The present book collects various research papers by Bhikkhu Analayo with translations of Madhyama-agama discourses and a comparative study of their Pali parallels, together with a brief discussion, found in the appendix, of the school affiliation of the Madhyama-agama and its relation to the Majjhima-nikaya. The main emphasis in these studies is on detecting possible transmission errors in the Pali versions through the help of the parallel Madhyama-agama discourse. Topics taken up in the course of the different studies are the Buddha's decision to teach, the role of investigation in early Buddhism, the notion of a recluse, the relationship between tranquillity and insight, the lateness of the dictum that a woman cannot be a Buddha, the beginnings of the Abhidharma, meditation on emptiness in early Buddhism, the development of the arahant ideal, the canonical account of the founding of the order of nuns, and the relationship between karma and liberation.
作者簡介
Bhikkhu Analayo was born in Germany in 1962 and ordained in Sri Lanka in 1995. He completed a Ph.D. thesis at the University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka) in 2000 and a habilitation thesis at the University of Marburg (Germany) in 2007. At present, he teaches at the Center for Buddhist Studies, University of Hamburg, and researches at Dharma Drum Buddhist College (Taiwan).