Text As Father: Paternal Seductions In Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature (buddhisms)
by Alan Cole /
2005 / English / PDF
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This beautifully written work sheds new light on the origins and
nature of Mahayana Buddhism with close readings of four
well-known texts―
This beautifully written work sheds new light on the origins and
nature of Mahayana Buddhism with close readings of four
well-known texts―the Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra,
Tathagatagarbha Sutra, and Vimalakirtinirdesa.
the Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra,
Tathagatagarbha Sutra, and Vimalakirtinirdesa. Treating these
sutras as literary works rather than as straightforward
philosophic or doctrinal treatises, Alan Cole argues that these
writings were carefully sculpted to undermine traditional
monastic Buddhism and to gain legitimacy and authority for
Mahayana Buddhism as it was veering away from Buddhism’s older
oral and institutional forms. His sophisticated and sustained
analysis of the narrative structures and seductive literary
strategies used in these sutras suggests that they were
specifically written to encourage devotion to the written word
instead of other forms of authority, be they human,
institutional, or iconic.
Treating these
sutras as literary works rather than as straightforward
philosophic or doctrinal treatises, Alan Cole argues that these
writings were carefully sculpted to undermine traditional
monastic Buddhism and to gain legitimacy and authority for
Mahayana Buddhism as it was veering away from Buddhism’s older
oral and institutional forms. His sophisticated and sustained
analysis of the narrative structures and seductive literary
strategies used in these sutras suggests that they were
specifically written to encourage devotion to the written word
instead of other forms of authority, be they human,
institutional, or iconic.
