Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities
Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities
Looking for an examination copy?
This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
This book presents a new answer to the question: what is nirvana? Part One distinguishes between systematic and narrative thought in the Pali texts of Theravada Buddhism, looking at the place of nirvana in both. Part Two explores other Buddhist utopias and relates Buddhist utopianism to studies of European and American utopian writing. Steven Collins discusses these issues in relation to textuality, world history, and ideology in premodern civilizations, aiming to contribute to a new vision of Buddhist history that integrates the inside and the outside of texts.
- An interesting approach to the the question 'what is nirvana?'
- A study which integrates the inside of Buddhist texts - concepts, images, stories - with their outside in Southern Asian and world history
- A comprehensive treatment of utopianism in Buddhism, and anywhere else outside the European/American tradition
Reviews & endorsements
"This major publication belongs in all undergraduate and graduate libraries supporting religious studies programs." John Clifford Holt, Religious Studies Review
"This is a fantastic work. It is highly informative, intriguing, and thoroughly researched. I recommend it without reservation for anyone interested in the Pali literature. The only criticism I have is that the author might have made this one colossal work into a few smaller ones. Otherwise, this is an excellent accomplishment." Vanessa Sasson, ARC, the Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University
Product details
February 2011Adobe eBook Reader
9780511822469
0 pages
0kg
8 tables
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Textual chronology
- General introduction: Buddhism and civilisation history I - structures and processes: Part I. Nirvana In and Out of Time: Introduction to part I: systematic and narrative thought - eternity and closure in structure and story
- 1. The concept of nirvana
- 2. The imagery of nirvana
- 3. Nirvana, time and narrative
- Conclusion to part I: modes of thought, modes of tradition
- Part II. Paradise in Heaven and on Earth: Introduction to part II: utopia and the ideal society
- 4. Heaven, the land of Cockaygne and Arcadia
- 5. Millennialism
- Critical discussion: what is 'millennialism'? Premodern ideas and modern movements
- 6. The perfect moral commonwealth? Kingship and its discontents
- 7. The Vessantara JÃ¥taka
- Conclusion to part II: in what sense can one speak of Buddhist utopianism?
- General conclusion: Buddhism and civilisation history II - reprise: Appendices
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Indexes.
