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Building Place and Shaping Lives: Nartang Monastery from the Twelfth through Fifteenth Centuries | Schuman, Michael. 2016. "Building Place and Shaping Lives: Nartang Monastery from the 12th through 15th Centuries." PhD diss., University of Virginia, 2016. | This thesis is a study of Nartang monastery in the Tsang region of Central Tibet. Nartang monastery was founded in 1153 and was one of the most influential monastic institutions of the Kadam school until the fifteenth century. In its initial construction, Nartang monastery was a small enclave with limited members. By the mid-thirteenth century the place had significantly grown in physical size, membership, and reputation. This study explores the steady growth and decline of the monastery by examining the lives of the people in charge and their real and symbolic relations within and without the monastic community. This thesis begins with the Kadam school in the Penyül valley of Central Tibet. Here Nartang’s founder Tumtön Lodrö Drakpa (Gtum ston blo gros grags pa, 1106-1166) was educated and inspired to return to his native land in Tsang to build Nartang monastery. I then turn to the effective campaign strategies of Nartang’s fourth, fifth, and sixth abbot, who traveled throughout Central Tibet to raise funds for the monastery and to acquire new monastic recruits. Nartang monastery was at its best during the tenure of the seventh abbot Chim Namkha Drak (Mchims nam mkha’ grags, 1210-1285). It was during his tenure that the political events on the Eastern Steppe could no longer be ignored in Central Tibet. I show how Chim Namkha Drak and the Nartang community effectively navigated through the Mongolian (re)organization of Central Tibet. I also trace how the Nartang abbots, specifically the eight abbot Kyotön Mönlam Tsültrim (Skyon ston smon lam tshul krims, 1219-1299), projected and guided the increasing importance of their monastery at the center of the Buddhist world. I then study the life of Nartang’s tenth abbot, his time spent at the Mongol court and his eventual return to Nartang. Finally, I look to Nartang when Gendün Drupa (Dge ’dun grub pa, 1391-1474), posthumously the First Dalai Lama, entered the monastery at the age of seven in 1398. By this time Nartang monastery had well established a standardized curriculum and built a reputation for itself as a preeminent Kadam scholastic institution. I also explore the various factors that left Nartang monastery in a precarious state by the fifteenth century, such as the burgeoning reformist movement in Central Tibet lead by Tsongkhapa Lozang Drakpa (Tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1357-1419), the building of Tashi Lhünpo monastery by Gendün Drupa in 1449, and a decline in Sakya power and the rise of the Pakmodrupa. (Source: UVa Online Archive) | University of Virginia | 13 March 2023 22:52:03 | |
Étude du Pañcakrama: Introduction et traduction annotée | Tomabechi, Tōru. "Étude du Pañcakrama: Introduction et traduction annotée." PhD diss., University of Lausanne, 2006. | University of Lausanne | 6 March 2023 22:56:10 | ||
The Seven Siddhi Texts: The Oḍiyāna Mahāmudrā Lineage in its Indic and Tibetan Contexts | Krug, Adam. "The Seven Siddhi Texts: The Oḍiyāna Mahāmudrā Lineage in its Indic and Tibetan Contexts." PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2018. | This study examines The Seven Siddhi Texts, a short corpus of tantric Buddhist works that the Tibetan tradition identifies as the mahāmudrā transmission from the famed semimythical land of Oḍiyāna. Owing to the nature of the corpus itself, this study is best characterized as properly Indo-Tibetan in its scope. The Seven Siddhi Texts are first examined here as independent treatises that reflect the development of Vajrayāna Buddhism in its Indic cultural and historical contexts between the eighth and tenth centuries. They are then approached as a means for examining the formulation of Vajrayāna institutions and their attendant corpora in Nepal. Finally, they provide a case study in the phenomenon of practical canonicity in their employment in mahāmudrā polemical literature in Tibet from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Part I argues for the adoption of a demonological paradigm in the study of South Asian religions. Using data from The Seven Siddhi Texts in dialogue with the yurvedic discipline of demonology (bhūtavidyā), it highlights that Vajrayāna Buddhist traditions maintained a dual apotropaic-soteriological goal in their conception of the practice of yoga. Part II addresses the sociological implications of sect and sectarian identity in The Seven Siddhi Texts. It presents the phenomenon of dissimulative asceticism in Vajrayāna Buddhism as a potential social context for the highly Śaiva-Buddhist hybrid forms of ritual that emerged with the Buddhist yoginītantras. It then addresses the issue of inclusivist and exclusivist expressions of sectarian identity from the authors of The Seven Siddhi Texts. Part III discusses the formulation and transmission of The Seven Siddhi Texts as a corpus of mahāmudrā works in light of the broader phenomenon of practical canonicity in Buddhist traditions. It presents philological evidence that The Seven Siddhi Texts were part of a known mahāmudrā practical canon in Nepal prior to their transmission to Tibet. It then discusses historical data and Tibetan historiography on their transmission to Tibet beginning in the eleventh century. It concludes with a discussion of The Seven Siddhi Texts' incorporation into two Kagyü mahāmudrā practical canons in Tibet at the turn of the sixteenth century, and the role that The Seven Siddhi Texts played in a number of mahāmudrā polemical works composed by the subsequent generation of Kagyü authors. | University of California at Santa Barbara | 15 August 2022 18:28:30 | |
L'arte Buddhista in Ladakh: Una Tradizione Vivente | Fiore, Gavriella. L'arte Buddhista in Ladakh: Una Tradizione Vivente. Universita' degli Studi di Bologna - Facolta' di Lettere e Filosofia, 2003. | Volume contains mounted photographs | Bologna University | 8 August 2022 21:55:15 | |
Recognizing Purity: Space, Non-change, Luminosity, and Effort in Longchen Rabjam's Presentation of the Great Completeness (rdzogs chen) | Kelley, Justin J. "Recognizing Purity: Space, Non-change, Luminosity, and Effort in Longchen Rabjam’s Presentation of the Great Completeness (rdzogs chen)." PhD diss., Rice University, 2022. | Abstract This dissertation studies the role purity (dag pa) plays in 14th-century Longchen Rabjam’s (klong chen rab 'byams) presentation of the Great Completeness (rdzogs chen). In service of this aim, I rigorously consider the semantic field of purity and its impact on our contemporary understanding of the Great Completeness. I specifically consider four major themes related to purity: space, non-change, luminosity, and effort. In doing so, my analysis builds on existent scholarship on the Great Completeness, highlighting how understanding Longchen Rabjam’s usage of purity elucidates often misunderstood elements of this contemplative system. Taken comprehensively, the semantic field of purity consists of a broad and remarkably diverse spectrum of attributes, each of which are employed by Longchenpa in service of describing the Great Completeness. In this way, I contend that purity is a vital lens for understanding Longchenpa’s presentation of the Great Completeness and its critical shift in emphasis from the ethical to the epistemological. | Rice University | 27 June 2022 15:41:54 | |
Selected Verses from the Gaṇdavyūha: Text, Critical Apparatus and Translation | Gómez, Luis Oscar. "Selected Verses from the Gaṇdavyūha: Text, Critical Apparatus and Translation." PhD diss., Yale University, 1968. | The Gaṇḍavyūha partly edited and translated by Luis Oscar Gomez. Includes English and Sanskrit texts. According to Douglas Osto, "This PhD dissertation is a ground-breaking study and a must-read for any serious student of the Gandavyuha-sutra. Particularly valuable are the introductory materials, which discuss the Sanskrit manuscript tradition, the Chinese and Tibetan translations, and the philosophy of the text. The Gandavyuha is a Mahayana Buddhist scripture narrating the story of the hero Sudhana's quest for supreme enlightenment in ancient India during the lifetime of the Buddha. It was composed most likely in the Indian subcontinent sometime in the first several centuries CE. It became one of the foundational texts for the Chinese Buddhist philosophical school called Huayan, and scenes of its narrative are graphically depicted throughout all of Asia including on the walls of Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world located in central Java." (Source Accessed May 2, 2022) | Yale University | 2 May 2022 18:20:43 | |
A Study of the Daśabhūmika-sūtra: Its Relation to Previous Buddhist Traditions and the Development of Bodhisattva Practice | Chun, Jang-Kil. "A Study of the Daśabhūmika-sūtra: Its Relation to Previous Buddhist Traditions and the Development of Bodhisattva Practice." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993. | The value of a Buddhist sutra can be measured based on how it sees the nature of human existence and how it explains the experience of human beings. In most cases, the issue of human dignity has always been revived
and emphasized whenever Buddhism has encountered the challenge of nihilism and absolutism. The arising of the Mahāyāna also should be seen in this context, and particularly, how the image of the bodhisattva has been
put forth as a symbol of human dignity throughout the history of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The purpose of this paper is to examine: (1) how the Daśabhūmika-sūtra relates to Buddhist traditions in the past based on various religious experiences (particularly, the experience of the Buddha's power); and (2) how these experiences had formulated the ideas and practices of bodhisattvas in the system of ten stages (particularly, the mental transformation in the state of the effortlessness). For the first, three issues (experiencing the Buddha, problem of renunciation, and text worship) are discussed. (Chun, introduction, 1) | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 29 April 2022 20:47:22 | |
The Sutra of Sor-mo'i Phreng-ba (from the Lhasa, Peking, and Derge Editions of the bKa-'Gyur) | Cutler, Nathan S. "The Sutra of Sor-mo'i Phreng-ba (from the Lhasa, Peking, and Derge Editions of the bKa-'Gyur)." MA thesis, Indiana University, 1981. | An English translation of chapter 1 of the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra drawing on the Lhasa, Peking, and Derge editions of the Kangyur. | Indiana University | 26 April 2022 00:41:38 | |
The Samadhiraja Sutra: A Study Incorporating a Critical Edition and Translation of Chapter 17 | Skilton, Andrew. "The Samadhiraja Sutra: A Study Incorporating a Critical Edition and Translation of Chapter 17." PhD diss., University of Oxford, 1997. | University of Oxford | 13 April 2022 16:55:39 | ||
Das Jñānavatī-Jātaka aus der Jātakamālā des Gopadatta: nach der manuscript heruasgegeben, Kommantiert, mit dem Samādhirājasuṭra des Gilgits Manuscripts verglichen und ins Deutsche ubersetzt | Ehlers, Gerhard. "Das Jñānavatī-Jātaka aus der Jātakamālā des Gopadatta: nach der manuscript heruasgegeben, Kommantiert, mit dem Samādhirājasuṭra des Gilgits Manuscripts verglichen und ins Deutsche ubersetzt." PhD diss., University of Marburg, 1980. | The Jñānavatī-Jātaka from the Jātakamālā of the Gopadatta, edited from three manuscripts, annotated, compared with the Samādhirājasūtra of the Gilgit Manuscript and translated into German. | University of Marburg | 12 April 2022 21:27:44 | |
Samādhi and Patient Acceptance: Four Chapters of the Samādhirāja-sūtra Translated from the Sanskrit and Tibetan | Rockwell, John, Jr. "Samādhi and Patient Acceptance: Four Chapters of the Samādhirāja-sūtra Translated from the Sanskrit and Tibetan." M.A. thesis, The Naropa Institute, 1980. | This MA thesis by John Rockwell Jr. contains four chapters (the fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth) of the Samādhirājasūtra, translated into English from the Sanskrit and Tibetan. | Naropa University | 12 April 2022 20:52:23 | |
"Revelation" in Mādhyamika Buddhism: Chapter Eleven of the Samādhirāja Sūtra | Tatz, Mark. "'Revelation' in Mādhyamika Buddhism: Chapter Eleven of the Samādhirāja Sūtra ('On Mastering the Sūtra'); Translated from the Tibetan with Commentary." MA thesis, University of Washington, 1972. https://u1lib.org/book/2064265/12d311. | The translation of one chapter of the Samadhiraja-sutra sets out on the path begun jointly by Regamey and Schayer in the 30's. We have the benefit not only of their pioneering labors, but of road-building tools unavailable to them. Since their time some excellent editorial work has been done by Nalinaksa Dutt on the Sanskrit text, and its philosophic groundwork has been thoroughly explored by western and Indian scholars. Furthermore its place in the Tibetan context has been discovered. Any failings, therefore, will not reflect on their magnificent example. The chapter presented here is the eleventh, "On Mastering the Sūtra" (mdo sde 'dzin pa'i le'u). It is of interest for its discussion of the Bodhisattva's function in the world. The full title of the sutra, as it appears in the Bka'-' gyur, is the Arya-sarvadharma-svabhāva-samatā-vipañcita-samādhirāja-mahāyāna-sūtra, "the noble sūtra of the greater vehicle, known as the King of Samādhis, which explains in detail the similarity of all dharmas in their own-being." It is also known as the Candrapradīpa after its principal interlocutor, the Bodhisattva Candraprabha. It is an expansive (vaipulya) sūtra, surviving in its entirety in Sanskrit and Tibetan, which elaborates in great detail the doctrines and practices of the early Mādhyamika. It is a source-work for the philosophy of the leaders of the Mahāyāna in India, from Candrakīrti to Atīśa. Its translation and that of the major commentary were done during the two "great spreads" of the Doctrine in Tibet, and in that country tooit has been a fundamental text. (Tatz, introduction, 1–2) | University of Washington | 12 April 2022 19:27:56 | |
