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Lokaksema (Buddhist Monk)
Lokakṣema (लोकक्षेम, ) (flourished 147-189) was a Kushan Buddhist monk from Gandhara who traveled to China during the Han dynasty and translated Buddhist texts into Chinese, and, as such, is an important figure in Chinese Buddhism. Biography Details of Lokakṣema's life come to us via a short biography by Sengyou (僧祐; pinyin: Sēngyòu; 445–518 CE) and his text “Collected Records concerning the Tripitaka” (出三藏記集 Chu sanzang jìjí, T2145). The name 婁迦讖 is usually rendered in Sanskrit as Lokakṣema, though this is disputed by some scholars, and variants such as Lokakṣama have been proposed. In particular the character 讖 can be read as ''chen'' or ''chan''. Sengyou refers to him as ''Zhīchèn'' (). The ''Zhī'' () prefix added to his Chinese name suggests that Lokaksema was of Yuezhi () ethnicity. He is traditionally said to have been a Kushan, though the Chinese term ''Yuezhi'' covered a broad area of what is now Iran, Afghani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhikkhu
A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimokṣa or pātimokkha. Their lifestyles are shaped to support their spiritual practice: to live a simple and meditative life and attain nirvana. A person under the age of 20 cannot be ordained as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni but can be ordained as a śrāmaṇera or śrāmaṇērī. Definition ''Bhikkhu'' literally means "beggar" or "one who lives by alms". The historical Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, having abandoned a life of pleasure and status, lived as an alms mendicant as part of his śramaṇa lifestyle. Those of his more serious students who renounced their lives as householders and came to study full-time under his supervision also adopte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Shigao
An Shigao (, Korean: An Sego, Japanese: An Seikō, Vietnamese: An Thế Cao) (fl. c. 148-180 CE) was an early Buddhist missionary to China, and the earliest known translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese. According to legend, he was a prince of Parthia, nicknamed the "Parthian Marquess", who renounced his claim to the royal throne of Parthia in order to serve as a Buddhist missionary monk in China. Origins The prefix ''An'' in An Shigao's name has raised many questions and hypotheses as to his origin and story. Some believe that it is an abbreviation of ''Anxi'', the Chinese name given to the regions ruled by the Parthian Empire. Most visitors from that country who took a Chinese name received the ''An'' prefix to indicate their origin in ''Anxi''.It is still unknown whether he was a monk or layperson or whether he should be considered a follower of the Sarvāstivāda or Mahāyāna, though affiliation with these two groups need not be viewed as mutually exclusive. The u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silk Road Transmission Of Buddhism
Buddhism entered Han China via the Silk Road, beginning in the 1st or 2nd century CE. The first documented translation efforts by Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE via the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory bordering the Tarim Basin under Kanishka. These contacts transmitted strands of Sarvastivadan and Tamrashatiya Buddhism throughout the Eastern world. Theravada Buddhism developed from the Pāli Canon in Sri Lanka Tamrashatiya school and spread throughout Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Sarvastivada Buddhism was transmitted from North India through Central Asia to China. Direct contact between Central Asian and Chinese Buddhism continued throughout the 3rd to 7th centuries, much into the Tang period. From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims like Faxian (395–414) and later Xuanzang (629–644) started to travel to northern India in order to get improved access to original scriptures. Between the 3rd and 7th centuries, parts of the land route connecting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Texts
Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, found in Afghanistan and written in Gāndhārī, they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The first Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by Buddhist monastics, but were later written down and composed as manuscripts in various Indo-Aryan languages (such as Pāli, Gāndhārī, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit) and collected into various Buddhist Canons. These were then translated into other languages such as Buddhist Chinese (''fójiào hànyǔ'' 佛教漢語) and Classical Tibetan as Buddhism spread outside of India. Buddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by West ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Buddhism
The history of Buddhism spans from the 5th century BCE to the present. Buddhism arose in Ancient India, in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha, and is based on the teachings of the ascetic Siddhārtha Gautama. The religion evolved as it spread from the northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent throughout Central, East, and Southeast Asia. At one time or another, it influenced most of Asia. The history of Buddhism is also characterized by the development of numerous movements, schisms, and philosophical schools, among them the Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions, with contrasting periods of expansion and retreat. Shakyamuni Buddha (5th cent. BCE) Siddhārtha Gautama (5th cent. BCE) was the historical founder of Buddhism. The early sources state he was born in the small Shakya (Pali: Sakya) Republic, which was part of the Kosala realm of ancient India, now in modern-day Nepal.Harvey, 2012, p. 14. He is thus also known as the ''Shakyamuni'' (literally: "Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra
The ''Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra'' (Sanskrit; ; Vietnamese: Kinh Bát Chu Tam Muội) is an early Mahayana Buddhist scripture, which probably originated between the 1st century BCE and 2nd century CE in the Gandhara area of northwestern India. The full title for this text is ''Pratyutpannabuddha Saṃmukhāvasthita Samādhi Sūtra'', which translates to, "Sūtra on the Samādhi for Encountering Face-to-Face the Buddhas of the Present". History The ''Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra'' was first translated into Chinese by the Kushan Buddhist monk Lokaksema in 179 CE, at the Han capital of Luoyang. This translation is, together with the ''Prajnaparamita Sutra'', one of the earliest historically datable texts of the Mahayana tradition. In 2018, the discovery of fragments of a birch bark manuscript in the Gāndhārī language and written in Kharoṣṭhī script was announced by scholars Paul Harrison, Timothy Lenz, and Richard Salomon, who wrote regarding the dating of the manuscript: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avatamsaka Sutra
The ' (IAST, sa, 𑀅𑀯𑀢𑀁𑀲𑀓 𑀲𑀽𑀢𑁆𑀭) or ''Buddhāvataṃsaka-nāma-mahāvaipulya-sūtra (The Mahāvaipulya Sūtra named “Buddhāvataṃsaka”)'' is one of the most influential Mahāyāna sutras of East Asian Buddhism. In Classical Sanskrit, ''avataṃsaka'' means garland, wreath, or any circular ornament, such as an earring.'''' Thus, the title may be rendered in English as ''A Garland of Buddhas'', ''Buddha Ornaments'', or ''Buddha’s Garland''. In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, the term ''avataṃsaka'' means “a great number,” “a multitude,” or “a collection.” This is matched by the Tibetan title of the sutra, which is ''A Multitude of Buddhas'' (''""''). The ''Buddhāvataṃsaka'' has been described by the translator Thomas Cleary "the most grandiose, the most comprehensive, and the most beautifully arrayed of the Buddhist scriptures." The ' describes a cosmos of infinite realms upon realms, mutually containing one another. This sut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
The ''Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: अष्टसाहस्रिका प्रज्ञापारमिता सूत्र; English: ''The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand ines') is a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra in the category of Prajñāpāramitā sūtra literature. The sūtra's manuscript witnesses date to at least ca. 50 CE, making it among the oldest Buddhist manuscripts in existence.{https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2019/07/2000-year-old-buddhist-scroll-from-ancient-gandhara-digitized-by-library-of-congress/ Library of Congress blog post] The sūtra forms the basis for the expansion and development of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtra literature. In terms of its influence in the development of Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist philosophical thought, P.L. Vaidya writes that "all Buddhist writers from Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Maitreyanātha, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Dignāga, down to Haribhadra concentrated their energies i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jan Nattier
Jan Nattier is an American scholar of Mahāyana Buddhism. Early life and education She earned her PhD in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from Harvard University (1988), and subsequently taught at the University of Hawaii (1988-1990), Stanford University (1990-1992), and Indiana University (1992–2005). She then worked as a research professor at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University (2006–2010) before retiring from her position there and beginning a series of visiting professorships at various universities in the U.S.Academia.edu profile. https://berkeley.academia.edu/JanNattier Career Nattier is one of a group of scholars who have substantially revised views of the early development of Mahāyana Buddhism in the last 20 years. They have in common their attention to and re-evaluation of early Chinese translations of texts. Her first notable contribution was a book based on her PhD thesis which looked at the Chinese Doctrine of the Three A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Harrison (Buddhist Scholar)
Paul Harrison may refer to: *Paul Harrison (American football), American football coach *Paul Harrison (Australian footballer) (1944–2005), Australian footballer for South Melbourne *Paul Harrison (English cricketer) (born 1984), English cricketer *Paul Harrison (footballer, born 1984), English footballer *Paul Harrison (ice hockey) (born 1955), retired Canadian ice hockey goaltender *Paul Harrison (Jamaican cricketer) (born 1988), Jamaican cricketer *Paul Harrison (musician) (born 1975), British jazz pianist *Paul Harrison (pantheist), British environmentalist and president of the World Pantheist Movement *Paul Harrison (racing driver) (born 1969), British racing driver *Paul Harrison (weightlifter) (born 1966), Australian Olympic weightlifter *Paul Carter Harrison Paul Carter Harrison (March 1, 1936 – December 27, 2021) was an American playwright and professor. Harrison was known for works such as his Obie Award winning play ''The Great MacDaddy'' and scholarly writings on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Zürcher
Erik Zürcher (13 September 1928, in Utrecht – 7 February 2008, in Warmond) was a Dutch Sinologist. From 1962 to 1993, Zürcher was a professor of history of East Asia at the Leiden University. He was also Director of the Sinological Institute, between 1975 and 1990. His Chinese name was ''Xǔ Lǐhe'' (许理和). Biography He studied Sinology, Buddhism, specializing in Chinese religions. In 1959, his PhD was over ''The Buddhist Conquest of China''. In 1962 he became professor of history of East Asia, particularly the Chinese Buddhism, Chinese reactions to the Christianity and early relations between China and the outside world. He was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1975 and Associate of the Academie des Belles Lettres et des Incriptions of the Institut de France. He was also awarded the Medal of Honor for Art and Science in the Order of the House of Orange and made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. His son Erik-Jan Zürcher ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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