For a brief synopsis of the book’s chapters, see the introduction on Lion’s Roar.

Everything has the potential to support and realize spiritual life.

Amida Buddha’s vows form the foundation of the Pure Land tradition’s vision of universal salvation. While emphasizing that these vows create the Pure Land as an ideal realm for awakening, Bloom underscores that Amida, as dharmakaya, represents the buddha-nature inherent in all things—making awakening possible anywhere.

This dissertation offers a comprehensive treatment of the textual sources of the Nandimitrāvadāna, a Buddhist narrative which is deemed an authoritative source for the cult of the Elders or Arhats in Central and East Asia.

Putting all the three (i.e., Khotanese, Tibetan, Chinese) versions of the Nandimitrāvadāna under philological and historical scrutiny, the dissertation draws attention to the interplay between the fluid text and the cultic practice, and sheds light on the complexity of the tradition as well as the reception of the narrative in various cultural spheres.

Zhu Fonian may have begun to produce new ‘scriptures’ without benefit of any Indian source-texts in an attempt to revive his own flagging fame.

How one Chinese Āgama translator came to write Chinese apocrypha.

First I redirected my hearing inward in order to enter the current of the sages. Then external sounds disappeared. With the direction of my hearing reversed and with sounds stilled, both sounds and silence ceased to arise. So it was that I gradually progressed…

A complete, annotated translation of the classic Chinese Sūtra covering the Bodhisattvas’ practice of meditation and attainment of wisdom.

… self-referential passages functioned as self-promotion strategies suited to the employment of the emerging medium of the manuscript

… these devices come to be constitutive of Mahāyāna doctrine, as it is argued the Mahāyāna sutra texts themselves are constitutive of the Buddha’s true body.

All aspects of our practice—zazen in the monks’ hall, chanting of verses and sutras during services, ceremonies in the Dharma hall—and all our other activities in daily life are the practice of the bodhisattva vow actualized moment by moment. We chant these verses and sutras as an expression of this interpenetrating reality

The spell overflows with concrete nouns and dynamic verbs, with-out ever committing fully to semantic or syntactic cohesion. What does such language do? How does it act in the world of the speaker or reader? The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka itself offers guarantees of efficacy, but does not explain the precise mechanism of the dhāraṇī.

Medieval, Chinese exegetes were unanimous in saying that dhāraṇī should not be translated, but offered a variety of explanations why.

Literacy disrupted the continuity of the oral tradition and reoriented access to knowledge from the oral- and aural-sense world to the visual world.

How the emerging Mahāyāna movement in India capitalized on new technology (writing) to legitimate and spread their teachings, and how the new medium shaped them in turn.

Subsequent wheels build on and correct misconceptions in earlier ones, and the schema construes each successive dispensation as more profound than the preceding one(s) and as better representing the Buddha’s final thought.

A brief introduction to the schema Mahayanists used for valorizing their chosen sutras.

There is indeed a third alternative for resolving such inconsistencies, and it comes in the form of the doctrines of neyārtha and nītārtha. It is neither the authenticity nor the pragmatic truth of the [offending] scriptures which the [Mahayana] tradition questions, but [rather] their intended meaning.

… what text does not contradict reality? Different schools of Buddhist philosophy have answered this question in different ways. Indeed, it is this fact which makes them different.

An introduction to Mahāyāna hermeneutics.

Useful both as a reference and just to get a sense of how large the Canon is.

In explaining the nearly impossible diversity of Mahayana texts, the book strikes an admirable balance between respect and skepticism, sticking mostly to the established historical facts. The reader is left to draw her own conclusions about the merits or demerits of the texts themselves.

The text jumps inside me to help me out.
…
So, when you’re studying Buddhism, what are you studying?
I know the answer. I’m studying me.
I’m studying me.

I would say that the Nikāyas and Āgamas give us a “historical-realistic perspective” on the Buddha, while the Mahāyāna sūtras give us a “cosmic-metaphysical perspective.”

Bhikkhu Bodhi explores the Bodhisattva ideal from the perspective of the both the Theravāda and Mahayana, with a brief summary of its history. An excellent introduction to this vital topic.