Outline and Comments on "New Asian Buddhist History 03: India III: The Buddhist World from the Perspective of Buddhist Scriptures" - To what extent can the historical facts taught in Buddhist biographies and scriptures be historical facts?
The book introduced here is New Asian Buddhist History 03 India III: The Buddhist World from the Perspective of Buddhist Scriptures, edited by Yasuaki Nara and Masahiro Shimoda, published by Kosei Shuppansha in 2010.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
This book focuses on the Buddhist scriptures, which consist of the sutras, the law, and the treatises. The contents of the Buddhist scriptures, which differ from period to period and from different backgrounds of belief and practice, are categorized and briefly explained in order to approach the world of Buddha. It also clearly describes how the founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni Buddha, was interpreted and accepted by people in later periods from various perspectives.
Comments from the Publisher
It provides an insight into the footsteps and teachings of the founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni Buddha. The book clearly describes how the Buddha and his teachings were interpreted and accepted by people of later times from various perspectives. The book is illustrated with color photographs. The book provides a visual understanding of the religious world of Buddha Shakyamuni Buddha. This is a book that traces the depth of Buddhist thought in simple language. Five columns that elaborate the best of the research results. Chapter 1: The World as Seen in the Buddhist Tradition [Chapter 2: Early Sutras and Practice [Chapter 3: The Law and Buddhist Society [Chapter 4: The World of the Mahayana Sutras [Chapter 5: The Development of Hermeneutics [Chapter 6: The Deepening of Thought [Chapter 7: Ritual, Symbol, and Text
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This work was introduced in the previous article.A History of Buddhism in New Asia 02 India II: The Formation and Development of Buddhism.This will be the third volume in the "New Asian Buddhist History Series" following
Now, as the title of this work suggests, this book looks at the Indian Buddhist world through Buddhist scriptures.
I quote from Mr. Satoshi Hiraoka's words in the first chapter of this book.
In the case of a founding religion, the meaning and position of its founder is extremely important. Even Christianity, which is a monotheistic religion, has a history of literally deifying the human Jesus as the "Son of God," which speaks more eloquently than anything else. What about Buddhism, which is also a founding religion? What was the actual life of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, and how was his life understood and interpreted by later generations of disciples and followers of Buddhism? Here, we will call the totality of these works "Buddhist biographies," or "biographies of Buddha.
Buddhism has developed in diverse ways over time and regions, and no single aspect of Buddhism can be considered as a complete understanding of all of Buddhism. However, understanding the lifestyle and life of the Guru Buddha will be a great help in understanding the religion of Buddhism. The perspectives presented in this chapter will also contribute to our understanding not only of Guru Buddha, but also of the ancestors of the various religions in Japan, as well as the images of saints and biographies of saints that are found in religions in general. Let us now begin the process of reconfirming the footsteps of the great Oyasama.
Despite the great pretense that this is the case, it is an extremely difficult task to define the contours of the historical Buddha. Why? First, let us try to sort out this point. First, we should point out the problem of the transmission of materials. As is well known, the Buddha is thought to have preached at various places and at various times from the time of his enlightenment to his death. In other words, there was no systematic "teaching" or "scripture" from the beginning. According to the data, after the Buddha's death, a gathering was held, where the Buddha's teachings were compiled in the form of "sutras," and further organized and systematized. Moreover, this tradition was transmitted orally, using "voice" as the medium. Around A.D., the sutras were finally written down and transmitted through the medium of letters.
The problem here is that the possibility of "misspeaking," "mishearing," or "miswriting" occurs in the process of its transmission. As symbolized by the game of word-of-mouth, the more people who enter between the two, the more the original form is deformed. What is even more troublesome is that these mistakes include both "intentional" and "unintentional" ones, and it is extremely difficult to make a sharp distinction between them. In this light, it is impossible to approach the real picture of Buddhism of 250 years ago by relying on the descriptions in the scriptures available to us today, and the task is extremely difficult even when filtered through the filter of objective and critical research.
Returning to the Buddhist biography, it was not until long after the Buddha's death that a so-called "systematic Buddhist biography" covering the period from his birth to his death was compiled, which, from the perspective of "historicity," is highly problematic. In addition, there is no evidence that the Buddha himself narrated his life from birth to death in chronological order, so if we want to get closer to the real image of the historical Buddha, we have to patch up the fragmentary descriptions found in the early sutras (Pārinikāya and Chinese translation of Agong Sutra) compiled by his disciples in their early days and compare and study similar descriptions found in the early sutras. The reality is that we have a vague picture of the Buddha's image.
In other words, the later Buddhist texts have the advantage of being "systematic," but because they were compiled in a later period, they lack the authenticity of "historical facts" due to the deification of the "great guru. On the other hand, the early sutras were compiled at an earlier date than the other sources, so their descriptions are more likely to reflect the "historical Buddha," but they are not systematic, which exposes their weaknesses. Therefore, all of the sources have their own merits and demerits, and there are problems in approaching the historical reality of Guru Buddha.
2010, Kosei Shuppansha, Yasuaki Nara and Masahiro Shimoda (eds.), New Asian Buddhist History 03 India III: The Buddhist World from the Perspective of Buddhist Scriptures, p. 14-16.
It is impossible to approach the real picture of Buddhism of 250 years ago by relying on the descriptions in the scriptures now available to us, and even through the filter of objective and critical research, the task is extremely difficult."
We have all seen and heard about the life of Buddha in various places. However, there are many historical facts about Buddha that we do not know, as discussed here.
I think we too tend to overlook the fact that "even though there are sources and scriptures, they are not absolutely correct either."
Was the "history of Buddhism" that we have taken for granted so far really "correct"? And what is "correct history" in the first place?
Furthermore, the question arises whether the image of Buddha that we monks have traditionally imagined as "this way" is incorrect.
This is a big problem for me as a monk. This book takes a careful look at it using sutras and documents. Especially the commentary on the Buddhist tradition in the first half of this book was very stimulating for me.
Every time I read this "New Asian Buddhist History" series, I am always surprised by new discoveries. Moreover, the reference materials in the book give me a guideline for future study. This is another point I appreciate very much.
I would highly recommend this book.
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