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Two routes of diffusion emerged during the height of the translation and dissemination of Chinese Buddhist sutras, from the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty: the translation of elite Buddhism and the popularization of folk Buddhism. The Collection of the Six Perfections, a model for the translation works, introduced Buddhism into China by interpreting traditional Buddhist texts through the lens of Confucian philosophy. The Jataka stories were also associated with the spread of folk Buddhism, which preached to the public in a way that was seen as acceptable. These two paths enhanced one another and paved the way for the growth of Buddhism and the Jatakas in China. The appropriate method for this research study are the qualitative research techniques and the field work method. The results of article show the Buddhists texts in China were translated which were made localized to disseminate it according to the Chinese society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kundakunda's handling of several basic ideas cannot be omitted when one deals with the following concepts in Jaina philosophy: 1. Syāt/siya, syādvāda or saptabhaṅgī. 2. Nayas, vyavahāra and niścaya nayas and nayavāda. 3. Sapta and Nava tattvas/padārtha and 4. Anekāntavāda. No doubt his dates are a major conundrum; recent research regards him to have lived around the fourth or fifth centuries (Brill's Encyclopedia of Jainism, BEJ: Brill's Encyclopedia of Jainism (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia), edited by Knut Jacobsen, John A. Cort, Paul Dundas and Kristi L. Wiley. Leiden | Boston: Brill, 2020., p. 853). Moreover, it has been said that Kundakunda "thread a somewhat new path on which he virtually remained a lone traveller", evident by the fact that hardly, if any, Digambara or even Śvetāmbara scholar elaborates on his ideas, let alone crediting him for significant basic insights into Jaina philosophy. Moreover, it seems to be evident, as will be attempted to show, that some ideas appear to be taken over from Kundakunda. Together with Kundakunda's 'legacy', this article will highlight several conundrums regarding the philosophical impact of several concepts in his works that fortunately have not been relegated to oblivion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commonly referred to in Chinese by the term jinglu , scriptural catalogs constitute a specific sort of Sinitic bibliographical literature that deals primarily with texts accepted in East Asian Buddhist circles as authoritative in matters of religion. The role that these catalogs played in the history of the Chinese Buddhist canon has become the subject of various important studies, but still oft-neglected are the functional places that such texts filled in the sphere of Buddhist devotional practice. To try to redress the balance, this essay brings into focus a small but significant group of Southern Song (1127-1279) Buddhist monuments in the Sichuan basin. Not only do these monuments allow us a rare glimpse into the devotional uses and symbolic functions of scriptural catalogs, but they offer a vantage point from which to view at least a part of what premodern Buddhists in the Sichuan basin actually believed and practiced. Résumé: Les catalogues de sutras, généralement appelés jinglu en chinois, constituent un type spécifique d'ouvrage bibliographique consacré aux textes considérés dans les milieux bouddhiques d'Asie orientale comme faisant autorité en matière religieuse. Le rôle joué par ces catalogues dans l'histoire des canons bouddhiques chinois a fait l'objet de travaux approfondis mais la place qu'ils occupent dans les pratiques dévotionnelles reste largement négligée. Afin de compenser un tel manque, cet article se concentre sur un petit groupe de monuments bouddhiques des Song du Sud (1127-1279) dans la plaine du Sichuan. Ces monuments nous offrent non seulement une perspective inédite sur les usages dévotionnels et les fonctions symboliques des catalogues de sutras, mais éclairent aussi d'un jour nouveau ce que les bouddhistes du Sichuan prémoderne croyaient et pratiquaient concrètement. 提要: 華言「經錄」者，係漢文書誌之一種，其列載文獻多為東亞佛教界視作宗教權威。該類書誌在漢文佛教藏經史上的角色雖已頻獲檢討，然鮮有學者留心其於佛教虔敬活動中所發揮的功用。為了補益相關研究，本文考察了一批見在四川盆地的南宋佛教文物。這些文物不僅使我們得以管窺經錄的虔敬用途與象徵功能，亦為瞭解當地部分前現代佛教信眾的觀念和行持提供了一個視點。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the question of the freedom that a commentator has while commenting on a philosophical sūtra text. Topics discussed include word Isvara occurring in Gautama's Nyāyasūtras; concept of prakrti in the Yogasūtras; and change the nature of the original concepts to conform to her/his own ideology.

