Product Description
Book is in French language. Advanced mathematics textbook. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Religion, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 552 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The second edition of this highly regarded encyclopedia, preserving the best of the first edition's cross-cultural approach, while emphasizing religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture, this new edition is the definitive work in the field for the 21st century. An international team of scholars and contributors have reviewed, revised and added to every word of the classic work, making it relevant to the questions and interests of all researchers. ... Read more

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Publisher: Cambridge [Eng.] The University pressPublication date: 1917Subjects: Buddha (The concept)NirvanaBuddhismNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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This is the most important compendium of Indian Buddhist philosophy and psychology. The four volume (app. 1600 pp.) clothbound masterwork begins with a history of abhidharma literature and covers a vast array of subjects from a Buddhist viewpoint. Some of these subjects are Buddhist cosmology and the process of rebirth, karma and the Buddhist ethical theory, mental defilements, causes of suffering and the path to enlightenment, the supernatural powers of a Buddha, a taxonomy of meditative states and a refutation of the existence of soul.

"... one of the landmark achievements in the history of Buddhist Studies. Highly recommended for all academic libraries..."--Choice

A selection of Choice Outstanding Books and Nonprint Materials (OABN).

Contents

Translator's Preface The Abhidharma--Leo M. Pruden Abhidharmakosabhasyam--L. Poussin

The Dhatus The Indriyas The World Karma The Latent Defilements The Path and the Saints The Knowledges The Absorptions Refutation of the Pudgala

FootnotesIndex ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An Extremely Important Work -- The Best English Translation Available
For the time being, this is the best (and one of the only) English language translations of Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasyam, one of the most important works in Buddhist literature. A forthcoming work in English may render this volume less important, but it is not clear when that translation is going to be published. Thus, for the time being, this is the edition to refer to for those who are not able to read in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese or Japanese.

An important note: although this work is indeed a translation based on the French translation of Louis de Vallee Poussin, Leo Pruden himself is a Buddhist scholar who knows Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese. So it is not a case of this work merely being a translation from French into English. Pruden has checked the work against the Sanskrit text (which was not available in most instances to Poussin at the time of his translation) to examine it for accuracy. So although the translation is not likely to be 100% faithful to the Sanskrit, it is probably pretty good. In fact, one could argue that since it is based also on an understanding of the Chinese and Japanese translations and traditions, it may be (possibly?) even richer than a translation by a scholar of Sanskrit who translates straight from Sanskrit to English without knowledge of Chinese or Japanese. This is because, unlike some translation jobs, the translation of Buddhist texts is very much dependent upon interpretation, and therefore a knowledge of the commentarial traditions that have emerged in living Buddhist societies.

That being said, this, along with Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya, is the most important work on the "Abhidharma"-- a crucial aspect of Buddhist thought. Abhidharma is one of the five main topics studied in Gelugpa Tibetan monasteries, for example. It examines issues such as the aggregates, perception and cognition, mental states and emotions, the sense faculties, and so forth.

For those with no prior knowledge of Abhidharma, one might be better off beginning with a shorter introductory work before heading straight into this lengthy treatise. Chogyam Trungpa has written a short work on Abhidharma, but unfortunately there are not that many accessible studies written in English to my knowledge.

A Real Classic
The Abhidharmakosa is undoubtedly the most widely studied textbook of Buddhism. It forms one of the five basic textbooks of the Tibetan monastic curriculum, and in Japan it is the traditional way to begin the study of Buddhist philosophy. But it is by no means an easy or simple book. Years are devoted to its study in these countries.

Vasubandhu sifted through the whole mass of Buddhist teachings to produce this "treasury" (kosa) of them. Because of its excellence, it soon eclipsed all its rivals in early India, and has remained a classic for fifteen hundred years. This translation includes Vasubandhu's own detailed commentary, "bhasyam," so it forms a self-contained veritable encyclopedia of Buddhism.

Carefully rendered, well presented, immensely important.
Abhidharma Kosa Bhasyam. By Vasubandhu. Leo M. Pruden's landmark translation of
Vasubandhu's encyclopedic treatment of the
Abhidharma from the French of Louis de La
Vallee Poussin is a stunningly meticulous
work of scholarship. In the marvelous
setting of a high-quality hardcover edition,
it displays Professor Pruden's
uncompromising dedication to bringing a
complete, accurate and well-annotated
rendering of the crown jewel of Abhidharma
compilations into English.

