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Book Cover
E-book
Author McMahan, David

Title Empty Vision : Metaphor and Visionary Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism
Published Hoboken : Taylor and Francis, 2013

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Description 1 online resource (238 pages)
Series Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism
Routledge critical studies in Buddhism.
Contents Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Technical Note on Terms; Introduction; 1 The Devaluation of Language and the Privileging of Perception; Language and Concepts in Early Buddhism; Abhidharma and Dharma Theory; Mahāyāna Views on Language and Concepts; Dialectical Patterns in the Perfection of Wisdom Literature; Dialectic, Paradox, and Discourse; The Paradoxical Dialectic and Buddhist History; Discursive Thinking and the Construction of the Lifeworld; Perception in Indian Buddhism and Indian Philosophy
2 Buddhist Visuality in History and MetaphorVision in Indo-European Language and History; Metaphors and Their Functions; Visual Metaphor in Buddhist Discourse; Related Metaphors for Knowledge and Awakening; The Meaning and Significance of Space in Buddhist Discourse; Conclusion; 3 Orality, Writing, and Authority: Visionary Literature and the Struggle for Legitimacy in the Māhayāna; Orality In Early Buddhism; Writing in the Early Mahāyāna; Writing and the Survival of the Mahāyāna; Sacred Text and Sacred Site; Writing and the Visual
The Buddhavacana and Strategies of Legitimation in the MahāyānaVisionary Literature and Grounds for Legitimacy; Conclusion; 4 Realms of the Senses: Buddha Fields and Fields of Vision in the Gandavyūha Sūtra; Historical Context of the Gandavyūha; Visionary Literature and Thaumaturgy in India; Buddha-Fields and Images of Kingship; Elements of the Narrative; Vision and Doctrine; Dialectics of Words and Dialectics of Vision; Concretization of Metaphor; 5 The Optics of Buddhist Meditation and Devotion; Vision and Visualization in Early and Non-Mahāyāna Meditation; Meditation and Mental Imagery
Vision and DevotionDharma, Buddha, Stupa, and Saint; Recollection of the Buddha and Visualization Sūtras; Image Worship and Darśan; Asaṅga on the Buddha's Bodies; Tantric Visualization Practices; Stages of Tantric Sādhana; Mandala and Sūtra Imagery; Embodiment and Resemblance; The Somaticization of Doctrine; 6 Conclusions and Occlusions; Ocularcentrism in European and American Philosophy; Ocularcentrism in Buddhist Traditions; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary Visual metaphors in a number of Mahayana sutras construct a discourse in which visual perception serves as a model for knowledge and enlightenment. In the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) and other Mahayana literature, immediate access to reality is symbolized by vision and set in opposition to language and conceptual thinking, which are construed as obscuring reality. In addition to its philosophical manifestations, the tension between vision and language also functioned as a strategy of legitimation in the struggle of the early heterodox Mahayana movement for authority and legitimacy. T
Notes Print version record
Subject Mahayana Buddhism.
Imagination -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism.
Metaphor -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism
Mahayana.
RELIGION -- Comparative Religion.
Imagination -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781136857263
1136857265