By David McMahan
ISBN-10: 0700714898
ISBN-13: 9780700714896
Visible metaphors in a couple of Mahayana sutras build a discourse within which visible notion serves as a version for wisdom and enlightenment. within the Perfection of knowledge (Prajnaparamita) and different Mahayana literature, speedy entry to fact is symbolized by means of imaginative and prescient and set towards language and conceptual considering, that are construed as obscuring truth. as well as its philosophical manifestations, the stress among imaginative and prescient and language additionally functioned as a technique of legitimation within the fight of the early heterodox Mahayana stream for authority and legitimacy. This emphasis on imaginative and prescient additionally served as a source for the plentiful legendary imagery in Mahayana sutras, imagery that's ritualized in Vajrayana visualization practices. McMahan brings a variety of literature to endure in this factor, together with a unprecedented research of the lavish imagery of the Gandavyuha Sutra in its Indian context. He concludes with a dialogue of Indian methods to visuality within the mild of a few fresh discussions of "ocularcentrism" within the west, inviting students to extend the present dialogue of imaginative and prescient and its roles in developing epistemic platforms and cultural practices past its solely eu and American concentration.
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Sample text
For example, the cessation (nirodha) of birth and becoming discussed frequently in the Pali cannon is reinterpreted as "penetration" (prativedha) or understanding of the fact that no intrinsically existing beings are born and become in the first place; cessation, therefore, becomes a matter of one's cognition rather than whether one will be reborn or not. Again, the most striking feature of these unorthodox readings of Buddhist doctrines is the rhetorical technique of holding together binary oppositions in such a way that the given idea is both asserted and denied at the same time.
Wisdom] does not ascertain a world and so transcends nothing at all - this is what is called " world transcending wisdom. " "World" is said to be a verbal conception, and a verbal conception does not go beyond the world. Going beyond all verbal conception - that is what is called "world-transcending" ; so world transcending is not transcendence and non-transcendence is world-transcending. And why ? Because no dharma whatsoever is found that one might transcend or by which one might transcend - this is what is called " world-transcending.
Before examining these texts, let us specifically identify the problem that early Mahayana thinkers faced regarding language and concepts. The early Buddhist critiques of language and discursive thinking deal primarily with propositional language, for example, " the world is finite, " " the world is infinite, " and also with the function of names and concepts in hypostatizing things in the world in such a way that they are mistakenly conceived as permanent and independent entities, thereby causing the mind to become entrapped in rigid patterns of attachment and aversion to them.
Empty Vision: Metaphor and Visionary Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism by David McMahan
by David
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