Buddhist Hermeneutics and East Asian Buddhist Interpreters

Buddhist Hermeneutics and East Asian Buddhist Interpreters

Author: Sumi Lee

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2022-12-01

Total Pages: 115

ISBN-13: 1527591905

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This book explores the hermeneutic question of how non-conceptual religious reality is conceptually interpreted in the Buddhist tradition. While interpreters of religion have to perform their task through the process of conceptualization of their subjects, religious reality is typically considered as transcending conceptual categorization. Noting this dilemmatic problem, this work discusses the issues involved in Buddhist hermeneutics. It consists of two parts, the first of which discusses possibilities and problems associated with Buddhist hermeneutics, through three different topics: two exegetic strategies of the Indian Buddhist tradition, interpretive problems in the realistic approach to Buddhism, and historicist interpretations of Buddhism in modern times. The second part examines particular interpretive approaches to reality in East Asian Buddhism, such as the Chinese meditative practice of kanhua Chan, the Korean scholar-monk Wŏnhyo’s (617–686) view on non-duality of buddha-nature, and the Japanese monk Kūkai’s (774–835) perspective on emptiness. By addressing these issues, this volume illuminates the fundamental hermeneutic challenge in Buddhism: how to deliver dharma of no dharma.


Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra

Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra

Author: John Powers

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9789004098268

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This volume deals with the complex interrelationship between theories of scriptural interpretation and Buddhist notions of tradition and authority with respect to the Sam dhinirmocana-s tra, the main scriptural source of the Yogacara school of Indian Buddhism. Of particular concern is the political dimension of Buddhist thought as reflected in this text, speculation on how the sutra might have been written in order to influence power relations in the Buddhist community, and how its arguments are structured in accordance with Buddhist ideas of tradition and authority.This study looks at the text from a number of perspectives, including several current methodological models, philological analysis, and historical considerations. The purpose of this approach is to provide a multi-faceted analysis of this complex work.


Is There a Single Right Interpretation?

Is There a Single Right Interpretation?

Author: Michael Krausz

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2007-08-09

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 9780271046983

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Is there a single right interpretation for such cultural phenomena as works of literature, visual artworks, works of music, the self, and legal and sacred texts? In these essays, almost all written especially for this volume, twenty leading philosophers pursue different answers to this question by examining the nature of interpretation and its objects and ideals. The fundamental conflict between positions that universally require the ideal of a single admissible interpretation (singularism) and those that allow a multiplicity of some admissible interpretations (multiplism) leads to a host of engrossing questions explored in these essays: Does multiplism invite interpretive anarchy? Can opposing interpretations be jointly defended? Should competition between contending interpretations be understood in terms of (bivalent) truth or (multivalent) reasonableness, appropriateness, aptness, or the like? Is interpretation itself an essentially contested concept? Does interpretive activity seek truth or aim at something else as well? Should one focus on interpretive acts rather than interpretations? Should admissible interpretations be fixed by locating intentions of a historical or hypothetical creator, or neither? What bearing does the fact of the historical situatedness of cultural entities have on their identities? The contributors are Annette Barnes, Noël Carroll, Stephen Davies, Susan Feagin, Alan Goldman, Charles Guignon, Chhanda Gupta, Garry Hagberg, Michael Krausz, Peter Lamarque, Jerrold Levinson, Joseph Margolis, Rex Martin, Jitendra Mohanty, David Novitz, Philip Percival, Torsten Pettersson, Robert Stecker, Laurent Stern, and Paul Thom.


Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-Sūtra

Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-Sūtra

Author: Powers

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-07-24

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 9004624511

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This study provides a detailed study of one of the seminal works of Indian Mahayana Buddhism, the Samdhinirmocana-sutra, and also has ramifications for the study of Buddhist hermeneutics and cross-cultural studies of interpretational strategies for religious texts.


Buddhist Theology

Buddhist Theology

Author: Roger Jackson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 113683012X

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Scholars of Buddhism, themselves Buddhist, here seek to apply the critical tools of the academy to reassess the truth and transformative value of their tradition in its relevance to the contemporary world.


Paving the Great Way

Paving the Great Way

Author: Jonathan C. Gold

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2014-11-11

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0231538006

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The Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (fourth–fifth century C.E.) is known for his critical contribution to Buddhist Abhidharma thought, his turn to the Mahayana tradition, and his concise, influential Yogacara–Vijñanavada texts. Paving the Great Way reveals another dimension of his legacy: his integration of several seemingly incompatible intellectual and scriptural traditions, with far-ranging consequences for the development of Buddhist epistemology and the theorization of tantra. Most scholars read Vasubandhu's texts in isolation and separate his intellectual development into distinct phases. Featuring close studies of Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasya, Vyakhyayukti, Vimsatika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa, among other works, this book identifies recurrent treatments of causality and scriptural interpretation that unify distinct strands of thought under a single, coherent Buddhist philosophy. In Vasubandhu's hands, the Buddha's rejection of the self as a false construction provides a framework through which to clarify problematic philosophical issues, such as the nature of moral agency and subjectivity under a broadly causal worldview. Recognizing this continuity of purpose across Vasubandhu's diverse corpus recasts the interests of the philosopher and his truly innovative vision, which influenced Buddhist thought for a millennium and continues to resonate with today's philosophical issues. An appendix includes extensive English-language translations of the major texts discussed.


The Dharma's Gatekeepers

The Dharma's Gatekeepers

Author: Jonathan C. Gold

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2008-06-05

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0791479714

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A study of the seminal Tibetan Buddhist work, Gateway to Learning.


Religious Epistemology through Schillebeeckx and Tibetan Buddhism

Religious Epistemology through Schillebeeckx and Tibetan Buddhism

Author: Jason M. VonWachenfeldt

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-02-11

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0567698645

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This study investigates how a comparison between the Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx's controversial reading of Thomist philosophy and the Tibetan Buddhist Gendun Chopel's challenge to the standard Geluk teaching of Tsongkhapa's Madhyamaka philosophy might assist in rethinking conceptions of religious knowledge. Utilizing a wide variety of methodical approaches to establish an imaginary dialogue between these two thinkers, this comparison remains embodied in the thought and praxis of actual individuals, and yet still firmly embedded within the conversations and trajectories of their broader religious traditions.