Donald S. Lopez - Böcker

While Buddhism has no central text such as the Bible or the Koran, there is a powerful body of scripture from across Asia that encompasses the dharma, or the teachings of Buddha. This rich anthology brings together works from a broad historical and geographical range, and from languages such as Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese. There are tales of the Buddha's past lives, a discussion of the qualities and qualifications of a monk, and an exploration of the many meanings of Enlightenment. Together they provide a vivid picture of the Buddha and of the vast nature of the Buddhist tradition.

One of the world’s leading scholars of Buddhism presents the story of its dramatic journey across the globe, from 2,500 years ago to the present day“Perhaps no scholar is as well suited to serve as a guide to such travel as Lopez. . . . [He] excels at bringing moments of the Buddhist past to life.”—Natasha Heller, Times Literary Supplement Over the course of twenty-five centuries, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in northern India to become a global tradition of remarkable breadth, depth, and richness. In this ambitious book, Donald S. Lopez Jr. draws on the latest scholarship to construct a detailed and innovative history of Buddhism—not just as a chronology through the centuries or as geographic movement across a map, but as a dense matrix of interconnections. Beginning with the life and teachings of the Buddha, Lopez shows how a set of evolving ideas and practices traveled north and east to China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Tibet, south and southeast to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and finally westward to Europe and the Americas. He provides insights on questions that Buddhism has asked and answered in different times and different places—about apocalypse, art, identity, immortality, law, nation, persecution, philosophy, science, sex, war, and writing. Vast in its erudition and expansive in its vision, this is the most complete single‑volume history of Buddhism in its full historical and geographical range.

From one of the world’s leading Buddhist scholars, a deeply researched and unprecedented portrait of the Buddha  Like Jesus and Muhammad, the Buddha is one of the most significant figures in history. But is he a historical figure? In this revelatory book, Donald S. Lopez Jr. explores this question and considers what is at stake in the answer. Using stories of the Buddha’s life—drawn from the earliest biographies, the work of other scholars, and his own research—Lopez traces a single narrative from the Buddha’s birth to his enlightenment to his passage into nirvana.  Unlike those who transformed the Buddha into a rationalist philosopher, Lopez seeks to “remythologize” the Buddha, restoring the rainbow that encircled the Buddha for centuries, radiating his teachings around the world. Complementing traditional Buddhist sources with insights from Gustave Flaubert, Oscar Wilde, George Eliot, and others, Lopez produces a rich, accessible, and unprecedented portrait of one of the world’s most important religious figures.

One of the world’s leading scholars of Buddhism presents the story of its dramatic journey across the globe, from 2,500 years ago to the present day“Perhaps no scholar is as well suited to serve as a guide to such travel as Lopez. . . . [He] excels at bringing moments of the Buddhist past to life.”—Natasha Heller, Times Literary Supplement Over the course of twenty-five centuries, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in northern India to become a global tradition of remarkable breadth, depth, and richness. In this ambitious book, Donald S. Lopez Jr. draws on the latest scholarship to construct a detailed and innovative history of Buddhism—not just as a chronology through the centuries or as geographic movement across a map, but as a dense matrix of interconnections. Beginning with the life and teachings of the Buddha, Lopez shows how a set of evolving ideas and practices traveled north and east to China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Tibet, south and southeast to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and finally westward to Europe and the Americas. He provides insights on questions that Buddhism has asked and answered in different times and different places—about apocalypse, art, identity, immortality, law, nation, persecution, philosophy, science, sex, war, and writing. Vast in its erudition and expansive in its vision, this is the most complete single‑volume history of Buddhism in its full historical and geographical range.

Given its vast literature and its practice of teaching what is appropriate for a particular disciple, the Buddhist tradition has long had to wrestle with the question of which of his many scriptures represented the Buddha's highest view. In response to that problem, Buddhist commentators developed sophisticated systems of interpretation, Buddhist hermeneutics. The present volume of essays by leading western Buddhologists surveys the rich variety of strategies employed by Buddhist thinkers of India, Tibet, China, and Japan to interpret their sacred texts.