For those who are unfamiliar with the
significance of the Abhidharma, it is the
systematic delineation of Buddhist
philosophical tenets. In aggregate, it forms
one of the three collections comprising the
three-fold Buddhist canon known as the
Tripitaka. The importance of this work of
Vasubandhu lies a) in its encyclopedic
completeness; and b) in its exposition of
the common philosophical ground shared by
both the Southern and Northern traditions of
Buddhism. It is a work which, though
dedicated primarily to material most readily
associated with the fundamental teachings of
Southern-tradition Buddhism, has always been
held in the highest esteem in Chinese and
Tibetan traditions as well.

This work is graced by a 60-page
introduction to Abhidharma written by
Professor Pruden entitled The Abhidharma:
The Origins, Growth and Development of a
Literary Tradition. That is then followed by
de La Vallee Poussin's own 50-page
introduction to Vasubandhu's work. Each
volume is preceded by an extremely detailed
table of contents, totaling 30 pages in all.
The final volume includes a carefully
compiled 50-page index to the entire work.
Each chapter includes copious annotation in
the form of end notes. Given this sterling
approach to presentation and annotation,
this four-volume edition constitutes a
veritable encyclopedia of abhidharma tenets.
To help the reader better understand the
construction of Vasubandhu's work, I present
here the basic breakdown of its
construction:

Chapter One: The Dhaatus
Chapter Two: The Indriyas
Chapter Three: The World
Chapter Four: Karma
Chapter Five: The Latent Defilements
Chapter Six: The Path and the Saints
Chapter Seven: The Knowledges
Chapter Eight: The Absorptions
Chapter Nine: Refutation of the Pudgala

Ideally, this work should abide on the shelf
of every serious English-speaking Buddhist
as a counter-weight to the foolish notion
that "just-sitting" will somehow bring about
true liberation. The Buddha himself insisted
that the two provisions of: a) merit; and
b) wisdom are essential to any meaningful
advancement along the path to enlightenment.
This work contributes a solid foundation
stone to the edifice of wisdom which each
practitioner must endeavor to construct. Its
utility as a foundation is equally valuable
whether that construction eventually
expresses a Southern-tradition or Northern-
tradition architecture.

The expense of this work ($300), while not
at all unreasonable given the extravagance
of the meticulous four-volume hard-cover
edition, may place this work beyond the
grasp of many struggling Dharma students.
At the very least, however, every Dharma
center could acquire a single copy as a non-
circulating library reference. It is
difficult to overestimate the value of this
work in clarifying the meaning of
fundamental Buddhist philosophical tenets.
For the translator, it is an invaluable
reference work which serves well in the
correct translation of abstruse technical
terms which might otherwise be distorted by
over-reliance upon the Tibetan- or Chinese-
language renderings of such terms.

In short, the presence of this marvelous
compendium of Abhidharma in such a fine
English edition is a cause for celebration
in every tradition of Western Buddhism.

... Read more

Product Description
The Way to Nirvana
by L. de la Vallée Poussin

Investigating Buddhist thought on rebirth and transcendence.

This is an academic monograph on Nirvana by a French scholar. Poussin contrasts the Hindu and Buddhist views on the cycle of rebirth, and makes a case for original Buddhist concepts of reincarnation as being subtly different than the Hindu, where the soul remains essentially intact across incarnations. He compares the Buddhist view of rebirth to a forest fire (the soul) jumping a river (death), creating an entirely new fire on the other side of the river. He demonstrates the intersection of this topic with Buddhist cosmology, logic, philosophy and ethics. Poussin concludes by reviewing Buddhist techniques for approaching Nirvana.

Chapter I. Indian Disciplines of Salvation
Chapter II. The Buddhist Soul
Chapter III. Buddhist Definition of Karman
Chapter IV. The Doctrine of Karman and Transmigration, Cosmogony, Theogony
Chapter V. Nirvana
Chapter VI. The Path To Nirvana ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more