... concrete intertextual exchange that helped shape Sthiramati’s claims—some of them highly innovative—on this topic. Abhidharma Abhidharmakośabhāṣya Commentary on the Treasury of Abhidharma AKBh Laṅkāvatārasūtra Descent into Laṅkā Scripture LAS Mahāyāna metaphor figurative designation upacāra pan...

... demonstrate how lay Buddhists claimed and affirmed their Buddhist identity through participation in the Buddhist book cult, an age-old Mahāyāna practice, when Buddhist monastic institutions were falling apart. enlightenment and Brahmans human factors Maitreya Rāmajīva Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajnāpāramitā sūtra...

... of the universe. This chapter follows the ways in which the implications of this extension of the person or self came to be applied to the theology, anthropology, cosmology, and soteriology of the Hindu Purānas and Tantras, as well as the scriptures of Buddhist Mahāyāna and Tantra. These new developments appear...

... in the power of the last thought to affect one’s postmortem destination is attested in early Indian Buddhist sources. With the rise of the Mahāyāna, especially in China, it was assimilated to aspirations for birth in a pure land (ōjō), such as Amida Buddha’s realm. Daoxuan, Daoshi, and Shandao...

... and Peṭakopadesa. The chapter, however, looks beyond these two and examines a set of commentarial guides attributed to Mahāyāna Buddhists, particularly an account of commentarial protocols preserved in Vasubandhu's fifth-century Vyākhyāyukti (The Logic of Explication). Many of great...

...The Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (fourth-fifth century ce) is known for his critical contribution to Buddhist Abhidharma thought, his turn to the Mahāyāna tradition, and his concise, influential Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda texts. This book reveals another dimension of his legacy: his...

...This chapter begins with discussion of the term “bodhisattva” and its evolution from a simple designation of the proto-Buddha in his earlier lives to the title for the fullest state of realization and the goal of every Mahāyāna practitioner. It then begins an exposition of the bodhisattva path...

... to be surmounted, or an opponent to be subjugated. But in some relatively early Mahāyāna sources we also encounter the ideal bodhisattva who works ‘for’ or ‘among’ non-Buddhists as part of his efforts to educate any and all sentient beings. This chapter addresses some of the attitudes towards non-Buddhists found...

...The Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation. Dylan Esler, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197609903.003.0005 This is the first of the four main chapters of the text. Its subject matter is the gradual approach of the classical Mahāyāna...

... argue against alternate interpretations by other scholars. One debate in particular that arose concerned the role of the tantric teaching in the context of the Mahāyāna Buddhist path as a whole, and was, specifically, aimed at questioning whether the tantras presented an alternate set of meditational...

... struggle against domination. While a foundation for human rights can be developed out of ethical ideas in ancient Buddhist writings (including both the Pāli Canon and later Mahāyāna texts), this foundation would be distinctively teleological in its normative structure. In addition, it discusses recent...

... of Siddhārtha Gautama testifies to the importance of inwardness that lies at the root of the tradition. The chapter examines the truth within in Mahāyāna Buddhism, focusing on meditation practice and mindfulness of mental states. Buddhism presents a challenge in the inquiry into inwardness. It has...

... in a laukika goddess with śāstrik norms. The negative representation of the goddess and her decline are found motivated in terms of her origin outside the caste-Hindu pantheon such as old tribal beliefs and Mahāyāna Buddhism, the subaltern caste location of her primary votives, her...

...Although early Buddhists tended to regard the material realm as permeated with suffering and nibbāna as something unconditioned and hence transcendent of dependent origination and “nature,” Mahāyāna Buddhists, especially in East Asia, have generally taken a more positive view...

... Mahāyāna Candrakīrti Dharmakīrti Śāntarakṣita Kamalaśīla Tsongkhapa Taktsang When we begin to ask in a European language about the omniscience that we are told is attained upon awakening (buddhahood) we are almost inexorably drawn to understanding the term omniscience in the way...

... Buddhism also played a role in influencing some of the contents and structure of the Tibetan Buddhist canon that contains a voluminous collection of exoteric and esoteric meditations. The purpose of Tibetan Buddhist meditations (sgom pa) is to progress toward the cherished goal of Mahāyāna...

... of the sources of our knowledge of Indian Buddhist philosophical debates (early Buddhist discourses and Mahāyāna sūtras, debates, commentaries, and doxographies) and discusses various methodological and historiographical problems that arise specifically in the context of writing a history...

...The chapter begins by presenting a general overview of the rise of the Mahāyāna and its relation to the main schools of Buddhist philosophy associated with it, Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. This is followed by an introduction to the Madhyamaka school proper, focusing on the life and works of its founder...

...Candrakiriti was a Mahāyāna Buddhist whose numerous philosophical treatises on the Madhyamaka school were written between the mid‐sixth to the mid‐seventh centuries c.e. Traditional accounts of his life recount legendary stories about a charismatic figure who exemplified the Bodhisattva's...

... on the sensual aspects of religious experience and also looks beyond Japan to explore pre-modern book history, practices of preaching, miracles of reading, and the Mahāyāna Buddhist “cult of the book.”...