Gracefully blending scholarship and accessibility, Malcolm David Eckels Buddhism provides a succinct, authoritative introduction to one of the worlds great religious traditions. The text covers a wide range of subjects including buddhas and bodhisattvas, Zen meditation, Tantric scriptures, pilgrimage, temples, and festivals and rites.
Boston University Professor Malcolm David Eckel takes us on a contemporary quest to discover the essential meaning behind the Buddha's many representations. Eckel shows that the dimensions of early Indian Buddhism--popular art, conventional piety, and critical philosophy--all work together to express the same religious yearning for the fullness of emptiness that Buddha conveys.
In recent times Buddhism has attracted thousands of followers in the Western world. Malcolm David Eckel traces the course of Buddhism from its origins and provides the reader with a unique distillation of its richly varied traditions.
The Mādhyamaka School of Indian Buddhist thought has had tremendous influence in the Buddhist world, particularly in Tibet, China and Japan: in the West it has become the subject of intense interest in the fields of comparative religion and philosophy. Many aspects of Mādhyamaka thought, however, remain obscure, especially during the period when Buddhist thought was first introduced to Tibet. Jñānagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction between the Two Truths is a concise and lucid introduction to the issues and personalities that dominated Indian Mādhyamaka thought on the eve of its introduction to Tibet. As an example of the influential but little-known Svātantrika branch of the Mādhyamaka School, Jñānagarbha's work shows quite vividly how the commitment to reason in the search for ultimate truth shaped not only the dialogue between Mādhyamaka thinkers and members of other Buddhist schools, but also the evolution of the Mādhyamaka tradition itself. David Eckel has translated Jñānagarbha's text in its entirety and provided an introduction that situates the text clearly in its historical and philosophical context. Extensive notes, a transliterated version of the Tibetan translation, and a reproduction of the original Tibetan blockprints make this volume useful to scholars as well as to the interested general reader.
While a short work of only eight verses and a three-page autocommentary, the Investigation of the Percept has inspired epistemologists for centuries and has had a wide-ranging impact in India, Tibet, and China. Dignaga, one of the major figures in Buddhist epistemology, explores issues such as the relation between the mind and its percepts, the problems of idealism and realism, and the nature of intentionality in this brief but profound text. This volume provides a comprehensive history of the text in India and Tibet from 5th century India to the present day. This team of philologists, historians of religion and philosophers who specialize in Tibetan, Sanskrit and Chinese philosophical literature has produced the first study of the text and its entire commentarial tradition. Their approach makes it possible to employ the methods of critical philology and cross-cultural philosophy to provide readers with a rich collection of studies and translations, along with detailed philosophical analyses that open up the intriguing implications of Dign=aga's thought and demonstrate the diversity of commentarial approaches to his text. The comprehensive nature of the work reveals the richness of commentary in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism and shows surprising parallels between the modern West and traditional Buddhist philosophy.
Jnanagarbha on the Two Truths is a concise and lucid introduction to the issues and personalities that dominated Indian Madhyamaka thought on the eve of its introduction to Tibet. As an example of the influential but little-known Svatantrika branch of the Madhyamaka School, Jnanagarbha's works shows quite vividly how the commitment to reason in the search for ultimate truth shaped not only the dialogue between Madhyamaka thinkers and members of other Buddhist schools, but also the evolution of the Madhyamaka tradition itself. David Eckel has translated Jnanagarbha's text in its entirety and provided an introduction that situates the text clearly in its historical and philosophical context. Extensive notes, a transliterated version of the Tibetan translation and a reproduction of the original Tibetan block-prints make this volume useful to scholars as well as to the interested general reader.
Jnanagarbha on the Two Truths is a concise and lucid introduction to the issues and personalities that dominated Indian Madhyamaka thought on the eve of its introduction to Tibet. As an example of the influential but little-known Svatantrika branch of the Madhyamaka School, Jnanagarbha's works shows quite vividly how the commitment to reason in the search for ultimate truth shaped not only the dialogue between Madhyamaka thinkers and members of other Buddhist schools, but also the evolution of the Madhyamaka tradition itself. David Eckel has translated Jnanagarbha's text in its entirety and provided an introduction that situates the text clearly in its historical and philosophical context. Extensive notes, a transliterated version of the Tibetan translation and a reproduction of the original Tibetan block-prints make this volume useful to scholars as well as to the interested general reader.
Boston University Professor Malcolm David Eckel takes us on a contemporary quest to discover the essential meaning behind the Buddha's many representations. Eckel shows that the dimensions of early Indian Buddhism--popular art, conventional piety, and critical philosophy--all work together to express the same religious yearning for the fullness of emptiness that Buddha conveys.
The Mādhyamaka School of Indian Buddhist thought has had tremendous influence in the Buddhist world, particularly in Tibet, China and Japan: in the West it has become the subject of intense interest in the fields of comparative religion and philosophy. Many aspects of Mādhyamaka thought, however, remain obscure, especially during the period when Buddhist thought was first introduced to Tibet. Jñānagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction between the Two Truths is a concise and lucid introduction to the issues and personalities that dominated Indian Mādhyamaka thought on the eve of its introduction to Tibet. As an example of the influential but little-known Svātantrika branch of the Mādhyamaka School, Jñānagarbha's work shows quite vividly how the commitment to reason in the search for ultimate truth shaped not only the dialogue between Mādhyamaka thinkers and members of other Buddhist schools, but also the evolution of the Mādhyamaka tradition itself. David Eckel has translated Jñānagarbha's text in its entirety and provided an introduction that situates the text clearly in its historical and philosophical context. Extensive notes, a transliterated version of the Tibetan translation, and a reproduction of the original Tibetan blockprints make this volume useful to scholars as well as to the interested general reader.
While a short work of only eight verses and a three-page autocommentary, the Investigation of the Percept has inspired epistemologists for centuries and has had a wide-ranging impact in India, Tibet, and China. Dignaga, one of the major figures in Buddhist epistemology, explores issues such as the relation between the mind and its percepts, the problems of idealism and realism, and the nature of intentionality in this brief but profound text. This volume provides a comprehensive history of the text in India and Tibet from 5th century India to the present day. This team of philologists, historians of religion and philosophers who specialize in Tibetan, Sanskrit and Chinese philosophical literature has produced the first study of the text and its entire commentarial tradition. Their approach makes it possible to employ the methods of critical philology and cross-cultural philosophy to provide readers with a rich collection of studies and translations, along with detailed philosophical analyses that open up the intriguing implications of Dignāga's thought and demonstrate the diversity of commentarial approaches to his text. The comprehensive nature of the work reveals the richness of commentary in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism and shows surprising parallels between the modern West and traditional Buddhist philosophy.
Gracefully blending scholarship and accessibility, Malcolm David Eckels Buddhism provides a succinct, authoritative introduction to one of the worlds great religious traditions. The text covers a wide range of subjects including buddhas and bodhisattvas, Zen meditation, Tantric scriptures, pilgrimage, temples, and festivals and rites.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.