This study critically analyzes Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyo ; hereafter: CB) as a philosophical and a religious movement; it investigates the specific basis of CB, particularly the philosophical categories of critica and topica, vis-a-vis contemporary theories of knowledge and ethics, in order to re-situate CB within modern Japanese and Buddhist thought as well as in relation to current trends in contemporary Western thought. / This study is made up of seven chapters, including the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction provides the religious and philosophical context as well as the motivations and intentions of the study. Chapter 2 with the title "Eye of the Storm: Historical and Political Context" is largely explanatory. After a brief analysis of violence, warfare and social discrimination within Buddhism and specifically Japanese traditions, some important background to the context in which Critical Buddhism arose is recalled. In addition, the development of so-called Imperial Way Zen (kodozen )---which represents in many respects the culmination of the 'false' Buddhism the Critical Buddhists attack---is examined. The following chapter on the roots of topica analyses a number of the larger epistemological and ethical issues raised by CB, in an attempt to reinterpret both 'criticalism' and 'topicalism' with reference to four key motifs in Zen tradition: experience (jikishi-ninshin: "directly pointing to the human mind [in order to realize the Buddha-nature]" [B.]); tradition (kyoge-betsuden: "an independent transmission apart from written scriptures" [M. 6, 28]); language (furyu-moji or furyu-monji: "not relying on words and letters" [M. 6]); and enlightenment (kensho jobutsu: "awakening to one's original Nature [and thus becoming a Buddha]" [Dan. 29]). Here and in Chapter 4, on "New Buddhisms: Problems in Modern Zen Thought," the CB argument against the many sources of topical thinking is outlined, paying particular attention to question of 'pure experience' (junsui keiken) developed by Nishida Kitaro and the Kyoto School. Chapter 5 on "Criticism as Anamnesis: Dempo/Dampo" develops the positive side of the CB case, i.e., a truly 'critical' Buddhism, with respect to the place of historical consciousness and the weight of tradition. Chapter 6, "Radical Contingency and Compassion," develops the theme of radical contingency, based on the core Buddhist doctrine of pratitya-samutpada (Jp. engi) as the basis for an effective Critical Buddhist epistemological and ethical strategy. The conclusion elaborates a paradigm for comparative scholarship that integrates the insights of Western philosophical hermeneutics, pragmatism, CB, and so-called 'Buddhist theology'. The implications of the Critical Buddhist project on the traditional understanding of the relation between scholarship and religion are examined, and also the reconnection of religious consciousness to social conscience, which CB believes to be the genius of Buddhism and which makes of CB both an unfinished project and an ongoing challenge.

The book a comprehensive study concerning the narrative paintings in Kucha on the Northern Silk Road (today’s Province Xinjiang, an autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China) featuring episodes surrounding the Buddha’s death. The murals, dating from approximately the 5th to the 10th century, represent entire cycles of pictures which illustrate the events starting three months before the parinirvāṇa and ending with the first council. All together, 39 “occurrences” from the parinirvāṇa cycles have been represented in Kucha. Most of these were depicted repeatedly; only a few of them, however, were shown in separate scenes, while others were shown “within” bigger pictorial units. Relying on literary sources and comparative pictorial material, the book provides descriptions and analysis of the paintings, including both those in situ in the