Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations

Revision as of 12:38, 26 June 2020

Book

Originating in India, Mahayana Buddhism spread across Asia, becoming the prevalent form of Buddhism in Tibet and East Asia. Over the last twenty-five years Western interest in Mahayana has increased considerably, reflected both in the quantity of scholarly material produced and in the attraction of Westerners towards Tibetan Buddhism and Zen.

Paul Williams’ Mahayana Buddhism is widely regarded as the standard introduction to the field, used internationally for teaching and research and has been translated into several European and Asian languages. This new edition has been fully revised throughout in the light of the wealth of new studies and focuses on the religion’s diversity and richness. It includes much more material on China and Japan, with appropriate reference to Nepal, and for students who wish to carry their study further there is a much-expanded bibliography and extensive footnotes and cross-referencing. Everyone studying this important tradition will find Williams’ book the ideal companion to their studies. (Source: Routledge)

Citation	Williams, Paul. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd ed. Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices. New York: Routledge, 2009. https://archive.org/details/mahayanabuddhismthedoctrinalfoundationspaulwilliamsroutledgeseealtruismandreality_202003_445_W/mode/2up.

- Preface and acknowledgementsx
1 Introduction1
- Buddhism: doctrinal diversity and (relative) moral unity1
- The Indian background7
- Factors that may have contributed to change12
- Abhidharma15
- Mahāsāṃghikas and the Lokottaravāda18
- The origins of the Mahāyāna, and the laity21
- Mahāyāna before 'Mahāyāna' – the Ajitasenavyākaraṇanirdeśa Sūtra27
- On the origins of the Mahāyāna – some more sūtras30
- The justification of the Mahāyāna sutras38

2 The Perfection of Wisdom (PrajñÖpÖramitÖ) Sâtras 45 On the MahAyAna sEtras 45 The origins and development of the PrajñApAramitA literature 47 Wisdom (prajña) and its perfection 49 Absence of Self – the extensive perspective 51 The Bodhisattva 55 3 MÄdhyamika 63 NAgArjuna and Fryadeva 63 The development of the MAdhyamika tradition in India 65 Emptiness and intrinsic existence – the incompatible rivals 68 A brief note on MAdhyamika method 71 Three MAdhyamika critiques 72 On causation 73 On the Self 74 On nirvAUa 75 The two truths 76

Meditation and emptiness – an impressionistic outline 79 A final note – MAdhyamika in China and East Asia 81 4 YogÄcÄra 84 Background 84 The YogAcAra tradition – scholars and texts 86 The three natures (trisvabhava) 88 Mind 92 Substratum consciousness, consciousness and immaculate consciousness 97 Yet more disputes within the YogAcAra tradition 100 5 The TathÄgatagarbha 103 Some TathAgatagarbha SEtras 104 The Tathagatagarbha in the Ratnagotravibhaga 109 Tibet – the gzhan stong and rang stong dispute 112 The Dasheng qixinlun (Ta-sheng ch’i-hsin lun) and the Tathagatagarbha in East Asia 115 DDgen on the Buddha-nature 119 A note on some contemporary issues: Critical Buddhism and a debate on not-Self in Thai Buddhism 122 Critical Buddhism 122 Not-Self in contemporary Thai Buddhism 125 6 Huayan – the Flower Garland tradition 129 Buddhism in China 129 The Avatatsaka Setra 132 The Huayan tradition in China 138 Huayan thought – Fazang’s ‘Treatise on the Golden Lion’ 141 A note on some aspects of Huayan practice 144 The Avatatsaka Setra and Vairocana in Buddhist art 146 7 The Saddharmapuéäaráka (Lotus) Sâtra and its influences 149 A note on Tiantai (Tendai) 161 Nichiren ShDnin and his tradition 165 8 On the bodies of the Buddha 172 Prolegomenon to the MahAyAna 172 The bodies of the Buddha and the philosophy of emptiness 176 YogAcAra – the system develops 179 A note on the dGe lugs schema of the Buddha’s bodies 182 A final note: the ‘nonabiding nirvAUa’ and the lifespan of the Buddha 185

9 The path of the Bodhisattva 187 Buddhism reaches Tibet 187 The eighth-century debates 191 Compassion and the Bodhicitta 194 Bodhisattva stages, paths and perfections 200 10 Trust, self-abandonment and devotion: the cults of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas 209 Buddhanusmvti – recollection of the Buddha 209 The pratyutpanna samadhi and Huiyuan 212 The notion of a Buddha Field (buddhakwetra) 214 Some Bodhisattvas 218 Maitreya 218 AvalokiteZvara 221 TArA 225 MañjuZrC 226 KWitigarbha 229 Some Buddhas 231 AkWobhya 231 BhaiWajyaguru 234 AmitAbha/AmitAyus 238 The AmitAbha sEtras 238 AmitAbha’s Pure Land in China 243 HDnen ShDnin (1133–1212) 254 Shinran ShDnin (1173–1262) 259 Notes 267 References 389 Index of names 422 Index of subjects 430

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-**{{i|Buddhism: doctrinal diversity and (relative) moral unity|1}}
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-**{{i|The Indian background|7}}
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-**{{i|Factors that may have contributed to change|12}}
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-**{{i|Abhidharma|15}}
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-**{{i|Mahāsāṃghikas and the Lokottaravāda|18}}
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-**{{i|The origins of the Mahāyāna, and the laity|21}}
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-**{{i|Mahāyāna before 'Mahāyāna' – the Ajitasenavyākaraṇanirdeśa Sūtra|27}}
+**{{i|''Mahāyāna before 'Mahāyāna' – the'' Ajitasenavyākaraṇanirdeśa Sūtra|27}}
-**{{i|On the origins of the Mahāyāna – some more sūtras|30}}
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-**{{i|The justification of the Mahāyāna sutras|38}}
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 The Perfection of Wisdom (PrajñÖpÖramitÖ) Sâtras 45
 On the MahAyAna sEtras 45