Universität Wien

142217 UE Buddha Nature: Reading the Uttaratantra (2023W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung
Moodle

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 16 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

The session on Nov 22 will be canceled and rescheduled!

  • Mittwoch 04.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 11.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 18.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 25.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 08.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 15.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 22.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 29.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 06.12. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 13.12. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 10.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 17.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 24.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Mittwoch 31.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

The Indian Uttaratantra (Tib. rgyu bla ma), or otherwise Ratnagotravibhāga, is among the most hotly debated treatises in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which has taken it to be the definitive Indian work on the notion of “Buddha Nature”, or what in Sanskrit was called tathāgatagarbha (Tib. de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po). This class will focus primarily on the Uttaratantra as a Sanskrit Buddhist text, likely composed in the late fourth/early fifth century, that attempted a sophisticated systematization of Indian Buddha Nature thinking of earlier centuries. We will address the complex and philologically revealing stratification of its content, with particular attention to how stages in the composition of the Uttaratantra unpack the idea that all sentient beings have already, and always, the nature of a buddha.
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. Our aims will be to read closely the Sanskrit text, to think critically about both its structure and the interpretation of its content, and to reflect on the differences observable between extant versions of the Uttaratantra.
This course complements MATB1 UE B (“Texts and Contexts”), which deals with literature that precedes and informs the content of the Uttaratantra.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

Assessment will take into account the following:

Attendance and participation in class, plus weekly preparation (Sanskrit/Tibetan translation; reading prescribed secondary literature): 50%

Written exercise/s (details TBC): 50%

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

Knowledge of Sanskrit and Tibetan is required. Weekly preparation will require translation of Sanskrit material and/or Tibetan material.

Assessment will take into account the following:
Attendance and participation in class, plus weekly preparation (Sanskrit/Tibetan translation; reading prescribed secondary literature): 50%

Written exercise/s (details TBC): 50%

Prüfungsstoff

All discussed contents.

Literatur

The base edition used for our reading is the edition 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.
For electronic access:
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 is available here:
https://www2.hf.uio.no/polyglotta/index.php?page=fulltext&view=fulltext&vid=1125&mid=0

The 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 [see also the list for MATB1 UE B]:
* 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.

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

MATB1 UE A

Letzte Änderung: Mo 02.10.2023 11:27