This paper focuses on the ritual context of the 200,000-line Chinese Great Perfection of Wisdom (Dabore jing; Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra) at Dunhuang. Beside the fact that the purpose of the mass production of sütras was to generate merit and then present a “merit gift” for the sponsor, the copies were reused as ritual instruments in the large-scale chanting liturgy called “sūtra-rotation” (zhuanjing). This paper examines the relevant administrative documents and liturgical texts to reconstruct the three modules of the liturgy, i.e., the preparation stage, the pronouncement of a “liturgical script,” and the “long-playing” chanting. By analyzing key passages in the prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom) literature, the paper argues that the Great Perfection of Wisdom was taken as an apotropaic device with unmediated protective power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to "The earliest "Mahāyāna" sūtra manuscripts and what they tell us1" by Jens-Uwe Hartmann, which appeared in the periodical "Horin". Topic includes on the statements made in this note proved far-sighted and another one warrants reconsideration. Indeed, the number of texts has increased, twelve texts are listed,3 among them a scroll of an unidentified Mahāyāna sūtra with an unusually extensive paścime kāle formula and a scroll of the Samādhirāja sūtra.

Various interpretations of Kāśyapaparivarta § 68 have been attempted in the Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition. This passage, which consists in a simile likening a magician devoured by his own creation to a monk involved in meditation practice, appears prima facie absurd, insofar as the similarity between the tenor and the vehicle is not readily apparent. This article mainly consists of two parts: The first part examines the received interpretations of the simile and reconstructs their interrelationship from a historical perspective. The second part explores the literary dimension of the simile and argues that its ostensible absurdity is rooted in a pun which is visible only in Middle Indo-Aryan and seems to serve no purpose. Coming to terms with the opaque and pointless pun, this essay is aimed at a new interpretation of Kāśyapaparivarta § 68 and, it is hoped, a deeper understanding of the literary playfulness inherent in the making of the Kāśyapaparivarta as a so-called early Mahāyāna sūtra against the backdrop of the Sanskritization of Buddhist sūtra literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhu Xi was familiar with Buddhism in youth. After devoting himself to Confucianism at age 30, he became critical of Buddhism. The author shows that Zhu Xi made two basic criticisms of Chinese Buddhism: He criticized, first, that many of the Chinese Buddhist sutras were forged texts, not based on Sanskrit originals, and that the basic Chinese Buddhist concepts were incoherent. However, Zhu Xi hadn't fully mastered Buddhist history or thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Indian thought, triguņa represents essential energies of the mind and individual's personality is determined and dependent on triguņa viz., satva, rajas and tamas. The three guņa influence the physical and mental activities of every individual. Vyasa in his commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutra distinguishes between five states of mind viz., kshipta, mũdha, vikshipta, ekāgra and niruddha. Each of these states of mind involves certain cognitive and personality characteristics, which are associated with satva, rajas and tamas. It is stated that yoga practices lead to enhancement of satva and regulation and decline of rajas and tamas. To examine this 60 YP and 60 normal controls (n=120) were studied using Vedic Personality Inventory and Chitta bhumike Inventory. The scores on the two inventories were correlated. The obtained correlations in both the groups indicate that kshipta and mũdha states of mind are negatively correlated with satva and positively correlated with tamas, as discussed in Yogic literature. Only in yoga practitioner group kshipta and mũdha shows positive correlation with rajas. Scores of Vikshipta, ekāgra and niruddha sub-scales do not show significant correlations with the three guņa. The t-tests show that the two groups differed significantly on chitta bhumike but not on the three guņa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues for a new perspective on the relationship between Buddhism and European psychology, or sciences of the mind, based in the Kegon Sutra, a text that emerged in the early stages of Mahayana Buddhism (3rd - 5th century CE). The basis of European science is logos intellection, formalized by Aristotle as following three laws: the law of identity, the law of contradiction and the law of the excluded middle. Logic in the Buddhist tradition, by