This article examines the semantic changes of the term ‘mahā-sammata’ in the later Pāli texts and inscriptions, focusing on the legitimation of the Mahāvihāra’s authority in the isle of Laṅkā. (In this paper, ‘later’ does not have any chronological meaning. It only means the texts, which are philosophically based on the Tipiṭaka.) In the Buddhist Canon, the combination of ‘mahā’ with ‘sammata’ tells us that one was chosen by the people based on their needs. In this manner, it was sometimes (...) translated to the plural form as ‘land-guardians’ in the Chinese translations. The meaning of it, however, was changed to the legendary name of the first king in the later texts from various Buddhist schools. According to them, the term ‘mahā-sammata’ is regarded as a king named Mahāsammata who ruled people in the beginning of this present era. Furthermore, the Buddha is described as a descendant of the king Mahāsammata in the later texts. Based upon the regal and deific status conferred upon Mahāsammata, the later Pāli texts, namely Commentaries (Pāli Aṭṭhakathā) and Chronicles (Vaṃsa), and the Sri Lankan inscriptions, established the legendary lineage for the political rulers who patronised the Mahāvihāra fraternity. The rulers, as the ideal religious leaders of Dhammadīpa, were inserted into the lineage of Mahāsammata in the texts and inscriptions, elevating the rulers, who were devotees for the Mahāvihāra fraternity, to the status of the Buddha. It holds that the righteous rulers, whom Mahāvihāra approved as a member of the lineage, are the same as the Buddha (or Bodhisatta). The advent of Mahāsammata in the Theravāda tradition is sequentially related to the authority of the Mahāvihāra fraternity. (shrink)

Bodhicaryåvatåra was composed by the Buddhist monk scholar Íåntideva at Nalandå University in India sometime during the 8th Century CE. It stands as one the great classics of world philosophy and of Buddhist literature, and is enormously influential in Tibet, where it is regarded as the principal source for the ethical thought of Mahåyåna Buddhism. The title is variously translated, most often as A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life or Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds, translations that follow the (...) canonical Tibetan translation of the title of the book (Byang chub sems pa’i spyod pa la ‘jug pa) and the commentarial tradition of Tibet. But that translation itself is a bit of a gloss on the original Sanskrit, and I think that a more natural English rendering of the Sanskrit title is simply How to Lead an Awakened Life, and that indeed describes the content of the text admirably. Taking this as the title of the text might also issue in a kind of gestalt shift in our view of the text, allowing us to see it not so much as a characterization of the extraordinary moral life of a saint, but as a guide to moral development open to any of us. So, let’s take that as the English title for now. (shrink)

This Volume Encompasses In Its Fold Different Aspects Of Buddhism And Their Propounders And Great Acharyas Of Nalanda, Highlighting The Contributions Of Nalanda Mahavira, The Old And The New.

We define consciousness as the category of all conscious experiences. This immediately raises the question: What is the essence in which every conscious experience in the category of conscious experiences partakes? We consider various abstract essences of conscious experiences as theories of consciousness. They are: (i) conscious experience is an action of memory on sensation, (ii) conscious experience is experiencing a particular as an exemplar of a general, (iii) conscious experience is an interpretation of sensation, (iv) conscious experience is referring (...) sensation to an object as its cause, and (v) conscious experience is a model of stimulus. Corresponding to each one of these theories we obtain a category of models of conscious experiences: (i) category of actions, (ii) category of idempotents, (iii) category of two sequential maps, (iv) category of brain-generalized figures, and (v) functor categories with intuition as base and conceptual repertoire as exponent, respectively. For each theory of consciousness we also calculate its truth value object and characterize the objective logic intrinsic to the corresponding category of models of consciousness experiences. (shrink)