Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian BuddhismAlthough Buddhism is often depicted as a religion of meditators and philosophers, some of the earliest writings extant in India offer a very different portrait of the Buddhist practitioner. In Indian Buddhist narratives from the early centuries of the Common Era, most lay religious practice consists not of reading, praying, or meditating, but of visually engaging with certain kinds of objects. These visual practices, moreover, are represented as the primary means of cultivating faith, a necessary precondition for proceeding along the Buddhist spiritual path. In Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism, Andy Rotman examines these visual practices and how they function as a kind of skeleton key for opening up Buddhist conceptualizations about the world and the ways it should be navigated. Rotman's analysis is based primarily on stories from the Divyavadana (Divine Stories), one of the most important collections of ancient Buddhist narratives from India. Though discourses of the Buddha are well known for their opening words, "thus have I heard" - for Buddhist teachings were first preserved and transmitted orally - the Divyavadana presents a very different model for disseminating the Buddhist dharma. Devotees are enjoined to look, not just hear, and visual legacies and lineages are shown to trump their oral counterparts. As Rotman makes clear, this configuration of the visual fundamentally transforms the world of the Buddhist practitioner, changing what one sees, what one believes, and what one does. |
Contents
The Practice of Śraddhā | |
Getting and Giving | |
Agency and Intentionality | |
Participation and Exclusion | |
Proximity and Presence | |
Politics and Aesthetics | |
Past and Present | |
Images and Imagination | |
Epilogue | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
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Common terms and phrases
action appears arises asks Aśoka Aśokāv avadāna awakened become belief Blessed body brahman Buddha Buddhist chapter characters clear connection created cultivate deeds describes desire dharma Divy Divyāvadāna edited effect engage example existence experience explains eyes faith follows former function gift giving gold hears householder hundred hungry ghosts images important Indian individuals karma karmic King Koṭikarṇa latter leads likewise living Māra materials means mental mentioned merchants merit mind monastic monks moral narrative nature never notes objects occurs offerings one’s Pali particular passage perform perhaps person physical possessed possible practice prasāda prāsādika objects present Press produce question reading received represented response reward ritual Sanskrit says seems seen sense shrines social śraddhā story Strong Studies stūpa tell term thought thousand Toyikā trans translation truth turn understanding University Upagupta venerable verse virtue visual writing