A Few Good Men : : The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā) / / Jan Nattier.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Hawaii Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2015
• VerfasserIn: Nattier, Jan,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2023]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the Buddhist Traditions ; 1
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (408 p.)

A Few Good Men is a study and translation of The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchâ), one of the most influential Mahâyâna sutras on the bodhisattva path, but also one of the most neglected texts in Western treatments of Buddhism. To achieve a better understanding of the universe of ideas, activities, and institutional structures within which early self-proclaimed bodhisattvas lived, the author first considers the Ugra as a literary document, employing new methodological tools to examine the genre to which it belongs, the age of its extant versions, and their relationships to one another. She goes on to challenge the dominant notions that the Mahâyâna emerged as a "reform" of earlier Buddhism and offered lay people an "easier option."A Few Good Men will be compelling reading for scholars and practitioners alike and others interested in the history of Indian Buddhism and the formation of Mahâyâna.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- PART ONE ANALYSIS -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction -- CHAPTER 2 The Formation of The Inquiry of Ugra -- CHAPTER 3 The Ugra as a Historical Source: Methodological Considerations -- CHAPTER 4 The Institutional Setting -- CHAPTER 5 Bodhisattva Practices: Guidelines for the Path -- CHAPTER 6 The Structure of the Bodhisattva Career: Implicit Assumptions -- CHAPTER 7 Telling Absences: What Is Not in the Ugra -- CHAPTER 8 The Mahayana in the Mirror of the Ugra -- PART TWO TRANSLATION -- Translation Techniques and Conventions -- PRACTICES OF THE LAY BODHISATTVA -- PRACTICES OF THE MONASTIC BODHISATTVA -- APPENDICES -- APPENDIX 1 Synoptic Tables of Versions of the Ugrapariprcchā -- APPENDIX 2 Bodhisattva Names in the Ugrapariprcchā -- APPENDIX 3 Monastic Specialties Recorded in the -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author