How wonderful Tari! Congratulations!

Can't wait to read it.


Cheers,

Vanessa


________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> on behalf of Eviatar 
Shulman via INDOLOGY <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2022 12:34:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Book announcement: Visions of the Buddha

Dear friends and colleagues,

Apologies for cross-posting. I am pleased to announce the recent publication of 
my new book - Visions of the Buddha: Creative Dimensions of Early Buddhist 
Scripture (OUP, 2021). Please see the description below of the content, 
provided by the publisher.

Best wishes,
Eviatar Shulman

Visions of the Buddha offers a ground-breaking approach to the nature of the 
early discourses of the Buddha, the most foundational scriptures of Buddhist 
religion. Although the early discourses are commonly considered to be attempts 
to preserve the Buddha's teachings, Shulman demonstrates that these texts are 
full of creativity, and that their main aim is to beautify the image of the 
wonderous Buddha. While the texts surely care for the early teachings and for 
the Buddha's philosophy or his guidelines for meditation, and while at times 
they may relate real historical events, they are no less interested in telling 
good stories, in re-working folkloric materials, and in the visionary 
contemplation of the Buddha in order to sense his unique presence. The texts 
can thus be, at times, a type of meditation.

Eviatar Shulman frames the early discourses as literary masterpieces that 
helped Buddhism achieve the wonderful success it has obtained. Much of the 
discourses'  masterful storytelling was achieved through a technique of 
composition defined here as the play of formulas. In the oral literature of 
early Buddhism, texts were composed of formulas, which are repeated within and 
between texts. Shulman argues that the formulas are the real texts of Buddhism, 
and are primary to full discourses. Shaping texts through the play of formulas 
balances conservative and innovative tendencies within the tradition, making 
room for creativity within accepted forms and patterns. The texts we find today 
are thus versions--remnants--chosen by history of a much more vibrant and 
dynamic creative process.


--
Prof. Eviatar Shulman
Associate Professor
Chair, Department of Comparative Religion
Member, Department of Asian Studies
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

My new 
book<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/visions-of-the-buddha-9780197587867?cc=il&lang=en&;>

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
[email protected]
https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology

Reply via email to