Religious Giving and the Invention of Karma in Theravada Buddhism

by Egge,James

• ISBN13: 9780700715060
• ISBN10: 0700715061
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-21
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

Although the doctrine of karma is one of the best known aspects of Buddhist thought, Buddhist texts present other, less systematic, ways of speaking about the effects of good and bad actions. This book draws attention to one of these neglected discourses by showing that the interpretation of religious giving as acts of sacrifice directed toward the Buddha or Buddhist monastics has been an important theme in Theravda Buddhism. Sacrifice and karma differ significantly: whereas karma can be analysed as an inward, psychological process in which one's volition purifies or defiles one's mind, discussions of giving as sacrifice stress that the qualities of the recipient as well as the intentions of the donor affect the merit produced by a gift. Sacrificial and karmic discourses also present very different understandings of the dedication of the effects of a gift (i.e. a merit transfer).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Abbreviations	ix
Introduction: Question and Method	1	(1)
Meritorious giving and mental purification: one path or two?	1	(4)
Sacrifice and karma in the suttas and in history	5	(5)
The plan of this book	10	(5)
Part One Sacrifice and Karma in Didactic Verse and Discursive Prose
The Discourse of Sacrifice	15	(26)
The structure of Brahmanical sacrifice	15	(4)
Almsgiving as meritorious sacrifice	19	(7)
Uposatha observance as meritorious votive asceticism	26	(3)
Almsgiving as transfer of sacrificial substance	29	(3)
Why sacrifice?	32	(2)
Another ideology of the gift	34	(7)
The Discourse of Karma	41	(30)
Karma in early Buddhist prose literature	41	(6)
Representations of Vedic sacrifice in karmic prose	47	(5)
The reduction of sacrifice to karma	52	(8)
Why karma?	60	(2)
The invention of karma in ancient South Asia	62	(9)
Part Two Sacrifice and Karma in Narrative
The Centrality of Sacrifice in Vimanavatthu and Petavatthu	71	(18)
Meritorious and demeritorious acts	73	(5)
Eschatology and cosmology	78	(3)
The attainment of nirvana	81	(1)
The dedication of daksina	82	(4)
Representations of givers	86	(3)
The Commentaries' Karmic Retelling of t of the Vimanavatthu and Petavatthu Narratives	89	(12)
Meritorious and demeritorious acts	90	(2)
Eschatology and cosmology	92	(3)
The dedication of daksina and the dedication of merit	95	(3)
The social context of progress toward nirvana	98	(3)
Giving as Sacrifice, Karma, and Heroic Generosity in Sihalavatthuppakarana	101	(14)
Meritorious acts and their fruits	101	(6)
The attainment of nirvana	107	(2)
Demeritorious acts and the dedication of gifts	109	(4)
The social context of giving and of progress toward nirvana	113	(2)
Afterword: Doctrine and Narrative	115	(4)
Notes	119	(48)
Bibliography	167	(22)
Editions and translations of primary texts	167	(5)
Secondary literature	172	(17)
Index	189