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Buddhist literature as philosophy, Buddhist philosophy as literature / edited by Rafal K. Stepien.

Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2020]Copyright date: ©2020Description: 1 online resource ( xiii, 381 pages)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 1438480725
  • 9781438480725
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Buddhist Literature As Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy As LiteratureDDC classification:
  • 294.3 23
LOC classification:
  • BQ1020 .B825 2020eb
Other classification:
  • online - EBSCO
Online resources:
Contents:
Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Languages -- Introduction: Philosophy, Literature, Religion: Buddhism as Transdisciplinary Intervention -- Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature -- Philosophy, Literature, Religion -- Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Literature -- Philosophy, Literature, Religion: Buddhism as Transdisciplinary Intervention -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Part I: Buddhist Literature as Philosophy -- Chapter 1 Transformative Vision: Coming to See the Buddha's Reality -- The Bodhisattva in Philosophical Debate -- Against Extraction
Learning an Orientation and Outlook -- The Limits of the Laboratory, the Authority of the Buddha -- Transformation through Narrations of Reality -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Works Cited -- Chapter 2 Jātakas and the Abhidhamma: Practical Compassion and Kusala Citta -- The Javanahaṃsa jātaka (J 476) -- The Skillful Citta (Kusala Citta) -- The Kurudhamma jātaka (J 276) -- Mahosadha jātaka (J 546) -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Works Cited -- Chapter 3 Panegyric as Philosophy: Philosophical Dimensions of Indian Buddhist Hymns -- Authorship -- Audience -- Assignee -- Accolades and Actions
Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Chapter 4 Of Doctors, Poets, and the Minds of Men: Aesthetics and Wisdom in Aśvaghoṣa's Beautiful Nanda -- The Breaking-in of Nanda -- Taking Flight -- The Talking Cure -- One Body, Many Worlds -- Poetic Argument -- Concluding Thoughts -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Chapter 5 Buddhist Literary Criticism in East Asian Literature -- Tale of Genji and the Religious Function of Literature -- Dream of the Red Chamber and the Truth of Fiction -- The Silence of the Beloved and the Art of Life -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited
Chapter 6 The Green Bamboo Is the Dharmakāya: Waka Poetry and the Buddhist Imagination in Heian Japan -- The Buddhist Imagination in Heian Japan -- The Ritual Embedding of Waka Poetry: The Kangaku-e -- The Contemplative Disembedding of Waka Poetry: Kiyosuke and Shunzei -- The Philosophical Grounds for and Poetic Products of Contemplative Disembedding: Jakuzen's Hōmon hyakushu -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Part II Buddhist Philosophy as Literature -- Chapter 7 The Scandal of the Speaking Buddha: Performative Utterance and the Erotics of the Dharma -- The Progenitorial Body of the Buddha
Bodies and/as Speech Acts -- Skill in Means as Verbal Insemination -- The Erotics of the Dharma and the Production of Bodies -- Conclusion: The Scandals of Speech, Ancient and Modern -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Works Cited -- Chapter 8 The Original Mind Is the Literary Mind, the Original Body Carves Dragons -- The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons -- The Literary Mind -- Literature and Mind -- (Buddhist) Literature and Philosophy -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Chapter 9 On Resolving Disputes between Literary (Wenzi) and Nonliterary (Wuzi) Approaches to Expressing Zen Buddhist Philosophy
Summary: Can literature reveal reality? Is philosophical truth a literary artifice? How does the way we think affect what we can know? Buddhism has been grappling with these questions for centuries, and this book attempts to answer them by exploring the relationship between literature and philosophy across the classical and contemporary Buddhist worlds of India, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, and North America. Written by leading scholars, the book examines literary texts composed over two millennia, ranging in form from lyric verse, narrative poetry, panegyric, hymn, and koan, to novel, hagiography, (secret) autobiography, autofiction, treatise, and sutra, all in sustained conversation with topics in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and the philosophies of mind, language, literature, and religion. Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, this book deliberately works across and against the boundaries separating three mainstays of humanistic pursuit - literature, philosophy, and religion?by focusing on the multiple relationships at play between content and form in works drawn from a truly diverse range of philosophical schools, literary genres, religious cultures, and historical eras. Overall, the book calls into question the very ways in which we do philosophy, study literature, and think about religious texts. It shows that Buddhist thought provides sophisticated responses to some of the perennial problems regarding how we find, create, and apply meaning - on the page, in the mind, and throughout our lives.

