Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

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Fortyeightvows
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:37 am

Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Fortyeightvows »

Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi, preferably in English and specifically about his time in the part of the world called java or Sumatra (Indonesia)
Biographys?
Journal articles?
Greg
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Greg »

His biography has been translated by Zhou Yi Liang in “Tantrism in China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 8 (March 1945): 241–332. There is also an entry in the Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd ed.
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Fortyeightvows »

Thank you sir!
Huseng
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Huseng »

The best source for extensive and authoritative information on such figures is this work by Brill:

http://www.brill.com/esoteric-buddhism- ... -east-asia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
tingdzin
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by tingdzin »

It should be added that there is still a lot we don't know about early Esoteric Buddhism in China, and that the official Buddhistsources seen to distort, probably deliberately, the historical record found elsewhere.
Huseng
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Huseng »

tingdzin wrote:It should be added that there is still a lot we don't know about early Esoteric Buddhism in China,...
Such as?
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Fortyeightvows »

Thanks, that books looks like a real treasure, I was surprised that the library I use doesn't have it.
I did locate some encyclopedia entries. There seems to be limited information published in English about Vajrabodhi.
Huseng
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Huseng »

Fortyeightvows wrote:Thanks, that books looks like a real treasure, I was surprised that the library I use doesn't have it.
I did locate some encyclopedia entries. There seems to be limited information published in English about Vajrabodhi.
See here (type 'guest' as username, no password):

http://www.buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xp ... B%E6%99%BA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Fortyeightvows »

thank you very much venerable
tingdzin
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by tingdzin »

Sorry for the delay, Indrajala. These days I only get into town and Internet once a week or so.

One example of things not known about early Vajrayana is the ethnic background of Amoghavajra. Chou (called Zhou above, but he published under the former spelling; his scholarship is quite thorough) and Gibson believe he was Central Asian, probably Sogdian, while the official bios all claim India as his birthplace. Orzech to my knowledge does not commit himself, but cited sources on both sides..

The amount of mutual influence between early Ch'an and early Esoterism in China is still hotly debated, many scholars having an axe to grind on this issue.

Last time I looked, the cultural origin of the astrological system employed by Amogavajra was also still a topic for investigation.

Just some minor points (could probably find more in the sources), but in my view it's far from accurate to claim that we have a full grasp on early Chinese Vajrayana history yet.
Huseng
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Re: Any resources for information on Vajrabodhi

Post by Huseng »

tingdzin wrote: One example of things not known about early Vajrayana is the ethnic background of Amoghavajra. Chou (called Zhou above, but he published under the former spelling; his scholarship is quite thorough) and Gibson believe he was Central Asian, probably Sogdian, while the official bios all claim India as his birthplace. Orzech to my knowledge does not commit himself, but cited sources on both sides..
Bearing in mind the Indosphere extended into what would now be considered Central Asia. The Chinese geographical concept of the western regions 西域, in contrast to Tianzhu 天竺 (India), seems to me in the Tang to have extended from the Tarim Basin through to Sogdia. That being said, there were plenty of Buddhist cultures from what would now be Afghanistan eastward to Tibet. In the Tang history 舊唐書 India, Persia, Nepal, Khotan and Kashmir are all classed as "Western Rong" 西戎. Sogdian communities were widespread and they intermarried. Fazang of the Huayan lineage had Sogdian ancestors for example, though he was culturally and linguistically Chinese.

The amount of mutual influence between early Ch'an and early Esoterism in China is still hotly debated, many scholars having an axe to grind on this issue.
There was probably more influence on the part of Daoism on esoteric Buddhism, such as with the demonology, star worship and various other aspects. This is something I'm investigating at the moment.

Last time I looked, the cultural origin of the astrological system employed by Amogavajra was also still a topic for investigation.
The content is definitely Indian in origin without a doubt (unless you want to trace some contents back further to Greece and Babylon), though the text admittedly attempts to accommodate the Indian model to the Chinese calendar and conventions while noting Persian and Sogdian names for days of the week. Actually this was included so native Chinese could ask a foreigner what day of the week it was because weekdays were part of Zoroastrian and Manichean cultures.

It isn't particularly sophisticated, and as Yano Michio had pointed out it is really just an introductory manual of sorts. I'm translating the text in question. The original version was better preserved in Japan actually (Kukai brought it over) because the mainland canon versions were tampered with and heavily revised.

In any case it is a piecemeal work and not a single coherent text. I tend to think Amoghavajra compiled it based on a number of differing materials available to him.

For my preliminary study on Tang astrology see the following:

http://huayanzang.blogspot.com/2014/04/ ... -asia.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also see the following chronology detailing how occidental astrology was introduced into East Asia:

https://sites.google.com/site/dharmadep ... logy-in-ea" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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