contrast, is based in lemma (meaning to understand as a whole not with language, but with intuition). Lemma-based science born in the Buddhist tradition shows that rational perception is possible even without the three laws of logos. The Kegon Sutra, which explains what Buddha preached only a week after he attained enlightenment, is unified under the logic of lemma and can be seen as an effort to create a 'lemma science of the mind'. The fundamental teaching of the Kegon Sutra is explored, and its principles are compared with primary process thinking and the unconscious as outlined by Freud and Jung. Jung's research of Eastern texts led him to create a science of the mind that went further than Freud: his concept of synchronicity is given by way of example and can be seen anew within the idea of a lemma-based science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the shifting definitions of the term gāthā (Ch. ji) over an 800-year period, from the earliest sūtra translations into Chinese until the mid-tenth century. Although the term originally referred to the verse sections of scriptures, gāthās soon began to circulate separately, used in ritual, contemplative, and pedagogical practices. By the late sixth century, it began to mean something like "Buddhist verse." Over the course of the Tang, gāthās came to take on the formal features of poetry, eventually becoming all but indistinguishable from elite verse. However, the word gāthā was always seen as something inferior to real poetry, and, by the late Tang, we find poet-monks belittling other monks' didactic verses so as to distinguish their own work and avoid the taint of the word gāthā. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article thinks through the Buddhist sutra as a mode of world literary production from the second century CE to the present. I argue for understanding the sutra as a site of remediation and as a massively open-ended textual project aimed at articulating expressions of insight. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present a dependency treebank of Buddhist Chinese texts, containing more than 50K characters drawn from four sutras in the Chinese Buddhist Canon. With dates of composition that span almost five centuries, these sutras bear witness to the evolution of the Chinese language. The treebank has been annotated using the part-of-speech tagset of the Penn Chinese Treebank, and the Stanford Dependencies for Chinese with slight modifications. The article first discusses the texts and the annotation framework of this treebank, and reports on inter-annotator agreement. It then describes the search platform, to which the treebank has been imported, and applies the treebank to an open question in Chinese historical linguistics--the emergence of the Chinese copula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the archival study of over 1,600 copies of the Tibetan Aparimitāyur-nāma mahāyāna-sūtra (Tib.: Tshe dpag du myed pa'i mdo) produced in Dunhuang from the 820s to the 840s and now kept in the British Library, this article sheds light on the orthographic norms of Middle Old Tibetan writing. Based on editors' corrections, and on a corpus of nearly 200 transcribed explicits, the article compares the orthographic norms of this group of sutras with those of other dated Old Tibetan manuscripts and inscriptions. It proposes that among the most important markers for dating Old Tibetan writing are the increased use in the tenth century of the ’i(s) form of the genitive and ergative particles as a separate syllable, and the relative absence of the tu form of the terminative particle in Middle Old Tibetan writing. Additionally, the study offers suggestions concerning the development of the various forms of Tibetan case particles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines a newly discovered and recently published Sanskrit manuscript of the Jayamatiparipŗcchāstra ("Inquiry of Jayamati") and documents its relationship, previously unrecognized, as part of the Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra ("The Concentration of Heroic Progress"). While both texts are classified as Mahāyāna sūtras, the Jayamatipaŗiprcchā depicts its content as spoken by the Buddha while the Śūramgamasamādhi represents exactly the same content, spoken by Jayamati, as a "lower" view of the Buddha's teachings. As the modern study of Mahāyāna sutra literature has produced only a handful of confirmed cases of shared textual material between sūtras, the identification documented here provides important evidence for how authorial communities compiled and redacted "Mahāyāna" Buddhist texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early Buddhist thought and practice were shaped in several important respects by the rejection of the sacrificial rituals that were so central to Brahmanical tradition. For instance, as