
Brahmanical Intertexts and their Implications
Placing Early Mahayana
Placing the Perfection of Wisdom in the Early Mahayana Suite
Mañjusri's Inquiry Concerning the Office of the Bodhisattva
Placing the Early Perfection of Wisdom
Mistaken Sounds
Subhuti's Aranavihara: Preaching or Penetration?
Emptiness, Brahmin Nuns, Tulkus and the Power of Possession
Putting it together
Conclusion
On Sites and Stakes: Meditation on Emptiness and Imperial Aspirations
Shifting Contexts, Shifting Interpretations
The Unnabhabrahmanasutta and the Brhadaranyaka Upani ad on cosmic foundations
The Horse Sacrifice
Piling the Fire Altar and Legitimation Regress
Buddhist Brahmins
On Power and Reproduction
Sovereign Echoes: on Manhood and Celibacy; On thrones and Crowns
Buddhist Brahmodya ascourtdebates
The Mahayana Genealogy from The Vedas to the Sutras to Tantra to Zen
Index
Rezensionen
"This book is a compelling argument to rethink the origins of Mahayana Buddhism. Approaching this perennial puzzle within Buddhist Studies from a different angle, tracing it from the present toward its genesis, Walser masterfully draws together material from a broad and complex cultural context to rethink the approach to understanding the earliest expressions of the idea of emptiness". Matthew Sayers, Lebanon Valley College Annville, USA.
"A bold new theory of what the Mahayana is and how it "began," Genealogies of Mahayana Buddhism is a paradigm shift in our understanding of one of the most important traditions of Buddhism. Written in clear and accessible prose, Walser's work is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Buddhist thought." José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, UC Santa Barbara, USA.
Es gelten unsere Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen: www.buecher.de/agb
Impressum
www.buecher.de ist ein Internetauftritt der buecher.de internetstores GmbH
Geschäftsführung: Monica Sawhney | Roland Kölbl | Günter Hilger
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Batheyer Straße 115 - 117, 58099 Hagen
Postanschrift: Bürgermeister-Wegele-Str. 12, 86167 Augsburg
Amtsgericht Hagen HRB 13257
Steuernummer: 321/5800/1497
USt-IdNr: DE450055826