{"id":42,"date":"2011-07-06T18:58:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river\/"},"modified":"2011-07-06T18:58:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T18:58:00","slug":"religion-like-a-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html","title":{"rendered":"Religion like a River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
As I mentioned recently, I\u2019m reading Noa Ronkin\u2019s\u00a0Early Buddhist Metaphysics<\/a>\u00a0which documents the rational development of Abhidhamma (and its dhamma <\/i>theory) out of early Buddhism. Today, skimming through recent articles and reviews at the Journal of Buddhist Ethics<\/a>, I came across Alexander Wynne\u2019s coverage of\u00a0\"\"Daniel Boucher\u2019s new book\u00a0Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mah\u0101y\u0101na<\/a>. You can view it in full here (.pdf)<\/a>.\n

It\u2019s an excellent article and I look forward to getting to the book (though not likely soon, as it\u2019s a bit off the topic of my thesis studies). But do read the article and the book if you\u2019re interested in the development of mainstream and Mah\u0101y\u0101na Buddhism in India between the 3rd Century BCE and about the 5th CE. As with the Abhidhamma discussed in Ronkin\u2019s book, the more we study these texts the more we see fascinating relationships, both within Buddhism and with broader communities.<\/p>\n

Again, it\u2019s a brief article, and for me it just reinstates the enormity of what I must learn and the sheer sense of wonder I have when thinking of the history of Buddhism.<\/p>\n

Here are some snippits (those familiar with Buddhist studies will likely catch the context, others will hopefully still go to the full article):<\/p>\n

What is\u00a0surprising is that when it did happen in ancient India, the bodhisattva\u00a0ideal was expressed by composing new discourses (s\u016btra<\/i>) of the Buddha.\u00a0Even if most of the R\u0101\u1e63\u1e6drap\u0101la\u2019s <\/i>content is very close to the Buddhava\u1e43sa<\/i>,\u00a0the form of the two texts is entirely \u00a0different: whereas the latter is a\u00a0verse text that does not \u00a0resemble any P\u0101li sutta, the former is \u00a0a prose\u00a0discourse presented as buddhavacana<\/i>. (p.198)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

By the time of the later Sanskrit version of the text, it\u00a0seems that the transmitters of the \u00a0R\u0101\u1e63\u1e6drap\u0101la <\/i>had become fractious\u00a0disciplinarians pitted against a \u201cnew type of social \u00a0institution with\u00a0considerable economic clout\u201d (68). (p.200)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With this translation and study of the R\u0101\u1e63\u1e6drap\u0101la<\/i>, Daniel Boucher\u00a0has added considerably to our understanding of Indian Buddhism in its\u00a0\u2018Middle Period\u2019, from the first through sixth \u00a0centuries CE. It is to be\u00a0hoped that the methodological direction set by studies such as this\u2014and,\u00a0it should be noted, Jan Nattier\u2019s similar treatment of the Ugraparip\u1e5bcch\u0101\u00a0S\u016btra<\/i> [A Few Good Men<\/a>\"\"\u2026] \u2014will be replicated across the entire spectrum of early Mah\u0101y\u0101na\u00a0literature. For the time being, we are now in a much better position to\u00a0understand why and how the bodhisattva movements emerged and\u00a0developed in India.\u00a0\u00a0(p.203)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Almost reads like \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d \u2013 with its \u201cfractious disciplinarians pitted against\u2026\u201d da da dahhhh\u2026<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned recently, I\u2019m reading Noa Ronkin\u2019s\u00a0Early Buddhist Metaphysics\u00a0which documents the rational development of Abhidhamma (and its dhamma theory) out of early Buddhism. Today, skimming through recent articles and reviews at the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, I came across Alexander Wynne\u2019s coverage of\u00a0Daniel Boucher\u2019s new book\u00a0Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nReligion like a River<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I mentioned recently, I'm reading Noa Ronkin's Early Buddhist Metaphysics which documents the rational development of Abhidhamma (and its\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religion like a River\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I mentioned recently, I'm reading Noa Ronkin's Early Buddhist Metaphysics which documents the rational development of Abhidhamma (and its\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-06T18:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=montanafreethink&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0415600014\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html\",\"name\":\"Religion like a River\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-06T18:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-06T18:58:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"As I mentioned recently, I'm reading Noa Ronkin's Early Buddhist Metaphysics which documents the rational development of Abhidhamma (and its\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2011\/07\/religion-like-a-river.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Religion like a River\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. 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