Genealogies of Mahāyāna Buddhism

Joseph Walser is Associate Professor of Religion at Tufts University, USA.

Acknowledgements

Part I: Genealogies of Mahāyāna






Introduction: On Origins and Genealogies



Mahāyāna in Retrospect: From My House to the Dalai Lama (looking back from 2017 – 1930)





Assessing the Essence



Tibet as Buddhist: Tracing the Lines of Power



Emptiness and the Analytic of Power



Inculcating Dispositions to Authority: the Kālacakra




Mahāyāna in the Republic, Mahāyāna in the Empire: Tracing “Religion” from Republican China to the Early Qing Dynasty (1920’s – 1723)





Religion vs. Superstition in 20th Century East Asia



The Fin de Siècle Turning Point



The Qing Imperium and the Usefulness of Mahāyāna



The Yonghegong Temple in Beijing and the Political Work of Monuments



Emperor Qianlong: the Tantric Initiate and the Tantric State



Tantra, Emptiness and the Reincarnate Emperor/Lama, or why it’s never too late to have a venerable past.



Yongzheng Emperor and the Great Ming Debate




The Image of Emptiness across the Landscape of Power (China: 11th Cent. B.C.E – 15th Cent. C.E.)





The Ancestor Image



The Image of Emptiness: Di, Space and the Celestial Pole



The Image of the Earth and control of the cults



Exorcism and the State: When possession is nine-tenths



Religion in the Service of Taxation



Buddhist Exorcism and the Heart of Mahāyāna



Conclusion




Buddha Veda: an Indian Genealogy of Emptiness (20th century – 6th century CE.)





Emptiness and Power in Orissa: From Mahima Dharma Sampradāya to Jagannātha of Puri



Buddhism and Brahmanism in Maitrīpa (ca. 1010-1097 CE)



Bhāviveka’s 6th Century Mahāyāna



Bhāviveka, Mahāyāna and Yogācāra



Bhāviveka, Mahāyāna and Brahmanism



Preliminary Conclusion

Part II: The Genealogy of the Perfection of Wisdom




What did the text of the Perfection of Wisdom look like?





The Versions



The Quest for the Ur-Sūtra



The Core Pericope



The Ending



Subhūti’s Non-Apprehension



The Mindlessness Section



The Message of the Original Perfection of Wisdom





Mahāyāna



Bodhisattvas



What’s missing?






Mahāyāna Sūtra as Palimpsest: Discerning Traces of the Tripiṭaka





Beyond "origin" as mere event



Heteroglossia and Textual Rationale



Intertextuality and Adaptation in Buddhist Literature



The Non-Apprehension section and its Intertexts





Sermon on Selflessness?



Nominalism?



Cessation of Cognition



Selflessness… but differently



The Perfected as Untraceable



Fearlessness



Abhidharma echoes



Conclusion: The Perfection of Wisdom






Palimpsest Part Two: Brahmanical Writings on the Tripiṭaka





The Importance of Incoherence



The Context of Abhidharma Literature?



The Context of Other Schools?



The Context of Luminous Thought and Varieties of Unaware Thought



The Context of Acitta Neither Existing nor Not Existing as Anti-Brahmanical Dependent Origination



The Context of Absence of Mental Construction (avikalpa)



Nirvikapla



Brahmanical Intertexts and their Implications




Placing Early Mahāyāna





Placing the Perfection of Wisdom in the Early Mahāyāna Suite



Mañjuśrī’s Inquiry Concerning the Office of the Bodhisattva



Placing the Early Perfection of Wisdom



Mistaken Sounds



Subhūti’s Araṇavihāra: Preaching or Penetration?



Emptiness, Brahmin Nuns, Tulkus and the Power of Possession



Putting it together



Conclusion




On Sites and Stakes: Meditation on Emptiness and Imperial Aspirations





Shifting Contexts, Shifting Interpretations



The Uṇṇābhabrāhmaṇasutta and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanișad on cosmic foundations



The Horse Sacrifice



Piling the Fire Altar and Legitimation Regress



Buddhist Brahmins



On Power and Reproduction



Sovereign Echoes: on Manhood and Celibacy; On thrones and Crowns



Buddhist Brahmodya as court debates



The Mahāyāna Genealogy from The Vedas to the Sutras to Tantra to Zen



Index