scholars have recognized, the bodhisattva path inverts the logic of substitution that informs animal sacrifice: the bodhisattva perfects himself not through sacrificing another in his place, but by sacrificing himself for the sake of others. This article argues that some Mahāyāna sūtras (specifically, the Suvarṇa-(pra)bhāsottama, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, and the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa) invert this inversion by portraying themselves as aesthetic, dramatic forms of sacrifice, rituals of recitation that obviate the violence not only of animal sacrifice, but also of the bodhisattva's self-sacrifice. These sūtras substitute themselves for both the fire and the food of sacrificial ritual, offering audiences a performative technology for transformation and a bloodless path to buddhahood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article proposes a reconstruction and analysis of the rokujikyōhō (Ritual of the six-syllable sutra), a complex healing liturgy that enjoyed great popularity in Japan between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. Performed by an assembly of Buddhist monks and onmyōji (yin-yang masters), the ritual used various techniques, such as talismans, hitokata, incantations, and medicinal remedies, which provided a comprehensive solution to different types of ailments. In this article I discuss their characteristics, as well as their relationship, to argue that their conflation into a single practice may be underpinned by a layered understanding of the cause and nature of pollution and diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Buddhism reveals a range of attitudes toward language and the written word. Some voices within the tradition revere the words of the sutras as the direct expression of the Buddha's enlightenment, while others are critical of the limits of language and hold that the Buddha's insight transcends the scriptural text. This article examines the attitude toward language, especially the language of the Lotus Sutra, found in the writings of Nichiren (1222-1282). In particular, it analyzes Nichiren's claim that each character of the Lotus Sutra is a living Buddha and contains the entirety of the Buddha's teachings within itself. Nichiren argued on the basis of the nonduality of form and mind that the written words of the Lotus Sutra are the Buddha's mind or intent made visible, a conviction that informed his equating of the Lotus with the primordial Śākyamuni Buddha himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cult of the sacred scriptures in early Buddhism had an impact on Chinese Buddhism, which manifested itself by the rise of the scriptural platform in the medieval period. The rise of the scriptural platform shows that in medieval China the very places associated with particular Buddhist texts and figures have become the objects of worship and pilgrimage, and they constantly appeared in Buddhist writings as the commemorative sites for particular scriptures and their commentaries. Various forms of the scriptural platforms also illustrated the rich practice of Buddhist texts in medieval China, such as translating, commenting, copying and reciting, as well as worshipping. Occasionally the scriptural platforms also appeared as the sacred places for housing sacred scriptures, which later would be replaced by the Buddhist monastic library. Practice of the Buddhist texts remained, yet the scriptural platform disappeared due to the rise of Chan Buddhist literature. This study suggests that the material culture, the rituals and the texts can barely be separated from each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese traditional Buddhist chanting did not originate abroad but from the Chinese mainland as a continuation and inheritance of the ancient rites. Chinese Buddhist Sangha has played an important role in the preservation of ancient Chinese musie, and there is an important relationship between the later spread chanting accent and the monastic heritage. Some monks and scholars believing in Buddhism played an important role in the transformation process form the religious reciting to the secular chanting. It is of great significance for our in - depth understanding of China's ancient chant tradition to study the chanting culture of Chinese Buddhist Sangha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the beginning of Buddhist studies in the 19th century with Eugène Burnouf regarded as its founding father. It presents a brief biography of Burnouf who was born in Paris, France in 1891, studied Sanskrit then later analyzed and translated the "Lotus Sutra" in 1841. It also notes the work of Burnout in the Indianization of Buddhism giving it a place of origin Sanskritization, giving it its own classical language and Humanization on its link to Rome and Greece.

