On Being Buddha

The Classical Doctrine of Buddhahood

Paul J. Griffiths (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

288 Seiten

1994
State University of New York Press (Verlag)
978-0-7914-2128-4 (ISBN)

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What is it like to be a Buddha? Is there only one Buddha or are there many? What can Buddhas do and what do they know? Is there anything they cannot do and cannot know? These and associated questions were much discussed by Buddhist thinkers in India, and a complex and subtle set of doctrinal positions was developed to deal with them. This is the first book in a western language to treat these doctrines about Buddha from a philosophical and thoroughly critical viewpoint.

The book shows that Buddhist thinkers were driven, when theorizing about Buddha, by a basic intuition that Buddha must be maximally perfect, and that pursuing the implications of this intuition led them into some conceptual dilemmas that show considerable similarity to some of those treated by western theists. The Indian Buddhist tradition of thought about these matters is presented here as thoroughly systematic, analytical, and doctrinal.

The book's analysis is based almost entirely upon original sources in their original languages. All extracts discussed are translated into English and the book is accessible to nonspecialists, while still treating material that has not been much discussed by western scholars.

Paul J. Griffiths is Associate Professor in the Divinity School and in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He has previously published books on Buddhist philosophy (On Being Mindless and The Realm of Awakening) and on cross-cultural philosophy and theology (An Apology for Apologetics).

Foreword
by Frank E. Reynolds

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter One: The Doctrinal Study of Doctrine
1.0 Prolegomena
1.1 Primary Doctrines
1.2 Secondary Doctrines
1.2.1 Rules of Recognition and Patterns of Derivation
1.2.2 Rules of Interpretation and Combination
1.3 The Doctrinal Uses of Primary Doctrines
1.4 Applying the Theory

Chapter Two: Buddhist Doctrine
2.0 Prolegomena
2.1 The Doctrinal Digests
2.2 The Authority of the Doctrinal Digests
2.3 The Content and Subject-Matter of the DoctrinalDigests
2.4 The Goals of the Doctrinal Digests
2.5 Theories of Doctrine in the Doctrinal Digests
2.5.1 Rules of Recognition
2.5.2 Rules of Interpretation

Chapter Three: Buddhalogical Doctrine
3.0 Prolegomena
3.1 Buddhalogy and Maximal Greatness
3.2 Titles and Epithets of Buddha
3.3 Properties of Buddha
3.4 Analytical and Organizational Schemata
3.5 Metaphysical Embeddedness and Systematic Location

Chapter Four: Buddha in the World
4.0 Prolegomena
4.1 The Buddha-Legend
4.2 Bodies of Magical Transformation
4.3 Buddha's Perfections of Appearance in the World
4.4 Buddha's Perfections of Action in the World
4.4.1 Spontaneity and Effortlessness
4.4.2 Endlessness and Omnipresence
4.4.3 Excursus: Buddha's Consumption of Food
4.5 Buddha's Perfections of Cognition in the World
4.5.1 0mnilinguality
4.5.2 Awareness of What Is Possible and What Is Impossible
4.6 One Body of Magical Transformation at a Time? A Controversy

Chapter Five: Buddha in Heaven
5.0 Prolegomena
5.1 Ornamenting Heaven
5.2 Bodies of Communal Enjoyment

Chapter Six: Buddha in Eternity
6.0 Prolegomena
6.1 Epistemic Predicates
6.1.1 Awareness Simpliciter
6.1.2 Buddha's Awareness
6.2 Metaphysical Predicates

Chapter Seven: Doctrinal Criticism
Doctrinal Criticism

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	8.9.1994
Reihe/Serie	SUNY series, Toward a Comparative Philosophy of Religions
Zusatzinfo	Total Illustrations: 0
Verlagsort	Albany, NY
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	399 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus
ISBN-10	0-7914-2128-7 / 0791421287
ISBN-13	978-0-7914-2128-4 / 9780791421284
Zustand	Neuware