Author: Dalai Lama
Eminent Contributors/
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Darrol Bryant/Susan Bryant
Publisher: Tibet House
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 170
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788190689144
Description
This publication is a collection of papers presented at the four-day International conference on Mahayana Buddhism history and culture organized by Tibet House at India international centre of New Delhi in November 2005.
The inspiration for this conference had come form his Holiness the Dali Lama keenness to promote a scientific and comprehensive study of the various aspects of Mahayana Buddhism including the history, art, literature and symbolism.
Mahayana Buddhism has thriven on logic and analysis, profound exercise in Shamatha and Vipashyana and a relentless scientific scrutiny and study of the mind. It does not fight shy of the tests of contemporary scientific investigation and sees no reason why open-minded scientific inquiry should ignore the findings that the Mahayana tradition holds dear.
Eminent scholars and participants from sixteen countries gathered to explore synchronically possibilities in order to gain insights. His holiness the Dalai Lama has very kindly given the inaugural address and Ven. Bhikku pasadika. Hon Prof. Dr. Micheal Hahn Philips University Marburg Germany Prof. Jose Cabezon University of California Santa Barbara USA Prof. M. Darrol Bryant University of Waterloo Canada Prof. Linnart Mall University of Tartu Estonia Klimburg Salter university of Vienna Austria Dr. Chhaya Bhattacharya haesner, Museum of Indian Art in Berlin Germany Dr. Christian Luczanits University of Viema Austria Prof. Ramesh Chandra Tiwari chief editor of the Encyclopedia of Himalayan Studies Prof. Hari Shankar Prasad University of Delhi Dr. Wangchuk Dorjee Negi and Dr. Jampa Samten from Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies sarnath Dr. Mathew Varghese University of Madras and others were the speakers of the conference.
.The whole material is voluntarily edited by Prof. M. Darrol Bryant from University of Waterloo, Canada and Mrs. Susan Bryant it is being published for the benefit of future discussion.
Contents
Preface
Inaugural Address
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Key Note Address
Ven Bhikku Pasaddika
I. Origin and Historical Development
1. Origin of Mahayana Buddhism by Dr. Wangchuk Dorjee Negi
2. The pure Land Buddhist Thought of Shinran
3. A Japanese Buddhist Perspective on Truth by Prof. Dennis Hirota
II. Philosophy
4. The Role of Polemics in Tibetan Mahayana Thought by Prof. Jose Ignacio Cabezon
III. Society and Culture
5. Spread of Mahayana Buddhism Today: A sociological Exploration by Dr. Renuka Singh
IV. Literature, Art and Iconography
6. The sukhavativyuhasutra of the Ulaanbaatar
Manuscript Kagyur by Prof. Shunzo Onoda
7. Images & Practices of Compassion in Mahayana Buddhism
Avalokitesvara Chenrezig, Kuan-yin, Kannon by Prof. M. Darrol Bryant
8. Notes on the study of Pali Version and Tibetan
Translation of Mahaparinirvanasutra by Dr. Jampa Samten
9. On the Earliest Mandalas in a Buddhist Context by Dr. Christian Luczanits
V. Practice and Meditation
10. The Heart of Buddhist Meditation and So-Called Tantric Principle by Ven. Bhikkhu Pasadika
11. Cutting to the Chase – The Problem of ‘Mind’ in the Context of gCod by Michelle Sorensen