Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations

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Oxford University Press, Sep 30, 1999 - Religion - 527 pages
The issue of saints is a difficult and complicated problem in Buddhology. In this magisterial work, Ray offers the first comprehensive examination of the figure of the Buddhist saint in a wide range of Indian Buddhist evidence. Drawing on an extensive variety of sources, Ray seeks to identify the "classical type" of the Buddhist saint, as it provides the presupposition for, and informs, the different major Buddhist saintly types and subtypes. Discussing the nature, dynamics, and history of Buddhist hagiography, he surveys the ascetic codes, conventions and traditions of Buddhist saints, and the cults both of living saints and of those who have "passed beyond." Ray traces the role of the saints in Indian Buddhist history, examining the beginnings of Buddhism and the origin of Mahayana Buddhism.
 

Contents

Introduction
3
The Buddhist Saints and the TwoTiered Model of Buddhism
15
Some Ideological Features of the TwoTiered Model
23
Buddha Sakyamuni as a Saint
44
Buddha Sakyamunis Life as Paradigm
47
Some Historical Considerations
61
Saints of the Theragatha and Therigdlha
79
Prerealization
80
Conclusion
269
The Minor Rastrapalapariprccha Sutra on Forest Bhiksus
275
Ascetic Traditions of Buddhist Saints
293
Two Pali Depictions of the Dhutagunas
298
Some Other Groups of Dhutagunas
307
Conclusion
314
The Buddhist Saints and the Stupa
324
Some Aspects of Stupa Symbolism
325

Postrealization
89
Conclusion
96
Some Orthodox Saints in Buddhism
105
Upagupta
118
Sariputra
131
Conclusion
136
Saints Criticized and Condemned
151
Devadatta
162
Cults of Arhants
179
The Chinese Pilgrims on the Cult of Arhants
187
Conclusion
197
The Solitary Saint the Pratyekabuddha
213
Images of Pratyekabuddhas
214
Some Questions of Interpretation
232
Bodhisattva Saints of the Forest in Mahayana Sutras
251
Santideva on the Bodhisattva as Forest Renunciant
252
The Bodhisattva in the Ratnagunasamcayaguthd
255
The Bodhisattva of the Forest in the Rastrapdlapariprccha Sutra
260
The Samdhinirmocana Sutra on the Bodhisattva as Saint
266
The Stupa Cult
329
Participants in the Stupa Cult
337
Modalities and Parallels of the Stupa
344
Conclusion
348
The Cult of Saints and Buddhist Doctrines of Absence and Presence
358
A Doctrine of Presence or Immanence among the Buddhist Saints
367
Conclusion
381
The Buddhist Saints and the Process of Monasticization
396
The Origins of Buddhist Monasticism Reconsidered
397
The Origins of the Mahayana and the Process of Monasticization
404
A Forest Response to the Process of Monasticization
417
Some Limitations of Webers Model of Early Buddhism
421
Toward a Threefold Model of Buddhism
433
Three Kinds of Actors in Buddhist History
434
Some Dynamics of the Threefold Model
438
Bibliography
448
Index
469
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