{"title":"Recruitment and Retention in Early Bodhisattva Sodalities","authors":"D. Boucher","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24513","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter attempts to reorient the question of the origins of the Mahāyāna away from single-hypothesis explanations by turning toward a more nuanced appreciation of the way some authors of its earliest literature actively engaged in efforts to recruit new members to the bodhisattva fold and retain them once they were in. Drawing from the sociology of New Religious Movements, I show that two voices among the earliest texts assumed very different postures with regard to bodhisattva relations with their Mainstream brethren.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121169998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Altered States and the Origins of the Mahāyāna","authors":"D. Osto","doi":"10.1558/equinox.34259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.34259","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter argues that literary accounts of visions in some Mahāyāna sources (often referred to as samādhis) possess characteristics that are strikingly similar to reports of actually visionary experiences that individuals have undergone while their psychologies and physiologies were profoundly altered in some way. Moreover, some of the methods used to induce actual visions also parallel methods recommended or described in some Mahāyāna sūtras. These parallels are strong enough to suggest that visionary altered states of consciousness formed an experiential basis for the emergence of new Mahāyāna sūtras, which contributed to the imaginative restructuring of Buddhist cosmology found within Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124620209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Looking for Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas: A Reflection on Visual Evidence in Early Indian Buddhism","authors":"Juhyung Rhi","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24517","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24517","url":null,"abstract":"Identifying images of specific bodhisattvas whose names appear in Mahāyāna scriptures is one possible way to track evidence for the early Mahāyāna, and the author turned to this method on several previous occasions in discussing the presence of Mahāyāna in Gandhāran Buddhism. This chapter extends the search for Mahāyāna bodhisattvas to the rest of India in the period prior to the conspicuous emergence of Mahāyāna in its established form, but adopts a different approach, focusing on the complexity of identifying bodhisattvas and its implications for interpreting their representations.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120981298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Forest Hypothesis","authors":"David Drewes","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24512","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the ‘Forest Hypothesis’ of early Mahāyāna, which has been influential in recent decades. It argues that the theory has little evidentiary support and is primarily based on the old idea that Buddhism is essentially focused on the pursuit of religious experience or ‘awakening’.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121067890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Early Mahāyāna in Gandhāra: New Evidence from the Bajaur Mahāyāna Sūtra","authors":"I. Strauch","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24518","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter investigates some aspects of the so-called ‘Bajaur Mahāyāna sūtra’. This text is part of the growing corpus of Mahāyāna literature from ancient Gandhāra. According to its palaeographical and linguistic features the manuscript can be dated to the first or second century CE and therefore represents one of the oldest preserved remains of early Mahāyāna literature. Although the edition and translation of this text are still ongoing, the chapter highlights some aspects of this hitherto unknown text that can help to establish its doctrinal position in comparison with other witnesses of early Mahāyāna, in particular those of the Prajñāpāramitā literature.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130650480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How the Unborn was Born: The Riddle of Mahāyāna Origins","authors":"P. Skilling","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24511","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24511","url":null,"abstract":"As it developed in South Asia, ‘the Mahāyāna’ is a complex package made up of systems of thought, practice and training. In terms of practice and orientation, it encourages the individual to aim for Buddhahood by setting out on the bodhisatva path. Its signature product was a copious and exuberant literature, an outpouring of sūtras that is unparalleled in Indian or world literature. The production of sūtras began in the second to first centuries BCE, and soon enough was supplemented by cognate śāstras and treatises. In this chapter, the author ruminates on two distinctive and recurrent themes of Mahāyāna literature and ideology as possible clues to the riddle, ‘How was the unborn born?’","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114215553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Concept of 'Remodelling the World'","authors":"Shizuka Sasaki","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24515","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24515","url":null,"abstract":"A case study of one of the conceptual building-blocks of Mahāyāna Buddhism, this chapter addresses the idea commonly found in Mahāyāna sūtras that an important aspect of the bodhisattva path is the construction of an ideal world or, in effect, a remodelling of this one (usually referred to as buddha-kṣetra-pariśuddhi, or ‘purification of the domain of an awakened one’). This idea is premised on certain developments in the theory of karma which have major cosmological ramifications. The author traces these developments in various Abhidharma texts, particularly those of the Sarvāstivādin school, compiled during the period in which the first Mahāyāna sūtras were also being written.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"83 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114017951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Early Mahāyāna: Laying out the Field","authors":"Paul M. Harrison","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24510","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24510","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter begins with some general observations about the study of early Mahāyāna Buddhism and of its origins. It goes on to consider briefly a number of issues which continue to pose challenges to our understanding. These include the controversial role of araṇyavāsins or ‘forest-dwellers’; the role of the laity; the periodization of Mahāyāna sūtra-literature (and of this form of Buddhism as a whole); the relationship between Mahāyāna engagement and nikāya affiliation; and the problem of the archaeological and art-historical record. True to the ambiguity of its title, the chapter concludes by asking whether early Mahāyāna and Mahāyāna origins remain worthwhile objects of study in the 21st century, or whether they should be prepared for burial.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123878430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sara Boin-Webb: Translator of Buddhist Texts","authors":"Russell Webb","doi":"10.1558/equinox.24509","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.24509","url":null,"abstract":"If and when the definitive history of Buddhism in the United Kingdom is written, space should be allocated to an unassuming yet highly competent translator of key Buddhist texts. The author's late wife Sara Boin- Webb – to use her professional surname – possessed the necessary background training and ability to go beyond the world of academia and reach those whose understanding of Buddhism would be enriched by the revelation of practical and philosophical writings hitherto inaccessible to all but the cognoscenti.","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130452809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Figures","authors":"Paul Harrison","doi":"10.1558/equinox.36774","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.36774","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":112317,"journal":{"name":"Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism","volume":"264 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133276961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}