This paper is an exploration of the theme of pilgrimage in the following three works: Gan&dotbelow;d&dotbelow;vyuha, Journey to the West and The Life of Marpa the Translator. / Through an examination of the narrative structure of the texts, I derive a pattern which is consistent throughout these three Mahayana works. This pattern is then compared to the Mahayana doctrine of Two Truths, which is shown to be expressed by the literary pilgrimage. Finally, by exploring the ways in which these texts 'work' on the reader---both by seeing the protagonist go through the stages of Buddhist practice and through the reader's interaction with the text---I show how reading these stories can act as a transformative Buddhist practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.21196 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Braitstein, Lara, 1971- |
| Contributors | Hori, Victor (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Faculty of Religious Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001658617, proquestno: MQ50499, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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