caves and the paintings which were removed from the walls and are presently located in the Museum für Indische Kunst in Berlin and in other collections around the world. The book is illustrated with 87 figures and 81 line drawings (mostly by the author) which make the often poorly-preserved murals comprehensible.:Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Drawings Figures I. Representations of the Parinirvāṇa Story Cycle in South Asia: An Overview II. Representations of the Parinirvāṇa Story Cycle in Kucha 1. Architectural Settings for Ritual and Religious Experience 2. The Parinirvāṇa Topics Depicted in Kucha and Their Literary Sources 3. Components of the Parinirvāṇa Cycle in Kucha Paintings The Buddha’s last journey Occurrence 1: Māra, demanding that the Buddha pass into parinirvāṇa Occurrence 2: Ānanda’s grief (in connection with Occurrence 1) Occurrence 3: The Buddha, departing from Vaiśālī Occurrence 4: The episode featuring the river / the donation of the bowl to the people of Vaiśālī Occurrence 5: The episode featuring the stone of the Mallas Occurrence 6: The Buddha accompanied by Indra and Brahma At the Buddha’s deathbed Occurrence 7: Ānanda, talking to the Mallas (1st Indo-Iranian Style) Occurrence 8: The parinirvāṇa (core elements) Occurrence 9: The approach of Indra and Brahma Occurrence 10: The conversion of Subhadra Occurrence 11: The enlightenment of a monk Occurrence 12: Ānanda’s conversation with Aniruddha Occurrence 13: Ānanda’s grief (within the parinirvāṇa representation) Occurrence 14: The worship of the tree deity Occurrence 15: The worship by the gods from heaven (ceilings and lunettes) Occurrence 16: Vajrapāṇi dropping the vajra Occurrence 17: The goddess (Māyā) among the attending gods Occurrence 18: Mahākāśyapa at the Buddha’s corpse After the Buddha’s death: The corpse and the relics Occurrence 19: The earthquake Occurrence 20: Ajātaśatru learning of the Buddha’s death Occurrence 21: The transportation of the coffin (1st Indo-Iranian Style) Occurrence 22: Mahākāśyapa meeting Ājīvika Occurrence 23: The opening (or closing) of the coffin before the cremation (1st Indo-Iranian Style) Occurrence 24: The cremation Occurrence 25: Nuns at the cremation Occurrence 26: Mahākāśyapa at the cremation Occurrence 27: Ānanda at the cremation Occurrence 28: Monks bringing wood Occurrence 29: Desperate gods and humans on a balcony above the cremation Occurrence 30: The extinguishing of the fire Occurrence 31: The advance of warriors demanding their share of relics Occurrence 32: The distribution of the relics Occurrence 33: Gods and demons carrying relics Occurrence 34: The relics: rows of stūpas (replacing narrative representations) The continuity of the dharma: Monks and the first council Occurrence 35: The gods asking Mahākāśyapa to convoke the first council Occurrence 36: Mahākāśyapa beating the gaṇḍī to call the monks to assembly Occurrence 37: The selection of 500 arhats for the council / accusations against Ānanda Occurrence 38: Ānanda or Upāli preaching at the first council Occurrence 39: Scenes with monks in the parinirvāṇa cycle / the veneration of Mahā-kāśyapa? III. Descriptions of the Representations of the Parinirvāṇa Story Cycle in Kucha 1. Kizil Cave 4 (Kaminhöhle A [Chimney Cave A]) Cave 7 (Höhle mit dem Fresco-Fußboden [Cave with the Fresco Floor]) Cave 8 (Sechzehn-Schwertträger-Höhle [Cave of Sixteen Swordbearers]) Cave 13 (Fünfte Höhle neben der Sechzehn-Schwertträger-Höhle [Fifth Cave next to the Cave of Sixteen Swordbearers]) Cave 13? (= Höhle oberhalb der Größten Höhle [Cave above the Biggest Cave]) Cave 17 (Bodhisattvagewölbe-Höhle [Cave with Bodhisattvas in the Vault]) Cave 27 (Nischen-Höhle [Cave with Niches]) Cave 34 (Höhle mit dem meditierenden Sonnengott [Cave with the Meditating Sun God]) Cave 38 (Höhle mit dem Musikerchor [Cave with Choir of Musicians]) Cave 43 Cave 47 (Höhle mit dem Kolossalbuddha [Cave with the Colossal Buddha]) Cave 48 (Höhle