A Few Good Men is a study and translation of The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugrapariprccha), one of the most influential Mahayana sutras on the bodhisattva path, but also one of the most neglected texts in Western treatments of Buddhism. To achieve a better understanding of the universe of ideas, activities, and institutional structures within which early self-proclaimed bodhisattvas lived, the author first considers the Ugra as a literary document, employing new methodological tools to examine the genre to which it belongs, the age of its extant versions, and their relationships to one another. She goes on to challenge the dominant notions that the Mahayana emerged as a "reform" of earlier Buddhism and offered lay people an "easier option."


A Few Good Men, Jan Nattier, University of Hawai'i Press, Hardcover, 380 pp., $30.00

Jan Nattier is associate professor of Buddhist studies at Indiana University.

Nattier is one of a group of scholars who have substantially revised views of the early development of Mahayana Buddhism in the last 20 years. They have in common their attention to and re-evaluation of early Chinese translations of texts

	Abbreviations
Pt. 1	Analysis
1	Introduction	3
2	The Formation of the Inquiry of Ugra	10
3	The Ugra as a Historical Source: Methodological Considerations	48
4	The Institutional Setting	73
5	Bodhisattva Practices: Guidelines for the Path	103
	The Lay Bodhisattva	106
	The Monastic Bodhisattva	127
6	The Structure of the Bodhisattva Career: Implicit Assumptions	137
7	Telling Absences: What is Not in the Ugra	171
8	The Mahayana in the Mirror of the Ugra	193
Pt. 2	Translation
	Translation Techniques and Conventions	201
	Practices of the Lay Bodhisattva
0	Opening Salutation	207
1	The Setting	207
2	Ugra's Inquiry	210
3	Going for Refuge	216
4	The Refuges, Repeated	219
5	Good Deeds	223
6	The Bodhisattva's Perspective	226
7	The Eleven Precepts	229
8	The Bodhisattva in Society	233
9	The Faults of the Household Life	237
10	The Benefits of Giving	240
11	Thoughts When Encountering Beggars	241
12	Detachment from People and Things	246
13	Cultivating Aversion for One's Wife	247
14	Cultivating Detachment from One's Son	255
15	How to Interact with Beggars	257
16	The Triskandhaka Ritual	259
17	When Monks Violate the Precepts	261
18	When Visiting a Monastery	264
19	Contrasts between Household and Renunciant Life	266
20	When Visiting a Monastery, Cont'd	272
21	The Ordination of Ugra and His Friends (version 1)	278
	Practices of the Monastic Bodhisattva
22	The Renunciant Bodhisattva's Practices	280
23	The Four Noble Traditions	282
24	The Noble Traditions and Other Ascetic Practices	284
25	The Virtues of Wilderness-Dwelling	291
26	Interacting with Other Monks and Teachers	307
27	The Pure Morality of the Renunciant Bodhisattva	310
28	The Pure Meditation of the Renunciant Bodhisattva	312
29	The Pure Insight of the Renunciant Bodhisattva	313
30	The Ordination of Ugra and His Friends (version 2)	314
31	How the Householder Can Live as a Renunciant	314
32	Dialogue with Ananda	316
33	The Title of the Text	318
34	The Final Reaction of the Audience	320
35	Title and Colophon	320
App. 1	Synoptic Tables of Versions of the Ugrapariprccha	325
App. 2	Bodhisattva Names in the Ugrapariprccha	341
App. 3	Monastic Specialties Recorded in the Ugrapariprccha	347
	Bibliography	352
	Index	369