THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF BUDDHISM
By T. W. Rhys Davids
CONTENTS
LECTUREI. RELIGIOUS THEORIES IN INDIA BEFORE BUDDHISM
Religion, the meaning of the world
Value, from the comparative point of view, of the history of the Buddhist religion
Theories of God and the Soul, generally
The same in India; the Vedas
Rise of monotheism, especially in India
The Lokayatas and Jains
The Sankhya system
The Sixty-two Heresies
Summary of this chapter
Importance attached by Buddhist writters to the question of the soul-theory
LECTURE II. AUTHORITIES ON WHICH OUR KNOWLEDGE OF BUDDHISM IS BASED
Interest of the discovery of new literatures
First discovery of Pali
Turnour’s Maha Vansa
Prof. Fausboll’s Dhammapada
The Dictionary
The Three Pitakas
The Vinaya, Rules of the Order
The Great Nikayas
The Abhidhamma
The miscellaneous books
Quotations from the Songs of the Sisters
The Pali Text Society
List of the Pitakas
LECTURE III. NOTES ON THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA
No ancient biography extant
The Pali and Sanskrit poems
The Sakya clan
The Buddha not a king’s son
The legends of his birth and chilhood
The Great Renunciation
King Bimbisara’s offer
The Teachers
Attainment of Nirvana
First Sermon
Daily life
The Buddha and the Brahmins
LECTURE IV. THE SECRET OF BUDDHISM
Part I. The signs, the Path, and the Fetters
The Ajanta cave fresco of the Wheel
Wonders of the Wheel
Impermanence
Sorrow and Individuality
Delusions about self or soul
Karma
Future life
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Four Noble Truths
Modern parallels
The Ten Fetters
Nirvana
LECTURE V. THE SECRET OF BUDDHISM
Part II. The Wheel of life and Arahatshif
(ro Nirvana)
Salvation, from what?
The Twelve Causes
Grasping the cause of rebirth
Western parallels
Nirvana
Poems on
The bliss of
The longing for it
Where it can be got
The ideal Recluse
Intellectual activity part of ideal Arahatshif
Suppression of desire not a part of it
The Freedom in Arahatship
Real basis of the importance of the stydy of this ideal
LECTURE VI. SOME NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF BUDDHISM
The various Buddhisms
Council of Vesali
Katha Vatthu
The seventeen schools
Bodhisatship
The Greater Vehicle
The Tantra books
Theosophy
Schopenhauer and Huxley on Buddhism
index