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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cole, Alan, 1964-

Series:

Buddhisms

Buddhisms ; 9

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mahayana Buddhism--Sacred books.

Mahayana Buddhism.

Paternalism--Religious aspects--Mahayana Buddhism.

Paternalism.

Mahayana Buddhism--Doctrines.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (371 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley ; Los Angels : University of California Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

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

Notes:

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612357589

9780520931404

0520931408

9781282357587

1282357581

9781598755411

1598755412

OCLC:

475938377