Samādhirāja Sūtra: An English Translation of Chapters I-XX of the Sanskrit Text with Critical Notes | Dokic, Aleksa. "Samādhirāja Sūtra: An English Translation of Chapters I-XX of the Sanskrit Text with Critical Notes." PhD diss., University of Delhi, 2001. | This PhD thesis is an English translation of chapters 1-20 of the Sanskrit text of the Samādhirājasūtra with critical notes by Aleksa Dokic. | University of Delhi | 12 April 2022 18:40:01 | |
A Less Traveled Path: Meditation and Textual Practice in the Saddharmasmrtyupasthana(sutra) | Stuart, Daniel Malinowski. "A Less Traveled Path: Meditation and Textual Practice in the Saddharmasmrtyupasthana(sutra)." PhD diss., UC Berkeley, 2012. https://escholarship.org/content/qt9nk367zn/qt9nk367zn.pdf?t=odydrr. | Abstract This dissertation is a study of a third/fourth-century Buddhist Sanskrit text, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna(sūtra), which reveals a unique literary culture at an important transitional moment in the religious and philosophical life of early Northwest Indian Buddhists. I argue that meditative practice, rhetoric, and philosophy were intimately tied to one another when the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna(sūtra) was redacted, and that the text serves as an important yet unnoticed historical touchstone for an understanding of the development of a Buddhist mind-centered metaphysics. The study suggests that such philosophical developments grew organically out of specific meditation practices rooted in the early canonical Buddhist tradition, and that the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna(sūtra) offers perhaps the clearest evidence available attesting to this process. Further, the text evidences an emergent historical ideology of cosmic power, one that ties ethical conduct, contemplative knowledge, and literary practice to a spiritual goal of selfless cosmographical sovereignty. This development is historically significant because it marks a major shift in Indian Buddhist religious practice, which conditioned the emergence of fully developed Mahāyāna path schemes and power-oriented tantric ritual traditions in the centuries that followed the text's compilation. As part of this study, I critically edit and translate the second chapter of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna(sūtra) based on a recently discovered codex unicus. | UC Berkeley | 7 April 2022 21:43:53 | |
Nibbāna as Self or Not Self: Some Contemporary Thai Discussions | Cholvijarn, Potprecha. "Nibbāna as Self or Not Self: Some Contemporary Thai Discussions." MA thesis, University of Bristol (2007), 2009. | Abstract The thesis concerns the recent debate in Thailand over the nature of nibbāna (nirvāṇa), the unconditioned, whether it is attā (self) or anattā (not-self). | University of Bristol | 4 April 2022 17:14:13 | |
The Origins and Development of Sammā Arahaṃ Meditation: From Phra Mongkhon Thepmuni (Sot Candasaro) to Phra Thep Yan Mongkhon (Sermchai Jayamaṅgalo) | Cholvijarn, Potprecha. "The Origins and Development of Sammā Arahaṃ Meditation: From Phra Mongkhon Thepmuni (Sot Candasaro) to Phra Thep Yan Mongkhon (Sermchai Jayamaṅgalo)." PhD diss., University of Bristol, 2019. | Abstract This dissertation examines Sammā Arahaṃ meditation from its origin in the figure of Phra Mongkhon Thepmuni (Sot Candasaro), the late abbot of Wat Paknam, Thonburi, as well as its transmission to Phra Thep Yan Mongkhon (Sermchai Jayamaṅgalo), the late abbot of Wat Luang Pho Sot Thammakayaram, Ratchaburi, in the context of the history of Theravāda Buddhist meditation practices. The second chapter of this dissertation analyses Luang Pho Sot Candasaro's autobiography, his sermons, the teachings of two of his meditation teachers, namely Luang Pho Niam Dhammajoti (Wat Noi, Suphanburi) and Luang Pho Nong Indasuvaṇṇo (Wat Amphawan, Suphanburi), and the meditation traditions of Saṅgharāja Suk Kai Thuean (Wat Ratchasittharam, Thonburi) and Wat Pradusongtham (Ayutthaya). It confirms that Luang Pho Sot has taken and adapted aspects of these teachers' and traditions' meditation practices and incorporated them into Sammā Arahaṃ meditation. The second chapter also seeks to clarify further the relationships of Luang Pho Sot's Sammā Arahaṃ meditation to the so-called borān kammaṭṭhāna tradition such as the meditation manual of King Taksin of Thonburi and other manuals preserved in the anthology, Phuttharangsi Thritsadiyan book of samatha and vipassanā meditation of the four reigns. The third chapter accounts for the development of various lineages, networks and centres of Sammā Arahaṃ tradition after the death of Luang Pho Sot, with an emphasis on Achan Sermchai and Wat Luang Pho Sot Thammakayaram. The chapter also considers two meditation masters whose teachings and practices were influenced by Luang Pho Sot and Sammā Arahaṃ meditation, namely Luang Pho Ruesi Lingdam, the founder of the Manomayiddhi meditation tradition, and Bhikṣuṇī Voramai Kabilsingh, who and taught Sammā Arahaṃ along with four other meditation systems. The fourth chapter examines and analyses Achan Sermchai Jayamaṅgalo's works. The dissertation argues that Achan Sermchai's works provide a defence of the thought and practice of his tradition, which consists of demonstrating that they conform to Theravāda canonical and commentarial tradition. In his elaboration of Luang Pho Sot's teachings, Achan Sermchai's works can also be characterized as an attempt to reinterpret and systematize Sammā Arahaṃ meditation. Moreover, in the fourth chapter, I gather opinions and discussions from different lineages of Sammā Arahaṃ tradition regarding two particular issues: 1) the existence of a prior five-body system in Luang Pho Sot's teaching; and 2) the practice of offering food to the Buddha in (āyatana) nibbāna. This is to demonstrate that among the various lineages of Sammā Arahaṃ tradition, there are differing interpretations regarding aspects of Sammā Arahaṃ practices. This section also includes my interview with mae chi Wanchai Chukon, founder of the Suan Kaeo Meditation Centre, Ratchaburi, and one of the few living direct pupils of Luang Pho Sot. I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. | University of Bristol | 30 March 2022 20:51:21 | |
The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 2: Edition and Translation | Han, Jaehee. "The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 2, Edition and Translation." PhD diss, University of Oslo, 2020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/15PllCXdnRPpXWLzF6UxsOHldmcdzqBKG/view. | Abstract The Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā is the eighth chapter of one of the great canonical collections of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Mahāsaṃnipāta, but it also acts as an individual text, or sūtra. As such, it is a dharmaparyāya, which dates back to the first or second century CE. The original Sanskrit has been lost, but there are three full-length translations in Tibetan and Chinese. | University of Oslo | 21 March 2022 16:06:27 | |
The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 1: Introduction | Han, Jaehee. "The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 1, Introduction." PhD diss, University of Oslo, 2020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eV_h79rKZEAI9b9TCfS5FqychvR01-Ir/view. | Abstract The Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā is the eighth chapter of one of the great canonical collections of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Mahāsaṃnipāta, but it also acts as an individual text, or sūtra. As such, it is a dharmaparyāya, which dates back to the first or second century CE. The original Sanskrit has been lost, but there are three full-length translations in Tibetan and Chinese. | University of Oslo | 19 March 2022 00:07:54 | |
Das Gilgit-Fragment Or. 11878A im Britischen Museum zu London | Näther, Volkbert. Das Gilgit-Fragment Or. 11878A im Britischen Museum zu London. Herausgegeben, mit dem Tibetischen verglichen und übersetzt. PhD diss., Philipps-Universität Marburg/Lahn, 1975. https://dfg-viewer.de/show/?tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=http%3A%2F%2Farchiv.ub.uni-marburg.de%2Feb%2F2010%2F0264%2Fmets-3066.xml. | This is a Sanskrit critical edition and German translation of the Saṅgharakṣitāvadāna and Nāgakumārāvadāna made by Volkbert Näther in 1975. These texts belong to the Pravrajyāvastu section of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayavastu. | Universität Marburg/Lahn | 25 February 2022 16:17:56 | |
Origine Indiana delle Divinità Terrifiche Minori del Bar-do Thos-grol | Ricca, Franco. Origine indiana delle divinità terrifiche minori del Bar-do Thos-grol. M. A. thesis, Università degli Studi di Torino, 1985. | Università degli Studi di Torino | 9 February 2022 19:26:54 | ||
Storia dell'Interesse Italiano per l'Arte Himalayana dal Dopoguerra a Oggi | Rovatti, Ilaria. Storia dell’interesse italiano per l’arte himalayana dal dopoguerra a oggi. M. A. thesis, Università degli Studi di Bologna, 2008. | Università degli Studi di Bologna | 9 February 2022 19:05:45 | ||
Committenza e Arte nella Vita di un Lama della Diaspora Tibetana: Il Caso di Gancén Rinpocé | Fumolo, Anna. Committenza e arte nella vita di un lama della diaspora tibetana: il caso di Gancén Rinpocé. B. A. thesis, Università degli Studi di Bologna, 2009. | Università degli Studi di Bologna | 9 February 2022 18:48:43 | ||
La Pittura Religiosa Newar del XX Secolo: Tradizione ed Innovazione - Analisi della Pittura Tradizionale Contemporanea nella Valle del Nepal | Soranzo, Anna. La pittura religiosa newar del XX secolo: Tradizione ed innovazione - Analisi della pittura tradizionale contemporanea nella Valle del Nepal. M. A. thesis, Università di Bologna, 2002. | Università di Bologna | 9 February 2022 18:21:36 | ||
Agiografia di Padmasambhava nei Dipinti Parietali dell'utse di Samye | Rossi, Giada. Agiografia di Padmasambhava nei dipinti parietali dell’utse di Samye. M. A. thesis, Università di Bologna, 2014. | Università di Bologna | 9 February 2022 17:59:58 | ||
La Statuaria in Metallo nella Valle di Kathmandu: Evoluzione e Sviluppi nel XXI Secolo | Graldi, Aurora. La Statuaria in Metallo nella Valle di Kathmandu: Evoluzione e Sviluppi nel XXI Secolo. M. A. thesis, Università di Bologna, 2010. | Università di Bologna | 7 February 2022 23:15:28 | ||
Il Kumbum di Gyantse e l'architettura tibetana | Ricca, Simone. Il Kumbum di Gyantse e l’architettura tibetana. MA Thesis, Politecnico di Torino – Facoltà di Architettura, 1991. | Politecnico di Torino | 7 February 2022 23:03:27 | ||
L'Architettura del Ladakh | Celi, Roberta. L'Architettura del Ladakh: Tesi di Laurea in Storia dell'Arte dell'India e dell'Asia Centrale. MA Thesis, Università degli Studi di Bologna, 2002. | Università degli Studi di Bologna | 7 February 2022 22:46:42 | ||
A Holistic Theory of Non-Dual Union: The Eighth Karmapa's Mahamudra Vision as Reaction, Re-Appropriation, and Resolution | Faria, Joseph. A Holistic Theory of Non-Dual Union: The Eighth Karmapa's Mahāmudrā Vision as Reaction, Re-Appropriation, and Resolution. MA Thesis, Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Centre for Buddhist Studies, Kathmandu University, 2015. | Abstract: This research investigates the Mahāmudrā interpretation of the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorjé (1507-1554), particularly regarding his text Recognizing the Blessings of Mahāmudrā (Phyag rgya chen po'i byin rlabs kyi ngos 'dzin). Drawing upon contemporary research, historical developments, and textual evidence, this work argues that the Eighth Karmapa’s Mahāmudrā thought can be understood as reaction, re-appropriation, and resolution. Though Mikyö Dorjé reacted to Sakya and Gelug critiques of Kagyü Mahāmudrā, and accepted that one could re-appropriate Mahāmudrā by incorporating aspects of sūtra and tantra onto the path of Mahāmudrā, he ultimately sought to adhere to the subitist tendencies of early Kagyü masters by resolving all conventional tensions of the ground, path, and fruition via a holistically non-dual union (Skt. Yuganaddha; Tib. zung 'jug). This demonstrates that both doctrinal eclecticism and upholding the transcendence of Mahāmudrā were pillars of Mikyö Dorjé’s thought, and that his theory of union provided rhetorical and philosophical consistency and justification for these views. | Rangjung Yeshe Institute | 28 January 2022 16:26:52 | |
Die Bhadracari, eine probe buddhistisch-religiöser lyrik | Watanabe, Kaikioku, ed. "Die Bhadracari, eine probe buddhistisch-religiöser lyrik." PhD diss., Kaiser Wilhelms-Universität. Leipzig: Druck von G. Kreysing, 1912. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101061610976&view=1up&seq=1&skin=2021. | A study and critical Sanskrit edition of the Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja. | Kaiser Wilhelms-Universität | 14 September 2021 17:12:26 | |
