I. Sin. – Page 12

2013-02-162013-02-25

Tachikawa, Essays in Buddhist Theology (2012)

Tachikawa, Musashi. Essays in Buddhist Theology. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, November 2012. ISBN-13: 978-8120835405. INR 500. [official]

A translation of Budda no tetsugaku (1998) [corrected].

Cover note
“Buddhism does not recognize a concept of the existence of God (theos) such as found in Christianity, but here theos is not used to refer only to an absolute deity like the Christian god. By “theology,” the author means the systematic delineation of the confrontation with the condition of the times while carrying on the engagement between the divine and oneself.
Continue reading “Tachikawa, Essays in Buddhist Theology (2012)”

2013-02-132013-03-11

Helliwell, Layard & Sachs, World Happiness Report (2012)

“The happiest countries in the world are all in Northern Europe…”

John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs (eds). World Happiness Report. The Earth Institute, Columbia University, April 2 2012. [official / PDF]

So much to comment on, so little time. For starters: if you are a Theravādin, social capital and personal wellbeing have nothing to do with each other. Suffice it to say that much of the reaction has been unhappy. Related studies (e.g., on how ‘happiness’ has been quantified) may be found at the authors’ homepages.

2013-02-112013-03-11

Suzuki, ‘Why did Korea become Christian?’ (2012)

鈴木崇巨（著）『韓国はなぜキリスト教国になったか』春秋社　２０１２

Suzuki, Takahiro. Kankoku wa naze kirisutokyōkoku ni nattaka (*Why did Korea become a Christian country?). Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 2012. 217 pp. ISBN: 9784393222065. [official]

내가 제일 잘 나가 ! — “Are you ready for the B E S ✝ ? 내가 제일 잘 나가!” © 2011 YG Entertainment

2013-02-102013-02-11

Simha, Tantrākhyāna (2009)

Tulasīlāla Siṃha. Tantrākhyāna: Ne saṃ. 638 yā mūlapāṭhayā sampādana, anuvāda va vivecanā. Yala: Nepālabhāṣā Kendrīya Vibhāga, Pāṭana Saṃyukta Kyāmpasa, 2009.

This is a transcription and translation into contemporary Newar of the earliest dated manuscript of the Tantrākhyāna(kathā) kept in Nepal. An older manuscript of this Newar Buddhist Pañcatantra remake — if we could call it that — ended up in the hands of Cecil Bendall and is kept in the United Kingdom, presumably unavailable to Mr. Siṃha.

2013-02-102013-02-16

On not reviewing Wedemeyer’s ‘Making Sense’

Currently I have no plans to review Christian Wedemeyer’s Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism (2012), but that’s not to say that it shouldn’t be reviewed. Just a couple of months after its release, it is now on the shelves of over 80 libraries. Moreover, Dr. Wedemeyer promises to publish a minimum of three more volumes on the Śrīsamāja. Hopefully someone — who isn’t me — will soon get around to a review.

2013-01-212013-03-11

Liu, On the Sanskrit Version of Dharmadhātustava (2012)

Zhen Liu (刘震). ‘On the Sanskrit Version of Dharmadhātustava‘. Paper presented at Buddhajayanti: The Celebration of 2600 Years of Buddha’s Enlightenment, Mahachulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 2012. [PDF]

Dr. Zhen Liu tracks down the earliest dateable source for the Dharmadhātustava — a Chinese translation of preaching attributed to Kṣitigarbha, surviving in a unique Dunhuang manuscript — and concludes: “it is obvious that before the middle of the eighth century it was not thought that Nāgārjuna authored the text” (p.10).
Continue reading “Liu, On the Sanskrit Version of Dharmadhātustava (2012)”

2013-01-202013-03-11

Ōtsuka, *Formation of Early Indian Tantric Buddhism (2013)

大塚伸夫『インド初期密教成立過程の研究』春秋社 (2013/1/31) 23,100円

Ōtsuka, Nobuo. Indo shoki mikkyō seiritsu katei no kenkyū (*Studies on the Formation Process of Early Indian Tantric Buddhism). Tokyo: Shunjūsha, January 31, 2013. 1100 pp. ISBN-13: 978-4393113110 [official site unofficial summary at Taishō U.]

2013-01-192013-03-24

Tanaka, Samājasādhanavyavastholī 4 (2012)

田中公明「『秘密集会』における勝義の曼荼羅について : Nāgabodhiの『安立次第論』第4章サンスクリット写本ローマ字化テキスト」『東洋文化研究所紀要』　第162册, 2012.

Tanaka, Kimiaki. ‘Nāgabodhi’s *Samājasādhanavyavasthālī: The Tibetan Translation and Sanskrit Text of Chapter IV’. Memoirs of the Institute of Oriental Culture 162, 2012, pp.282(61)―267(76). [URI/PDF]

2013-01-182013-01-19

Schwartz, Re-enchanting China (2012)

Björn Schwartz. ‘Re-enchanting China: Private Religiosities in the Media Field in Beijing’. M. A. diss., Lund University, 2012. 120 pp. [official site / PDF]

Most of us are familiar with the official picture of tantric Buddhism as a quaint bit of old hat. But who among the determiners of the West’s cultural priorities can admit that right now, the Vajrayāna competes head-on with Christianity as the preferred religion of the world’s next elite? Schwartz pierces the unreal construction of Buddhist Asia as a ball of cuteness, unleashing a torrent of dissonant keywords:

VIP religion, guanxi-networking, post-socialist subjectivity, clubbing as networking and status affirmation, field analysis, status, the emerging structure of entitlement, social change in contemporary China, the private media field in Beijing, conversion, Vajrayana Buddhism, christianity, housechurch, religious revival, emergent social hierarchy, private religions, secret social movements, the Christian field in China, the Buddhist field in China.

2013-01-172013-03-24

Li, Madhyamakāvatāra 6.1–97 (2012)

李学竹〈《入中论颂》第六章1一97颂校勘〉《中国藏学》 1, 2012. (ISSN 1671-6043)

Li, Xuezhu. ‘Madhyamakāvatāra-kārikā’. China Tibetology no.1, 2012, pp.1–16.

Slightly late news, but then this publication doesn’t seem to have been mentioned anywhere else (or brought to my attention) by anyone named in the acknowledgements. That isn’t too surprising, though. One of the three other publications mentioned by the author is an edition of Vasubandhu’s “Viṃśatikākārikā” (p.2), yet one of the nominal collaborators has established back in 2008 that this text should properly be titled Viṃśikā.
Continue reading “Li, Madhyamakāvatāra 6.1–97 (2012)”