The Buddhist Studies

The field of Buddhist Studies is truly multi-disciplinary and international. The study of Buddhism has to take into consideration phenomena that transcend national and cultural borders as well as those more artificially defined by modern academic fields. The 18 studies in this volume cover a wide range of topics, including those from India, Tibet, China, Japan, and other Asian countries. Many essays are on Buddhist philosophy. Some of them deal with the Madhyamaka tradition, which was established by Nagarjuna and his descendants. Others examine the yogachara tradition, which was founded by Asanga, Vasubandhu, and their successors. These essays examine areas of doctrinal importance such as the “Two Truth Theory” and the doctrines of the equivalence between nirvana, samsara, and such topics as compassion’s nature and practice and Indian Buddhist cosmology. Other studies focus on meditation practices of Honen, the founder of Japan’s Pure Land, and their significance for the transmission and propagation of Buddhism to China.