The Creed of Half Japan

by Arthur Lloyd

Overview

This is the extended and annotated edition including * an extensive annotation of more than 10.000 words about the history and basics of Buddhism, written by Thomas William Rhys Davids Lloyds historical sketches of the evolution of Buddhism in Japan provide a wealth of knowledge. Contents: PREFACE CHAPTER I - Mahyna CHAPTER II - The Stage on which S'akyamuni made his Appearance CHAPTER III - The Buddha and his Greatest Disciple CHAPTER IV - The Pre-Christian Expansion of Buddhism CHAPTER V - Pusityamitra CHAPTER VI - The New Testament in Touch with the East CHAPTER VII - Alexandria and Antioch at the Time of Christ CHAPTER VIII - The Legend of St. Thomas CHAPTER IX - The Call from China CHAPTER X - Buddhism just before the Coming of Christianity CHAPTER XI - As'vaghosha CHAPTER XII - Ngrjuna CHAPTER XIII - The Missionaries of the Han CHAPTER XIV - Dharmagupta CHAPTER XV - Manichaeism CHAPTER XVI -China in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Centuries CHAPTER XVII - Buddhism reaches Japan CHAPTER XVIII - The Crown Prince ShMtoku Taishi CHAPTER XIX - Buddhism during the Nara Period from A.D. 621-782 CHAPTER XX - Heian Buddhism CHAPTER XXI - "Namudaishi" CHAPTER XXII - The Buddhism of the Gempei Period CHAPTER XXIII - The Buddhism of Kamakura CHAPTER XXIV - Nichiren and the Earlier Sects CHAPTER XXV - "RisshM Ankoku Ron" CHAPTER XXVI - The Mongols CHAPTER XXVII - The Buddhism of the Muromachi Age CHAPTER XXVIII - The Period of the Catholic Missions CHAPTER XXIX - The Buddhism of the Tokugawa Period CHAPTER XXX - Recapitulation

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783849621919
Publisher:	Jazzybee Verlag
Publication date:	07/21/2012
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	564 KB

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER III Tub Buddha And His Greatest Disciple Thanks to the labours of many students of the Buddhist books, both Pali and Sanskrit, we are able to form a vivid mind's eye picture of the ministerial life of the Founder of Buddhism; indeed, the general indications of time are so wonderfully precise that we can trace his labours year by year for quite one-half of the forty-six years which his ministry occupied. There is a gap of about fifteen years near the end of his career for which we have no precise sequence of events; but even here we are not left entirely in the dark, for there are many indications given of the troublous days through which India in general, and the Buddhist community in particular, was then passing.1We are shown the successes which attended on S'akya- muni's first preaching. Conversions were numerous and rapid, converts of all ages and both sexes flocked into his community from every class of society, and were welcomed without distinction of caste and rank. Thousands caught the enthusiasm of the Buddha, and left all to follow him, while in the crowds who felt no vocation to the monastic life were kings and merchants, who vied with each other in the generosity of their gifts. 1 Northern Buddhists assign to the closing years of this period of silence the pronouncement of two or three most important Sutras. The " Saddharmapundarika Sutra " is said to have taken seven years to deliver in its fulness, and (as we have seen) the three Sutras relating to the Mercies and Vow of Amitabha are all ascribed to this period. It is hard to believe that they can all have come from the same mouth at about the same time, for in the one set Amitabha is exalted to the highest ofall places; in the other, he occupies only a very inferior position. It seems certain that the...