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Languages -- Introduction: Philosophy, Literature, Religion: Buddhism as Transdisciplinary Intervention -- Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature -- Philosophy, Literature, Religion -- Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Literature -- Philosophy, Literature, Religion: Buddhism as Transdisciplinary Intervention -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Part I: Buddhist Literature as Philosophy -- Chapter 1 Transformative Vision: Coming to See the Buddha's Reality -- The Bodhisattva in Philosophical Debate -- Against Extraction

Learning an Orientation and Outlook -- The Limits of the Laboratory, the Authority of the Buddha -- Transformation through Narrations of Reality -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Works Cited -- Chapter 2 Jātakas and the Abhidhamma: Practical Compassion and Kusala Citta -- The Javanahaṃsa jātaka (J 476) -- The Skillful Citta (Kusala Citta) -- The Kurudhamma jātaka (J 276) -- Mahosadha jātaka (J 546) -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Works Cited -- Chapter 3 Panegyric as Philosophy: Philosophical Dimensions of Indian Buddhist Hymns -- Authorship -- Audience -- Assignee -- Accolades and Actions

Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Chapter 4 Of Doctors, Poets, and the Minds of Men: Aesthetics and Wisdom in Aśvaghoṣa's Beautiful Nanda -- The Breaking-in of Nanda -- Taking Flight -- The Talking Cure -- One Body, Many Worlds -- Poetic Argument -- Concluding Thoughts -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Chapter 5 Buddhist Literary Criticism in East Asian Literature -- Tale of Genji and the Religious Function of Literature -- Dream of the Red Chamber and the Truth of Fiction -- The Silence of the Beloved and the Art of Life -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited

Chapter 6 The Green Bamboo Is the Dharmakāya: Waka Poetry and the Buddhist Imagination in Heian Japan -- The Buddhist Imagination in Heian Japan -- The Ritual Embedding of Waka Poetry: The Kangaku-e -- The Contemplative Disembedding of Waka Poetry: Kiyosuke and Shunzei -- The Philosophical Grounds for and Poetic Products of Contemplative Disembedding: Jakuzen's Hōmon hyakushu -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Part II Buddhist Philosophy as Literature -- Chapter 7 The Scandal of the Speaking Buddha: Performative Utterance and the Erotics of the Dharma -- The Progenitorial Body of the Buddha

Bodies and/as Speech Acts -- Skill in Means as Verbal Insemination -- The Erotics of the Dharma and the Production of Bodies -- Conclusion: The Scandals of Speech, Ancient and Modern -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Works Cited -- Chapter 8 The Original Mind Is the Literary Mind, the Original Body Carves Dragons -- The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons -- The Literary Mind -- Literature and Mind -- (Buddhist) Literature and Philosophy -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Chapter 9 On Resolving Disputes between Literary (Wenzi) and Nonliterary (Wuzi) Approaches to Expressing Zen Buddhist Philosophy

Can literature reveal reality? Is philosophical truth a literary artifice? How does the way we think affect what we can know? Buddhism has been grappling with these questions for centuries, and this book attempts to answer them by exploring the relationship between literature and philosophy across the classical and contemporary Buddhist worlds of India, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, and North America. Written by leading scholars, the book examines literary texts composed over two millennia, ranging in form from lyric verse, narrative poetry, panegyric, hymn, and koan, to novel, hagiography, (secret) autobiography, autofiction, treatise, and sutra, all in sustained conversation with topics in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and the philosophies of mind, language, literature, and religion. Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, this book deliberately works across and against the boundaries separating three mainstays of humanistic pursuit - literature, philosophy, and religion?by focusing on the multiple relationships at play between content and form in works drawn from a truly diverse range of philosophical schools, literary genres, religious cultures, and historical eras. Overall, the book calls into question the very ways in which we do philosophy, study literature, and think about religious texts. It shows that Buddhist thought provides sophisticated responses to some of the perennial problems regarding how we find, create, and apply meaning - on the page, in the mind, and throughout our lives.