Table of Contents
- 訃報> スタンリー・ワインスタイン博士(1929-2017)
- OBITUARY> Luis Oscar Gómez (1943-2017)
- Re: QUERY> Meat Eating in Monastic Contexts
- NEW PUBLICATION> “Dialogues regarding Monastic Suicides: The Acceptance and Observation of Death in the Pāli Sutta.”
訃報> スタンリー・ワインスタイン博士(1929-2017)
by Charles Muller
アメリカにおける日本・中国仏教研究者であるスタンリー・ワインスタイン博士（イェール大学名誉教授、1929-2017）が、2017年9月17日に逝去されました。ワインスタイン教授は、駒澤大学で学士号、東京大学大学院で修士号を得たのち、1966年にハーバード大学で永冨正俊教授のもと博士号を授与されました。教員としてはまずロンドン大学東洋アフリカ研究学院（SOAS）で教鞭をとり、つづいてイェール大学に移籍して、そこでの永年にわたる在職期間のあいだに多くの大学院生を育成しました。著書に『唐代の仏教』(Buddhism
under the T’ang）があり、また『日本百科事典』(Encyclopedia
of Japan)の百以上の項目を執筆しているほか、数多くの論文を発表しています。追悼会が９月２５日（月）の午前１１時から、ホイットニー・センター(200 Leeder Hill Drive, Hamden, CT 06517,
USA)の六階集会室で開かれます。詳細な追悼記事は、後日改めて発表させて頂きます。以上、門下生一同より謹んでお知らせ申し上げます。OBITUARY> Luis Oscar Gómez (1943-2017)
by Charles Muller
Posted on behalf of Paul Harrison and Donald Lopez
Luis Oscar Gómez (1943-2017)
Luis Gómez, distinguished scholar of Buddhism, passed away in Mexico City on
September 3, 2017. At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus of
Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. He had retired from
the faculty on January 1, 2009.The son of a physician, Luis Gómez was born in Puerto Rico on April 7 1943, growing up in the town of Guayanilla. He received his B.A. degree in 1963 from Universidad de Puerto Rico, enrolling there at age sixteen. He received his Ph.D. degree in Buddhist Studies, Indic Philology, and Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University in 1967. His first academic position was at the University of Washington. After that, he returned to Puerto Rico for four years, serving as chair of the Department of Philosophy at the Universidad de Puerto Rico.
He joined the University of Michigan faculty as an Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies in 1973 and was promoted to full professor in 1979. In 1986, he was named a “Collegiate Professor,” the highest faculty rank in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at Michigan, naming his professorship after his former colleague and mentor, the distinguished Chinese historian Charles Hucker.
Luis Gómez’s contributions to Buddhist Studies during his thirty-five years at Michigan spanned the areas of graduate training, undergraduate teaching, and scholarship. He founded Michigan’s highly regarded Ph.D. program in Buddhist Studies, which has produced several generations of outstanding scholars. That his students specialized in Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Indian, Thai, and Burmese Buddhism testifies to his wide-ranging knowledge, as well as his high level of proficiency in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese, as well as Latin, French, German, and Italian (in addition to his native Spanish). His work as a graduate mentor was honored in 1995, when he received the John H. D’Arms Award for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities. In recognition of his outstanding undergraduate teaching, he was named Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in 1997. A dedicated administrator, he chaired the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures for a decade.
Luis Gómez’s scholarship on Buddhism covered a remarkable range of important topics over his career, including Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and pan-Asian Buddhism, with a particular emphasis on the literature and religious vision of the Mahayana. He wrote a number of groundbreaking articles devoted to the “sudden vs. gradual” dichotomy in both early Chinese Chan and at the Samye Debate in Tibet. Among his books, his Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light (1996) is considered the definitive study of this highly influential Buddhist scripture. He also published extensively in Spanish.
His remarkable dedication to understanding human experience led him to acquire a second Ph.D. some thirty years after his first, in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1998. In his dissertation, he examined evidence of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in the lives of Roman Catholic saints.
After his retirement from the faculty at the University of Michigan at the end of 2008, Luis Gómez remained fully active as a scholar and teacher, continuing to publish energetically. Among other things, he made major contributions to the Norton Anthology of World Religions, including a complete translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, a work that he regarded as a guide for his life. Dividing his time between Mexico City and the San Francisco Bay Area, he taught at El Colegio de México, where he held the rank of Profesor Investigador, and was an Academic Director at the Mangalam Research Institute for Buddhist Languages in Berkeley. In Mexico City he also put his training in psychology to use by practicing as a therapist. In addition, he taught Buddhism to practitioners. He retained a strong interest in the theory and practice of translation, attending the Translation and Transmission Conference in Boulder, Colorado in June this year, despite his illness. Right up to the time of his death, he was working with Paul Harrison of Stanford on an English translation of the Sanskrit text of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa.
He remained the consummate scholar until the end, writing to a friend, “You probably can guess, from past experience, that I am now an expert oncologist and can pretty much carry on a conversation with my doctors as a colleague.” There was nothing he was not interested in and well informed about, from punctuation to world politics, but he wore his considerable erudition lightly, and was always ready to share it freely with others.
