Genealogies of Mahayana Buddhism - Emptiness, Power and the Question of Origin

Genealogies of Mah¿y¿na Buddhism offers a solution to the monumental problem that some have called the "holy grail" of Buddhist studies: the problem of the "origins" of Mah¿y¿na Buddhism. As much as it contributes to a theory of origins for religious studies and Buddhist Studies, the book argues that that it is the neglect of political power in the scholarly imagination of Buddhism in history that has made the origins of Mah¿y¿na an intractable problem. Walser challenges commonly-held assumptions, offering a fascinating new take on the genealogy of Mah¿y¿na that traces its doctrines of emptiness and mind-only from the present day back to the time before Mah¿y¿na was "Mah¿y¿na."

List of contents

Acknowledgements
Part I: Genealogies of Mah¿y¿na

1. Introduction: On Origins and Genealogies


2. Mah¿y¿na in Retrospect: From My House to the Dalai Lama (looking back from 2017 - 1930)


1. Assessing the Essence


2. Tibet as Buddhist: Tracing the Lines of Power


3. Emptiness and the Analytic of Power


4. Inculcating Dispositions to Authority: the K¿lacakra


3. Mah¿y¿na in the Republic, Mah¿y¿na in the Empire: Tracing "Religion" from Republican China to the Early Qing Dynasty (1920's - 1723)


1. Religion vs. Superstition in 20th Century East Asia


2. The Fin de Siècle Turning Point


3. The Qing Imperium and the Usefulness of Mah¿y¿na


4. The Yonghegong Temple in Beijing and the Political Work of Monuments


5. Emperor Qianlong: the Tantric Initiate and the Tantric State


6. Tantra, Emptiness and the Reincarnate Emperor/Lama, or why it's never too late to have a venerable past.


7. Yongzheng Emperor and the Great Ming Debate


4. The Image of Emptiness across the Landscape of Power (China: 11th Cent. B.C.E - 15th Cent. C.E.)


1. The Ancestor Image


2. The Image of Emptiness: Di, Space and the Celestial Pole


3. The Image of the Earth and control of the cults


4. Exorcism and the State: When possession is nine-tenths


5. Religion in the Service of Taxation


6. Buddhist Exorcism and the Heart of Mah¿y¿na


7. Conclusion


5. Buddha Veda: an Indian Genealogy of Emptiness (20th century - 6th century CE.)


1. Emptiness and Power in Orissa: From Mahima Dharma Samprad¿ya to Jagann¿tha of Puri


2. Buddhism and Brahmanism in Maitr¿pa (ca. 1010-1097 CE)


3. Bh¿viveka's 6th Century Mah¿y¿na


4. Bh¿viveka, Mah¿y¿na and Yog¿c¿ra


5. Bh¿viveka, Mah¿y¿na and Brahmanism


6. Preliminary Conclusion
Part II: The Genealogy of the Perfection of Wisdom


6. What did the text of the Perfection of Wisdom look like?


1. The Versions


2. The Quest for the Ur-S¿tra


3. The Core Pericope


4. The Ending


5. Subh¿ti's Non-Apprehension


6. The Mindlessness Section


7. The Message of the Original Perfection of Wisdom


1. Mah¿y¿na


2. Bodhisattvas


3. What's missing?


8. Mah¿y¿na S¿tra as Palimpsest: Discerning Traces of the Tripi¿aka


1. Beyond "origin" as mere event


2. Heteroglossia and Textual Rationale


3. Intertextuality and Adaptation in Buddhist Literature


4. The Non-Apprehension section and its Intertexts


1. Sermon on Selflessness?


2. Nominalism?


3. Cessation of Cognition


4. Selflessness... but differently


5. The Perfected as Untraceable


6. Fearlessness


7. Abhidharma echoes


8. Conclusion: The Perfection of Wisdom


5. Palimpsest Part Two: Brahmanical Writings on the Tripi¿aka


1. The Importance of Incoherence


2. The Context of Abhidharma Literature?


3. The Context of Other Schools?


4. The Context of Luminous Thought and Varieties of Unaware Thought


5. The Context of Acitta Neither Existing nor Not Existing as Anti-Brahmanical Dependent Origination


6. The Context of Absence of Mental Construction (avikalpa)


7. Nirvikapla


8. Brahmanical Intertexts and their Implications


6. Placing Early Mah¿y¿na


1. Placing the Perfection of Wisdom in the Early Mah¿y¿na Suite


2. Mañju¿r¿'s Inquiry Concerning the Office of the Bodhisattva


3. Placing the Early Perfection of Wisdom


4. Mistaken Sounds


5. Subh¿ti's Aräavih¿ra: Preaching or Penetration?


6. Emptiness, Brahmin Nuns, Tulkus and the Power of Possession


7. Putting it together


8. Conclusion


7. On Sites and Stakes: Meditation on Emptiness and Imperial Aspirations


1. Shifting Contexts, Shifting Interpretations


2. The U¿¿¿bhabr¿hmäasutta and the B¿had¿räyaka Upani¿ad on cosmic foundations


3. The Horse Sacrifice


4. Piling the Fire Altar and Legitimation Regress


5. Buddhist Brahmins


6. On Power and Reproduction


7. Sovereign Echoes: on Manhood and Celibacy; On thrones and Crowns


8. Buddhist Brahmodya as court debates


9. The Mah¿y¿na Genealogy from The Vedas to the Sutras to Tantra to Zen
Index




About the author

Joseph Walser is Associate Professor of Religion at Tufts University, USA.

Product details

• Authors: Joseph Walser, Walser Joseph
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.06.2018
• EAN: 9781138955554
• ISBN: 978-1-138-95555-4
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; RELIGION / General, Buddhism, Religion and beliefs