[Buddha-l] Re: Was Buddha a Buddhist

[Jamie Hubbard]

Benito Carral wrote:

>   Could  you share with us some of the book titles you
>had in mind? BTW, does someone know some good new books
>on  Chan  or  the  Chinese tradition? I think that it's
>good to share this kind of info.
>  
>
The importance of the physical is all over academia these days (we've 
gone all post-modern and left our rationalist logocentrism to the 
Protestant Buddhists, I guess), so there are many, many works on these 
themes, but some of the titles that come to mind include:

Andy Rotmam, Divine Stories: A Translation of the Divyaavadaana, vol. 1. 
Cambridge: Wisdom Publications
Andy Rotman, "The Erotics of Practice: Objects and Agency in Buddhist 
Avadaana Literature." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71.3 
(2003): 555–578.
Andy Rotman, The Power of Proximity: Creating and Venerating Shrines in 
Indian Buddhist Narratives 
</url?sa=U&q=http://www.smith.edu/religion/PowerofProximity.pdf>
David Eckel, To See the Buddha (HarperSanFrancisco), 51-72
Donald Swearer, “Consecrating the Buddha,” from Buddhism in Practice 
(Princeton University Press), 50-57 (and most of the other articles from 
the first part of this book).
Donald Swearer, Becoming the Buddha : the ritual of image consecration 
in Thailand (Princeton University Press)
John Strong, The Buddha: A Short Biography
John Strong, Relics of the Buddha (Princeton University Press)
Daniel Boucher, “Sutra on the Merit of Bathing the Buddha” from Buddhism 
in Practice (Princeton University Press), 60-68.
Anne Klein, “Meeting The Great Bliss Queen” (Princeton University Press).
Donald Lopez, “A Prayer for the Long Life of the Dalai Lama” rom 
Buddhism in Practice (Princeton University Press), 170-175.
Richard Gombrich, “The Consecration of a Buddhist Image” Journal of 
Asian Studies, 26/1, 23-36.
Reginald Ray, Buddhist Saints in India

Bob Sharf and Bernard Faure also have a fair amount of stuff out there 
on this topic. . . maybe bodies, narrative, and mummies don't work for 
everybody in terms of encountering the Buddha and thereby reducing 
suffering, but it seems pretty clear to me (through both study and 
experience) that this sort of physical presence does indeed serve.

Jamie Hubbard