Sacred Literature into Liturgy: Jingyuan (1011–1088) and the Development of the Avataṁsaka Liturgy in Song China | Sure, Heng. "Sacred Literature into Liturgy: Jingyuan (1011–1088) and the Development of the Avataṁsaka Liturgy in Song China." PhD diss., Graduate Theological Union, 2003. | Abstract This dissertation critically examines and demonstrates how Jingyuan (1011-1088), a Song Dynasty Chinese Buddhist monk, transformed the Avataṁsaka Sūtra into a liturgy that conveyed the Sūtra's vision of the Mahāyāna Bodhisattva ideal. In keeping with the earlier interpreters, Chengguan (738-839) and Zongmi (780-841), Jingyuan understood the Avataṁsaka Sūtra, long considered the pinnacle of Buddhist philosophy and cosmology, as a handbook of Bodhisattva practices. For them the Bhadracarīpranidhāna Chapter, the source of the Avataṁsaka Liturgy, held the key to cultivating the Bodhisattva Path articulated by the Sūtra. Jingyuan distilled the essential elements of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's Practices and Vows that comprise the Bhadracarīpranidhāna into existing liturgical formats. The result was three recensions, collectively referred to as the Avataṁsaka Liturgy - - the Expanded, the Condensed, and the Popular Versions - - in varying degrees of complexity, suited to the different needs of his Buddhist community. To transform Mahāyāna ideals into liturgy, Jingyuan drew upon visualizations from the Bhadracarīpranidhāna, which when performed with ritual prostrations, constituted the heart of the liturgical practice. He further integrated two distinctly Avataṁsaka visualizations: the Infinite Contemplation of Indra's Net and the Unobstructed Contemplation of the Dharma Realm, into the sitting meditation section of his Expanded Liturgy. Thus, Jingyuan combined the movement of bowing with the stillness of meditation to produce a single method for cultivating the samādhi states articulated by the Avataṁsaka Sūtra. Jingyuan's efforts revitalized the Avataṁsaka tradition in twelfth century Hangzhou and earned him recognition as an Avataṁsaka patriarch. The dissertation concludes with reflections on the continuity of the Avataṁsaka Liturgy among contemporary Buddhists and suggests that contemplative-devotional liturgies can be a useful, even necessary aspect of Buddhist practice as it emerges in the West. The appendices include translations of the three recensions of the Avataṁsaka Liturgy, the Bhadracarī Chapter of the Avataṁsaka Sūtra, and the Sūtra on the Contemplation of the Practice Dharmas of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. | Graduate Theological Union | 13 September 2021 21:35:20 | |
A Structuralist Examination of the Origins of the Māra Mytheme and Its Function in the Narrative of the Dàoxíng Bōrě Jīng, the Earliest Complete Recension of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra | Giddings, William James. "A Structuralist Examination of the Origins of the Māra Mytheme and Its Function in the Narrative of the Dàoxíng Bōrě Jīng, the Earliest Complete Recension of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra." PhD diss., King's College London. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/44453723/2014_Giddings_William_0838811_ethesis.pdf. | Abstract By comparing the instances of the Māra mytheme in the narratives of the prajñā-pāramitā-sūtras with those found in non-Mahayana texts, this thesis explores how this vitally important persona, one central to the narrative account of the bodhisattva quest for awakening, developed from earlier mythic prototypes. Pali sources identify a number of alternative identities for Māra the most significant of which being Namuci, an asura who took control over the mind of Indra. Using linguistic ideas originally developed by Saussure, the storylines of the Māra and Namuci myths can be reduced to a simple, common narrative statement or syntagm. Adopting this approach demonstrates how apparently new narratives can be derived through the application of paradigmatic changes within that syntagm. Furthermore, drawing upon the findings of historical linguistics, it was possible to interpolate potential Proto-Indian-European origins for the Māra mytheme. Rather than supporting the traditionally accepted view of Māra as an allegory for death, this enabled the signification of the actual name Māra to be seen as pointing towards a 'grinding-away' or oppression of the mind. This was achieved by relating the Māra of Buddhist mythology with the mare-hag common to a number of IndoEuropean folklores. Support for this argument is also found in Pali narratives which depict Māra entering the thoughts of others engaged in meditation during the night in order to induce feelings of fear and uncertainty. Finally, based upon these findings, it was possible to scrutinize the narrative and nested tales of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra in its earliest recension, the Dàoxíng Bōrě Jīng, and identify how the original Māra myth underwent structured, paradigmatic modifications that reflect a bodhisattva's progress towards final awakening. | King's College London | 13 September 2021 16:55:41 | |
An Analysis of the Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra from the Chinese Translations | Lancaster, Lewis Rosser. "An Analysis of the Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra from the Chinese Translations." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1968. | An examination of T. 224 in comparison with the Pāla Dynasty Sanskrit text indicates that there was a significant growth of the Aṣṭa from the text of the second century translation by Lokakṣema up to its final redaction. Because of the immense popularity of the Praiñāpāramitā literature in China, the Aṣṭa was translated seven times, 'providing a record of growth and changes over a period of eight centuries (i.e., 179-985 A.D.). By comparing each of these translations with the Sanskrit and the other Chinese texts, some ideas can be formulated regarding the layers and dates of the textual expansion. (Lancaster, introduction, 1) | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 13 September 2021 16:32:05 | |
The Bodhisattvapiṭaka: Its Doctrines, Practices and their Position in Mahāyāna Literature (Pagel 1992) | Pagel, Ulrich. "The Bodhisattvapiṭaka: Its Doctrines, Practices and their Position in Mahāyāna Literature." PhD diss., School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), 1992. https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29691/1/10752663.pdf. | Abstract This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive study of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka with specific emphasis on the bodhisattva ideal. The content of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka indicates that its exposition belongs to the earliest treatises on the bodhisattva. The practices and doctrines that are expounded are invariably rudimentary and show little of the complexities that characterise their discussions in later bodhisattva literature. The Bodhisattvapiṭaka's inclusion into the Mahāratnakūṭa rested probably on its pioneering account of the bodhisattvacaryā. Being by far the longest work on the bodhisattva in the whole collection, it expounds important practices and constitutes the hub for the remaining bodhisattva writings in the Mahāratnakūṭa. | University of London | 10 September 2021 22:41:33 | |
Daśabhūmikasūtra (Rahder, J.) | Rahder, Johannes, ed. "Daśabhūmikasūtra." (PhD diss., University of Utrecht.) Leuven, Belgium: J. B. Istas, 1926. https://objects.library.uu.nl/reader/index.php?obj=1874-286038&lan=en#page//39/03/15/39031524648488413764695835551980116855.jpg/mode/1up. | This work, Dr. Rahder's thesis for his degree of D.Litt. at the University of Utrecht, is a polyglot compilation, in Dutch, French, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and English, comprising, beside an opening essay, the Sanskrit text (of the titular work), a special recension of the Seventh of the Ten Bhūmis, or Stages in the worldway of a Bodhisattva or Buddha, with a translation of it into English, and an Appendix giving the Sanskrit text of the treatise Bodhisattvabhūmi from a unique Cambridge manuscript. (Rhys Davids, C. A. F. Review of "Daśabhūmikasūtra" by Johannes Rahder. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 1 (Jan., 1927): 160–61. | University of Utrecht | 30 August 2021 17:32:32 | |
The Dhyāna Chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-Sūtra | Pedersen, Kusumita Priscilla. "The Dhyāna Chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-Sūtra." PhD diss., Columbia University, 1976. | Abstract The Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra is a work included in the large sutra collection, the Mahāratnakuṭa, compiled by Bodhiruci in the beginning of the eighth century. The history of the Ratnakuṭa collection is obscure, but a review of available evidence seems to indicate that the collection was compiled no earlier than the fourth century and no later than the sixth century. The translation of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra into Chinese was done by Hsüan-tsang in 645 from a Sanskrit manuscript brought with him from India. A second version was done by the later Dharmarakṣa between 1004 and 1053. The Hsüan-tsang version is considerably longer than the Dharmarakṣa version, to which it is superior. The difference in length, however, is accounted for by a wordier style and the use of introductory, recapitulative and concluding phrases in the longer version which do not significantly alter the contents of the sutra, if we base our judgement on comparison of the dhyāna chapters of the two versions. | Columbia University | 23 August 2021 21:04:15 | |
The Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra and the Buddhism of Gilgit | Schopen, Gregory. "The Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra and the Buddhism of Gilgit." PhD diss., Australian National University, 1978. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/109328. | Abstract This work is made up of three unequal parts. The first part contains an edition of the Sanskrit text of what I have called 'Redaction A' of the Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra. This edition is based on a single manuscript found at Gilgit; with variants from four other manuscripts, also found at Gilgit, given in the critical apparatus. Stylistically 'Redaction A' seems to represent an 'unrevised" version of the text, perhaps a first attempt at Gilgit to commit an oral tradition to writing. The second part consists of a critical edition of the Tibetan translation of a Sanskrit text of the Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra. This edition is based on the Derge, Narthan, Peking and Lhasa versions of the 'phags pa bcom ldan 'das sman gyi bla bai ạu rya'i 'od kyi snon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa and the 'phags pa de bźin gśegs pa bdun gyi snon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa. The Derge versions form the basis of the edition. The first and second parts are preliminary studies to the third and main part, since the whole was not intended as a study of the Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra per se. This third part is devoted to an English translation of the Sanskrit text, with notes; the latter making up the bulk of the work. In these notes I have attempted to show how a literate member of the Gilgit community, assuming he was familiar with the texts known to have been available to him, would have, or could have, understood the Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra, I have also attempted to show what was and what was not unique to the Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra vis-a-vis the Gilgit collection as a whole, and to make the first tentative steps towards reconstructing the 'Buddhism' current at Gilgit in the 5th-6th century. | Australian National University | 10 August 2021 15:56:26 | |
The Ugraparipṛcchā, the Mahāratnakūṭasūtra and Early Mahāyāna Buddhism | Schuster, Nancy J. "The Ugraparipṛcchā, the Mahāratnakūṭasūtra and Early Mahāyāna Buddhism." 2 vols. PhD diss., University of Toronto, 1976. | This dissertation is a study of the Ugraparipṛcchāsūtra. It contains preliminary translations of the three extant Chinese versions of the text. According to Jan Nattier, it was never published and is unavailable through University Microfilms. | University of Toronto | 6 July 2021 18:51:05 | |
A Study of the Ṡikṣasamuccaya of Āchārya Shāntideva | Johnston, P. G. "A Study of the Ṡikṣasamuccaya of Āchārya Shāntideva." BA Honors thesis. College Year in India Program Fieldwork Projects. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975. | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 24 May 2021 18:35:26 | ||
The Buddhist Roots of Secular Compassion Training: A Comparative Study of Compassion Cultivation in Indian and Tibetan Mahāyāna Sources with the Contemporary Secular Program of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) | Stenzel, Julia Caroline. "The Buddhist Roots of Secular Compassion Training: A Comparative Study of Compassion Cultivation in Indian and Tibetan Mahāyāna Sources with the Contemporary Secular Program of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT)." PhD diss., McGill University, 2018. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/wm117r14g?locale=en. | Abstract This dissertation is a comparative analysis of compassion cultivation in Indo-Tibetan Mahāyāna Buddhist contexts and the recent phenomenon of secular, Buddhism-derived compassion training in North America, exemplified by one of the most prominent programs to date, the Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) developed at Stanford University. | McGill University | 4 May 2021 00:01:10 | |
A Dialogue between Thomas Merton on Agape and Shantideva on Karuna: Some Moral Dimensions of a Catholic and Mahayana Exchange | Lam, Raymond Sze Hon H. "A Dialogue between Thomas Merton on Agape and Shantideva on Karuna: Some Moral Dimensions of a Catholic and Mahayana Exchange." BA Honors thesis, University of Queensland, 2009. | Abstract This thesis contends that Thomas Merton's agape (1915 –1968) and Shantideva's karuna (8th century C.E.) have a strong affinity through the moral dimensions of what are referred to as unconditional kindness, positive ethics, and deep empathy. It is seeking to contribute a new perspective to the study of religious ethics by comparing the moral thought of two influential personages in a hermeneutic exercise. It aims to demonstrate that Shantideva's philosophy on Buddhist karuna enters a realm of common moral rapport with Merton's treatment of Christian agape. | University of Queensland | 30 April 2021 19:56:41 | |
Candragomin and the Bodhisattva Vow | Tatz, Mark Joseph. "Candragomin and the Bodhisattva Vow." PhD diss., University of British Columbia, 1978. https://archive.org/details/candragominbodhisattvavowmarkjosephtatzthesis_965_Y/mode/2up. | Abstract This dissertation presents, in two parts, a study of the life and works of the Indian Buddhist philosopher, teacher and litterateur Candragomin, and the study and translation of his own and associated treatises on the bodhisattva vow. | University of British Columbia | 28 April 2021 15:43:31 | |
