Lotus Sutra (eBook)

A Biography

Jr. Donald S. Lopez (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2016
272 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-8334-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Donald S. Lopez, Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His many books include The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (with Robert E. Buswell, Jr.) and The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography (Princeton). He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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A concise and accessible introduction to the classic Buddhist textThe Lotus Sutra is arguably the most famous of all Buddhist scriptures. Composed in India in the first centuries of the Common Era, it is renowned for its inspiring message that all beings are destined for supreme enlightenment. Here, Donald Lopez provides an engaging and accessible biography of this enduring classic.Lopez traces the many roles the Lotus Sutra has played in its travels through Asia, Europe, and across the seas to America. The story begins in India, where it was one of the early Mahayana sutras, which sought to redefine the Buddhist path. In the centuries that followed, the text would have a profound influence in China and Japan, and would go on to play a central role in the European discovery of Buddhism. It was the first Buddhist sutra to be translated from Sanskrit into a Western language-into French in 1844 by the eminent scholar Eugene Burnouf. That same year, portions of the Lotus Sutra appeared in English in The Dial, the journal of New England's Transcendentalists. Lopez provides a balanced account of the many controversies surrounding the text and its teachings, and describes how the book has helped to shape the popular image of the Buddha today. He explores how it was read by major literary figures such as Henry David Thoreau and Gustave Flaubert, and how it was used to justify self-immolation in China and political extremism in Japan.Concise and authoritative, this is the essential introduction to the life and afterlife of a timeless masterpiece.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.9.2016
• Reihe/Serie: Lives of Great Religious Books
• Reihe/Serie: Lives of Great Religious Books
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Ancient India • An Shigao • Arhat • Asceticism • Bhagavad Gita • Bhikkhu • Bodhisattva • bodhisattva vow • Bodhi Tree • Brian Houghton Hodgson • Buddhahood • Buddhavacana • Buddhism • Buddhism in Japan • Buddhist philosophy • Buddhist Studies • buddhist temple • buddhist texts • Central Asia • Chinese Buddhism • Christianity • classical chinese • Clergy • Confucius • deity • Devadatta • Dharmachakra • Doctrine • East Asian Buddhism • edict • Eternal Buddha • Exegesis • Faxian • Gautama Buddha • Guanyin • Haibutsu kishaku • Hindu • Hinduism • honzon • Indian religions • Japanese art • kaidan • Laity • Lecture • Lotus Sutra • Madhyamaka • Mahayana • Matteo Ricci • Monastery • Mount Fuji • Mount Hiei • Namu Myoho Renge Kyo • New Religious Movement • Nichiren • Nichiren Buddhism • Ordination • parable • perfection of wisdom • Persecution • Philosophy • Prakrit • Pratyekabuddha • Preface (liturgy) • Princeton University Press • Prose • Publication • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Reincarnation • Religion • Religion in Japan • religious text • Renunciation • Rite • Sanskrit • Schools of Buddhism • sect • Sentient beings (Buddhism) • Shakubuku • Shingon Buddhism • Shinto • shinto shrine • Society of Jesus • Southeast Asia • Spirituality • Sri Lanka • Tanaka Chigaku • tendai • Ten suchnesses • The Buddhist (TV channel) • Tiantai • Tianzhu (India) • Tibetan Buddhist canon • Tripi?aka • vasubandhu • veneration • Vulture Peak • World War II • Worship • Yamashina Mido • Zhiyi
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-8334-2 / 1400883342
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-8334-9 / 9781400883349