neben dem Kolossalbuddha (östlich) [Cave to the Side of the Colossal Buddha (to the east)]) Cave 58 (Höhle der Behelmten [Cave of the Helmeted]) New Cave 1 (Xin 1) Cave 69 Cave 76 (Pfauenhöhle [Peacocks Cave]) Cave 77 (Statuenhöhle [Statues Cave]) Cave 80 (Höllentopfhöhle [Hell Pot Cave]) Cave 97 Cave 98 Cave 99 Cave 101 Cave 104 Cave 107 A Cave 110 (Treppenhöhle [Stair Cave]) Cave 114 (Gebetmühlenhöhle [Prayer Wheel Cave]) Cave 148 Cave 155 Cave 159 Cave 161 Cave 163 Cave 171 (Höhle oberhalb der Kasettenhöhle [Cave above the Coffered Ceiling Cave]) Cave 172 Cave 175 (Versuchungshöhle [Temptation Cave]) Cave 178 (Schluchthöhle [Ravine Cave]) Cave 179 (Höhle mit den Japanern [Cave with the Japanese]) Cave 186 (Mittlere Höhle, zweite Schlucht [Middle Cave of the Second Ravine]) Cave 189 (Zweite Höhle von vorn [Second Cave from the Front]) Cave 192 Cave 193 (Nāgarājahöhle [Nāgarāja Cave]) Cave 195 Cave 196 Cave 197 Cave 198 (Teufelshöhle C [Devil’s Cave C]) Cave 205 (Māyāhöhle, 2. Anlage [Māyā Cave of the 2nd Group]) Cave 206 (Fußwaschungshöhle [Feet- washing Cave]) Cave 207 (Malerhöhle [Painters’ Cave]) Cave 219 (Ajātaśatruhöhle [Ajātaśatru Cave]) Cave 224 (Māyāhöhle, 3. Anlage [Māyā Cave of the 3rd Group]) Cave 227 (Pretahöhle [Preta’s Cave]) Kizil, cave number unknown (Cave 215 A?) Kizil, cave number unknown Kizil or Kumtura, cave number unknown 2. Kumtura Cave GK 24 Cave 7 Cave 10 Cave 12 (Nirvāṇa-Höhle [Nirvāṇa Cave], Höhle 33 [Cave 33]) Cave 16 (Kinnarī-Höhle [Kinnarī Cave], Höhle 14 [Cave 14]) Cave 23 (Höhle 19 [Cave 19]) Cave 30 Cave 31 Cave 34 Cave 38 Cave 42 Cave 46 (Höhle mit der Inschrift [Cave with Inscription], Höhle in der nördlichen Schlucht [Cave in the Northern Ravine]) Cave 53 Cave 58 (Nāgarājahöhle [Nāgarāja Cave], Höhle 42 [Cave 42]) Cave 61 Cave 63 Cave 65 Cave 68 Cave 71 3. Simsim Cave 1 (Höhle mit den Kinnarīs [Cave with Kinnarīs]) Cave 5 Cave 11 (Größte Höhle [Biggest Cave]) Cave 19 Cave 20 Cave 27 Cave 30 Cave 31 Cave 32 Cave 36 Cave 40 (Ritterhöhle [Knights’ Cave]) Cave 41 (Höhle mit zwei Vajrapāṇis [Cave with Two Vajrapāṇis], Brāhmaṇahöhle [Brāhmaṇa Cave]) Cave 42 (Halle mit dem Tierfries [Hall with the Animal Frieze]) Cave 43 Cave 44 (Höhle mit den kranztragenden Tauben [Cave of the Wreath-Carrying Doves]) Cave 45 Cave 48 4. Kizilgaha Cave 11 Cave 12 Cave 13 Cave 14 Cave 16 Cave 23 Cave 30 Cave 46 Kizilgaha, cave number unknown 5. Tograk-eken (Tuohulake’aiken) Cave 15 6. Taitai’er Cave 14 Bibliography Index Figures

This dissertation studies the critical and historical examination of modern Japanese Buddhism in terms of its collaboration with and resistance to ultranationalism and militarism before and during World War II. It also examines how Buddhism came to Japan and transformed itself according to the historical, social and political contexts throughout history. Also it shows how and why Japanese Buddhism has transformed the Gautama Buddha's teachings, the Dhamma and the notion of community, Sangha to its own in terms in relationship to the state. In order to examine the Japan's modern-nation-state's invention of installing a national consciousness and identity in the people through the means of State Shinto and the emperor, kokutai ideology after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, I apply the methodologies of social critical theories of James Scott, Benedict Anderson, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. After the Tokugawa shogunate's long patronage of Buddhism (1602-1868), the dissertation examines how modern Japanese Buddhism was challenged by the Meiji state, and transformed itself to meet the need of the modern-nation-state centered on State Shinto and kokutai ideology. Moreover, it exposes how Japanese Buddhism struggled to meet the modernity itself such as individuality and socialization. Furthermore, in the 1930-40's, in the context of rise of ultranationalism and militarism in the name of "overcoming modernity," this