'Ju Mi Pham On Pure Land Doctrine And Practice | Cook, Lowell. "'Ju Mi Pham On Pure Land Doctrine And Practice". MA Thesis, Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Center for Buddhis Studies, Kathmandu University, 2016. | The present study looks at self-power and other-power in a Tibetan Buddhist context. The tension between self-power and other-power concerns the mechanism behind rebirth in the pure land Sukhāvati; that is, whether rebirth is achieved through one’s own volition (self-power) or, conversely, through an external force such as the supernatural powers of Amitābha (other-power). Self-power and other-power are discussed at length in Japanese Buddhist Studies where they are called jiriki and tariki, respectively, and even has some distant parallels in Christian theology (namely, works and grace). Nevertheless, these two terms have gone unmentioned in Tibetan Buddhist literature. The only Tibetan author to my knowledge to explicitly discuss self-power and other-power is the ecumenical scholar-practitioner ’Ju mi pham (1846-1912) in his work, Sun-like Instructions of a Sage: A Clarification of Faith which Purifies the Pure Land, the Land of Bliss (Bde ba can gyi zhing sbyong ba’i dad pa gsal bar byed pa drang srong lung gi nyi ma). This fourteen-folio treatise affirms that faith and aspiration (dad ’dun) are the primary cause(s) for rebirth in Sukhāvati and defends this position in a series of polemics against detractors of other-power. I engaged with the text Sun-like Instructions of a Sage in three different modes: textual interpretation, philology, and translation. Part one, the textual analysis, required that I first place the text within its historical and literary contexts. To do this, I first delineated the historical developments of Pure Land Buddhism via the rise of Mahāyāna in India and the unique pure land innovations that took place in Tibet. Next, the genres of scripture that deal with pure land themes were discussed. After this, an in-depth analysis of Mi pham’s treatise ensued. In part two, philology, I defend the use of critical editions and prepare a critical edition of Sun-like Instructions of a Sage based on four editions (Appendix B). Finally, in part three, translation, I offer an annotated English translation of Sun-like Instructions of a Sage based on the newly edited critical edition. (ABSTRACT) | Rangjung Yeshe Institute | 26 April 2021 22:19:48 | |
Experience and Morality: Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology | Aitken, Daniel Timothy. "Experience and Morality: Buddhist Ethics as Moral Phenomenology." PhD diss., University of Tasmania, 2016. https://eprints.utas.edu.au/23404/1/Aitken_whole_thesis.pdf. | No abstract given. The following are the first relevant paragraphs: The Buddhist canon contains a substantial amount of material that treats the subject matter of ethics. Topics addressed in these texts include how we should live our lives, how we should treat others, classifications of right and wrong actions, and the articulation of virtues to be cultivated and vices to be avoided. The abundance of Buddhist material treating ethical issues even led O.H. de A. Wijesekera (1971) to make the grandiose claim, "It is universally recognized that Buddhism can claim to be the most ethical of all religio-philosophical systems of the world" (p. 49). Charles Goodman (2009) describes Buddhist ethics with its emphasis on non-violence and compassion as one of most appealing parts of the teachings of Buddhism. He writes, "Many people have drawn inspiration from Buddhism's emphasis on compassion, non-violence, and tolerance, its concern for animals, and its models of virtue and self-cultivation" (p. 1). Damien Keown (1992) even argues that Buddhism itself is foremost an ethical project: "Buddhism is a response to what is fundamentally an ethical problem—the perennial problem of the best kind of life for a man (sic) to lead" (p. 1). | University of Tasmania | 9 April 2021 21:13:27 | |
The Bodhisattva and the Ideal of Moral Wisdom in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya | Bastien, Leigh Ann. "The Bodhisattva and the Ideal of Moral Wisdom in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya." MA thesis, McMaster University, 1982. https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/10591/1/fulltext.pdf. | Abstract In the Śikṣāsamuccaya Śāntideva, a Mādhyamika philosopher of the early eighth century A.D., builds upon the philosophy of śūnyatā (emptiness) to demonstrate its practical implications in religious life. In his portrayal of the Bodhisattva Śāntideva focuses on this religious hero's ascent from imperfection toward the realisation of prajñāpāramitā, the perfection of wisdom. Wisdom, philosophically the end of all false ideas about reality, in the sphere of behaviour is an ethical ideal characterised by compassion and altruism. The Bodhisattva is one who has mastered wisdom and whose conduct is permeated with this ethical ideal. Śāntideva's presentation of the Bodhisattva is not limited to the ideal, but also explores the many levels of achievement through which an aspiring novice-Bodhisattva must progress toward fulfilment of the ideal. Though Śāntideva refers to certain levels in a Bodhisattva's development and to certain turning points in his career these factors as presented in the Śikṣā do not explain how Śāntideva understands the novice-Bodhisattva in terms of the ideal. The concept of bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment which all Bodhisattvas possess, parallels in its development with the Bodhisattva's development, and as a possible equivalent to wisdom itself serves to link the imperfect to the ideal. Śāntideva's use of comparison between the imperfect and the ideal suggests that his presentation of the Bodhisattva is designed to encourage novice-Bodhisattvas to strive for perfection. The themes of teaching, example, and purpose indicate that Śāntideva's understanding of the Bodhisattva and wisdom involves the idea of the Bodhisattva's function, as the link through which the ideal of moral perfection and wisdom has effect in the imperfect world. | McMaster University | 9 April 2021 18:14:45 | |
A Critical Study of Ācārya Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra (diss) | Parashar, Narain Chand. "A Critical Study of Ācārya Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra." PhD diss., University of Delhi, 1999. | University of Delhi | 7 April 2021 20:01:45 | ||
A Selfless Response to an Illusory World: A Comparative Study of Śāntideva and Śaṅkara | Todd, Warren Lee. "A Selfless Response to an Illusory World: A Comparative Study of Śāntideva and Śaṅkara." PhD diss., Lancaster University, 2012. https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/61623/1/Warren_Todd.pdf. | Abstract This thesis compares the ethical theories of two 8th century Indian philosophers, Śāntideva and Śaṅkara. In order to construct their ethics from philosophical premises, a metaphysical approach has been taken. A comparison of these two philosophers has never been made, nor has there been any major comparative study of the ethics of their two traditions, Indian Madhyamaka Buddhism and Advaita Vedānta. In opening the way for further comparisons between these two schools, I wish to question the manner in which scholars have consistently divided them along self/non-self (ātman/anātman) lines. The key to the comparison is thus the notion of individuated self (jīva) rather than the less personal ātman. | Lancaster University | 5 April 2021 15:48:04 | |
Tantric Buddhist Apologetics or Antinomianism as a Norm | Onians, Isabelle. “Tantric Buddhist Apologetics or Antinomianism as a Norm.” PhD diss., Oxford University, 2002. | University of Oxford | 31 March 2021 16:22:07 | ||
The Circle of Compassion: An Interpretive Study of Karuṇā in Indian Buddhist Literature | Jenkins, Stephen Lynn. "The Circle of Compassion: An Interpretive Study of Karuṇā in Indian Buddhist Literature." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1999. | Abstract This is a study of compassion in the non-tantric literature of Indian Buddhism focused on whether it is correctly characterized as self-abnegating altruism. Because the meanings of concepts like karuṇā, anukampā, and maitrī overlap and dominant terms tend to subsume the meanings of others, this study works with a broad sense of compassion as empathetic sensitivity. It brings to light the strong presence of themes of interpretation that emphasize the circular complementarity of benefiting oneself and benefiting others. This pattern holds even in apparent examples of extreme self-sacrifice and places doubt on assessments of Indian Buddhist ethics as self-abnegating. | Harvard University | 29 March 2021 23:08:24 | |
A Summons to Buddhahood: The Bodhicaryavatara as Santideva's Call to Embrace the Bodhicitta | Jack, Anthony Abraham. "A Summons to Buddhahood: The Bodhicaryavatara as Santideva's Call to Embrace the Bodhicitta." BA Honors thesis, Amherst College, 2007. | Amherst College | 22 March 2021 21:43:11 | ||
Buddhist Mereological Analysis in the Milindapañhā, Vasubandhu's Twenty Verses, and Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra | Falls, Edward Ray. "Buddhist Mereological Analysis in the Milindapañhā, Vasubandhu's Twenty Verses, and Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra." MA thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2005. | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 15 March 2021 22:50:18 | ||
The Relationship between Morality and the Body in Monastic Training according to the Śikṣāsamuccaya | Mrozik, Susanne Petra. "The Relationship between Morality and the Body in Monastic Training according to the Śikṣāsamuccaya." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1998. | Abstract Where do we locate the effects of monastic training? Are these located primarily in the interior of a person's psyche or on the exterior of the body? This thesis argues that according to the Śikṣāsamuccaya, a Sanskrit Buddhist compendium of monastic discipline, virtue is as much a feature of the body as it is an inner quality—a perception which has wide resonance in the Buddhist literature of many schools. Morality is persistently associated with the body in this text. Beings are adorned or perfumed with virtue; likewise they are disfigured by sin or reek with the stench of their immoral conduct. | Harvard University | 11 March 2021 02:10:27 | |
MindFulness in Santideva's Siksasamuccaya | Jamieson, Robert Craig. "MindFulness in Santideva's Siksasamuccaya." MA thesis, University of London (King's College), 1979. | University of London | 10 March 2021 23:58:40 | ||
Bodhicitta and Bodhisattva: A Study of the Bodhicaryāvatāra of Śāntideva | Matics, Marion L. "Bodhicitta and Bodhisattva: A Study of the Bodhicaryāvatāra of Śāntideva." PhD diss., Columbia University, 1960. | Columbia University | 10 March 2021 18:41:52 | ||
Selfhood and the Metaphysics of Altruism | Maroufkhani, Kevin Perry. "Selfhood and the Metaphysics of Altruism." PhD diss., University of Hawai'i, Manoa, 2017. | Abstract Altruistic and greater-good considerations are not only fundamental aspects of ethical maturity, but also a basic means for coming to know each other. Rational egoism (the view that practical rationality requires some form of personal pay-off for the goal-driven agent) is not so easily snubbed, nor has it fallen terribly out of fashion in the social sciences and economics. I argue that it is not a truism that altruism is less natural than egocentrism for an ordinary self. It is false. I aim to reconceive the problem that altruistic considerations seem less rational than justified, egocentric considerations. I conclude that the self can identify with subjectivity as such, and thereby advance the interests of a "we-self." While epistemically distant, the "we-self" is ontologically prior to the ego. | University of Hawai'i, Manoa | 23 February 2021 16:36:05 | |
Le commentaire de Mi-pham au chapitre IX du Bodhicaryāvatāra de Śāntideva: Échos modernes d'une controverse du XVème siècle | Arguillère, Stéphane. "Le commentaire de Mi-pham au chapitre IX du Bodhicaryāvatāra de Śāntideva: Échos modernes d'une controverse du XVème siècle." PhD diss., Université Paris-Sorbonne, 1994. | Le preśent travail comporte une version française couvrant les deux premier tiers du commentaire de 'Jam-mgon 'Ju Mi-pham rNam-rgyal rGya-mtsbo (1846-1912) au neuvième chapitre du Bodhicaryāvatāra de Śāntideva, commentaire intitulé Shes-rab kyi le'u'i tshig don go sla-bar rnam-par bshad-pa Nor-bu Ketaka. L'auteur est l'un des philosophes tibétains les plus illustres de l'époque récente, bien que son œuvre ait rencontré beaucoup d'adversité et soit encore dédaignée par certain. Mais cette célébrité serait à elle seule un motif bien futile pour nous faire consentir l'effort de le lire. Il faut donc, dans un premier temps, exposer les raison du choix de ce texte comme objet de cette recherche. (Arguillère, introduction, 1) | Université Paris-Sorbonne | 18 February 2021 00:35:34 | |
Gleichheit und Mitgefühl: Prajñākaramatis Kommentar zu Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII. 89-108 | Gruber, Hans Michael. "Gleichheit und Mitgefühl: Prajñākaramatis Kommentar zu Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII. 89-108." MA thesis, University of Hamburg, 1988. | This is Hans Michael Gruber's MA thesis from the University of Hamburg (1988) titled "Equality and Compassion: Prajñākaramati's Commentary on Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII. 89–108" (Gleichheit und Mitgefühl: Prajñākaramatis Kommentar zu Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII. 89-108). | Universität Hamburg | 12 February 2021 18:32:26 | |
Ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya: A Study in Mahāyāna Morality | Clayton, Barbra R. "Ethics in the Śikṣāsamuccaya: A Study in Mahāyāna Morality." PhD diss., McGill University, 2001. | Abstract This dissertation examines the ethics of Śāntideva, an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker of the seventh century CE, particularly through his work, the Śikṣāsamuccaya (Compendium of Teaching). This study therefore helps redress a significant imbalance in the scholarship on Buddhist ethics, which has up to now focused primarily on the morality of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. The dissertation incorporates both descriptive and metaethical analyses to answer three questions: What is Śāntideva's moral theory, and how does it compare with other characterizations of Buddhist ethics? Can one moral theory adequately describe Buddhist moral traditions? | McGill University | 12 February 2021 17:40:28 | |
Śāntideva and Kant: An East-West Comparative Study in Ethics | Bacrǎu, Andrei-Valentin. "Śāntideva and Kant: An East-West Comparative Study in Ethics." MA thesis, Nālandā University, 2019. | Abstract For the past few decades, Buddhism has become a trending academic topic in Western departments, in religious studies as well as philosophy. This thesis is concerned with the way in which the domain of Buddhist ethics has been discussed and is developing, particularly in the field of comparative studies. Since one of the core doctrines of Buddhism is
no-self, the "anātman", Western scholars have shied away from making positive claims over the nature of moral agency and ethical reasoning in Buddhism. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and discuss the extent to which we can understand, contextualise and explain Buddhist ethics from the lens of Western philosophical concepts and traditions. Specifically, this thesis parallels Kant's system with Buddhism. This thesis is going to be broadly addressing some thematic aspects in the Buddhist philosophy of Śāntideva and the Mādhyamaka tradition he belongs to, as well as how Buddhist ethics he developed have emerged from the Mādhyamaka theoretical framework. The first chapter will look at the tools of reasoning Mādhyamikas use to justify their metaphysical claims of an ontological dualism, illustrated by the doctrine of conventional and ultimate truths, respectively.[1] Some of the main arguments that defend the
conventional-ultimate distinction shall be placed in a dialogue with Kantian metaphysics. Notes
| Nālandā University | 11 February 2021 23:06:53 | |
Of the Progresse of the Bodhisattva: The Bodhisattvamārga in the Śikṣāsamuccaya | Mahoney, Richard. "Of the Progresse of the Bodhisattva: The Bodhisattvamārga in the Śikṣāsamuccaya." MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 2002. | Abstract
The Buddha is credited with clearly and succinctly expounding the Buddhist path (mārga). Despite the eloquence and brevity of the Buddha's exposition, the corpus of Buddhist scriptures explaining the path is prolix.
It is asserted in this paper, then, that Ś considers the unsurpassed and perfect enlightenment of the Buddha attained by the practice of complete giving (sarvadāna ≡ sarvotsarjana) and complete giving attained by the practice of the right strivings. This conception of the way of the bohisattva is represented in Figure 7.1[5] and in more detail in Figure 7.2[6]. Notes
| University of Canterbury | 8 February 2021 20:09:05 | |
Ethics in Schopenhauer and Buddhism | Hutton, Kenneth. "Ethics in Schopenhauer and Buddhism." PhD diss., University of Glasgow, 2008. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/912/1/2009huttonphd.pdf. | Abstract In the following thesis I outline Schopenhauer’s ethics in its metaphysical context and in contrast to ethics based on egoism. I look at criticisms of Schopenhauer’s philosophy which have emerged quite recently, and some of which (if valid) would undermine Schopenhauer’s compassion-based moral theory. I have explained these criticisms and offered a defence of Schopenhauer. In order to take up Schopenhauer’s claim of affinity with Buddhist philosophy, I outline first of all early Buddhist then Mahāyāna ethics focusing on the latter’s central idea of compassion. | University of Glasgow | 15 January 2021 22:15:13 | |
Stotra, Psychological Conditioning, and the Bodhicaryāvatāra: Together with a Translation of the Bodhicittānuśaṃsapariccheda | Thomas, Paul. "Stotra, Psychological Conditioning, and the Bodhicaryāvatāra: Together with a Translation of the Bodhicittānuśaṃsapariccheda." MA thesis, Center for Buddhist Studies, Kathmandu University, 2014. | Abstract The Bodhicaryāvatāra has been studied by modern scholars from a number of angles; however, one aspect of it has been neglected: its practical use as a tool for Mahāyāna Buddhist practitioners. Buddhist literature has often been used as a tool for the process of bhāvanā ("meditation" or "cultivation"), a term which refers to a process of deliberate cultivation of specific attitudes such as renunciation or compassion. The Bodhicaryāvatāra is a typical example of such a text that is intended to be used a tool in this process. Furthermore, its first chapter, entitled the Bodhicittānuśaṃsapariccheda ("The Chapter on the Benefits of Bodhicitta"), in addition to being a tool for bhāvanā, is basically a short praise to bodhicitta and bodhisattvas. Thus it is to some extent an example of the genre of stotra ("(generally religious) praise"), which is a genre of Sanskrit literature ubiquitous in all Indian religious traditions as far back as we have documentation. In Part I I examine the way in which the genre of stotra fits into the more general use of literature as a tool of mental cultivation, with particular focus on the Bodhicittānuśaṃsapariccheda. I show that genres such as stotra are intimately linked with other less overtly ritualistic Indian religious literature in terms of their role in praxis, particularly the process of bhāvanā. I also show the way in which this relationship involves the concept of puṇya, or "merit," which figures in both the process of bhāvanā and in the genre of stotra. Part II consists of a translation of the first chapter of the only surviving commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Prajñākaramati's pañjikā. | Kathmandu University | 14 January 2021 18:45:56 | |
Virtues-Pāramitās: St. Ignatius of Loyola and Śāntideva as Companions on the Way of Life | Spiranec, Tomislav. "Virtues/Pāramitās: St. Ignatius of Loyola and Śāntideva as Companions on the Way of Life." STD diss., Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, Berkeley, California, 2018. | Abstract This dissertation conducts a comparative study of the cultivation of the virtues in Catholic spiritual tradition and the perfections (pāramitās) in the Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions in view of the spiritual needs of contemporary Croatian young adults. The comparison is carried out through the exploration of two key texts: The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century Basque Catholic, and the founder of the Society of Jesus, and The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra) of Śāntideva, an eight-century Indian Mahāyāna monk. | Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University | 14 January 2021 17:54:28 | |
Santideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra | Nyanawara, U. "Santideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra." MA thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2004. | Abstract The purpose of this paper is to study 'Santideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra.' I do not explore it in detail, but rather in general. The legendary biography of Santideva is included. The role of the text, Bodhicaryavātāra, and remarks on the text, made by various scholars throughout history, are also mentioned. The meaning of bodhi or bodhisattva is clarified to some degree. The bodhicaryas, the ways of the Bodhisattvas, are explained, such as Bodhicitta, the awakening mind; Pāramitās, perfections; and Bodhisattva-bhūmis, the stages of Bodhisattva. | California State University, Long Beach | 14 January 2021 00:25:47 | |
Love in Christianity and Buddhism: A Comparative Study of Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae and Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra | Gu, Rouyan. "Love in Christianity and Buddhism: A Comparative Study of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra." PhD diss., The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2019. | Abstract Through comparing Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae with Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, this study makes use of the distinction between "human love" and "divine love" as a conceptual framework to study about love in Christian and Buddhist traditions. In Chapter 1, I defined the meaning of divine love and human love, dividing the latter into human love1 and human love2. The former emphasizes aspects such as desire, sentiments, and personal benefit, while the latter emphasizes aspects such as benevolence and altruism. Chapter 2 introduced the reader to the terminologies of love seen in the Summa Theologiae and the Bodhicaryāvatāra in order to highlight the different types of love found in Christianity and Mahayana Buddhism. In Chapter 3, I discussed Aquinas's fourfold categorization of love: amor, dilectio, caritas, and misericordia. And I advance an interpretation of the relationship between these different kinds of love. Chapter 4 is about Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, its Mahayanist compassion, and altruistic spirit. I also discuss Śāntideva's view of worldly love; he emphatically promotes that practitioners abandon worldly love in order to embrace the Bodhisattva ideal of compassion. By comparing Aquinas and Śāntideva’s accounts of love, chapter 5 illustrates how Buddhism illuminates Christianity regarding the relation between divine love and human love, and, how Christianity illuminates Buddhism regarding the relation between self-love and altruism. I conclude this dissertation by drawing out some major differences regarding the relationship between divine love and human love in Christian and Buddhist traditions and the implications for interpreting their religious goals and experience. This study carries an in-depth study of love in a wider context of Christian and Buddhist traditions. Based on the methodology of “reciprocal illumination” and dialoguing with the interdisciplinary studies on love, its findings contribute to the Christian-Buddhist studies/comparison in particular and the comparative philosophy of religions in general. | The Chinese University of Hong Kong | 13 January 2021 21:12:59 | |
The Self and the Suffering Other: Levinas and Śāntideva on the Ethics of Compassion | Edelglass, William. "The Self and the Suffering Other: Levinas and Śāntideva on the Ethics of Compassion." PhD diss., Emory University, 2004. https://search.proquest.com/openview/b54f906acd6c17eedd6fa816807b260d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y. | Abstract Grounded in the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Śāntideva, this thesis is an exploration of the tension between the call of the suffering other and the care for the self. I argue that the asymmetrical ethics of compassion that prioritizes the suffering of the other over the concerns of the self is at the heart of Levinas's philosophy. While defending Levinas's understanding of the asymmetrical character of ethics, I have looked elsewhere for a solution to the problematic violence of Levinasian ethical subjectivity, in which the self is perpetually guilty, traumatized by the inescapable burden of a responsibility it cannot fulfill. To address this violence towards self while maintaining the asymmetrical ethics of compassion, I have drawn on Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra. Śāntideva’s account of subjectivity and ethics indicates a path of self-cultivation that develops compassionate attention to the suffering other. I have described and analyzed this path, emphasizing how it addresses the deepest needs of the self while simultaneously enabling a greater sensibility to the suffering of others and a greater capacity for the alleviation of their distress. | Emory University | 13 January 2021 19:02:36 | |
The Concept of Bodhicitta in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra (Diss) | Brassard, Francis. "The Concept of Bodhicitta in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra." PhD diss., McGill University, 1996. | Abstract This thesis is a contribution to the study of the interpretation of the concept of bodhicitta. This concept is a technical term of frequent occurrence in Buddhist Sanskrit literature. Within the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition, bodhicitta is closely related to the spiritual practices of the Buddhist aspirant to enlightenment. Specifically researched is Śāntideva’s use of this concept in his Bodhicaryāvatāra, a text known to have been composed around the 8th century. The form of this study is as follows: first, a survey of the various interpretations of the concept of bodhicitta suggested so far; secondly, an analysis of its possible functions in the context of the spiritual path of the aspirant to enlightenment; thirdly, a discussion of what I believe to be an appropriate understanding of bodhicitta. An argument will be made that the path to realization consists in cultivating an awareness of the reality described by the concept of bodhicitta. Such cultivation should bring one to the realization that what is described by it is indeed the only possible reality. This means that bodhicitta is the means to as well as the description of the goal to attain. | McGill University | 12 January 2021 22:48:25 | |
