Mediating the Power of Buddhas , livre ebook

280

pages

English

Ebooks

2012

Écrit par
Glenn Wallis

Publié par
State University of New York Press

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280

pages

English

Ebooks

2012

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

01 février 2012

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791488423

Langue

English

Mediating the Power of Buddhas offers a fascinating analysis of the seventh-century ritual manual, the Mañjusrimulakalpa. This medieval text is intended to reveal the path into a ritual universe where the power of a buddha abides. Author Glenn Wallis traces the strategies of the Mañjusrimulakalpa to enable its committed reader to perfect the promised ritual, uncovering what conditions must be met for ritual practice to succeed and what personal characteristics practitioners must possess in order to realize the ritual intentions of the Buddhist community. The manual itself was written at a key point in Buddhist history, one when Hindu forms of practice were still imitated and on the cusp of the shift from Mahayana to Vajrayana (or Tantric) Buddhism. In addition, the Mañjusrimulakalpa presents a rich compendium of Buddhist life in an earlier era, containing information on a variety of its readers' concerns: astrology, astronomy, medicine and healing, ritual practice, iconography, devotion, and meditation.
Preface

Acknowledgments

1: Introduction

1.1 Aims
1.2 Methods
1.3 The Text: Mañjusrımulakalpa
1.4 The Ritual

2: The Source of Power: The Assembly (sannipata)

2.1 Cosmology
2.2 Mmk 1: vision and cult
2.3 The text as cult image
2.4 Revelation and transmission

3: The Refraction of Power: The Cult Image (pata)

3.1 The pata as image and animated object
3.2 Creation of the cult object (patavidhana)

4: The Empowered Practitioner (sadhaka)

4.1 The practitioner in the text
4.2 The sadhaka
4.3 Epithets and space

5: Summary and Conclusion

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Voir

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

01 février 2012

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791488423

Langue

English

History of religions Buddhism East Asian religions

Mediating the Power of Buddhas

SUNY series in Buddhist Studies Matthew Kapstein, editor

Mediating the Power of Buddhas

Ritual in theMañjuŸrımÒlakalpa

Glenn Wallis

S U N Y P TATE NIVERSITY OF EW ORK RESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Fran Keneston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wallis, Glenn. Mediating the power of Buddhas : ritual in the MañjuŸrımÒlakalpa / Glenn Wallis. p. cm. — (SUNY series in Buddhist studies) Includes index. ISBN 0-7914-5411-8 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5412-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Tripi˛aka. SÒtrapi˛aka. Tantra. MañjuŸrımu¯lakalpa—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title. II. Series.

BQ2180 .M347 2002 294.3'85—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2001049443

This work is for Friederike, Alexandra, and Mia, who give it all meaning.

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Preface

Acknowledgments

Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Aims / 1 1.2 Methods / 5 1.3 The Text:MañjuŸrımÒlakalpa / 9 1.4 The Ritual / 23

Chapter 2: The Source of Power: The Assembly (sannip>ta) 2.1 Cosmology / 59 2.2Mmkvision and cult / 61 1: 2.3 The text as cult image / 67 2.4 Revelation and transmission / 68

Chapter 3: The Refraction of Power: The Cult Image (pa˛a) 3.1 Thepa˛aimage and animated object / 87 as 3.2 Creation of the cult object (pa˛avidh>na) / 91

Chapter 4: The Empowered Practitioner (s>dhaka) 4.1 The practitioner in the text / 127 4.2 Thes>dhaka/ 128 4.3 Epithets and space / 129

Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index

vii

xiii

127

159

171

229

251

259

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Preface

This book is about a text, a ritual, and a reader. It is also about an abiding concern of Buddhists—one that has persisted from the earliest days of Buddhism, among the small group of mendicants surrounding Í>kyamuni in a corner of northeastern India, to the present day, throughout the world among variegated groups of Buddhists. The text is called theMañjuŸrımÒlakalpa,The Primary Ritual Ordi-nance of MañjuŸrı. TheMañjuŸrımÒlakalpais an Indian work, written in a somewhat unconventional form of Sanskrit. It is difﬁcult to determine when and where it was written, but a working estimate would be the eighth century in the east. This places the text in what is referred to as the P>la era of Indian history. The P>las controlled the areas comprising roughly Bengal and Bih>r from ca. 760–1142. It was in the eighth century that texts like the MañjuŸrımÒlakalpato be composed by adherents of the major Hindu began and Buddhist communities of India. These texts were manuals that recorded the ritual knowledge necessary for living in the religious worlds engendered by those communities. The rituals recorded in theMañjuŸrımÒlakalpaseen by Buddhists were of later centuries as being characteristically tantric; and so even today the MañjuŸrımÒlakalpa is unquestioningly classed, by Tibetans, Nepalis, and Westerners alike, as an early instance of Vajray>na literature. If we put aside such pre-interpretive ordering principles, however, a more ambiguous picture emerges. While the rituals do conform to what is generally understood as Vajray>na, the Buddhist world of the rituals looks decisively Mah>y>na. It might be, then, that in studying theMañjuŸrımÒlakalpawe are glimpsing into a formative period in Buddhist history, a moment in time that lay on the cusp of what would become two major, distinctive thrusts. Who was the reader of such a text? TheMañjuŸrımÒlakalparefers to its reader as as>dhaka, one whopracticesrituals, and thereby the realizes his ultimate potential (as abuddha). Hence, as>dhakais one who aims to perfect himself by means of both the actions and the knowledge recorded in the text. On the basis of what we know about medieval Indian society and culture, it might be possible to hypothesize about the historicals>dhaka/reader of the

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