Rediscovering the Buddha

Hans Penner takes a new look at the classic stories of the life of the Buddha. In the first part of the book, he presents a full account of these stories, drawn from various texts of Theravada Buddhism, the Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia. Penner allots one chapter to each of the major milestones in Buddha's life, with titles such as: Birth and Early Life, Flight from the Palace, Enlightenment and Liberation, Last Watch and Funeral. In the process, he brings to the fore dimensions of the myth that have been largely ignored by western scholarship. In Part II, Penner offers his own original interpretations of the legends. He takes issue with Max Weber's assertion that "Buddhism is an other-worldly ascetic religion," a point of view that remains dominant in the received tradition and in most contemporary studies of Buddhism. His central thesis is that the "householder" is a necessary element in Buddhism and that the giving of gifts, which creates merit and presupposes the doctrine of karma, mediates the relation between the householder and the monk. Penner argues that the omission of the householder - in his view one-half of what constitutes Buddhism as a religion - is fatal for any understanding of Buddha's life or of the Buddhist tradition. This boldly revisionist and deeply learned work will be of interest to a wide range of scholarly and lay readers.

Inhalt

PART I Introduction to Part I 1. Cosmology and the Great Declaration 2. The Perfection of Giving 3. The Birth and Early Life of Gotama 4. Flight From the Palace 5. Enlightenment and Liberation 6. The Buddha Begins to Teach 7. The Buddha Becomes a Wonder Worker 8. The Buddha Meets a King and Two Brilliant Ascetics 9. Rules, Rules and More Rules 10. The Buddha Goes Home 11. The Buddha Receives a Gift and Befriends a King 12. Meeting a Murderer, A Visit Home, and a Quick Trip to Heaven 13. Devadatta Attempts to Kill the Buddha 14. The Buddha's Last Days 15. Once the Buddha Was a Universal Monarch 16. The Last Watch and The Funeral PART II Introduction to Part II 17. The Quest for the Historical Buddha 18. The Cosmological Structure 19. The Legends as Rites of Passage 20. The Great Agent: Universal Monarchs and Buddhas 21. The Gift, the Renouncer and the Householder