dissertation explores how the Japanese Buddhist sects such as True Pure Land, Nichiren, Zen, and the Kyoto School collaborated with and resisted to them. Despite the main Japanese Buddhism's active participation in the war, there were few Japanese Buddhists' resistances. The dissertation examines why and how they could not effectively resist but failed. Moreover, the dissertation shows that there were several opportunities that Japanese Buddhism might have stopped the state's control of religions--the rise of ultranationalism and war ideology in the cases of Uchimura Kanzô's lese majeste in the 1890's, the state's failures of ratification on the Religious Organization Law twice in the 1920's, and Seno'o Girô's anti-fascist movements in the 1930's--the Buddhists had had critical minds and organizational wills alongside with the interreligious cooperation with Christianity and new religions. Thus, this dissertation critically examines Japanese Buddhism in three terms; the social critical ethics, the interreligious dialogue, and the trans-national dialogue. It shows why and how Japanese Buddhism lost the Buddha's critical mind, social ethics, the democratic origin of Sangha, as well as the trans-national dialogue with Korean, Chinese and South Asian Buddhists and eventually justified the Japanese imperial aggression against Asia. I hope that my dissertation will help the Japanese Buddhists undertake a self-critical examination of their involvement in World War II, and would set up a good example of self-criticism of religion and nationalism. It could certainly help the current Islamic people's struggles for democracy, nationalism and holy war. Also in case of China's nationalistic expansionism which resembles the Japan of 1930-40's, in the name of nationalism and social harmony, religious freedom was limited to the inner private realm, but its public role in checking nationalism was suppressed. Tibetan Buddhism, Falun Gong and house Christian churches cried out for their freedom. Therefore the self-critical examination of the rise and fall of the Japanese empire in terms of religion, religious freedom and ultranationalism might help Chinese religions and intellectuals as well as other cases involving religion, nationalism and war. / Religion

This dissertation looks at the political behavior of three Taiwanese Buddhist organizations since 1989: the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China (BAROC), the Buddha Light Mountain monastic order (or Foguangshan) and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association (or Ciji). It concentrates on trying to understand the rationale behind the different strategies that each of them has adopted in its interaction with the government. The BAROC has adopted a strategy of lobbying in an attempt to remedy the steady decline of its status throughout the 1990s: it has tried to sway the government to adopt a law that would restore the authority over Buddhists the association held before 1989. Foguangshan has resorted to a strategy of remonstrance to advance its religious ideals between 1995 and 1997: its founder Xingyun supported the bid of his lay disciple Chen Lii'an for the presidency of the Republic of China (ROC) and launched large public demonstrations critical of the government that followed that election. During the same period of time, Ciji has steered away from the controversies over the law on religion and conspicuously avoided supporting Chen, while continuing to grow to become the largest organization of its kind in Taiwan. The theological views of the three organizations' leaders are examined as key factors explaining the rationale behind the political strategies these organizations have adopted. Other factors such as availability of material resources, lay support, congruence between leaders and their followers on the dimension of ethnicity and gender are explored as possible sources of constraints on the leaders.

