Mahāyāna Buddhist Meditation: Theory and Practice by Minoru KiyotaReview by: George R. ElderJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 102, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1982), pp. 423-424Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602577 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 19:23

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:23:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews of Books 423

lavender" publications' and realized that the phenomenon of the "cedules" was not an isolated one. Those earlier pieces, privately distributed in the 1930's, were simply not available. Thus it is that the volume at hand, by reprinting many of these items and others as well, fulfills a function which goes far beyond the usual pious monument to a revered scholar's memory-in fact it rescues in large part the irreplaceable products of that great and fertile mind.

The publication of this volume was preceded by the ap- pearance of a bibliography in this journal in 1974 compiled by Prof. Cohen, based on a long and extensive search for these rare materials.2 That bibliography is reproduced in this volume, pp. 496-501. The content of the volume is a selection of much of Boodberg's writings, arranged roughly by subject- matter rather than chronologically. The early part of the volume concentrates on Boodberg's first and most consistent interest, which is the study of the involvement and mutual interaction between the Chinese and their northern neighbors. That study called on Boodberg's very wide command of languages, strictest philological standards, and keen sensi- tivity as to what were the key problems in this field. In these selections one finds laid out in full detail much of what was previously known to his students only from passing remarks made in tutorial sessions. Of much interest here is "Turk, Aryan and Chinese in Ancient Asia," an unpublished lecture presented in 1942, where one finds a wonderfully stimulating discussion of the ways in which the various linguistic groups and politico-social forces interacted in Inner Asia, views which determined the direction of much of Boodberg's philo- logical researches concerning the nomads of that area of the world, but which he never so clearly spelled out elsewhere.

A second general field of inquiry is the history of the Chinese language and its script. This encompassed the nature of the script, studies in archaic Chinese phonetics, and semantics, all of which may be summed up in Boodberg's notation, GPS. His important articles, "Some Proleptical Remarks on the Evolution of Archaic Chinese," and "'Ideo- graphy' or 'Iconolotry2" are both included, as well as some notes from the 1930's unknown to me until now.

Finally, the volume reprints a number of cedules, that outburst of creativity which one sees now incredibly to have taken place within the short span of eighteen months. Many cedules brought Boodberg's high philological standards to bear on the interpretation and translation of poetry-and

Journal of the American Oriental Society 67 (1947) p. 56. Only now has there been a response to Kennedy's concern that Boodberg's work was still on those hectographed sheets.

2 Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.1 (1974) pp. 8-13. Edward Schafer's moving "Necrology," pp. 1-7 of that issue, is also reprinted in this volume, pp. ix-xix.

reiterated his insistence that one must be sensitive to the texts and to what the writer had in mind. Unfortunately, those reproduced here are the same set of 26 which were reprinted in the Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 7.2 (1969), pp. 1-39, which means that the remaining 28 are not easily available anywhere. This does not do full service to what must be the primary purpose of the volume.

Boodberg's insistence on high standards of scholarship did not descend to pedantry; rather he was warmly accepting of the accomplishments of the amateur and of the non-specialist, but fiercely intolerant of the inadequacies of the professional. This is beautifully expressed in his short piece commenting on the great books of the Orient, pp. 22-25 in this volume.

There are a few sources of unhappiness with this volume. A number of items are reproduced from bound volumes and the lines near the original binding are sometimes distorted almost to the point of illegibility. Surely the cost of rebinding a few volumes might have been absorbed by the Press. Secondly there is no index, which is sorely needed, given the nature of much of the material and the use to which the volume will be put. Finally there is no indication in the bibliography as to which items are reprinted here. While we do express our appreciation to the editor for his devotion in bringing this volume to completion, we nevertheless must register our disappointment that such a commemorative volume has not been more carefully produced.

ALBERT E. DIEN

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

MahdyAna Buddhist Meditation: TheorY and Practice. Edited by MINORu KIYOTA. Pp. Xv + 312. Honolulu: THE UNI- VERSITY PRESS OF HAWAII. 1978.

This work is a collection of nine articles, some of them quite lengthy, focused more or less upon the topic of meditation in the traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. Not surprisingly, the focus is usually upon the theory of that meditation rather than the actual practices less accessible to scholarship. The volume was planned to commemorate the work of Richard Robinson who died in 1970 although there is no customary subtitle to that effect; there is a brief biography of this important scholar at the outset. Robinson's career took him to the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and it seems to have been the intent of the editor to include only those papers whose authors, in almost every case, have had some relationship with that university rather than a relationship with the Madhyamika interests of Robinson. The results are uneven; and even the best efforts are marred by the frequency of printing errors. There is a closing bibliography which is helpful since sources are sometimes inadequately cited elsewhere in the volume.

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:23:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

424 Journal of the American Oriental Society 102.2 (1982)

There is also a glossary of Chinese-Japanese equivalents although Sanskrit and Tibetan have equal weight within the articles themselves.

