Summary and Comments on "Series on Mahayana Buddhism, Volume II: The Birth of Mahayana Buddhism" - Recommended reference book to get an overview of Schopen's theory that criticized the origin of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition.
The book introduced here is "Series Mahayana Buddhism, Volume II: The Birth of Mahayana Buddhism," published by Shunju-sha in 2011.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
This volume traces the background of the establishment of Mahayana Buddhism and Mahayana scriptures, and highlights the ideological characteristics of Mahayana Buddhism through comparisons with Abhidharma Buddhism, Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism, and others. A multifaceted study of the formation of the Mahayana.
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This work, "Series on Mahayana Buddhism, Volume II: The Birth of Mahayana Buddhism," is the first in the series.Series on Mahayana Buddhism, Volume 1: What is Mahayana Buddhism?This collection of essays incorporates the latest findings of Buddhist research, following on the heels of
What I particularly appreciated in this book was the presence of the second chapter by Masahiro Shimoda, "Creating Sutras: The Emergence of the Mahayana World."
In this chapter, Gregory Schopen's theories, which have been discussed on this blog in the past, are summarized in an easy-to-understand manner. It was very gratifying to learn an overview of Schopen's theory, which has had a tremendous impact on Buddhist studies in the modern era.
At the beginning of that chapter, Masahiro Shimoda states
Before we begin our discussion of this topic, we must devote some space to an important issue that is a prerequisite for our discussion. The first is Gregory Schopen's understanding of Mahayana Buddhism, which has been rewriting the achievements of modern Buddhist studies in various ways. Schopen's work is based on the history of Indian Buddhism from around AD to the 5th and 6th centuries, and he has surveyed the results of an extremely wide range of research fields, including not only Buddhist studies but also history, archaeology, and epigraphy, to develop an image of Mahayana Buddhism that is quite different from anything that has been written before. Although some of his findings are known to the Japanese academic community through one Japanese translation, the significance of his research to Mahayana studies is not yet fully understood. In order to properly evaluate the significance of the various achievements in Japanese academia that appear in this series, it is necessary to reconfirm the purpose of Chopin's problem.
Shunju-sha, Series Mahayana Buddhism, Vol. 2: The Birth of Mahayana Buddhism, p. 39.
The "one Japanese translation book" spoken of here isMonasteries in the Mahayana Order."It is. And in recent yearsFalse Images and Fragments of Indian Mahayana Buddhism."The book was also translated into Japanese.
After reading these two books and then reading Shimoda's commentary, you will understand how his theory has had an impact on the Buddhist academic community. You can also learn how Schopen's theory has been accepted and where it stands today.
When and where did Mahayana Buddhism originate? This is one of the biggest questions in Buddhist studies. This is also a very important question for Japanese Buddhism, which accepted Mahayana Buddhism.
I think Schopen is providing a hot topic for us to think about this issue. His theory itself has been around for several decades, but I think it is significant that Japanese translations of his work are appearing one after another in this way.
This was a very helpful reference book for my interest in Schopen's theory. I would highly recommend this book.
The above is "Series on Mahayana Buddhism, Volume II: The Birth of Mahayana Buddhism" - a recommended reference book that provides an overview of Schopen's theory that criticized the origin of the Mahayana Buddhist pagoda.
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