While different readers will have different expectations from something called a 'critical edition,' at a minimum one might expect reliable treatment of the sources employed, and from a translation consistent and reliable renderings, with or without meaningful commentary or annotation. The present review examines how far a recent contribution fulfills these minimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the Mahayana Buddhist sutra "Vimalakīrti Sūtra." Topics include the Buddhist sutra "Diamond Sūtra Sūbhuti," remarks from Buddhism writer Dan Lusthaus, and history of Christianity. Other topics include St. Augustine's book "Enchiridion," Christian language, and bodhisattva meaning enlightenment.

Lüxiang Gantong Zhuan 律相感通傳 is deserving of study not only because of its familiar supernatural stories but also—and more importantly—because of its new content and its new interpretation of the Buddhist shenshi 神識, or store consciousness, and multi-incarnation, two religious concepts popular with subsequent generations. It is believed that Daoxuan 道宣 wrote Lüxiang Gantong Zhuan not long before his death, but the authorship of the text remains uncertain to this day. The text begins with the stories of Su Shao 蘇韶's visitation and Jiang Mi 江泌's daughter, who could chant sūtras as illustrations of incarnated store consciousness. Dialogues between the human narrator and the immortals are then employed to recount the stories of how Lu Xuanchang 陸玄暢 and other ancient immortals ascended to heaven and how they protected the dharma. These stories dispel the myths that Buddhist teachings did not exist in ancient China, that Buddhism did not accord with Chinese customs, and that Buddhism only started to flourish in the Jin Dynasty. To reconstruct Chinese Buddhism's historicity and continuity in China, the legends of how Kumārajīve translated the sūtras since Vipaśyin 毘婆尸佛 are also presented. The revelation symbolism in Lüxiang Gantong Zhuan is both significant in the history of Buddhism and in the history of Chinese literature, especially in the context of a rewriting of the history of Chinese literature. The reason is that the text turns away from the traditional perspective of Chinese narrative, usually third-person omniscient, and adopts a polyphonic narration to create three historical Daoxuans instead. These Daoxuans are: the Daoxuan who was a scholar and the observer of the Vinaya, the Daoxuan who was Shenyou 僧祐's incarnation and a protector of Buddhism, and, lastly, the Daoxuan who was dying but was still clear in his mind. By intermingling narration and direct representation such as dialogue, the text transforms Buddhist ideas such as shen 神, xin 心, yi 意, and shi 識 into concrete story forms, subverting the past academic view of ancient Chinese narratology as being too simplistic and monotonous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we stand on threshold of 3E crisis of economics, ecology and emotions, organizations need innovative approach to replace the business model of last era. The business model has reduced humans to either consumers or resources to produce. My research is based on startling employee survey results of non-engagement, lack of "heart" and "values" at work, observing employees and management in different organizations as human resources head in mindless chasing of profits and devaluing human potential. My personal journey of practicing Yoga and research of Patanjali Yoga Sutras have revealed insights, shown the Pathway and given practices of how human beings can participate in personal evolution creating shift in organizations' mindset. Inner compass of ethics through self-governance, truth, non-violence, non-stealing and self- learning as organization development interventions can create culture of the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution introduces the first known Tibetan version of the Sutra on the Ten Kings (Shí wáng jīng), a Buddhist apocryphal text widely known in East Asia that contains instructions for the funeral and commemorative rituals. The Tibetan version is not a literal translation from the Chinese original, but incorporates parts not present in the Chinese versions. The Tibetan manuscript kept in the National Gallery in Prague is probably from the 19th century. The article questions whether this funeral ritual was known in Tibet, pointing to its possible spread in Kham and outside the educated elite of Buddhist monks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buddhist thanatology is based on varied source texts of which the best known and most popular ones are those telling about the post-mortem Jama's judgment and depicting various infernal