Book Description
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 Mahayana emerged as a "reform" of earlier Buddhism and offered lay people an "easier option." On the contrary, the picture that emerges is of the early Mahayana as a more difficult and demanding vocation, initially limited to a small contingent of monastic males.
Combining a detailed critical study and translation of an important Buddhist scripture with a sweeping reexamination of the relationship between the Buddha and the practitioner of early Mahayana, 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 Mahayana. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
