Acknowledgements

Part I: Genealogies of Mahāyāna

Introduction: On Origins and Genealogies

Mahāyāna in Retrospect: From My House to the Dalai Lama (looking back from 2017 – 1930)

Assessing the Essence
Tibet as Buddhist: Tracing the Lines of Power
Emptiness and the Analytic of Power
Inculcating Dispositions to Authority: the Kālacakra

Mahāyāna in the Republic, Mahāyāna in the Empire: Tracing “Religion” from Republican China to the Early Qing Dynasty (1920’s – 1723)

Religion vs. Superstition in 20th Century East Asia
The Fin de Siècle Turning Point
The Qing Imperium and the Usefulness of Mahāyāna
The Yonghegong Temple in Beijing and the Political Work of Monuments
Emperor Qianlong: the Tantric Initiate and the Tantric State
Tantra, Emptiness and the Reincarnate Emperor/Lama, or why it’s never too late to have a venerable past.
Yongzheng Emperor and the Great Ming Debate

The Image of Emptiness across the Landscape of Power (China: 11th Cent. B.C.E – 15th Cent. C.E.)

The Ancestor Image
The Image of Emptiness: Di, Space and the Celestial Pole
The Image of the Earth and control of the cults
Exorcism and the State: When possession is nine-tenths
Religion in the Service of Taxation
Buddhist Exorcism and the Heart of Mahāyāna
Conclusion

Buddha Veda: an Indian Genealogy of Emptiness (20th century – 6th century CE.)

Emptiness and Power in Orissa: From Mahima Dharma Sampradāya to Jagannātha of Puri
Buddhism and Brahmanism in Maitrīpa (ca. 1010-1097 CE)
Bhāviveka’s 6th Century Mahāyāna
Bhāviveka, Mahāyāna and Yogācāra
Bhāviveka, Mahāyāna and Brahmanism
Preliminary Conclusion

Part II: The Genealogy of the Perfection of Wisdom

What did the text of the Perfection of Wisdom look like?

The Versions
The Quest for the Ur-Sūtra
The Core Pericope
The Ending
Subhūti’s Non-Apprehension
The Mindlessness Section
The Message of the Original Perfection of Wisdom
Mahāyāna
Bodhisattvas
What’s missing?

Mahāyāna Sūtra as Palimpsest: Discerning Traces of the Tripiṭaka

Beyond "origin" as mere event
Heteroglossia and Textual Rationale
Intertextuality and Adaptation in Buddhist Literature
The Non-Apprehension section and its Intertexts
Sermon on Selflessness?
Nominalism?
Cessation of Cognition
Selflessness… but differently
The Perfected as Untraceable
Fearlessness
Abhidharma echoes
Conclusion: The Perfection of Wisdom

Palimpsest Part Two: Brahmanical Writings on the Tripiṭaka

The Importance of Incoherence
The Context of Abhidharma Literature?
The Context of Other Schools?
The Context of Luminous Thought and Varieties of Unaware Thought
The Context of Acitta Neither Existing nor Not Existing as Anti-Brahmanical Dependent Origination
The Context of Absence of Mental Construction (avikalpa)
Nirvikapla
Brahmanical Intertexts and their Implications

Placing Early Mahāyāna

Placing the Perfection of Wisdom in the Early Mahāyāna Suite
Mañjuśrī’s Inquiry Concerning the Office of the Bodhisattva
Placing the Early Perfection of Wisdom
Mistaken Sounds
Subhūti’s Araṇavihāra: Preaching or Penetration?
Emptiness, Brahmin Nuns, Tulkus and the Power of Possession
Putting it together
Conclusion

On Sites and Stakes: Meditation on Emptiness and Imperial Aspirations

Shifting Contexts, Shifting Interpretations
The Uṇṇābhabrāhmaṇasutta and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanișad on cosmic foundations
The Horse Sacrifice
Piling the Fire Altar and Legitimation Regress
Buddhist Brahmins
On Power and Reproduction
Sovereign Echoes: on Manhood and Celibacy; On thrones and Crowns
Buddhist Brahmodya as court debates
The Mahāyāna Genealogy from The Vedas to the Sutras to Tantra to Zen

Index

About the Author

Joseph Walser is Associate Professor of Religion at Tufts University, USA.

Reviews

"This book is a compelling argument to rethink the origins of Mahayana Buddhism. Approaching this perennial puzzle within Buddhist Studies from a different angle, tracing it from the present toward its genesis, Walser masterfully draws together material from a broad and complex cultural context to rethink the approach to understanding the earliest expressions of the idea of emptiness". Matthew Sayers, Lebanon Valley College Annville, USA."A bold new theory of what the Mahāyāna is and how it "began," Genealogies of Mahāyāna Buddhism is a paradigm shift in our understanding of one of the most important traditions of Buddhism. Written in clear and accessible prose, Walser's work is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Buddhist thought." José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, UC Santa Barbara, USA.

"This book is a compelling argument to rethink the origins of Mahayana Buddhism. Approaching this perennial puzzle within Buddhist Studies from a different angle, tracing it from the present toward its genesis, Walser masterfully draws together material from a broad and complex cultural context to rethink the approach to understanding the earliest expressions of the idea of emptiness". Matthew Sayers, Lebanon Valley College Annville, USA."A bold new theory of what the Mahāyāna is and how it "began," Genealogies of Mahāyāna Buddhism is a paradigm shift in our understanding of one of the most important traditions of Buddhism. Written in clear and accessible prose, Walser's work is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Buddhist thought." José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, UC Santa Barbara, USA.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Reviews