torments. Tibetan thanatological texts also include drawn, painted or xylographic illustrations, which visually represent such torments in a naturalistic and colorful manner. This contribution deals with the visual representation of Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist thanatology, using primarily comparative approach. Similarly it deals with one depiction of post-mortem judgments, present in the Asian collections of the National Gallery in Prague. These illustrations accompany the Tibetan translation of the Chinese text known as the Sutra of the Ten Kings. Chinese texts concerning the ten kings are usually illustrated with depictions of ten courts and this is also the case with the illuminated Tibetan manuscript from Prague. Some of the accompanying pictures resemble the Chinese original; however, some of them bear remarkably innovative features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines contemporary work in social bibliography, translation theory and Buddhist studies to focus on two questions. First, what exactly does the act of 'reading' sutras entail? And second, what is the precise relation between material sign and acoustic sound in Buddhist recitation? Answers to these questions are necessarily inextricably bound to local contexts and communities. The so-called 'pictorial Heart Sutras' (Jp: esetsu Shinkyō) of early modern Japan provide the particular aperture through which I pursue these queries. Following D. F. McKenzie, I understand the pictorial sutras 'not simply as verbal constructs but as social products' (1999: 127) which may be examined to reveal patterns of textual engagement, practices of translation and particular techniques for associating the quotidian world of rice paddies and rounded bellies with the abiding realm of religious doctrine. In particular, I argue that the pictorial sutras develop a 'visual vernacular' whose lexicon evinces an abiding interest in fecundity and a belief in the apotropaic value of sutra reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published in this issuen including one by Charlotte Eubanks on the pictorial Heart Sutras of early modern Japan, one by Eve Gregory et al. on faith setting in London, England, and one by Ghada Osman on the expansin of the Arabic language.

There are six complete versions of the Pavāraṇā Sutta (Pravāraṇā Sūtra). The Ekottarika Āgama version (EĀ 32.5) differs significantly from the other five. It contains an episode involving Ānanda, a non-arhat, which is not found in the other five versions. In the five versions other than EĀ 32.5, this Pravāraṇā ceremony is depicted as an assembly of arhats, who are endowed with different “liberations”. This paper shows that such divergences are correlated with one another and that EĀ 32.5 could be earlier than the other versions. In this connection I elucidate diverse notions of liberation as developed in the textual history and discuss the possibility that sectarian stance on the issue of liberation has a bearing on the inclusion of various types of arhats in the five versions, and their exclusion from EĀ 32.5, whose sectarian affiliation is identified in this study as Mahāsāṃghika. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent publication of twenty shorter Buddhist sūtras in Sanskrit edited from a manuscript kept in the Potala Palace, with corresponding editions of Tibetan and Chinese translations, when available, is a noteworthy contribution to our inventory of Indian scriptural materials. The present contribution offers several suggestions for improvement to the edited texts in anticipation of their further future study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a way of reviving the use of Kautilya's Arthasastra for conceptualising knowledge for understanding contemporary issues of world politics and international relations. He informs that Arthasastra is abstract, theoretical and ideally suited for scenario planning or contingency planning of foreign policy issues which consists of 15 books in Sanskrit sutras. He informs about a scholar K.M. Panikkar who discussed the rules for the conduct of diplomatic relations.

The article presents and discusses a fragment of an Uigur manuscript that features a commentary to the Buddhist sūtra "Yuanjue Jing." The authors suggest that the fragment is part of a translation of a Chinese commentary to the text. The commentary discusses various aspects of Buddhism including faith, enlightenment, and the relationship between body and mind. Other topics include an explanation of the word "sūtra" in the text, and a quotation featured in the fragment that could possibly attributed to a Buddhist master named Silu.