Among those studies deserving more consideration here is Gadjin M. Nagao's "'What Remains' in Silnyata: A Yogacara Interpretation of Emptiness." The author argues with textual support that sitvata has paradoxically both a positive and a negative nuance in the Madh 'iantavibhaga, in Vasubandhu's commentary on that text, and in statements by Asahga. When Nagao sees a similar tension in the Early Buddhist explanation that a hall lacking cows is "empty" or void of them, the case is overdrawn. Yes, the monks "remain" (avas.ista); but there is nothing paradoxical or mysterious about that.

Yuichi Kajiyama's "Later Madhyamikas on Epistemology and Meditation" relates directly to Robinson's own interests and is structured in an exemplary way. The article analyzes Santaraksita's Madhvamakalamkdra writings on progressive epistemological positions within Buddhism and then con- siders Kamala?Tla's BhAvanakramas to isolate the stages of gradual enlightenment. In this way, Kajiyama is able to show that Kamala?Tla's religious concerns correspond to the more philosophical concerns of his master.

While her style is sometimes precious, Charlene McDermott has written an intellectually vigorous article, entitled "Yogic Direct Awareness as Means of Valid Cognition in DharmakTrti and Rgyal-tshab." The author articulates the main features of yogipratyaksa as found in Dharmakfrti's Nvdlyabindhu commented upon in the Tibetan tradition by Rgyal-tshab. This yogic capacity emerges as the highest of four kinds of "direct awareness" and provides "direct" as opposed to con- ceptual knowledge of the Four Noble Truths.

Among studies that emphasize Chinese materials, Francis H. Cook's "Fa-tsang's Brief Commentary on the Pra Ii pdra- mitd-hrdava-sitra" provides a highly readable translation of a Hua-yen commentary on the Indian Mahayana scripture. There is something of a methodological test here since Cook is interested in the way that the Chinese Buddhist perceives what comes from another culture. It is an overstatement to con- clude, however, that a "strong insistence upon dissolving the individual into the whole, upon seeing Being instead of beings . . .is presumably the goal of all Buddhism."

In his very careful study of "Fa-sheng's Observations on the Four Stations of Mindfulness," Leon Hurvitz is also interested in the larger issue: the Chinese reaction to Indian Buddhism in translation by way of the particular topic of the Four Stations of Mindfulness. We are given here, however, only the materials for future consideration; and they consist of translations from the Chinese of relevant Nikdyas and Agamas set alongside versions of a text A-p'i-t'an hsin lun ascribed to one "Fa- sheng."

Less, I think, needs to be said about the remaining articles. Elvin W. Jones's "Buddhist Theories of Existents: The Systems of Two Truths," attempts to cover a great deal of ground but is repetitious while failing to inform beyond the level of a survey. Geshe Sopa's "Samathavipa?yanayuga- naddha: The Two Leading Principles of Buddhist Meditation" is quite clear but lacks any reference to scholarly literature in the field and is supported by only one general footnote. Stefan Anacker's "The Meditation Therapy of the Madhvantavib- hdgabhdsva" may contain a useful translation of the Vasu- bandhu commentary despite the lack of a standard scholarly apparatus; but the author's introduction is too enamored by something called "sandblasting of the mental consciousness." And Minoru Kiyota's "Buddhist Devotional Meditation: A Study of the SukhdvatTvvuhopadei'a" may contain a prefer- able translation of the Pure Land scripture but fails to cite the English translation by Nishu Utsuki (Selected Texts of Shin Buddhism, 1953).

GEORGE R. ELDER

HUNTER COLLEGE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

The Blue Cliff Record. Translated from the Chinese Pi Yen Lu by THOMAS and J. C. CLEARY. Three volumes. Pp. xxv + xvi + viii + 656. Boulder and London: SHAM-

BHALA. 1977. Each volume $5.95 paper.

One of the most difficult and tragic books, but the best book for understanding the Kung-an Ch'an tradition in East Asia is the Pi-ren lu or Blue Cliff Record. No one can grasp the point of the book by simply reading it, hence "the most difficult." Its "tragic" fate was sealed by the Sung Emperor, Shen-tsung, who would not let the book be included in the Buddhist canon, because he thought a passage in the third case of the book saying "What sort of thing were the Ancient Emperors?" ridiculed the state. Furthermore, the original copies of the book were collected and burned up 12 years after its publication by the famous Kung-an Ch'an master, Ta-hui (1089-1163), the direct and beloved disciple of Yuanwu (1063-1135), the main author of the book. Even more strangely, there has never been any criticism accusing Tahui's outrageous behaviour. Rather, his arson has been admired as concordant with the Ch'an tradition: "A transmission from mind to mind with no dependence on words and letter." Later, however, the Blue Cliff Record was retrieved and published, becoming one of the most influential books in the Ch'an tradition.

From this incident we can trace two lines in the Chinese tradition: Yuan-wu's understanding that encouraged the use of words and scripture and Ta-hui's which did not. This

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:23:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions