1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910783315003321

Autore

Cole Alan <1964->

Titolo

Text as father : paternal seductions in early Mahāyāna Buddhist  literature / / Alan Cole

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley ; ; Los Angeles, : University of California Press, 2005

ISBN

9786612357589

0-520-93140-8

1-282-35758-1

1-59875-541-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (371 pages)

Collana

Buddhisms ; ; 9

Disciplina

294.3/85

Soggetti

Mahayana Buddhism

Paternalism - Religious aspects - Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism - Doctrines

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction -- 1. Text as Father -- 2. Who's Your Daddy Now? Reissued Paternity in the Lotus Sūtra -- 3. The Domino Effect: Everyone and His Brother Convert to the Lotus Sūtra -- 4. "Be All You Can't Be" and Other Gainful Losses in the Diamond Sūtra -- 5. Sameness with a Difference in the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra -- 6. Vimalakīrti, or Why Bad Boys Finish First -- Conclusion. A Cavalier Attitude toward Truth-Fathers -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

This beautifully written work sheds new light on the origins and nature of Mahayana Buddhism with close readings of four well-known texts-the Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Tathagatagarbha Sutra, and Vimalakirtinirdesa. Treating these sutras as literary works rather than as straightforward philosophic or doctrinal treatises, Alan Cole argues that these writings were carefully sculpted to undermine traditional monastic Buddhism and to gain legitimacy and authority for Mahayana Buddhism as it was veering away from Buddhism's older oral and institutional forms. His sophisticated and sustained analysis of the narrative structures and seductive literary strategies used in these



sutras suggests that they were specifically written to encourage devotion to the written word instead of other forms of authority, be they human, institutional, or iconic.