Table of Contents
LECTURE> 17th I. B. Horner Memorial Lecture (Pali Text Society)
by Rupert Gethin
PALI TEXT SOCIETY: 17th I. B. HORNER MEMORIAL LECTUREVincent Tournier (SOAS, University of London)
"The Buddha’s Self-ordination: from the Vinaya mātṛkās to the Milindapañha"
Friday, 29 September 2017, 5.30 p.m.
Room FG01 (Faber Building)
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H OXG
All are welcome
ABSTRACT
This presentation will explore the status of the Buddha as an “ordained” (upasampanna) master, as it emerges primarily within Vinaya literature. In fact, while the issue of the Buddha’s ordination (upasampadā) is not directly addressed in the Vinaya of the Mahāvihāravāsins, a rich array of sources transmitted among other nikāyas understood the founder of the monastic lineage to have performed a specific kind of ordination, referred to as “autonomous” (svāmaṁ, svayambhūtva) or “master-less” (anācāryaka) upasampadā. Such an ordination features prominently in lists of types of upasampadā opening texts belonging to the Vinayamātṛkā genre. These lists may be fruitfully compared in terms of their contents, ordering, and function within their wider scriptural contexts. In particular, it may be established that the category of self-ordination was used as an important organising factor in Vinaya narratives. Moreover, the buddhological implications of this notion deserve to be explored, and in particular the relationship between definitions of self-ordination and conceptions of Śākyamuni’s bodhisattva career, of his Awakening, and of his status as the initiator of the śāsana. Finally, to take into consideration definitions and uses of this notion within sources of the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādins, Mahāsāṅghika (‑Lokottaravādin)s, and Sāṁmitīyas allows better contextualisation and understanding of an intriguing passage from the Milindapañha. This may also contribute to the discussion on the northern connections and the doctrinal eclecticism of this unique Pāli text, to the study of which P. Demiéville as well as I. B. Horner masterfully contributed.
--
Rupert Gethin
Professor of Buddhist Studies
University of Bristol
Department of Religion and Theology
3 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1TB, UK
Email: Rupert.Gethin@bristol.ac.uk
