Warning! The directory is not yet complete and will be amended until the beginning of the term.
142016 SE Systematic Buddhology in the Uttaratantrasastra (2025S)
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Sa 01.02.2025 08:00 to Fr 28.02.2025 10:00
- Deregistration possible until Mo 31.03.2025 23:59
Details
max. 36 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- N Wednesday 05.03. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 19.03. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 26.03. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 02.04. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 09.04. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 30.04. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 07.05. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 14.05. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 21.05. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 28.05. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 04.06. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 11.06. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 18.06. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
- Wednesday 25.06. 14:00 - 15:30 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Assessment and permitted materials
Assessment will be based primarily on attendance and participation in class, together with weekly preparation (Sanskrit/Tibetan translation). At the end of the course, some passages of translation produced in class will be assessed.
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Knowledge of Sanskrit and Tibetan is required. However, it is fine for knowledge of one language to be significantly stronger than the other: weekly preparation can focus on either the Sanskrit or Tibetan versions of the text.
Examination topics
Reading list
The Sanskrit edition used for our reading is that of E.H. Johnston:
* Johnston, E. H., ed., 1991 [1950]. “The Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantra-śāstra,” in H. S. Prasad, ed., The Uttaratantra of Maitreya, Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series No. 79. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications.
This will be supplemented by the canonical Tibetan version. Passages for translation will be supplied before each class, after the first week.For electronic access to the Sanskrit:
1) https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.326624/mode/2up
2)
https://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/corpustei/transformations/html/sa_ratnagotravibhAga.htm
A synoptic version of the Sanskrit and Tibetan (also Chinese) is available here:
https://www2.hf.uio.no/polyglotta/index.php?page=fulltext&view=fulltext&vid=1125&mid=0The still definitive study of the text is this:
* Takasaki Jikidō 高崎直道, 1966. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra), Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Rome: Serie Orientale Roma.For consideration also are amendments proposed in these works:
* de Jong, Jan Willem, 1968. Review of Takasaki (1966), Indo-Iranian Journal 11, 36-54.
* Schmithausen, Lambert, 1971. "Philologische Bemerkungen zum Ratnagotravibhāga," Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens: 15, 123–177.Further relevant works (of which there are very many) include these:
* Jones, Christopher V., 2021. The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman. Honolulu: University of Hawai‵i Press [relevant chapters].
* Kano Kazuo 加納和雄, 2016. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet, Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91, Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien.
* Mathes, Klaus-Dieter, 2015[2017]. "The Original Ratnagotravibhāga and Its Yogācāra Interpretation as Possible Indian Precedents of Gzhan stong ('Empti[ness] of Other')," Hōrin: Vergleichende Studien zur japanischen Kultur 18, 119–140.
* Ruegg, David Seyfort, 1976. "The Meanings of the Term Gotra and the Textual History of the Ratnagotravibhāga," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 39/2, 341-363.
* Wangchuk, Tsering, 2018. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Thinkers Debate the Centrality of the Buddha-Nature Treatise, Albany: SUNY Press.
* Johnston, E. H., ed., 1991 [1950]. “The Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantra-śāstra,” in H. S. Prasad, ed., The Uttaratantra of Maitreya, Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series No. 79. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications.
This will be supplemented by the canonical Tibetan version. Passages for translation will be supplied before each class, after the first week.For electronic access to the Sanskrit:
1) https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.326624/mode/2up
2)
https://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/corpustei/transformations/html/sa_ratnagotravibhAga.htm
A synoptic version of the Sanskrit and Tibetan (also Chinese) is available here:
https://www2.hf.uio.no/polyglotta/index.php?page=fulltext&view=fulltext&vid=1125&mid=0The still definitive study of the text is this:
* Takasaki Jikidō 高崎直道, 1966. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra), Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Rome: Serie Orientale Roma.For consideration also are amendments proposed in these works:
* de Jong, Jan Willem, 1968. Review of Takasaki (1966), Indo-Iranian Journal 11, 36-54.
* Schmithausen, Lambert, 1971. "Philologische Bemerkungen zum Ratnagotravibhāga," Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens: 15, 123–177.Further relevant works (of which there are very many) include these:
* Jones, Christopher V., 2021. The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman. Honolulu: University of Hawai‵i Press [relevant chapters].
* Kano Kazuo 加納和雄, 2016. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet, Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91, Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien.
* Mathes, Klaus-Dieter, 2015[2017]. "The Original Ratnagotravibhāga and Its Yogācāra Interpretation as Possible Indian Precedents of Gzhan stong ('Empti[ness] of Other')," Hōrin: Vergleichende Studien zur japanischen Kultur 18, 119–140.
* Ruegg, David Seyfort, 1976. "The Meanings of the Term Gotra and the Textual History of the Ratnagotravibhāga," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 39/2, 341-363.
* Wangchuk, Tsering, 2018. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Thinkers Debate the Centrality of the Buddha-Nature Treatise, Albany: SUNY Press.
Association in the course directory
MATB5
Last modified: Th 23.01.2025 14:45
In this course we will look at the second chapter of the text, concerned with 'awakening' (bodhi) and the characterization of buddhahood. This will entail close engagement with detailed exposition of Mahāyāna Buddhist thought, at the end of the 'classical' era of Indian religion, concerning what constitutes a buddha in nature, knowledge, and deed.
We will read passages of the Sanskrit text (primarily the edition of E.H. Johnston, supplemented by amendments made by other scholars), with references also to the Tibetan translation of the treatise. We will also make reference to the Chinese version of the Uttaratantra (the Baoxing lun 寶性論, Taishō no.1611: produced in the early sixth century), our earliest witness to any version of the text, though no prior knowledge of Chinese is required for the course.