Donald S. Lopez

Religions of India in practice

The inaugural volume of this series brings together the work of scholars of the religions of India in a new anthology designed to reshape the ways in which the religious traditions of India are understood. Many of the contributions highlight different types of discourse (especially ritual manuals, folktales and oral narratives) and voices (vernacular, esoteric, domestic and female) that have not been sufficiently represented in previous anthologies and standard accounts of Indian religions. The selections are drawn from ancient texts, medieval manuscripts, modern pamphlets, and contemporary fieldwork in rural and urban India. They represent every region in South Asia and include Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, and Muslim materials. Some are written texts reflecting elite concerns, while others are transcriptions of oral narratives told by non-literate peasants. Some texts are addressed to a public and pan-Indian audience, others to a limited coterie of initiates in an esoteric sect, and still others are intended for a few women gathered in the courtyard for a household ceremony. The editor has reinforced this diversity by arranging the selections within several overarching themes and categories of discourse (hymns, rituals, narratives and religious interactions), and encourages us to make our own connections.

Treasures of Tibetan Art : collections of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art

Constructed between 1945 and 1947 by Jacques Marchais (professional name of Jacqueline Klauber), the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art in Staten Island houses more than 1200 pieces of Tibetan Buddhist art from China and Mongolia, dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Two essays about the history of the museum and the history of Tibetan Buddhism open the catalogue, which contains 169 objects from the museums collections.

The Heart Sūtra

When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara [Guanyin] was meditating on the profound prajnaparamita, he perceived that all the five aggregates* are void and empty, and was thereupon freed from all sufferings and calamities. [He addresses Sariputra, an early chief disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha]: Sariputra, matter is not different from voidness and voidness is not different from matter: matter is voidness and voidness is matter [form is emptiness and emptiness is form]. Such is also the case with sensation, perception, discrimination and consciousness. Sariputra, all these things are void in nature, having neither beginning nor end, being neither pure nor impure, and having neither increase nor decrease. Therefore, in voidness there is no matter, no sensation, no perception, no discrimination and no consciousness; there is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body and no mind; there is no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch and no mental process; there is no category of eye nor is there a category of consciousness; no ignorance nor the cessation of ignorance; no old age and death, nor the cessation of old age and death; there is no suffering, no causes of suffering, no cessation of suffering, and no way leading to the cessation of suffering; and there is no wisdom, nor anything to be gained. As nothing is to be gained, a Bodhisattva depending on prajna-paramita becomes free in his mind, and as he is free in his mind he has no fear and is rid of dreamlike thoughts of unreality and enjoys ultimate Nirvana. By means of prajna-paramita, all Buddhas of the past, the present and the future realize anuttara-samyak-sambodhi [utmost, right and perfect enlightenment]. Therefore, we know prajna-paramita is a great, divine spell, a great enlightening spell, a supreme spell, and a spell without a parallel, that can do away with all sufferings without fail. Thus we recite the Prajna-paramita Spell and say: Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi, svaha! [Gone, Gone, Gone beyond, Gone completely beyond, O what an awakening, All Hail!] (454-55).

Atisa and Tibet: Life and Works of Dipamkara Srijnana.

The author proceeds to portray the Tibetan background of early Buddhism and gives an account of the early history of Tibet and Indo-Tibetan connections, together with a study of Buddhism in Tibet from the seventh century onwards right down to the time of Atisa in the eleventh century A.D.