This article focuses on ritualized scribal practices in eighth-century Japan. It uses colophons, scriptorium documents, and narrative tales to explore how sutra copyists upheld vegetarian diets, performed ablutions, wore ritual garments, and avoided contact with pollutants stemming from death and illness. Such practices, often described in terms of purity, spread widely on the Asian continent in the seventh century and reached Japan by the eighth century. This article argues that upholding purity was deeply connected to notions of ritual efficacy but also enabled pious lay scribes to train for monastic careers. The evidence is used to reassess historiographical debates on Nara Buddhism with particular attention to the well-known "theory of state Buddhism" (kokka Bukkyō ton). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses three fragments from the Old Turkic Buddhist manuscript "Altun Yaruk Sudur" ("The Sūtra of Golden Light") that were discovered in 1980 in the Bezeklik caves of China and subsequently housed in the Turfan Museum in Berlin, Germany. The author presents a transliterated version of the texts of these fragments. The scripts used on the fragments are evaluated and compared and the possibility that the fragments once formed part of a scroll is explored. It is concluded that the relatively large number of copies of the "Altun Yaruk Sudur" proves its popularity among Old Uigurs.

This paper is one of a series of my articles researching practice ways of "Perfect-teaching" (...) in T'ien-t'ai Buddhism. Practicing different ways of Perfect-teaching is the most unsurpassable and wonderful one among all dharma-gates. However, it has been an issue of debate among the academia whether these are suitable for average people to practice or not. Moreover, I realize that in fact, there are several ways to practice Perfect-teaching showing different characteristics. As a result, they have their different positions, are suitable for different people, and can reach different obtainments. In order to fully comprehend the related issues in ways of practice in Perfect-teaching, it is imperative to fully clarify aspects that are not well defined in academia. For example, different ways of practice, possibilities in classification of different ways, and justifications of different ways in Perfect-teaching should all be studied. Main objectives of this research are as follows: all ways of practice in Perfect-teaching will be collected, reasons of different ways of practice as such will be analyzed and classified, and then foundations of various ways in practicing Perfect-teaching will be concluded. Only after these works have been done can one gain a correct whole picture of the practices in Perfect-teaching which is the foundation to sort out different viewpoints of the Perfect-teaching. After analyzing thirty ways of practice in Perfect-teaching taught by Master Zhi-yi (...), seven characteristics or circumstances can be identified that make a certain practice under the Perfect-teaching: a. when recitation of the Saddharmapundarika Sutra (...) is involved or it has been stated clearly in the scripture; b. when it belongs to the unsurpassed Buddha of Perfect-teaching; c. when it corresponds to the principles of the Perfect-teaching; d. when it is defined by the principle of Perfect-teaching; e. practices which are unique to the Perfect-teaching; f. those that are the prerequisites of "Threefold Contemplation in One Single Mind" (...) which is the representative way of practice in Perfect-teaching; and g. those that are auxiliary to the "Threefold Contemplation in One Single Mind." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars differ in their opinions on the features, author, record, editions and the age of popularity of Da fangbian fo Bao'en Jing whose translator was unknown and which was affiliated to the Buddhist sutra catalogue of Eastern Han Dynasty. Some argued that it was a fake Buddhist sutra. Others claimed that it was a translated Buddhist sutra, but the translation was not done in Eastern Han Dynasty. In this paper, we try to verify its age by analyzing 12 Buddhist terms. According to the studies of Lou Yulie, the term "Avalokiteśvara" (…) appeared for the first time in the translations of the famous Buddha Kumarajiva living in Later Qin Dynasty. The detailed