Buddhist Mahayana Texts (Sacred Books of the East) [Paperback]

E. B. Cowell (Editor), Francis A. Davis (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Sacred Books of the East | Publication Date: December 8, 2011

Excellent translations of basic works in later Buddhism feature the Buddha-Karita of Asvaghosha, concerning the life and teachings of the Buddha. Additional documents include the Larger and Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha, describing the Land of Bliss, the Vagrakkhedika, the Larger and Smaller Pragna, two kernel statements of the Mahayana, and the Meditation Sutra of Amida Buddhism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (December 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486255522
• ISBN-13: 978-0486255521
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,614,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Includes a beautiful, classic life story of the Buddha, November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Buddhist Mahayana Texts (Sacred Books of the East) (Paperback)

This book consists of very early (1894) translations of several classic Buddhist texts, including the Buddha-karita, the Pure Land Sutras, and the Heart Sutra. For a more updated and scholarly translation of the Pure Land Sutras, I would recommend "The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light," translated by Luis Gomez, and of course there are a number of fine modern translations of the Heart Sutra. I think this book (Buddhist Mahayana Texts) is worth buying, however, for the English translation of the Buddha-karita, a beautiful and poetic life story of the Buddha by the ancient Indian poet Ashvagosha. This is one of the classics of Indian literature. Even though the English translation may sound a little dated, the richness and beauty of the Sanskrit original still shines through.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Theravada to Pure Land, July 12, 2001

By 

Lawrence Waldron (Queens, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buddhist Mahayana Texts (Sacred Books of the East) (Paperback)

This inexpensive volume contains several important Buddhist scriptures. Included is the Buddha Karita, the story of the Buddha's life. It is a prose translation of the original poem by the great Indian literary master, Asvaghosha. The translation was done a long time ago and so their are many Christo-centric interpretations of words that Buddhists would never use,like "soul" and "penance". Such terms should be more like "consciousness" and "austerity" respectively. These mistakes are forgivable, whether you're Christian or Buddhist, when you realize how beautiful the interpretation is otherwise. Look out for sexist language more indicative of Asvaghosha's milieu than the Buddha's life. Also included are a long and short version of the Shukhavati Vyuha, an important Pure Land text used by the Buddhist sects devoted to Amitabha Buddha. In it is a wonderful, mythical description of one of the Buddhist Heavens, Shukhavati, the Western Realm of Bliss. Buddhists read this scripture for the dead at special ceremonies. The Heart Sutra is also in here. It is sometimes described as the Buddhist Lord's Prayer. Many Buddhists recite it daily and there is even a scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha movie where some monks blissfully break into the Heart Sutra while visiting at a friend's house. Bertolucci also had some opera singer perform it in an aria at the end of the movie...in Sanskrit no less! Wow. It actually worked too.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid 19th-century scholarship, May 18, 2005

By 

Robert E. Morrell (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buddhist Mahayana Texts (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 49) (Paperback)

Good material, but needs sorting out. Apparently this reprint was originally published by Oxford University Press in 1894. However, the erratic pagination strongly suggests that the various parts were published separately and then combined without renumbering. (In this review all diacritical marks will be ignored, of course.)

Part I (pp. xiii, 1-207, including index) consists of "The Buddha-carita of Asvaghosa" (cf., J. _Bussho gyosan_) translated from a SANSKRIT original by E.B. Cowell. It is often important to note whether a Western language translation is made from a Sanskrit/Pali or a Chinese original. For Buddhists in China, Korea and Japan the Chinese version is definitive, however it may or may not vary from its original - "original" does not mean "authentic," just "earlier." Thus, the 28-chapter translation of the Lotus Sutra into Chinese by Kumarajiva in 406 is the scripture known to CJK Buddhists; its antecedents may be investigated out of historical curiosity, but any discrepancies would be of no theoretic importance.

Part II ( pp. 1-208) begins with 5 texts translated from SANSKRIT by F. Max Muller (1823-1900): the Larger Sukhavati-vyuha [Pure Land], the Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha [Pure Land], the Vajracchedika [i.e., the Diamond Sutra], the Larger Prajna-paramita-hrdaya-sutra [Heart Sutra] , and the Smaller Prajna-paramita-hrdaya-sutra [Heart Sutra]. These are important in the CJK Buddhist tradition - but in their Chinese manifestation.

The final item is the Amitayur-dhyana-sutra [Sutra of Meditation on Amida Buddha] translated by J(unjiro) Takakusu (1866-1945) from CHINESE (Nj. 198 = T [Taisho shinshu daizokyo] 365). [Yes, in 1874 the numbering system in use was Nanjo Bunyu (also Nanjio Bunyiu, 1849-1927), A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka, The Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan (Oxford, 1883).]

Although all of the Three Pure Land Sutras (Jodo sanbukyo) central to East Asian Pure Land thought are translated here, only the last by Takakusu is from the appropriate "original." The three are as follows:

Larger Pure Land Sutra. The Muryojukyo, literally the "Amitayus Sutra," T 360, is the translation into Chinese attributed to Sanghavarman in C.E. 252; but popularly known as the (Larger) Sukhavat-vyuha ("Land of Supreme Bliss") Sutra, it relates the career of the Buddha Amida as the bodhisattva Dharmakara (Hozo), who made 48 vows to save sentient beings. For the Pure Land movement, the 18th vow is central: "Even when I am able to attain Buddhahood, if sentient beings of the ten quarters, with sincerity and faith, desire to be born in my land by practicing [invoking /meditating on ] up to ten thoughts on the name of Buddha Amitayus are not born there, I will not accept supreme enlightenment-only excluding those who commit the five atrocities and abuse the True Dharma."

Amitabha Sutra. Kumarajiva's translation (ca. 402) of the (Smaller) Sukhavati-vyuha ("Land of Supreme Bliss") Sutra, the Amidakyo, T 366. In describing Amida's paradise and recommending the invocation of his name, it summarizes the argument of the Larger Pure Land Sutra, or Amitayus Sutra.

Sutra of Meditation on Amida Buddha. Amitayur-dhyana-sutra, Kanmuryojukyô, T 365. Sakyamuni's appears to the imprisoned Queen Vaidehi, whom he instructs in various forms of meditation on the Buddha Amitayus with the promise that even the worst sinner can attain birth in Amida's Pure Land if he recites Amida's name ten times at the moment of death. This sole reliance on Amida as savior differs from the visualization of Amida suggested by the sutra's name.

The 50 volumes of the Sacred Books of the East Series were - and remain - a great scholarly accomplishment.