A major figure in the field of Buddhist Studies for half a century, Luis Gómez will be sorely missed by his many students, colleagues, and friends.
During the difficult days of his final illness, he was sustained by the love and support of Lourdes Vergara, his devoted partner for the last ten years of his life. He is survived by his first wife, Ruth Maldonado, their children, Luis Jr. and Miran, and their grandchildren, Andy and Angelina. Luis Gómez is also survived by his many students, who owe him so much. Through them, his legacy has passed to their own students.
Paul Harrison and Donald Lopez
Re: QUERY> Meat Eating in Monastic Contexts
by Bertram G.
Liyanage
Dear JustinAt a glance, I remembered these two instances in Bhesajjakhandhaka of Mahāvaggapāḷi. I hope they will be helpful for your research.
“Tena kho pana samayena aññatarassa bhikkhuno amanussikābādho hoti. Taṃ ācariyupajjhāyā upaṭṭhahantā nāsakkhiṃsu arogaṃ kātuṃ. So sūkarasūnaṃ gantvā āmakamaṃsaṃ khādi, āmakalohitaṃ pivi. Tassa so amanussikābādho paṭippassambhi. Bhagavato etamatthaṃ ārocesuṃ. Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, amanussikābādhe āmakamaṃsaṃ āmakalohitanti.”
At that time, a certain monk was suffering from sickness of evil-spirit. He could not be recovered treating by teacher and the preceptor. He went to slaughterhouse of pigs and ate flesh (of pigs) and drank blood (of pigs). That action subsided his sickness of evil-spirit. The Blessed-One announced this statement (rule): O monks, I give you permission (to use) flesh (of animals) and blood (of animals) in case of sickness of evil-spirits. (Translation is mine)
“Tena kho pana samayena gilānānaṃ bhikkhūnaṃ vasehi bhesajjehi attho hoti. Bhagavato etamatthaṃ ārocesuṃ. Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, vasāni bhesajjāni – acchavasaṃ, macchavasaṃ, susukāvasaṃ, sūkaravasaṃ, gadrabhavasaṃ…”
At that time, there was a use of medicine made out of (animal) fat for sick monks. The Blessed-one announced this statement (rule): O monks, I give you permission (to use) medicines made out of (animal) fat, that is, (medicines made out of) fat of bears, fat of fish, fat of alligators, fat of pigs and fat of donkeys. (Translation is mine)
I’m afraid that I also find the reference of Cūḷa-piṇḍapātikatissa in Visuddhimagga. I will check whether his story is elaborated in later Sinhala literature.
Wish you all the best for your research.
With maitri
Bertram
NEW PUBLICATION> “Dialogues regarding Monastic Suicides: The Acceptance and Observation of Death in the Pāli Sutta.”
by Kanae Kawamoto
Note: I have received permission from the journal to make copies of your
article publicly available on academia.edu.I am pleased to announce that my new paper included in Bukkyogaku-kenkyu (The Studies in Buddhism), no. 73 (March 2017) is available for download on Academia.edu.
https://www.academia.edu/34641796/Dialogues_regarding_Monastic_Suicides_The_Acceptance_and...
“Dialogues regarding Monastic Suicides: The Acceptance and Observation of Death in the Pāli Sutta.”
Kawamoto, Kanae. Ph.D. Candidate of Ryukoku University / Visiting research fellow of Bern University
In Bukkyogaku-kenkyu (The Studies in Buddhism), no.73, March, 2017, Buddhist Research Institute, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan, pp.79-110. ISSN 0287-0312
Abstract:
In the context of ethical issues such as euthanasia and death with dignity which are steadily increasing in importance in the context of modern Buddhist studies, especially in the West, there has been considerable discussion about moral views on self-killing (suicide). In this paper, I reflect on these themes by examining the stories of three monks, Godhika, Vakkali, and Channa, who all die by committing suicide. In these canonical stories, the Buddha declares their liberation after each of them dies by his own hand; Buddhaghosa, the author of a commentary of the Pāli Sutta, added the explanatory interpretation that these monks were not arahants until they stabbed themselves with a knife. Following Buddhaghosa’s comments, most scholars of modern Buddhist studies have tried to ‘time’ the very moment when they became arahants in order to understand the ethical judgment of suicide in Theravada Buddhism. In contrast, the current study reexamines these stories in the Pāli Sutta and compares the commentaries with their Chinese versions in order to highlight the importance of the progressive dialogues in the stories of each of the three monks in the context of their relationship with the Buddha, as well as the supporting roles performed by Sāriputta, Māra, and others. The dialogues depict the process of how the three monks decided to abstain from further suffering and to instead accept death with a calm mind in the interest of achieving swift liberation. The conclusion is drawn based on the examination of the theme of these stories—how the monks actually lived striving for enlightenment until their final breath—that the stories deliver a message on the significance of the process of achieving liberation, and not the act of suicide itself.