Accessing Tibetan Tathāgatagarbha Interpretations based on The Ratnagotravibhāga | Burchardi, Anne. "Accessing Tibetan Tathāgatagarbha Interpretations based on The Ratnagotravibhāga." Unsubmitted PhD diss., University of Copenhagen, 2001. | Abstract Buddha Nature or Tathāgatagarbha is a complex phenomenon that has been the subject of discussion in Buddhist cultures for centuries. This study presents for the first time a survey of the extent of Tibetan commentarial literature based upon the Indian Tathāgatagarbha Śāstra, the Ratnagotravibhāga, as well as a comparison of passages of Tibetan interpretations upon The Three Reasons given for the presence of Tathāgatagarbha in the Ratnagotravibhāga. Furthermore, attention is drawn to the inconsistencies regarding the dating, authorship, structure and content of this source text within the Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan traditions. Thereby the present study addresses primarily the need for an overview of the Tibetan commentarial literature upon this important Śāstra, by surveying more than forty Tibetan commentaries. This survey will facilitate contextualization of future studies of the individual commentaries. Secondarily it addresses the need for documentation and interpretation of precise concepts and arguments, by presenting line for line comparison of passages of interpretations by four different authors, Rngog Blo ldan shes rab (1059-1109), Dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan (1292-1361), Rgyal tshab dar ma rin chen (1364-1432) and Mi pham phyogs las rnam rgyal (1846-1912). This comparison will trace divergent traditions of Tathāgatagarbha interpretation based on the Ratnagotravibhāga in Tibet. It becomes apparent that the main divergence in these four authors' Tathāgatagarbha exegesis hinges on their interpretation of Dharmakāya and the role it plays as the first supporting reason for the presence of Tathāgatagarbha. Where some interpret Tathāgatagarbha as being "empty", others maintain that it is "full of qualities", apparent contradictions that however, are based upon the same scriptural passages of the source text, the Ratnagotravibhāga. That the ambiguous nature of the source text accommodates such seemingly contradictory interpretations should be kept in mind when studying Tibetan interpretations so as to avoid dismissal of certain interpretations in favour of others. The aim of the present study is to provide a structural framework for accessing Tibetan Tathāgatagarbha interpretations based on the Ratnagotravibhāga that surveys their extent and documents their nature. The study may thus contribute to a broader understanding of Tibetan literature in general and of Buddha Nature interpretation in particular. | University of Copenhagen | 16 December 2020 23:27:06 | |
Thought of Buddha Nature as Depicted in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra | Sy, Nguyen Dac. "Thought of Buddha Nature as Depicted in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra." PhD diss., University of Delhi, 2012. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/28355. | Abstract 1. Evolution of the Buddha-nature Concept Structurally, therefore, excluding the introduction and conclusion, the thesis consists of six major chapters in accordance with the above six main themes respectively. | University of Delhi | 11 November 2020 18:33:07 | |
Tao-sheng's Commentary on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-Sūtra: A Study and Translation | Kim, Young-ho. "Tao-sheng's Commentary on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-Sūtra: A Study and Translation." PhD diss., McMaster University, 1985. | Abstract This dissertation provides a comprehensive study and complete translation of Tao-sheng's Commentary on the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra (CSPS). This document occupies an important place in Chinese Buddhist literature. Its significance in the study of Chinese Buddhism can be described in two ways. Firstly, the CSPS was the first commentary ever written on the Lotus Sūtra, which was to become a scripture of fundamental importance on the Far Eastern Buddhist scene, especially for the later Chinese Buddhist schools. Furthermore, it was the first commentary on any Buddhist scripture that was written in Chinese and structured in fully developed commentarial form. The CSPS set a pattern in many ways for later Buddhists to follow in terms of both structure and ideology. | McMaster University | 3 September 2020 18:05:40 | |
A Socio-Historical Study of the Kingdom of Sde-dge (Derge, Kham) in the Late Nineteenth Century: Ris-med Views of Alliance and Authority | Hartley, Lauran Ruth. "A Socio-Historical Study of the Kingdom Of Sde Dge (Derge, Kham) In The Late Nineteenth Century: Ris Med Views Of Alliance And Authority." M.A. thesis, Indiana University, 1997. | This thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of religio-political alliances in Tibet beyond the more sectarian view that arises by generalizing from historical developments in Central Tibet. Specifically, I discuss the sociopolitical situation in during the 19th century in the eastern Tibetan kingdom of Sde-dge (Derge, Kham). This case study provides an example of religio-political alliance at the local level which cannot be grasped by a model that highlights a single sectarian affiliation. On the contrary, one strategy for securing rule in Sde-dge was precisely for the king NOT to maintain an exclusive relationship with one tradition, but to form close ties with monasteries of different traditions. The thesis also examines the Rgyal po'i lugs kyi bstan bcos [Treatise on how a king should rule], written by 'Ju Mi pham rgya mtsho (Mipham) for the king of Sde-dge in 1895. | Indiana University | 30 July 2020 17:46:53 | |
A Study of Yogācāric Influence on Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine as Found in Laṅkāvatārasūtra | Hsiao, Mei. "A Study of Yogācāric Influence on Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine as Found in Laṅkāvatārasūtra." PhD diss., University of Calgary, 2008. https://archive.org/details/yogacharastudyofyogacaricinfluenceontathagatagarbhadoctrineasfoundinlankavatarasutrameihsiaothe_179_w/mode/2up. | Abstract Through a close examination on three Sanskrit compounds — i.e., tathāgatanairātmyagarbha, tathāgatagarbhālayavijñāna and pariniṣpannasvabhāvas tathāgatagarbhahṛdayam — in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, this thesis will demonstrate how the tathāgatagarbha thought in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra is significantly enriched by Yogācāric influence. | University of Calgary | 13 July 2020 15:24:45 | |
Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine according to the Gzhan Stong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga (Dissertation) | Hookham, S. K. "Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine according to the Gzhan Stong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga." PhD diss., University of Oxford, 1986. | Abstract This thesis aims to establish a comprehensible model of the gZhan stong interpretation of Tathāgatagarbha doctrine as found in the Ratnagotravibhāga, according to gZhan stong commentators such as Dol po pa (1292-1361), Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507-54), Kong Sprul (1813-1899) and living Tibetan experts on that doctrine such as the bKa' brgyud Lamas Khenpo Tsultrim and Thrangu Rimpoche. The thesis shows the contrasting versions of Tathāgatagarbha doctrine existent in the Tibetan tradition. It draws especially on Kong sprul's explanations in his introduction to his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga. In section 2 this introduction is translated in full with extensive footnotes. Kong sprul's view is contrasted with that of Dol po pa, who was the first to popularize the name of gZhan stong for Tathāgatagarbha doctrine in Tibet. It is the author's hope that this thesis will help not only to correct Tibetan and Western misunderstandings of Dol po pa's gZhan stong, but will contribute to establishing him in his rightful place as one of Tibet's greatest exponents of Tathāgatagarbha doctrine. Section three paraphrases the whole of the Ratnagotravibhāga and its Vyākhyā from the gZhan stong point of view. This means that Tathāgatagarbha and Dhātu are interpreted as the Absolute non-dual Jñāna. This is in contrast to the Rang stong interpretation, which is that it is mere emptiness of self-nature. Among ancillary topics discussed are the Great Madhyamaka as described in Kong sprul's Shes bya kun khyab; Absolute versus relative Cittamātra as discussed by Dol po pa in his Ri chos; and the gZhan stong view that the third Dharmacakra is Nitartha and that the Nitartha is found both in the general teachings of the Absolute Dhātu, such as the Saṅdhinirmocanasūtra, and in the specific teachings on the Tathāgatagarbha complete with the inseparable Buddha Qualities, such as the Śrīmālādevīsūtra. | Oxford University Press | 10 July 2020 19:54:04 | |
The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna (Dissertation) | Brown, Brian Edward. "The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna." PhD diss., Fordham University, 1981. | Abstract The present dissertation identifies the ontological presuppositions and the corresponding soteriological-epistemological principles that sustain and define the Mahāyāna Buddhist belief in the inherent potentiality of all animate beings to attain the supreme and perfect enlightenment of Buddhahood. More specifically, the study establishes a coherent metaphysic of Absolute Suchness (Tathatā), synthesizing the variant traditions of the Tathāgata-embryo (Tathāgatagarbha) and the Storehouse Consciousness (Ālayavijñāna). | Fordham University | 10 July 2020 17:03:19 | |
The Active Self: A Philosophical Study of the "Buddha Nature Treatise" and Other Chinese Buddhist Texts | King, Sallie B. "The Active Self: A Philosophical Study of the 'Buddha Nature Treatise' and Other Chinese Buddhist Texts." PhD diss., Temple University, 1981. | Buddha nature is the Thusness revealed by the twin
Notes
| Temple University | 8 July 2020 21:26:36 | |
Chibeto ni okeru hōshōron no juyō to tenkai | Kano, Kazuo. "Chibeto ni okeru hōshōron no juyō to tenkai" (On the Acceptance and Development of the Ratnagotravibhāga in Tibet). MA thesis, University of Kyoto, 2001. | Kyoto University | 8 July 2020 16:33:46 | ||
Sanskrit Grammatical Literature in Tibet | Verhagen, Pieter C. "Sanskrit Grammatical Literature in Tibet." PhD diss. University of Leiden, 1991. | Universiteit Leiden | 10 June 2020 06:34:25 | ||
A Study of Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika: An English Translation and Annotation of the Pramāṇavārttika Book I | Nagatomi, Masatoshi. "A Study of Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika: An English Translation and Annotation of the Pramāṇavārttika Book I." PhD diss. Harvard University, 1957. | Harvard University | 4 June 2020 06:59:34 | ||
The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious | Waldron, William S. "The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990. | Abstract The thesis focuses on the relations between mind and karma and the continuity of life in saṃsāra based upon a concept of mind, the ālayavijñāna, as presented in the texts of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu of the Yogācāra school of Indian Buddhism, A.D. 4-5th centuries. It has been the topic of many sectarian disputes as well as the springboard for several far-reaching doctrinal developments, so it is desirable to examine it within its early Indian Buddhist context. The first section presents the multivalent viññāṇa of the Pali Canon and related concepts. It demonstrates that the major characteristics later predicated of the ālayavijñāna were present in an unsystematized but implicit form in the viññāṇa of the early discourses. The next section describes the systematic psychological analysis developed by the Abhidharma and its consequent problematics. It argues that the incongruity of Abhidharmic analysis with the older unsystematized doctrines led to major theoretical problems concerning the key concepts of kleśa and karma, to which the Sautrāntika school offered the concept of seeds (bija). The third section, based primarily upon the texts translated herein, depicts the origination and gradual development of the ālayavijñāna within the Yogācāra school from a somatic "life principle", to an explicitly unconscious mind, to its final bifurcation into an unconscious afflicted mind (kliṣṭa-manas) and a passive respository of karmic seeds, the latent loci of kleśa and karma, respectively. The last section compares the ālayavijñāna systematically with Freud's and Jung's concepts of the unconscious, concluding that their respective philosophical milieus led both traditions to conceptions of unconscious mental processes as necessary compensations for strictly intentional epistemological models. In the appendix the major texts presenting the ālayavijñāna, Chaps. V and VIII.37 of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, part of the Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī of the Yogācārabhūmi, and Ch. 1 of the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha, are translated and extensively annotated in order to contextualize the minutiae of this concept of mind with its canonical precursors and its Abhidharmic contemporaries. (Source: ProQuest) | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 2 June 2020 17:27:53 | |
Mipham Gyatso Rinpoche’s ‘Makeover’ of Hwashang Moheyan | Jitta, Yanneke J. “Mipham Gyatso Rinpoche’s ‘Makeover’ of Hwashang Moheyan". Master’s thesis, Rangjung Yeshe Institute / Kathmandu University, 2015. | Rangjung Yeshe Institute Kathmandu University | 2 June 2020 09:43:01 | ||
The Translation and Introduction to the First Two Chapters of the mDzod ’Grel mNgon pa’i rGyan by mChim ’Jam pa’i dbYangs | Coghlan, Ian. "The Translation and Introduction to the First Two Chapters of the mDzod ’Grel mNgon pa’i rGyan by mChim ’Jam pa’i dbYangs". PhD diss., La Trobe University, 2002. | La Trobe University | 1 June 2020 10:00:02 | ||
