from Dhamma Wheel... of interest to all... hope

[Leo Rivers]

https://www.amazon.com/Reconstructing-E ... 232&sr=1-1

Reconstructing Early Buddhism New Edition
by Roderick S. Bucknell (Author)

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Kindle $60.49

Hardcover $99.99

2 Used from $127.49 9 New from $79.29

Buddhist origins and discussion of the Buddha's teachings are amongst the most controversial and contested areas in the field. This bold and authoritative book tackles head-on some of the key questions regarding early Buddhism and its primary canon of precepts. Noting that the earliest texts in Pali, Sanskrit and Chinese belong to different Buddhist schools, Roderick S. Bucknell addresses the development of these writings during the period of oral transmission between the Buddha's death and their initial redaction in the first century BCE. A meticulous comparative analysis reveals the likely original path of meditative practice applied and taught by Gautama. Fresh perspectives now emerge on both the Buddha himself and his Enlightenment. Drawing on his own years of meditative experience as a Buddhist monk, the author offers here remarkable new interpretations of advanced practices of meditation, as well as of Buddhism itself. It is a landmark work in Buddhist Studies.

[Shaiksha]

Will it really make a difference for people who are attracted to Mahayana or Vajrayana though?

For the people who are attracted to the Theravada tradition, particularly early Buddhism, this book could potentially be very important. The idea is you actually have a historical figure, a human being, Gautama Buddha, who was perfectly enlightened. So, it is very important to know what he actually taught. Textual analysis, historical records, etc, then become very important to ensure that your practice was in fact the original meditative practice taught by the Buddha himself.

Contrast this with many Mahayana or Vajrayana teachings: 1) Prajnapramita was taught by Avalokiteśvara in the Vulture peak - though Sakyamuni Buddha and Shariputra were there, 2) Nagarjuna retrieved the 100,000 verses from the naga realm, 3) Abhisamayalankavatara was taught by Maitreya to Asanga, 4) Deities in their peaceful or wrathful forms taught tantric practices to human beings and so on. How do you prove this actually happened? Most if not all Mahayanists or Vajrayanists are not bothered with this. Some of us just have that connections with the path (from karmic propensities), or we are attracted to the teachings itself (not the mystical stories), such as the Boddhisatva ideals, emptiness/Madhyamaka and so on. Some of us just think as long as the teachings work, then we are not so worried about historicity, etc.

So, two very different motivations.

[tingdzin]

Bucknell wrote another interesting book (with Fox) a long time ago called The Twilight Language in which he attempted to show continuities in certain contemplative issues across many schools of Buddhism. There are all sorts of hermeneutical issues involved in such wide-ranging approaches that probably can never be fully resolved, but the book was interesting nevertheless, as long as one is not tempted to take its conclusions as definitive. I suspect the same is true of this new book, but I will never find out as long as its price is so high..