Research Catalog

Title

The Theravādin doctrine of momentariness : a survey of its origins and development / Misan W.D. Kim.

Author

Misan

Publication

• Halle an der Saale : Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg, [2023]
• ©2023

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Gethin, Rupert

Description

xxxviii, 273 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"The idea of the impermanence and transience of life is absolutely fundamental to Buddhist teachings. The first of the Three Characteristics (ti-lakkhana, dukkha, anatt), 'impermanence', is a doctrine constantly and emphatically insisted upon in the canonical texts. The radical and extended interpretation of this doctrine gave rise to the idea that the world is not made of enduring substances with changing qualities. Rather, reality is made only of events that flash into and out of existence, not only through the causal power of their chief cause but also through the influence of an entire causal complex. This is referred to as ksanikavāda, the doctrine of momentariness. There is disagreement among Buddhist thinkers about the exact meaning of the doctrine of momentariness. Some thinkers hold that no conditioned phenomenon can endure for more than a single moment, after which it stops existing. Others, though, argue that momentariness is not incompatible with duration; things are produced, endure and disappear. In particular, the Theravādins attempt to model the thought process in terms of the relative duration of material and mental phenomena. Theravādin exegetes hold that a moment of matter lasts for as long as sixteen or seventeen thought moments. The central part of the present book examines the origin and development of the Theravāda version of the doctrine of momentariness. Unlike other scholars who consider this doctrine an interpolation into Theravāda textual sources, possibly by Buddhaghosa (5th c. CE), the present study hypothesizes and verifies on the basis of textual evidence that the Theravāda doctrine of momentariness was most probably already present in the early Sinhalese commentaries. In attempting to trace the textual history of this doctrine, the parallel textual sources of the early Southern and Northern traditions (1st c. BCE-2nd c. CE) are examined, before their formalisation in the 5th c. CE."--Page 4 of cover.

Series Statement

Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis ; Band 24

Uniform Title

Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis ; Bd. 24.

Subject

• Impermanence (Buddhism)
• Theravāda Buddhism > Doctrines > Sources

Note

• Revision of the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Oxford, 1999.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages xv-xxxiv) and index.

Language (note)

• English with some Pali text and translations into English.

Contents

Foreword / Rupert Gethin -- Acknowledgements -- New acknowledgements -- Abbreviations and bibliography -- Introduction -- part 1. The Theravādin doctrine of momentariness, a survey of its origins and development. ch. 1. The origins of the doctrine of momentariness -- ch. 2. The developing theory of momentariness -- ch. 3. The developed form of the doctrine of momentariness -- ch. 4. The presuppositions and application of the doctrine of momentariness. -- part 1. An annotated translation and edited sections of the relevant texts in the Pāli commentaries. ch. 5. Sources for the doctrine of momentariness in the Pāli commentaries.

ISBN

• 9783869772561
• 3869772565

LCCN

9783869772561

OCLC

• 1420797165
• on1420797165
• SCSB-14729808

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library