The Vimalakirti Sutra

Erscheinungsjahr 1996
ISBN: 978-0-231-10656-6
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 192 Seiten, Format (B × H): 144 mm x 223 mm, Gewicht: 327 g

Reihe: Translations from the Asian Classics

One of the most popular Asian classics for roughly two thousand years, the Vimalakirti Sutra stands out among the sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism for its conciseness, its vivid and humorous episodes, its dramatic narratives, and its eloquent exposition of the key doctrine of emptiness or nondualism. Unlike most sutras, its central figure is not a Buddha but a wealthy townsman, who, in his mastery of doctrine and religious practice, epitomizes the ideal lay believer. For this reason, the sutra has held particular significance for men and women of the laity in Buddhist countries of Asia, assuring them that they can reach levels of spiritual attainment fully comparable to those accessible to monks and nuns of the monastic order.

Esteemed translator Burton Watson has rendered a beautiful English translation from the popular Chinese version produced in 406 C.E. by the Central Asian scholar-monk Kumarajiva, which is widely acknowledged to be the most felicitous of the various Chinese translations of the sutra (the Sanskrit original of which was lost long ago) and is the form in which it has had the greatest influence in China, Japan, and other countries of East Asia. Watson's illuminating introduction discusses the background of the sutra, its place in the development of Buddhist thought, and the profundities of its principal doctrine: emptiness.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Watson, Burton

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Buddhismus Buddhismus: Heilige Texte & Traditionsliteratur
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Heilige & Traditionelle Texte, Mythologie, Vergleichende Mythologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Translator's NoteIntroductionThe Vimalakirti Sutra1 Buddha Lands2 Expedient Means3 The Disciples4 The Bodhisattvas5 Inquiring About the Illness6 Beyond Comprehension7 Regarding Living Beings8 The Buddha Way9 Entering the Gate of Nondualism10 Fragrance Accumulated11 Actions of the Bodhisattvas12 Seeing Akshobhya Buddha13 The Offering of the Law14 EntrustmentGlossary

Über Autor(innen)

Burton Watson is one of the world's best-known translators from the Chinese and Japanese. His translations include The Lotus Sutra, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, Ryôkan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, Saigyô: Poems of a Mountain Home, and The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, all published by Columbia.