Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative:Gods, Kings and Other Heroes

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-206) and index

Jātaka Stories and Paccekabuddhas in Early Buddhism

This article explores the role of paccekabuddhas in stories of the Buddha’s past lives (jātaka tales) in early Buddhist narrative collections in Pāli and Sanskrit. In early Buddhism paccekabuddhas are liminal figures in two senses: they appear between Buddhist dispensations, and they are included as a category of awakening between sammāsambuddha and arahat. Because of their appearance in times of no Buddhism, paccekabuddhas feature regularly in jātaka literature, as exemplary renouncers, teachers, or recipients of gifts. This article asks what the liminal status of paccekabuddhas means for their interactions with the Buddha and his past lives as Bodhisatta

Literature, performance, and loving the Buddha in the Avadanasataka

This paper presents three literary strategies used in the portrayal of the Buddha in the Avadanasataka and asks what they tell us about the text, the Buddha, and the ways in which we as scholars should approach Buddhist literature. Through formulaic passages, audience responses, and glimpses of humanity counterbalancing the glories of the superhuman Buddha, this particular text offers a literary Buddha that is transformative for those he encounters both inside and outside the text. As such, this literary Buddha raises questions about the interface between literary creativity and Buddhist textual practice

Self-sacrifice for a tiny teaching:Hearing and knowing in the 'Verse of Dharma' Jātaka stories

This paper offers a comparative study of a cluster of stories in which the Buddha-to-be makes a sacrifice – of flesh, family members or wealth – in exchange for a single verse of teaching. The exploration of these stories seeks to establish neither a chronology nor the reasons for variation between versions, though some such analysis is integral to the paper. The aim is rather to explore the themes and concerns that might explain the remarkable prevalence of these stories overall, and their place within early ideas about the Buddha, Bodhisattva and dharma. The paper argues that these tales reveal new perspectives on the oft-studied relationship between Buddha and dharma, and between the Buddha’s physical body and his body of teachings. In addition, they encourage audiences to value the dharma as both a universal truth and a set of teachings available to us; teachings that are worth hearing but – more than that – worth understanding

The Second Decade of the Avadānaśataka

A translation of the second decade (stories 11-20) of the Indian Buddhist story collection Avadānaśataka, with short introduction and notes

The Fourth Decade of the Avadānaśataka

A translation of stories 31-40 of the Sanskrit Buddhist narrative collection entitled Avadānaśataka

Introduction

In this introduction we outline the aims of the volume and explain its main foundational assumptions and themes. We also offer reflections on the common questions and observations that connect its different contributions, arranged here in four sections

'In the Footsteps of the Buddha?: Women and the <em>Bodhisatta</em> Path in Theravada Buddhism'

Although a woman can achieve the state of awakening known as arahatship, Theravāda Buddhist tradition states that a woman cannot achieve full and complete Buddhahood. More than this, a woman is unable to successfully aspire to Buddhahood, or progress on the path to it—in other words she cannot be a bodhisatta. In this article, Appleton explores the origins of the doctrine that excludes women from the bodhisatta path, as well as its effects on the outlook of women in Buddhist societies. She begins by outlining the bodhisatta path as it is presented in Theravāda texts, and tracing the role of jātaka stories—stories about previous lives of Gotama Buddha—in codifying this path and excluding women from it. She then examines the striking absence of stories about changing sex between births, and the possible influence of this upon the understanding that a bodhisatta is always male. She finishes with an assessment of the relationship between the exclusion of women from the bodhisatta path and other ideas about the social and spiritual incapacities of women