Wǒnhyo's Commentaries on the Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna | Park, Sung-bae. "Wǒnhyo's Commentaries on the Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna." PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1979. | In contrast to, for example, the Christian canon and the Confucian canon, the Buddhist canon is unusually difficult to define, because the Buddhist scriptures are several thousands in nurnber.[1] One who wishes to gain knowledge of this canon cannot be asked or expected to read all or even most of them, so the Buddhist who wishes to present the essence of the teaching to others is immediately faced with the problem of having to pick a representative text to serve as introduction, survey, summary or outline to this vast body of material. This problem is compounded, especially in East Asia, by the existence of many Buddhist schools, most of them having a particular text which served as their bases.[2] For example, the T'ien-t'ai school is based on the Saddharma-paṇḍarīka-sūtra, the Hua-yen school on the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, and so on. Accordingly, to choose a representative text from the several thousand Buddhist scriptures is unavoidably to come very close to accepting some sort of sectarian perspective. Thus, those who enquire after the essence of Buddhist teaching, yet who wish at the outset to avoid sectarian affiliation, will hesitate to approach the canon. Notes
| University of California at Berkeley | 29 May 2020 22:29:42 | |
Chi-tsang's Ta-ch'eng-hsüan-lun: The Two Truths and the Buddha-Nature | Koseki, Aaron K. "Chi-tsang's Ta-ch'eng-hsüan-lun: The Two Truths and the Buddha-Nature." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1977. | As the title indicates, the present study is primarily devoted to a textual examination of the Ta-ch'eng-hsüan-lun (hereafter referred to as Hsüan-lun), a work written by the Sanlun monk Chi-tsang (549-623) to serve as an outline of the major teachings of his Three Treatises tradition.[1] The text consists of several independent essays on subjects such as the "Two Truths," "Eight Negations," "Buddha-nature," "Ekayāna," "Nirvāṇa," and "Two Knowledges."[2] From this compendium on Sanlun doctrine, the essays on the "Two Truths" and the "Buddha-nature" will primarily serve as the textual basis for this study. The objective of this dissertation is to discuss how the Sanlun theory of two truths (saṁvṛti-satya and paramārtha-satya) and the Nirvāṇa-sūtra concept of Buddha-nature (buddha-dhātu) were defined and interpreted by Chi-tsang.[3]
More specifically, this study will explore the relationship between the theory and practice of the two truths and the Buddha-nature. In these two significant components of Chi-tsang's thought, one can see the synthesis of the Prajñāpāramitā doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā) and the Buddha-nature theory of "not-empty" (aśūnya). In combining these two major doctrinal trends of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Chi-tsang's thought is innovative and constitutes an important phase in Chinese intellectual history. (Koseki, introduction, 1) Notes
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | 28 May 2020 21:35:50 | |
Yogâcāra Buddhism Transmitted or Transformed? Paramārtha (499–569) and His Chinese Interpreters | Keng, Ching. "Yogâcāra Buddhism Transmitted or Transformed? Paramārtha (499–569) and His Chinese Interpreters." PhD diss., Harvard University, 2009. | Abstract This dissertation argues that the Yogâcāra Buddhism transmitted by the Indian translator Paramârtha (Ch. Zhendi 真諦) underwent a significant transformation due to the influence of his later Chinese interpreters, a phenomenon to which previous scholars failed to paid enough attention. | Harvard University | 27 May 2020 18:52:34 | |
The Critique of Svatantra Reasoning by Candrakīrti and Tsong-kha-pa: A Study of Philosophical Proof According to Two Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka Traditions of India and Tibet | Yotsuya, Kodo. The Critique of Svatantra Reasoning by Candrakīrti and Tsong-kha-pa: A Study of Philosophical Proof According to Two Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka Traditions of India and Tibet. Tibetan and Indo-Tibetan Studies 8. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999. | Universität Hamburg | 22 May 2020 05:08:32 | ||
A Lineage in Time: The Vicissitudes of the rNgog pa bka’ brgyud from the 11th through 19th centuries | A Lineage in Time: The Vicissitudes of the rNgog pa bka’ brgyud from the 11th through 19th centuries | The rNgog lineage was a religious hereditary lineage that flourished in Tibet from the 11th to the 15th century and participated in the efflorescence of several tantric transmissions that remain alive in contemporary Tibetan Buddhism. This dissertation is the history of the rNgog pa bka’ brgyud religious lineage that takes root in 10th-century India, was acculturated in Tibet through the efforts of the translator Mar pa Chos kyi blo gros (1000?-1081?) and spans the second millennium. It is also the history of the rNgog hereditary lineage, from its mythic origins, to its blossoming in the 12th century and its silent dispersion in the political transformations of 17th-century Central Tibet. Its core is a pair of twenty-five-folio narratives composed within the rNgog lineage that are at the crossroads of hagiography, genealogy and records of teachings received. Its framework are two large collections of tantric exegesis and rituals. The first, the Treasury of bKa’ brgyud Mantras, was compiled in the 19th century in order to safeguard the Mar rngog traditions and facilitate their transmission. The second one, the Compilation of rNgog Cycles, was published ten years ago but contains ancient material composed by the rNgog and their disciples. The aim of this study is to understand the history of these texts and, more broadly, the history of the rNgog and their position in the religious field of Central Tibet until the 17th century. For this, several approaches are adopted, including source criticism, textual and socio-historical analysis. | École Pratique des Hautes Études | 21 May 2020 16:05:45 | |
The Buddha Said That Buddha Said So: A Translation and Analysis of "Pūrvayogaparivarta" from the Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī Sūtra | Miller, Adam Tyler. "The Buddha Said That Buddha Said So: A Translation and Analysis of "Pūrvayogaparivarta" from the Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī Sūtra." MA thesis, University of Missouri-Columbia, 2013. | University of Missouri-Columbia | 14 May 2020 02:00:46 | ||
The Akutobhayā and Early Indian Buddhism | Huntington, C. W., Jr. "The Akutobhayā and Early Indian Buddhism". PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1986. | University of Michigan | 12 May 2020 09:37:15 | ||
Toward a New Paradigm of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Taehyŏn (ca. 8th Century CE), a Korean Yogācāra Monk, and His Predecessors | Lee, Sumi. "Toward a New Paradigm of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Taehyŏn (ca. 8th Century CE), a Korean Yogācāra Monk, and His Predecessors." PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2014. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/74h5d0nv#main. | Abstract This dissertation seeks to locate the place of Taehyŏn 大賢(ca. 8th century CE), a Silla Korean Yogācāra monk, within the broader East Asian Buddhist tradition. My task is not confined solely to a narrow study of Taehyŏn’s thought and career, but is principally concerned with understanding the wider contours of the East Asian Yogācāra tradition itself and how these contours are reflected in Taehyŏn’s extant oeuvre. There are problems in determining Taehyŏn's doctrinal position within the traditional paradigms of East Asian Yogācāra tradition, that is, the bifurcations of Tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra; Old and New Yogācāra; the One Vehicle and Three Vehicles; and the Dharma Nature and Dharma Characteristics schools. Taehyŏn's extant works contain doctrines drawn from across these various divides, and his doctrinal positions therefore do not precisely fit any of these traditional paradigms. In order to address this issue, this dissertation examines how these bifurcations originated and evolved over time, across the geographical expanse of the East Asian Yogācāra tradition. The chapters of the dissertation discuss in largely chronological order the theoretical problems involved in these bifurcations within Yogācāra and proposes possible resolutions to these problems, by focusing on the works of such major Buddhist exegetes as Paramārtha (499-569), Ji 基 (632-682), Wŏnhyo 元曉 (617-686), Fazang 法藏(643-712), and, finally, Taehyŏn. | University of California, Los Angeles | 8 May 2020 22:38:17 | |
The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana (Ta-ch'eng ch'i-hsin lun): A Study of the Unfolding of Sinitic Mahayana Motifs | Lai, Whalen. "The Awakening of Faith in Mahayana (Ta-ch'eng ch'i-hsin lun): A Study of the Unfolding of Sinitic Mahayana Motifs." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1975. http://www.acmuller.net/download/LaiWhalen_Awakening-of-Faith.pdf. | China, the country traditionally ruled by the Confucian literati, has prided herself in being moderate, rational and agnostic. So prevalent is this self-image, projected by her cultural elite and enhanced by Sinology itself, that to many, China is still the paradigm of la vie de la moderation, or, in Chinese, of chung-yung (the mean). Notes(As numbered in the original manuscript) | Harvard University | 8 May 2020 17:14:57 | |
The Nonduality of Nonconceptual Wisdom and Conceptual Cognition: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha Teaching in the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa-parivarta | Shiu, Henry. "The Nonduality of Nonconceptual Wisdom and Conceptual Cognition: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha Teaching in the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa-parivarta." PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2005. | Abstract Although the doctrine of tathāgatagarbha can be traced to the teaching of an innately pure luminous mind (prakṛtiś cittasya prabhāsvarā) in early Buddhist teachings, the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa-parivarta (AAN) is often considered one of the earliest Buddhist scriptures that explicitly expound the teachings of the tathāgatagarbha. The central message of the AAN focuses upon the non-increase and non-decrease nature of the dharmadhātu. This brings out the idea of the dharmadhātu as a totality which transcends all dualistic notions. Translated into Chinese by Bodhiruci in 525 CE, the AAN is now extant only in Chinese translation (Taishō no. 668). Unfortunately, no serious studies have ever been conducted on this sūtra in Western scholarship. The precise relationship between the tathāgatagarbha and the two Mahāyāna traditions, Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, is also worth investigating in detail. The thesis will argue that the tathāgatagarbha is not a separate school in Indian Buddhism. It will then study the historical issues relating to the AAN, followed by a philosophical investigation of its teachings. The thesis will also undertake an "external" consideration of the doctrinal relationship between the AAN and a number of sūtras and śāstras. It will also incorporate a study of Bodhiruci (菩提流支), of the Northern Wei (北魏) dynasty, who translated the AAN into Chinese, as well as the first complete English translation of the AAN from its extant Chinese version. This study may provide an alternative view on the tathāgatagarbha theory. The thesis will argue that the tathāgatagarbha is referring to be an aspect of all experiences. This means that all beings are by nature having a dimension of the mind not fully realized, and it is yogic meditative practices that enable the practitioners to develop an awareness of the enlightenment which is always implicit in our consciousness. | University of Toronto | 8 May 2020 09:31:12 | |
A Study of the Wisdom Chapter (Prajñāpāramitā Pariccheda) of the Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā of Prajñākaramati | Oldmeadow, Peter R. "A Study of the Wisdom Chapter (Prajñāpāramitā Pariccheda) of the Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā of Prajñākaramati." PhD diss., Australian National University, 1994. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/110199. | Abstract This thesis is a study of the heart of Prajñākaramati's Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā: the only commentary preserved in Sanskrit on Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra, one of the most popular and influential texts in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The primary purpose of the thesis is an annotated translation of the Prajñāpāramitā Pariccheda (Wisdom Chapter) of the Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā. The translation is based on Louis de La Vallée Poussin's edition of the Sanskrit text with close reference to the Tibetan a translation. The annotations present material necessary to understand Prajñākaramati's commentary both regarding the terminology he uses and the context in which he was writing. The annotations identify sources of quotations and parallel passages in other texts, and provide references to scholarly material on the subject matter treated by Prajñākaramati. While the reference point for the translation has been the Sanskrit text the Tibetan translation has been studied as an aid to the translation. Note has been made of where the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts diverge and some variant readings have been offered on this basis. There is an appendix containing an edited version of the Derge (sDe dge) and Peking editions of the Tibetan translation. A short introduction outlines the scope of the work, presents the known facts concerning Śāntideva and Prajñākaramati and their works, and discusses scholarly research done on Prajñākaramati's commentary. (Source: Australian National University) | Australian National University | 6 May 2020 16:16:44 | |
