Visions of the Buddha

Abstract

Abstract This book offers a new, groundbreaking approach to the nature of the early discourses of the Buddha, the most foundational scriptures of Buddhist religion. While commonly the early discourses are considered to be attempts to preserve the Buddha’s teachings, this book demonstrates that these texts are full of creativity, aiming to beautify the image of the wondrous Buddha, to tell good stories, to stir the imagination, and to move people emotionally. While the texts surely care for the early teachings and for the Buddha’s philosophy or his guidelines for meditation, and while at times they may relate real historical events, this is not necessarily their main interest. The early discourses are literary masterpieces, which employed a technique of composition defined here as the play of formulas. In the oral literature of early Buddhism, texts were composed of formulas, which are repeated again and again within and between texts. This work shows how new discourses could be created by connecting accepted formulas in new, innovative ways. The formulas, it is argued, are the real texts of Buddhism, and are primary to the full discourses. Shaping texts through the play of formulas resembles building with Legos or bricks—so long as one uses the right pieces, there are many available possibilities to express one’s vision.