Elaborations on Emptiness : Uses of the Heart Sūtra / Donald S. Lopez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lopez, Donald S., Jr., 1952- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tripiṭaka. Sūtrapiṭaka. Prajñāpāramitā. Hr̥daya--Commentaries.

Tripiṭaka.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

The Heart Sutra is perhaps the most famous Buddhist text, traditionally regarded as a potent expression of emptiness and of the Buddha's perfect wisdom. This brief, seemingly simple work was the subject of more commentaries in Asia than any other sutra. In Elaborations on Emptiness, Donald Lopez explores for the first time the elaborate philosophical and ritual uses of the Heart Sutra in India, Tibet, and the West. Included here are full translations of the eight extant Indian commentaries. Interspersed with the translations are six essays that examine the unusual roles the Heart Sutra has played: it has been used as a mantra, an exorcism text, a tantric meditation guide, and as the material for comparative philosophy. Taken together, the translations and essays that form Elaborations on Emptiness demonstrate why commentary is as central to modern scholarship on Buddhism as it was for ancient Buddhists. Lopez reveals unexpected points of instability and contradiction in the Heart Sutra, which, in the end, turns out to be the most malleable of texts, where the logic of commentary serves as a tool of both tradition and transgression.

Contents:

Frontmatter

The Heart Sūtra

Contents

Technical Note and Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Who Heard the Heart Sūtra?

2. The Commentaries of Vimalamitra and Atiśa

3. The Heart Sūtra as Tantra

4. The Commentaries of Kamalaśīla and Śrīsiṃha

5. The Heart Sūtra as Sādhana

6. The Commentaries of Jñānamitra and Praśāstrasena

7. The Heart Sūtra's Mantra

8. The Commentaries of Mahājana and Vajrapāņi

9. The Heart Sūtra as Exorcism

10. Commentators Ancient and Postmodern

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780691027326

0691027323

OCLC:

1016595898