information of the other eleven Buddhist terms is as follows: Some of them appeared for the first time in the translated versions during or after Eastern Jin "mahcikaru Dynasty, such as "mahākaruņā" (…), "Sazhe Niqian" (…), "Tianbaohua" (…), "incalculable kalpaâsaṃkhyeya" (…) which was an idiom used to describe an extremely long period of time, and "an arrow's flight" (…), a length unit in Buddhist sutras. "Buqingyou" (…) appeared in the Buddhist sutras written by native Chinese after Eastern Jin Dynasty. The ten kinds of concrete names--"Buddha" (…)," Bhujiṣ ya" (…),"Samyak- saṃbuddhaḥ" (…), "Vidyā-caraṇa-saṃpanna"(…), "Svayaṃ-bhū" (…)," Lokavid" (…), "Sattva-sāra" (…), "Puruṣa-damaka" (…), "Nara-nāyaka" (…) and "Bhagavat"(…)--which were the same as the ten names of Buddha in Da fangbian fo Bao'en Jing appeared for the first time in the translations of Eastern Jin Dynasty and were frequently used especially in Kumarajiva's translations. Apart from Da fangbian fo Bao'en Jing, the term "Sanzang Jiubu" (…) appeared in the Buddhist sutras written by native Chinese after the Northern and Southern Dynasties. "The Palace of Shishi(…)," where Sakyamuni lived, first appeared in Kumarajiva's translations in the Later Qin Dynasty but became "Shishi Jingshe" (…) in Eastern Han Dynasty. "Si Weituo" (…) is found in the translations of Later Qin Dynasty. "Tianbao Xiang" (…) and "Tianbaohua" were the offerings that Buddhists contributed to the Buddha. "Xiang" (…), "Tianxiang" (…), "Hua" (…) and "Tianhua"(…) were used only in the Buddhist sutras of Eastern Han Dynasty,with "Tianbaohuaxiang" (…) first appearing in the Buddhist sutras of the Three-Kingdom period. In the translations of Eastern Han and Three-Kingdom periods, only "Wugai" (…) the first part of "Wugai Shichan (…) was used, and "Shichan" (…) first appeared in the translations of Later Qin Dynasty, with the combination "Wugai Shichan" appearing for the first time in the Kšantiqïlyuluqnombitig of Southern Liang Dynasty. These twelve Buddhist terms show that Da fangbian fo Bao'en Jing was not written in Eastern Han. If it is a translation, it should be done after Eastern Jin Dynasty. Special attention should be paid to the terms "Sanzang Jiubu" and "Wugai Shichan. "Their credible examples were all found after Song of Southern Dynasties. We can draw the conclusion that Da fangbian fo Bao'en Jing was a Buddhist sutra whose age of compilation was very close to Chusanzangji Ji (between the year 510 A. D. and 518 A. D. ) and Jinglu Yixiang (in the year 516 A. D.). Thus it is really odd that its translator was unknown. Meanwhile, apart from the use in Da fangbian fo Bao'en Jing, the term "Wugai Shichan" only appeared in Buddhist literature written by native Chinese. According to the above analysis, we arrive at the tentative conclusion that this sutra was written by native Chinese Buddhists, and was not a translated version. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self-referential discourse that characterizes the subgenre to which the Sūtra of Utmost Golden Radiance (Suvarṇa-(pra)bhāsottama Sūtra) belongs has led scholars to posit a “cult of the book” focused on the written sūtra as potent object. While Buddhists in various times and places have certainly revered the material text, the central role many such sūtras accord to the dharmabhāṇaka (the Buddhist preacher) demands that greater attention be paid to the role of oral performance in the actualization of the sūtra's self-proclaimed transformative potential. Through an examination of both what the sūtra has to say about its preacher, and how the preacher's performance changes the meaning of the text, this article argues for the centrality of oral performance and aural reception in the sūtra's normative vision, and for the importance of deriving an interpretive methodology from that normative vision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By discussing Yixing’s effort to recast a maṇḍala of an Indian origin (originally described in the Mahāvairocana sūtra [Sūtra of Great Sun]) by virtue of a Chinese cosmological framework known as jiugong (‘Nine Palaces’), this article provides a case study of how some Buddhist ideas and practices were Sinicised when they were brought to China, particularly through Buddhist translations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]