The Zen Master Dōgen’s Understanding of the Buddha-Nature in Light of the Historical Development of the Buddha-Nature Concept in India, China, and Japan | Grosnick, William. "The Zen Master Dōgen’s Understanding of the Buddha-Nature in Light of the Historical Development of the Buddha-Nature Concept in India, China, and Japan." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1979. | . . . The present study will have a twofold purpose: 1) to examine the history of the Buddha-nature concept in an attempt to discover a central core of meaning inherent in the concept, and 2) to evaluate Dōgen's view of the Buddha-nature in the light of that central core of meaning. Parts I and II of this work, which examine the doctrinal history of the Buddha-nature concept in India and China, are devoted to the former task, and Part III, which examines Dōgen's thought concerning the Buddha-nature, is devoted to the latter. It is hoped that through the examination of Dōgen's conception of the Buddha-nature in the light of the previous articulation of the concept, it will be possible to form conclusions concerning the significance of Dōgen's thought in Buddhist doctrinal history. (Grosnick, introduction, 7–8) | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 30 April 2020 11:34:14 | |
A Study of Master Yinshun’s Hermeneutics: An Interpretation of the Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine | Hurley, Scott. "A Study of Master Yinshun’s Hermeneutics: An Interpretation of the Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine." PhD diss., University of Arizona, 2001. https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/279857/azu_td_3031364_sip1_m.pdf;jsessionid=7F7C9754E7B4C951472D8BB20D5B4BBE?sequence=1. | Abstract This study is an examination of Master Yinshun's hermeneutics. It focuses especially on his interpretation of the Buddhist concept known as the tathagatagarbha, which refers to the idea that all sentient beings intrinsically possess the "womb of the Buddha." In some explanations of this teaching, the tathāgatagarbha is symbolic of the practitioner's potential for attaining enlightenment. In others, it functions as a synonym for the Ultimate and becomes the eternalistic substrate for all of existence. It is this latter view to which Yinshun takes exception, seeing it as antithetical to the doctrine of emptiness which espouses the notion that all things, including ideas, material objects, and living beings, lack a permanent and independent nature and thus cannot possess an unchanging, eternalistic form. | University of Arizona | 29 April 2020 08:54:59 | |
Affirmation in Negation: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory in the Light of the Bodhisattva Practices | Chen, Shu-hui Jennifer. "Affirmation in Negation: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory in the Light of the Bodhisattva Practices." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998. | The Tathāgatagarbha theory, also known as the Buddha-nature theory, is one of the most influential Mahāyāna doctrines in the East Asian Buddhism. In 1989, it was severely criticized by some Japanese scholars, namely, Shiro Matsumoto and Noriaki Hakamaya, for being contradictory to the Buddha's teaching of non-self (anātman) and accused of being a non-Buddhist theory in disguise. The purpose of this study is to refute such an accusation and to demonstrate the relationship between this theory and the Bodhisattva practices which are the very core of the Mahāyāna Buddhism. This dissertation begins with definitions of the term "tathāgatagarbha" and some of its synonyms which are followed by a brief review of the historical development of the Tathāgatagarbha theory from India to China. With these as the background knowledge, it is easier to point out the fallacies of the two Japanese scholars' criticism on this theory. A key issue in their criticism is that they viewed the Tathāgatagarbha theory as the ātman of the Upaniṣads in disguise. It is therefore necessary to discuss not only the distinction between the ātman mentioned in the Tathāgatagarbha theory and that in the Upaniṣads but also the controversy over the issue of ātman versus anātman among the Buddhist scholars. In the discussion to clarify the issue of ātman in the Tathāgatagarbha theory, it is demonstrated that the ātman in the Tathāgatagarbha theory is not only uncontradictory to the doctrine of anātman in Buddhism but very important to the Bodhisattva practices in the Mahāyāna Buddhism. It functions as a unity for the Bodhisattvas to voluntarily return to the world of saṃsāra again and again. Furthermore, the purport of the entire theory, that all sentient beings are endowed with the essence of the Buddha, supports various Bodhisattva practices such as the aspiration to save all beings in the world, the six perfections, etc. In a word, the Tathāgatagarbha theory is an excellent representative of the soteriology of the Mahāyāna Buddhism. Included in the end of this dissertation is an annotated translation of the Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra. (Source Accessed May 26, 2020) | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 29 April 2020 05:45:56 | |
Buddhism and State in Seventeenth-Century Tibet: Cosmology and Theology in the Works of Sangyé Gyatso | MacCormack, Ian J. "Buddhism and State in Seventeenth-Century Tibet: Cosmology and Theology in the Works of Sangyé Gyatso." PhD diss., Harvard University, 2018. | This dissertation studies works of the Desi Sangyé Gyatso (1653–1705), a prolific and influential Tibetan statesman. Its main sources are texts by Sangyé Gyatso and, to a lesser extent, by the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso (1617–82). The Dalai Lama was the highest authority of the Ganden Phodrang government, founded in 1642. Sangyé Gyatso was his lieutenant and took control upon the latter’s death. During his tenure as ruler, Sangyé Gyatso made major intellectual and practical contributions to this Tibetan Buddhist state. He wrote at length about the ruler’s authority and the goals of the state. His ideas developed in close conversation with Buddhist texts, concepts, and practices, leading to novel reformulations of well-traveled ideas, while also informing court practices, rituals, and architecture. Though famous as a politician, Sangyé Gyatso’s thinking about Buddhism and state has received less attention in scholarship. This project sheds light on several of his texts, both in the interest of fostering further study and to suggest alternative possibilities for thinking about religion and politics, beyond exposing the mechanisms of power. Over six chapters, this dissertation highlights three major productions of Sangyé Gyatso’s rule: a model for public speaking, a holiday to commemorate the Dalai Lama, and a new palace built in Lhasa. It argues for the direct participation of cosmological and theological discourses and their related practices in the work of situating, articulating, and realizing a Buddhist state. | Harvard University | 16 April 2020 14:03:39 | |
Demonstration of the Buddha-nature of the Insentient in Zhanran’s The Diamond Scalpel Treatise | Pap, Melinda. "Demonstration of the Buddha-Nature of the Insentient in Zhanran’s The Diamond Scalpel Treatise." PhD diss., Budapest: Eötvös Loránd University, 2011. http://doktori.btk.elte.hu/lingv/papmelinda/thesis.pdf | The theme of the dissertation is the idea of Buddha-nature of the insentient (wuqing you xing 無情有性) as presented in the most prominent work of the Tang Dynasty (618−907) Tiantai 天 台 monk, Zhanran 湛 然 (711−782), The Diamond Scalpel (Jin’gang bei 金 剛 錍 ; T46:1932) treatise. The objective of the dissertation is a new translation of The Diamond Scalpel, completed with translations from commentaries written to it, a thorough and detailed analysis and explanation of the text, including a definition of the notions and ideas presented in it, furthermore a study of the idea of Buddha-nature former to Zhanran, a definition of its role and interpretations in Chinese Buddhism, essential to understanding the treatise itself. The dissertation includes four main chapters, these are: I. Zhanran's biography; II. The idea of Buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism; III. Demonstration of the Buddha-nature of the insentient in Zhanran’s The Diamond Scalpel treatise; IV. Summary. In the first chapter Zhanran’s life is presented through a translation, comparison and analysis of the chapters dealing with Zhanran’s life from the biographies of monks written in the Song Dynasty (960−1279). Biographies besides historical data also contain several miraculous elements, thus, this first chapter also provides a glimpse into the world of Buddhist biographies. This chapter also briefly introduces the reader into the history of Tiantai school before Zhanran, therefore this is placed at the beginning of the dissertation. Because the main theme of Zhanran’s treatise is the Buddha-nature of the insentient, the translation and analysis of the text is preceded by a chapter on the idea of Buddha-nature, focusing on its apparition, evolution an interpretations in Chinese Buddhism. This chapter is divided into two major parts, the first part gives a presentation of those sūtras and treatises, which had the greatest influence on the formation of Chinese interpretations of the notion. The second part deals with those Chinese traditions and schools, thinkers and ideas, which had great impact on the formation of the Chinese Buddha-nature theory. While presenting certain writings, schools and thinkers a greater emphasis is laid on those ideas, which appear in The Diamond Scalpel, or can be proven to have influenced Zhanran’s philosophy. Thus, both the premises for Zhanran’s conclusion and the ideas to be refuted clear out. The objective of this chapter is to place Zhanran’s work in a greater context, and to determine those antecedents, that lead Zhanran towards the formulation of his ideas. The third, most important and most extensive chapter is the translation of The Diamond Scalpel, complemented with translations from commentaries written to it, detailed analysis and interpretation of the text divided into sixty separate chapters. One of the most important objectives is to grasp the main ideas, and provide this difficult text a clear and easily understandable interpretation. The fourth chapter consists of a summary of the main ideas presented in The Diamond Scalpel, and an overall analysis of the text. (Pap, "Theme and Objective of the Research," 1–3) | Eötvös Loránd University | 6 April 2020 17:28:26 | |
Entering 'the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:' The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects | Yonnetti, Eben Matthew. "Entering ‘the Unified Maṇḍala of All the Siddhas:’ The Sādhana of Mahāmudrā and the Making of Vajrayāna Buddhist Subjects." MA Thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2017. | University of Colorado, Boulder | 23 March 2020 17:01:08 | ||
The Liberation of Matter: Examining Jingxi Zhanran’s Philosophy of the Buddha-Nature of Insentient Beings in Tiantai Buddhism | Chen, Shuman. "The Liberation of Matter: Examining Jingxi Zhanran’s Philosophy of the Buddha-Nature of Insentient Beings in Tiantai Buddhism." PhD diss., Northwestern University, 2014. | Abstract This dissertation examines the notion that not only sentient beings but also insentient ones, e.g., flora, mountains, rivers, and manmade objects, have Buddha-nature. Employing an exegetical approach, I investigate Jingxi Zhanran’s (711-782) theory of the Buddha-nature of insentient beings. Emphasizing the all-pervasiveness of Buddha-nature and the nonduality of mind and material, he eliminates the absolute distinction between sentient and insentient beings and contends that Buddha-nature includes all beings. Additionally, insisting on the Tiantai notion of mutual inclusion, which reveals a two-way relationship between sentience and insentience, Zhanran reverses the positions of the subjective observer and the objective phenomenon, subjectifying insentient beings. In addition to examining the theoretical profundity of Zhanran’s theory, my study examines the issues of sentience versus insentience and Buddha-nature that took place before Zhanran and discusses the subsequent Tiantai concerns with the Buddha-nature of insentient beings. Through textual analysis, I reexamine the emergence of the Chinese thought that connects Buddha-nature to insentient things, initially presented by Jingying Huiyuan (523-592) and Jiaxiang Jizang (549-623). I also illustrate that the concept of the Buddha-nature of insentient beings is implied in Zhiyi’s (538-597) thought by interpreting Zhiyi’s teachings that inspired Zhanran’s advocacy. Furthermore, I analyze, on doctrinal grounds, Chinese Tiantai descendants’ endorsement of Zhanran’s theory, contrasting it with their Japanese counterparts’, the latter who found it difficult to conceptualize how insentient beings’ spiritual cultivation might occur. I ultimately argue that Zhanran, indeed, articulates the Buddhahood of insentient beings, and that the modality of their practice through the nonduality between passivity and activity, and between Buddhahood and “insentienthood” can be explained. By raising questions about the human relation to the insentient world and exploring possibilities for attaining harmony through transcending the duality between selfness and otherness, and subjectivity and objectivity, I hope to contribute to the reexamination of anthropocentric religious liberation. | Northwestern University | 16 March 2020 23:19:03 | |
The Phur pa bcu gnyis: A Scripture from the rNying ma'i rgyud 'bum | Mayer, Robert David Simon. The Phur pa bcu gnyis: A Scripture from the rNying ma'i rgyud 'bum. PhD diss., University of Leiden, 1996. | Universiteit Leiden | 5 February 2020 17:52:56 | ||
The Life of the 4th lHo rje drung, 'Bri gung tulku O rgyan nus ldan rdo rje (1849-1902) | Unterthurner, Doris. The Life of the 4th lHo rje drung, 'Bri gung tulku O rgyan nus ldan rdo rje (1849-1902). MA Thesis, University of Vienna, 2019. | This thesis offers a glimpse into the life and a partial translation of the biography or liberation story (Tib. rnam thar) of one of the greatly accomplished Buddhist masters of the nineteenth century: the treasure revealer and ris med master lHo O rgyan nus ldan rdo rje, throne holder of the ‘Bri gung bKa’ brgyud monastery lHo lung dkar dgon ‘og min thub bstan bshad sgrub gling situated among alpine meadows along the lCi river in Nang chen, Qinghai. | Universität Wien | 30 January 2020 15:11:52 |