Buddhist Scriptures as Literature

Ralph Flores

Description

Buddhist Scriptures as Literature explores the drama, lyricism, and compelling storylines in Buddhist sacred writings, while illustrating how rhetoric and ideology are at work in shaping readers' reactions. Ralph Flores argues that the Buddha's life story itself follows an archetypal quest-romance pattern: regal surroundings are abandoned and the ensuing feats are heroic. The story can be read as an epic, but it also has a comic plot: confusions and trials until the Prince becomes utterly selfless, having found his true element—nirvana. Making use of contemporary literary theory, Flores offers new readings of texts such as the Nikāyas, the Dhammapada, the Heart Sutra, Zen koans, Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Understanding these works as literature deepens our sense of the unfolding of their teachings, of their exuberant histories, and of their relevance for contemporary life.
Acknowledgments

1. Fictions of Reading: Westerners and Buddhist Texts

2. A Prince Transformed: The Nikāyas, the Nidānakathā, Aśvaghoşa’s Acts of the Buddha

3. The Buddha Awakening: The Nikāyas

4. Winning Conversions: The Nikāyas

5. Passing on: The Nikāyas

6. Figures of Right Speech: The Dhammapada

7. Joyous Negations: The Heart Sutra

8. Masters of Emptiness: The Gateless Barrier and Zen Folktales

9. Extreme Giving: The Vessantara Jātaka and Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life

10. Final Emergency Reading: The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Epilogue: Images in the Reader
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Buddhism

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791478837
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Buddhist Scriptures as Literature

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Buddhist Scriptures as Literature

Sacred Rhetoric and the Uses of Theory 

Ralph Flores

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2008 State University of New York

All rights reserved

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, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Judith Block and Eileen Meehan Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Flores, Ralph. Buddhist scriptures as literature : sacred rhetoric and the uses of theory / Ralph Flores. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7914-7339-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Buddhist literature — History and criticism. 2. Tripitaka as literature. 3. Tipitaka. Suttapitaka— Criticism, interpretation, etc. 4. Buddhism and literature. I. Title.

BQ1020. B83 2007 294.3'8—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2007016827

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Contents

Fictions of Reading: Westerners and Buddhist Texts

A Prince Transformed: TheNik a yas, A s s’a¸sohgavActs of the Buddha

theNid a nakath a ,

The Buddha Awakening: TheNik a yas

Winning Conversions: TheNik a yas

Passing on: TheNik a yas

Figures of Right Speech:The Dhammapada

Joyous Negations:

The Heart Sutra

Masters of Emptiness:The Gateless Barrierand Zen Folktales

Extreme Giving:The Vessantara J a taka A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life

and Shantideva’s

10. Final Emergency Reading:The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Epilogue: Images in the Reader

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to many persons for inspiring this work, including teachers at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, San Francisco Zen Center, the Buddhist Society in London, and Wat Pa Nanachat in Ubon Ratchathani. I was encour- aged at the beginning of this project by help from Professor David Kalupahana, and by conversations and correspondence, mostly about Paul de Man’s work, with Professor Rodolphe Gasché. I am appreciative of readers who helped by commenting on the text: Stephen Batchelor at Gaia House, Dhammanando Bhikkhu at Wat Benchamabophit, the anonymous readers for SUNY Press, and Senior Acquisitions Editor Nancy Ellegate. I would like to thank her as- sistant Allison Lee, my colleagues in literary studies at Thammasat University, and my family. For their interest and good cheer, I am grateful to Emily and Kevin Silver, Matthew Sullivan, Anne Smith, Erik and Tetje Falentyn, Apichaya Wuttipongpreecha, and Thanutvorn Jaturongkavanich. I am pleased to thank Martin Perenchio for years of Buddhist discussions, and Michael Beard of the University of North Dakota for an always informative and conge- nial correspondence. Any errors or misreadings are mine.

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1  Fictions of Reading

Westerners and Buddhist Texts

The Sun—the Light—rises in the East. Imagination has often pictured to itself the emotions of a blind man suddenly become possessed of sight. . . . By the close of day the man has erected a building constructed from his own inner Sun, and in the evening . . . esteems it more highly than the original external Sun.

—G. W. F. Hegel,Encyclopedia

he Sun, after rising gloriously and providing sight to the blind, is setting T in the twilight of the West. Buddhism, with its signs of light, equanimity, ultimacy, and peaceful fulfillment, has found a place in the Western imagina- tion. Certain questions, however, persist. Can the Buddha’s teachings be truly viable without native monastic traditions, in an era of ego therapy and showy individualism? Can they truly take root in alien ground? Have we reconstructed and packaged the teachings especially for ourselves—and how much has been lost in the process?

The Fate of Non-Reading There are no easy answers. Signals are clear, though, that Buddhist ways, re- cently Westernized, have been sucked into a whirlpool of global economics, New Age therapies, and neo-Buddhisms. This situation is manifested in glossy

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