Buddhist Dictionary Nyanatiloka
 |
Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines |
 |
Buddhist Dictionary (Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines) |
|
Pali terms arranged in Roman-script alphabetical order; definitions include a longer discussion of certain complex concepts; source references. |
The Devoted Efforts of German Scholars and German Buddhists
In Germany, an early stimulation to the study of Buddhism was the works of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (2331-2403/ 1788-1860), whose thoughts were influenced to a great extent by the teachings of the Buddha. His great work, "World as Will and Idea," served also to popularize a kind of Buddhism all over Europe. However, as his philosophy was pessimistic, his admiration for Buddhism as the key to all the problems of life and his acknowledgement of the agreement of his philosophy with the teachings of the Buddha have also given many Europeans a bad impression of Buddhism. In 2403/1860, Albert Weber, a German lndologist, translated the Dhammapada into German, thus giving it its first appearance in a modern Western language. Hermann Oldenberg, a Vedic scholar and a contemporary of Professor Rhys Davids, edited the publication of the Vinaya-Pitฺaka during the period from 1879 to 1883. Among his other works were "The Buddha", the first Buddhist textbook in Europe based wholly on firsthand Pali sources; which was translated into English in 2425/1882, and many learned articles intended to show the relation between Pali literature and the Vedas.
Among German Buddhists1 who worked hard for the cause of Buddhism, mention should be made of Dr. Paul Dahlke, a physician and a student of Theravada Buddhism. Besides publishing Buddhist journals and translating Buddhist texts, Paul Dahlke wrote authoritative books on Buddhism, most of which have been translated into English by an English monk, Bhikkhu Silacara. In 2467/1924, he founded in Frohnau, Berlin, a Buddhist House (Buddhistisches Haus), which later, after his death, was purchased by the German Dharmaduta Society of Colombo to house the Ceylon Mission. Another was the Venerable Nyanatiloka Mahathera, who became the first person from continental Europe to be ordained as a Bhikkhu and lived the life of a Buddhist monk in Ceylon for over 50 years before he died in 2500/1957 at the age of 79. Besides writing numerous books in German and in English, he founded in 2454/1911 the Island Hermitage on a lake at Dodanduwa in South Ceylon, which has served for a long time as a training centre for Western monks who studied and practised under his guidance. Another German Bhikkhu is his distinguished pupil, the Venerable Nyanaponika Mahathera, an able exponent of the Abhidhamma and competent translator of Pali texts, who is continuing the work of his teacher at the Island Hermitage and whose contribution to the spread of Buddhism is made known through the Buddhist Publication Society of Ceylon at Kandy. Today there are Buddhist Societies in many of the larger cities of Germany. In Hamburg, members of the Buddhist Society there, probably the biggest one in Germany, support the House of Stillness, an active Buddhist study and meditation centre outside the city.
Other European contributions
In Scandinavian countries there is a long tradition of Pali and Buddhist studies and the contribution made by Scandinavians in this field is second to none in its scholarly value. It was Vincent Fausboll, a Danish scholar, who edited the publication of the Dhammapada with a Latin translation in 2398/1855, making the first transliteration of a full Pali text in Roman characters in Europe. Fausboll's greatest work was his edition of the Jatakas in seven volumes published between 2420/1877 and 2440/1897,1 a noteworthy contribution to the study of popular Buddhism and Indian Buddhist culture. Another Dane, V. Trenckner, published his edition of the Milindapanha in 2423/1880. Trenckner, assisted by a Swedish Pali scholar named Helmer Smith, initiated the great lexicographical work, Critical Pali Dictionary. Many parts of this dictionary have been published by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copenhagen since 2470/1927, and the work is still being continued under the editorship of Dines Anderson and Helmer Smith. Today there are some Buddhist societies, such as the Friends of Buddhism, working to encourage the study, the practice and the spread of Buddhism.
Earlier than the work by English scholars was the beginning of Pali studies by the French Orientalist Eugene Burnouf. In 2369/1826, E. Burnouf and Christian Lassen published their essay on Pali in French and became pioneers in the field of Pali studies in Europe. Burnouf's "Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism", published in 2387/1844, which threw light on the relation between the Pali and Sanskrit traditions, was the first history of Buddhism. The French tradition begun by Burnouf was continued by Sylvan Levi and later eminent scholars such as Paul Demiville and Louis Renou. Under the direction of S. Levi and J. Takakusu and the editorship of Paul Demiville, an encyclopaedic dictionary of Buddhism after the Chinese and Japanese sources called Hobogirin was started in 2472/1929.
There are still many other scholars of countries in Continental Europe who have made significant contributions to the progress of Buddhist studies. A Hungarian, Alexander Csoma de Koros (2327-2392/ 1784-1849), through his works in the field of Tibetan studies, was,regarded as the inaugurator of Buddhist studies in the West. Among his works was Tibetan-English Dictionary, published in 2377/1834. A Dutch scholar, H. Kern, made an edition of the Jatakamala in 2434/1891 and published his famous work, Manual of Indian Buddhism, in 2439/1896. The Belgian Indologist Louis de La Valle Poussin, a pupil of Sylvan Levi and H. Kern, edited a number of Sanskrit texts and organized in 2464/1921 the Society for Oriental Studies. Among Italian scholars G. Tucci was prominent for his edition of voluminous Mahayana texts. Among Russians the name of Th. Stcherbatsky stands foremost. Besides editing and translating many Sanskrit texts, Stcherbatsky wrote a number of learned treatises on Buddhism. Among these works, The Central Conception of
Buddhism, The Central Conception of Buddhist Nirvana, and the two-volume Buddhist Logic are probably the best known.
About the Author
Elliptical Cross Trainer With Computer
