Visions of Mahayana Buddhism

Visions of Mahayana Buddhism PDF Author: Nagapriya
Publisher: Windhorse Publications
ISBN: 1909314390
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
In a unique overview of this inspiring tradition, Nagapriya introduces its themes and spectrum of practices, literature and movements. Charting the evolution and expression of the Mahayana as a whole, he tracks its movement across South and East Asia, uncovering its history, culture and doctrines and blending this extensive knowledge with a strong element of lived practice. Ideal for both teaching and personal use, this far-reaching guide provides a solid foundation for any study in Buddhism and a valuable voice on Asian history.

Visions of Mahayana Buddhism

Visions of Mahayana Buddhism PDF Author: Nagapriya
Publisher: Windhorse Publications
ISBN: 1909314390
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book

Book Description
In a unique overview of this inspiring tradition, Nagapriya introduces its themes and spectrum of practices, literature and movements. Charting the evolution and expression of the Mahayana as a whole, he tracks its movement across South and East Asia, uncovering its history, culture and doctrines and blending this extensive knowledge with a strong element of lived practice. Ideal for both teaching and personal use, this far-reaching guide provides a solid foundation for any study in Buddhism and a valuable voice on Asian history.

Empty Vision

Empty Vision PDF Author: David McMahan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136857265
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Visual metaphors in a number of Mahayana sutras construct a discourse in which visual perception serves as a model for knowledge and enlightenment. In the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) and other Mahayana literature, immediate access to reality is symbolized by vision and set in opposition to language and conceptual thinking, which are construed as obscuring reality. In addition to its philosophical manifestations, the tension between vision and language also functioned as a strategy of legitimation in the struggle of the early heterodox Mahayana movement for authority and legitimacy. This emphasis on vision also served as a resource for the abundant mythical imagery in Mahayana sutras, imagery that is ritualized in Vajrayana visualization practices. McMahan brings a wide range of literature to bear on this issue, Including a rare analysis of the lavish imagery of the Gandavyuha Sutra in its Indian context. He concludes with a discussion of Indian approaches to visuality in the light of some recent discussions of "ocularcentrism" in the west, inviting scholars to expand the current discussion of vision and its roles in constructing epistemic systems and cultural practices beyond its exclusively European and American focus.

Empty Vision

Empty Vision PDF Author: David McMahan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136857192
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Visual metaphors in a number of Mahayana sutras construct a discourse in which visual perception serves as a model for knowledge and enlightenment. In the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) and other Mahayana literature, immediate access to reality is symbolized by vision and set in opposition to language and conceptual thinking, which are construed as obscuring reality. In addition to its philosophical manifestations, the tension between vision and language also functioned as a strategy of legitimation in the struggle of the early heterodox Mahayana movement for authority and legitimacy. This emphasis on vision also served as a resource for the abundant mythical imagery in Mahayana sutras, imagery that is ritualized in Vajrayana visualization practices. McMahan brings a wide range of literature to bear on this issue, Including a rare analysis of the lavish imagery of the Gandavyuha Sutra in its Indian context. He concludes with a discussion of Indian approaches to visuality in the light of some recent discussions of "ocularcentrism" in the west, inviting scholars to expand the current discussion of vision and its roles in constructing epistemic systems and cultural practices beyond its exclusively European and American focus.

Empty Vision

Empty Vision PDF Author: David L. McMahan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description


The Vision of the Buddha

The Vision of the Buddha PDF Author: Tom Lowenstein
Publisher: Thorsons Publishers
ISBN: 9780007657254
Category : Buddha (The concept)
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
This book is a vivid, richly illustrated guide to the history and legends of Buddhism, and to the main themes and beliefs in the Buddhist spiritual tradition, both today and in the past.

The Splendid Vision

The Splendid Vision PDF Author: Richard S. Cohen
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231156693
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
This is an English translation of the Splendid Vision sutra, a sixth-century Indian Mahayana Buddhist scripture.