This dissertation looks at the political behavior of three Taiwanese Buddhist organizations since 1989: the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China (BAROC), the Buddha Light Mountain monastic order (or Foguangshan) and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association (or Ciji). It concentrates on trying to understand the rationale behind the different strategies that each of them has adopted in its interaction with the government. The BAROC has adopted a strategy of lobbying in an attempt to remedy the steady decline of its status throughout the 1990s: it has tried to sway the government to adopt a law that would restore the authority over Buddhists the association held before 1989. Foguangshan has resorted to a strategy of remonstrance to advance its religious ideals between 1995 and 1997: its founder Xingyun supported the bid of his lay disciple Chen Lii'an for the presidency of the Republic of China (ROC) and launched large public demonstrations critical of the government that followed that election. During the same period of time, Ciji has steered away from the controversies over the law on religion and conspicuously avoided supporting Chen, while continuing to grow to become the largest organization of its kind in Taiwan. The theological views of the three organizations' leaders are examined as key factors explaining the rationale behind the political strategies these organizations have adopted. Other factors such as availability of material resources, lay support, congruence between leaders and their followers on the dimension of ethnicity and gender are explored as possible sources of constraints on the leaders. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation is a study of the rules of customary behaviour (āsamudācārika-dharmas) found in a North Indian Buddhist monastic law code, the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya. Other than Gregory Schopen, few scholars have noted the significance of these rules. Schopen points out that according to this vinaya, adherence to rules of customary behaviour is foundational for achieving nirvāṇa. Yet, these rules have been practically ignored in contemporary scholarship. Building on Schopen’s work, I approach this material with two main questions: 1) What are rules of customary behaviour? and 2) How do rules of customary behaviour function in the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya? In an attempt to answer these questions, I explore passages from the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya in which the Buddha prescribes rules of customary behaviour for specific monastics in response to a variety of narrative situations. I organize this material into three thematic chapters. First, I discuss rules of customary behaviour related to the administration of the monastic community (saṃgha). Next, I explore rules of customary behaviour relevant only in specific environments. Finally, I investigate rules of customary behaviour prescribed in response to illnesses in the saṃgha. Through the above exploration, I demonstrate three main points: 1) that there are three ways that rules of customary behaviour appear in the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya; 2) the adoption of rules of customary behaviour prescribed in narratives in the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya does not necessarily signal the creation of a new monastic office or official duty; and 3) In the vast majority of cases, these rules seem to be designed to protect the integrity of the saṃgha and accommodate monks or nuns who are experiencing temporary challenges to their ecclesiastical status. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

My dissertation, The Female Body, Motherhood, and Old Age: Representations of Women in Hell in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Japan, examines the literary and visual representations of women in hell in late medieval and early modern Japan, with particular attention to the female body, motherhood, and old age. My focus is the late Muromachi and early Edo periods, when a constellation of new hells began to be conceptualized that had serious ramifications for representation of women. I examine a group of otogizōshi texts and hell paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which were disseminated widely through different media (picture scrolls, screen paintings, and narrative texts) and which generated a set of motifs representing women in the afterlife. I relate the emergence of these motifs to the larger history of the discursive construction of the female body and the evolution of representations of hell in premodern Japan. I argue that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, representations