Table of Contents
NEW BOOK> The First Western Book about Buddhism and Buddha, by Ozeray and App
by Charles Muller
Michel-Jean-François OZERAY & Urs APP:
THE FIRST WESTERN BOOK ABOUT BUDDHISM AND BUDDHA
Wil: UniversityMedia, 2017
ISBN: 978-3-906000-27-5
From the back cover:
Although the Western encounter with Asia’s largest religion
may be the vastest and most consequential spiritual encounter in human history,
its protagonists and historical development are still barely known. Thus
it comes as no surprise that even specialists have hitherto failed to
appreciate the earliest Western book about Buddhism: Michel-Jean-François
Ozeray’s Recherches sur Buddou ou Bouddou, instituteur religieux de l’Asie
orientale (Paris, 1817). To commemorate Ozeray’s pioneering work on the
200th anniversary of its publication, it is here presented in the original
French with Urs App’s English translation on facing pages.
In his 73-page introduction App presents and analyzes
Ozeray’s view of Buddhism and its founder. Tracing the author’s main sources,
he explains why his book deserves to be recognized as a pioneering contribution
to Western knowledge about Buddhism and to global-scale comparative religion.
Published just before the onset of academic research on Buddhism in Europe,
Ozeray’s work relied not on Christian missionary literature or romantic
speculation but rather on figurative representations and reports furnished by
ambassadors, travelers, and long-time residents in Asian countries. Due to its
focus on living Buddhism as practised in numerous Asian countries, Ozeray’s
pioneering study is—in spite of its inevitable flaws—in many respects more
congruent with modern field work than the majority of popular books on Buddhism
that bend the spiritualism and esotericism shelves in today’s bookstores.
Publisher's web site: http://universitymedia.org/Ozeray.html
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction by Urs
App...................................................... 1
Author Ozeray........................................................................
6
The book’s title, preface and
introduction....................................... 9
Ozeray’s general
considerations................................................. 12
One founder and a single
creed.................................................... 15
Buddha in history and
myth........................................................ 24
Buddha’s fundamental
doctrine................................................. 35
Similarities of cult and
clergy........................................................ 45
Orthodoxy and
heresy............................................................. 49
Orthodox Buddhist
countries................................................... 53
Heretical Buddhist
countries..................................................... 56
Changing images of
Buddhism.................................................. 58
Conclusion..........................................................................
60
The French text and its English
translation.................................... 63
Ozeray’s main sources about the history of
religions.......................... 65
Ozeray’s main sources about Asia and Asian
religions........................ 68
Ozeray’s Recherches sur
Buddou
74
Table of contents of Ozeray’s text and its
English translation............... 76
Ozeray’s
Preface..................................................................... 82
Ozeray’s Introduction.............................................................
90
Ozeray’s Note about the General
Considerations............................... 94
Ozeray’s General
Considerations............................................... 96
Studies on Buddha...............................................................
146
General state of the religion of Buddha in
various regions...................... 230
The future of Buddhism and other polytheistic
cults........................ 282
Appendix..........................................................................
286
Index of Proper Names......................................................
301