(5) See Richard Gombrich, "How the
Mahayana Began," The Buddhist Forum, vol.
What does account for it is the
Mahayana belief in celestial bodhisattvas who, because they were not altogether unlike Hindu gods, eventually made Buddhism susceptible to Hindu synthesis and appropriation.
It was one of the first
Mahayana scriptures to be transmitted to China, where it was translated ten times beginning in 186 CE.
There was some discussion about how the problematic issues highlighted might be relevant to the
Mahayana generally, not simply Zen; and on the other hand, there were comments about the potential of
Mahayana ethics and bodhisattva teachings to support a revitalized ethics, and the varied role of the
Mahayana in the Zen traditions.
This angle is just as important, I suggest, given Leighton's intention of writing for a Western audience that may desire a more in-depth initiation into the beliefs and practices of the
Mahayana tradition.
Chapter one is a long discourse tracing the place of the Bodhisattvapitaka in
Mahayana literature.
This book is an important guide for those interested in
Mahayana / Vajrayana Buddhism in Nepal.
After outlining his agenda, Holt places Avalokitesvara in the context of Buddhist Sanskrit literature and
Mahayana thought.
Misra (National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservationism, and Museology in India) and Sahai (formerly of Magadh U., India) present 13 papers from the meeting, which address such topics as consciousness and psychic factors in Pali Buddhist literature, the advent of Buddhism in Thailand, syncretism and Thai Buddhism, world heritage sites in Thailand reflecting Indo-Thai cultural linkage, the preserved tradition of
Mahayana in Thailand, the way of life and literature of the Tai Khamti of the Lohit River in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, the present state and socio-cultural status of Tai communities in India, and the heritage parks of Sukhothai and Kamphaeng Phet.
The Skill in Means Sutra is an early
Mahayana Buddhist text dating from perhaps the first century B.C.E.
Mahayana phoenix; Japan's Buddhists at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions.
The author of this book, a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow (Russian Academy of Sciences), sets out to show that the Advaita Vedana of Sankara embodies a coherent world view, and one that differs in essential ways from that of any other Indian school, including the Vijnanavada and Sunyavada of the
Mahayana. On both points, her argument relies heavily on an appeal to the special role that the Vedic texts (sruti) play in Sankara's thought.
of Cambridge, UK) present a historical-cultural introduction to the Kalmyk people of southern Russia, who combine a heritage of
Mahayana Buddhism and a historical past rooted in the Mongolian Khanates.
The core consists of six studies: three by Christian scholars on their understanding of "the Christ" in Christianity (Langdon Gilkey, Brother David Steindl-Rast, and Ann Bedford Ulanov) and three by Buddhist scholars on their understanding of the "Bodhisattva" in
Mahayana Buddhism (Robert Thurman, Luis Gomez, and H.
Topics include religious violence, Gandhi's principles after 9/11, Aristotle's response to terror, pragmatic lessons, the legacy of platonic political philosophy in Al-Farabi and Nietzsche, Buddhist "right effort" with the jihad of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Buddhism and standing up to terrorists,
Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on compassion, a Zen perspective on rootlessness and terror, interdependence and the de-reification of the self, loneliness as a common fate for philosophy and terrorism, gender and violence, Confucian perspectives on war and terrorism, Ueshiba and Gandhi on personal violence, and himsa and ahimsa in the martial arts.