of women in hell in these texts and paintings shifted in their focus to domestic relationships, specifically mother-child and wife-husband relationships. This change is best exemplified by the late medieval set of gendered hells (The Hell of Barren Women, The Hell of Two Wives, and Children’s Limbo), which represent the body of the woman from three perspectives: 1) as infertile (as in the Hell of Barren Women), 2) as related to animals (such as the serpentine queen in Daibutsu no go-engi (The Venerable Origins of the Great Buddha) and the serpent-women in the Hell of Two Wives), and 3) as stigmatized or punished for excess desire/attachment in their mother-child and wife-husband relationships (as in the Hell of Two Wives). This dissertation also analyzes woman as erotic object, as mother, and as aging body from a comparative Japan-China perspective. By comparing similar motifs that emerged at approximately the same historical moments—the snake queen falling into hell in Daibutsu no go-engi with the snake queen in “Empress Xi turning into a python,” and Datsueba (Clothes-snatching Hag) with Meng Po (Lady of Forgetfulness)—I am able to highlight distinctive features of these new hells for women as well as compare the differing functions of hell shown by these Japanese and Chinese examples. In Chapter 1, “Women Falling Into Hell in Early Medieval Japan,” I analyze three early medieval tales of women journeying to and from Tateyama hell in the eleventh-century Dai Nihonkoku Hokkekyō genki and twelfth-century Konjaku monogatari shū in order to provide background for my later discussion on the new concerns for women that emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I show how the salvation of the deceased female protagonists depended on the proper rituals being performed by family members and I make clear the significance that motherhood was accorded in early medieval Buddhist tales of women in hell. I then examine how representations of women evolved and became more complex in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the emergence of the Hell of Barren Women, where childless women are punished, and the Hell of Two Wives, in which two serpent women coil their bodies around a man with whom they had become involved in a triangular relationship. In Chapter 2, “Barren Women Hells and Daibutsu no go-engi (The Venerable Origins of the Great Buddha),” I show how the Hell of Barren Women stresses the reproductive responsibilities of women. The representations of the Hell of Barren Women, reflecting a growing female audience in the late Muromachi and early Edo periods, are clear evidence of a belief that it is motherhood that is a woman’s passport to salvation. In Chapter 3, I examine “The Serpentine Queen and the Chinese Tale of Empress Xi Hui Turning Into a Python.” A comparison with Daibutsu no go-engi shows that the Chinese stories about Empress Xi focus more on the feelings and observations of the living, while Daibutsu no go-engi stresses the accumulation and elimination of negative karma. Chapter 4, “The Hell of Two Wives: Transformed Women and the Jealousy of Joint-Wives,” examines the motif of the “transformed woman” found in the Lotus Sutra, the eleventh-century Hokke genki, and the mid-sixteenth century Dōjōji engi, showing how a negative connection between women and the dragon-serpent body was established, and how the animalized female body relates to the question of desire. The entwined threesome in the Hell of Two Wives not only exemplifies a domestic narrative of betrayal and resentment; it also shows a transition from a general stigmatization of the female body towards a more specific condemnation of lust, jealousy, and resentment—which are all gendered female. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, women’s roles evolved to reflect a desire to maintain the stability of family. At the same time, these representations began focusing more on situations in which women’s efforts to control body or mind met with failure. Chapter 5, “Old Women as Keepers of the Borders: Datsueba and Meng Po,” analyzes two figures of hags in hell: Datsueba in Japan and Meng Po in China. While Datsueba watches over the dead as they descend to the depths of hell to receive judgment, Meng Po cares for them as they make their way out of hell to achieve reincarnation. I argue that both Datsueba and Meng Po reinforce the border of hell by depriving the deceased of their social identities, but while Datsueba punishes and purifies the deceased, Meng Po focuses on the transitional stage between death and the next life, and her memory-erasing function shows that, paradoxically, in Chinese hell deceased souls are not liberated from the basic Confucian relationships that are so important to the living.

