Given its vast literature and its practice of teaching what is appropriate for a particular disciple, the Buddhist tradition has long had to wrestle with the question of which of his many scriptures represented the Buddha's highest view. In response to that problem, Buddhist commentators developed sophisticated systems of interpretation, Buddhist hermeneutics. The present volume of essays by leading Western Buddhologists surveys the rich variety of strategies employed by Buddhist thinkers of India, China, Tibet, and Japan to interpret their sacred texts.
Buddhist Hermeneutics, Donald Lopez, ed., University of Hawaii Press, Paperback, 298 pages, $20.00
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Carl W. Belser Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, holds a PhD. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia, where he specialized in Tibetan Buddhism. As a Fulbright scholar in India, he studied Madhyamika philosophy with leading Tibetan scholars. He chairs the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he lives. He is the author of The Heart Sutra Explained: Indian and Tibetan Commentaries (SUNY Press), A Study of Svatantrika, Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra, Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West and The Story of Buddhism; he is editor of Buddhist Hermeneutics (University of Hawaii Press), Buddhism in Practice, Religions of Tibet in Practice, and Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Under Colonialism.
Conents:
Introduction
Assessment of Textual Interpretaton in Buddhism
The Gradual Path as a Hermeneutical Approach to the Dharma
On the iNterpretation of the Mahayana Sutras
Killing, Lying, Stealing, and Adultery: A Problem of Interpretation in the Tantras
Vajra Hermeneutics
Mipham's Theory of Interpretation
Hermeneutical Phases in Chinese B uddhism
What Happened to the Perfect Teaching? Another Look at Hua-yen buddhist Hermeneutics
Ch'an Hermeneutics: A Korean View
Truth Words: The Basis of Kukai's Theory of INterpretation
Shinran's Proofs of True Buddhism
Contributors
Index
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