Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha

by Kathryn R. Blackstone

Overview

A detailed exploration of the quest for liberation on the part of the early bhikkunis. Only text in the Buddhist tradition of known female authorship. Important to anyone investigating women's own perspective on their religion. Also provides a clear statement about how renunciants understand nibbana.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700709625
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/27/1998
Series:	Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The Language of Liberation; Chapter 3 Looking Backward: Attitudes Towards Renunciation; Chapter 4 Looking Inward: Attitudes Towards the Body; Chapter 5 Looking Outward: Attitudes Towards The Physical Environment; Chapter 6 Struggle for Liberation in the Therīgāthā;

Editorial Reviews

'This book is a valuable contribution to the growing literature about women and Buddhism. It should be in all libraries with collections about Buddhism or gender studies in religion.' - Journal of the American Academy of Religion

'Kathryn Blackstone has offered scholars in the study of early Buddhism a valuable lesson ... I found myself happily convinced.' - The Tibet Journal

From the Publisher

Blackstone's conclusions are carefully grounded in her scrupulous analysis of technical language and poetic imagery in the two texts, and they are convincing....Although Blackstone's book is not a critical philological study of the Therigatha, Buddhist scholars should find it of interest because of the fruitfulness of the author's approach to her material. But it is to students that the book will have its greatest appeal, for they will find in it a palpable sense of the lives of the nameless women who contributed to these verses.
— Journal of Buddhist Ethics

Nancy J. Barnes