This dissertation is a cultural and social history of healing in Japan from the tenth to the thirteenth century. In particular, in this work I examine the connection between Buddhism and healing, and the interactions between Buddhist healers and other technicians involved in the treatment of illness, such as onmyōji and court physicians. This direction of research is informed by historical anthropology and microhistory, and constitutes and attempt towards an ethnography of early medieval Japan, an era in which Buddhism constituted the most pervasive cultural force. The study of Buddhism in its therapeutic dimension among the court elites thus doubles as a study of Buddhism in its everyday dimensions, and of its contributions to the understanding of the forces that shaped everyday life, with an emphasis on facets that are often overlooked in Japanese and western Buddhology, including the interpretation and treatment of illness, discourses on etiology, spirit possession and iatromancy (divination on disease).While generally treated as discrete entities, Buddhism, onmyōdō, kami cults, and court physicians and their therapeutic technologies existed side by side and intersected in complicated ways when seen in the daily life of court aristocrats. Through an analysis of the journals that these figures have left behind, I aim to complicate the boundaries separating these cultic realms by arguing that while distinct at the level of professional practitioners, Buddhism, onmyōdō and other spheres of specialized knowledge all functionally contributed to the culture of everyday life of court aristocracy. Focusing on practices and discourses that blur the boundaries between ritual and physical endeavors, and dealing with themes that range from spirit possession and its political implications to the relationship between kami and buddhas, from the ritual implications of an expanded access to the levers of power to the transformation of a foundational Buddhist ritual into a therapeutic practice, I criticize the tendency displayed by scholars to partition the activities of Buddhist monks, onmyōji and court physicians in epistemic terms, so that while court physicians would be concerned with the physical body, the others — and Buddhist monks in particular — would not. This distinction, which clearly echoes the modern differentiation between “medicine” and “religion,” is however inadequate to account for the complexity of the therapeutic arena of early medieval Japan. Through an examination of various practitioners of healing from the tenth to the thirteenth century, I will argue for the need to rethink neat taxonomies and sanitized epistemological spaces; rediscover the centrality of practice and redefine its relationship with normative texts and theorizations; and explore, on the ground, the complexity of daily life and its processes.

 This study examines the early Praj??p?ramit? s?tras through the theory of “chiasmus”. Chiasmic methodology analyses a text into two parallel halves, identifying complementary “prologue” (A) and “conclusion” (A’), and highlighting the critical “central point” (X), with sub-themes paralleled in the two halves (A-B-C-D…X…D’-C’-B’-A’). Through chiasmus theory, many ancient texts formerly considered fragmentary and incoherent have been shown to be structurally sophisticated wholes. The modern text-critical approach has re-written the traditional account of the Praj??p?ramit? s?tras. Several scholars have proposed theories regarding a pre-textual “ur-s?tra”, though with little consensus on this. In general, most agree that after the formation of an “ur-s?tra” the main body of the text was then chaotically compiled from various fragmentary sub-texts, with the Sad?prarudita Avad?na finally appended at the end. The result is the presently extant smaller s?tra. This modern scholarship then claims gradual growth through expansion into the medium and larger s?tras. The modern academic “discourse on emptiness” portrays the Praj??p?ramit? as focusing on the doctrine of “emptiness” (??nyat?). This study challenges many of these claims. On analysis, primary and secondary chiasmi were identified in the first two chapters of the s?tra. Their scope is the authority of teaching and training in the Praj??p?ramit?, and maintenance of the lineage of the Buddhas. Their central climax is definitions of “bodhisattva”, “mah?sattva” and “mah?y?na”, in the rhetorical formula “XY is ~Y”. Clearly paralleled sub-themes include “sam?dhi”, “the illusory”, “M?ra” and “entrance into certitude”. A second chiasmus comprising the entire Avad?na at the end of the s?tra was also identified. The scope is Sad?prarudita’s quest for Praj??p?ramit?, “to see and hear the Tath?gatas”. The central climax is his seeing and hearing the “Tath?gata” as one who has realized “suchness” (tathat?) or “dependent origination” (prat?tyasa?utp?da), again expressed in the form “XY is ~Y”. Paralleled sub-themes include “sam?dhi”, “M?ra” and “giving”. These two chiasmi are similar in scope, centers which define key terms through the rhetorical formula “XY is ~Y”, and sub-themes. This suggests a larger chiasmus which spans the entire text, with these chiasmi as prologue and conclusion respectively. While not conclusive, there is evidence for a central climax centered at “suchness” (tathat?), attainment of which results in the bodhisattva’s status of irreversibility. This connects the prologue and concluding chiasmi, “bodhisattvas” to “Tath?gatas”, respectively. Numerous paralleled sub-themes are more or less salient. There are major implications from the discovery of chiasmus in the Praj??p?ramit?. Critically, it suggests that the s?tra was initially composed as a complete chiasmic whole, rather than from accumulated fragmentary parts. Hermeneutically, the core message may be understood more systematically than earlier methods. It proposes “suchness” (tathat?) as the central theme, rather than “emptiness” (??nyat?). It also rejects the genre designation of the Praj??p?ramit? as a “philosophical” rather than “religious” text. This study also offers direction for uncovering other cases of chiasmus in early Mah?y?na and Buddhist literature in general, with examples. If a range of chiasmi can be analyzed, a general theory of Buddhist chiasmus can be established for use as a standard Buddhological tool. / published_or_final_version / Buddhist Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Why the Buddhist Pali Canon? Why the Brahmajala Sutta? Will this dissertation contribute anything new and valuable towards Orality-Literacy Studies? It was with much anxiety and apprehension as well as intimidation in remembering the words of Jousse (1990): "A man who writes a book deriving solely from other books contributes nothing new." ...... that the choice of this topic became finalised. The Brahmajala Sutta commences with the words: "Evam me sutam" (Thus I have heard) It is the written representation of an oral form that came into existence as the culmination of an established authentic oral tradition that had its origins in the 5th Century B.C. It became preserved in written form in the 1st Century B.C. with the purpose of canonizing the Discourses of Gotama Buddha. These were and still are oral elements transmitted orally and the written text abounds with such as mnemotechniques, repetitions, refrains, sound and rhythmic patterns, silences and pauses that are germane to the content and comprehension of the sutta (discourse). This text which has survived many centuries holds much fascination as it attaches a meditative dimensions to the Orality-Literacy continuum since the meditative repetition of its verses aims at the spiritual transformation and enhancement of the individual. Le Roux (1991: 48) asks, "Is it possible to rekindle a live relationship with this ancient text, which is now only available in printed form?" In answering her question she states, "It is possible when the present day reader realises that this sutta has a dynamic vitality of its own, that it is able to challenge, communicate and demand a response from the interpreter. Inevitably, the reader is drawn into an involvement with the message of the sutta which Ricoeur (1967:354) calls, "a passionate, though critical relation with the truth value of each symbol." When the two horizons meet, that of the present day reader and the ancient text itself, understanding becomes a reality. That is possible notwithstanding immense differences in time, language and religio-philosophical beliefs." This dissertation is not intended to be an exegetical analysis of the Brahmajala Sutta, for which, in any case, it affords neither scope nor range. What it seeks to do is to explore how the text came to be fixed in its present form, as well as to appreciate the processes that lie behind its formulation, and most important of all, to attempt to understand what intrinsic qualities it possesses that give it its "dynamic vitality." In the first three chapters, the text is placed against the historical, sociological and cultural contexts of the Buddhist Pali Canon. This information is essential as it provides the background necessary for the comprehension of important aspects of the sutta. Chapter Four locates the position of the Brahmajala Sutta within the giant corpus of material embraced by the Buddhist Pali Canon and Chapter Five presents the structural formulation of the text. In Chapters Six and Seven, the oral compositional process with its use of formulaic devices comes into focus within a semantic, morphological and phonological analysis. I emphasise that since I consider my knowledge of the Pali Canon to be relatively limited, I have had to rely on the works of the many eminent researchers whose names appear in the Bibliography, for the information contained in the first three chapters. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1992.