Visions of Awakening Space and Time

Visions of Awakening Space and Time PDF Author: Taigen Dan Leighton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199886474
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
As a religion concerned with universal liberation, Zen grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei D?gen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese S?t? Zen tradition, which currently enjoys increasing popularity in the West. The Lotus Sutra, arguably the most important Buddhist scripture in East Asia, contains a famous story about bodhisattvas (enlightening beings) who emerge from under the earth to preserve and expound the Lotus teaching in the distant future. The story reveals that the Buddha only appears to pass away, but actually has been practicing, and will continue to do so, over an inconceivably long life span. Leighton traces commentaries on the Lotus Sutra from a range of key East Asian Buddhist thinkers, including Daosheng, Zhiyi, Zhanran, Saigyo, My?e, Nichiren, Hakuin, and Ry?kan. But his main focus is Eihei D?gen, the 13th century Japanese S?t? Zen founder who imported Zen from China, and whose profuse, provocative, and poetic writings are important to the modern expansion of Buddhism to the West. D?gen's use of this sutra expresses the critical role of Mahayana vision and imagination as the context of Zen teaching, and his interpretations of this story furthermore reveal his dynamic worldview of the earth, space, and time themselves as vital agents of spiritual awakening. Leighton argues that D?gen uses the images and metaphors in this story to express his own religious worldview, in which earth, space, and time are lively agents in the bodhisattva project. Broader awareness of D?gen's worldview and its implications, says Leighton, can illuminate the possibilities for contemporary approaches to primary Mahayana concepts and practices.

Wisdom Beyond Words

Wisdom Beyond Words PDF Author: Sangharakshita
Publisher: Windhorse Publications
ISBN: 9780904766776
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Dangerously disorientating to the unwary student, the Prajnaparamita or Perfection of Wisdom teachings can offer a fast route to some well-trodden blind alleys - or to the very heart of Reality. We live in a sophisticated age that often seeks to rationalize the ultimate meaning of Buddhism, but these two-thousand-year-old texts offer a giddying counterbalance to this attempt. Sangharakshita's clarity, scholarship and insight are revealed in this commentary on the Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra and the Ratnagunasamcayagatha - core teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. Using this book as a guide we can begin our own investigation of these sublime teachings - and also perhaps be rewarded with a world-shattering glimpse of the Buddhist vision of ultimate Reality.

Wisdom Beyond Words

Wisdom Beyond Words PDF Author: S. Sangharakshita
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN: 9788120829480
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
It is all very well to expect Buddhism to be meaningful to where we are here and now but where is here and when is now.?Ever since the Buddha`s lifetime people have been trying to express the ultimate meaning of Buddhism in a form that makes complete rational sense.They are unique, extraordinary teachings, addressing the practical, everyday concerns of Buddhists, but in a way that can leave the rational mind spinning.

Setting Out on the Great Way

Setting Out on the Great Way PDF Author: Paul Maxwell Harrison
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781790960
Category : Mahayana Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Setting Out on the Great Way brings together different perspectives on the origins and early history of Mahāyāna Buddhism and delves into selected aspects of its formative period. As the variety of the religion which conquered East Asia and also provided the matrix for the later development of Buddhist Tantra or Vajrayāna, Mahāyāna is regarded as one of the most significant forms of Buddhism, and its beginnings have long been the focus of intense scholarly attention and debate. The essays in this volume address the latest findings in the field, including contributions by younger researchers vigorously critiquing the reappraisal of the Mahāyāna carried out by scholars in the last decades of the 20th century and the different understanding of the movement which they produced. As the study of Buddhism as a whole reorients itself to embrace new methods and paradigms, while at the same time coming to terms with exciting new manuscript discoveries, our picture of the Mahāyāna continues to change. This volume presents the latest developments in this ongoing re-evaluation of one of Buddhism's most important historical expressions.