Page #1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________ Buddhist Studies Review, 3, 1 (1986) Book Reviews 77 Die Buddhistische Briefliteratur Indiens. Siglinde Dietz. Nach dem tibetischen Tanjur herausgegeben, ubersetzt und erlautert (Asiatische Forschungen, Band 84). Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984. XV + 590 pp. DM 220. In the Buddhist literature the lekha 'letter' is a literary genre which seems to have been popular since Nagarjuna in the second century A.C. The Tibetan Tanjur contains thirteen letters, nine of which are edited and translated by Dr Dietz. She has omitted Nagar juna's Suhrllekha, Candragomin's Sisyalekha and Matrceta's Maharajakaniskalekha, which have already been edited and translated. Dietz intends to publish the text and translation of Padma - vajra's Prajnalekha in a future publication. desa for a Tibetan called Lho za mo 'Tshans p'ai dbyans about whom nothing is known. Kamalasila came to Tibet at the invitation of King Khri sron Ide btsan. Sajjana, the author of a leta ter to his son 'Putralekha', 16 known as a translator of Vijnanavada texts and lived in the eleventh century. Mitrayogin, who sojourned for eighteen months in Tibet around the year 1200, addressed a letter, entitled Candrarajalekha, to a King Candra, probably a king of Varanass. A letter addressed to a monk, Rab 88al gzon nu, is attributed to the 'Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. Another letter, the Gurulekha, is written by a monk, Dgon pa pa, who is perhaps identical with a Dgon pa pa from Kasmir who lived in the eleventh century. The letters in this volume contain doctrinal, moral and political teachings. Most of them are addressed to lay followers and are mainly concerned with instructing them in correct moral behaviour. Two of the letters in this volume were probably written in Tibetan : Buddhaguhya's and Srighosa's letters to the Lord of Tibet and his subjects. Buddha guhya is a well-known Tantric scholar. He was invited to Tibet by King Khri sron ide btsan who reigned from 755 to 797. In his letter he gives some interesting information on the genealogy of the Tibetan king and the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. The author of the second letter, Sba Dpal dbyans (SrIghosa), was one of the first seven Tibetans ordained in 779 by santaraksita in the monastery Bsam yas. In his letter Sba Dpal dbyang addressed himself to the king in the second chapter, to the ministers in chapter 4.2 and to the ecclesiastics in Chapter 4.3. Other chapters are addressed to all Tibetans. Among the authors of the other letters, we also find some well-known scholars such as Jitari, who lived in the second half of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh. His Cittaratnavisodhanakramalekha 18 addressed to a king who is not identified. His famous pupil At Iba, whose 11fe and activities are well-known thanks to the studies published by Helmut Eimer in recent years, is the author of a letter entitled Vimalaratnalekha, addressed to King Niryapala, a Pala king known in the Indian tradition under the name Naya pala. Kamalasila, the author of the Madhyamakaloka, the Tattvasangrahapanjika and other philosophical works, wrote the Duhkhavisesanir In the first part of her work Dietz carefully examines the letters one by one and discusses the identity of the author of each, the addressee, its occasion and purpose, the nature of its contents, the date of writing, and the sources used by the author. In a. special chapter she studies the characteristics of the lekha as a literary genre and also analyses the parikathas and nirdesas which are included in the same section of the Tanjur. The main part of her work contains the edition of the Tibetan text of the letters, on the basis of four Tanjur editions, and an annotated translation. The notes discuss difficult expressions and reproduce the sources quoted in the letters, Extremely useful are the detailed indices : an index of quotations, a list of German translations of Buddhist terms, lists of Sanskrit terms, Tibetan words, Indian names and Tibetan names. The bibliography occupies no less than twenty-three pages. Dr Dietz's work is a major contribution to both Buddhist and Tibetan studies. She has taken great pains to identify the quotations and to determine the meaning of words and expressions. Most of the letters are written in verse and it is not always easy to translate Tibetan versions of Sanskrit verses in the absence of the original text. Even more difficult to translate are the letters written directly in Tibetan, because the Tibetan language of that period is not very well known. Further study of these letters will certainly lead to different interpretations in several places. It will also be necessary to try to trace the sources used by the authors which have not been identified by Dietz. For instance, in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 4 of the
Page #2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________ 79 28 Buddhist Studies Review, 3, 1 (1986) Book Reviews ders thos pa man po with 'wenn das Gehorte nich viel ist'. These few remarks show that it is possible to arrive here and there at different interpretations, but they are not in the least meant to diminish the merit of Dr Dietz's achievement, for which one can have nothing but praise. J.w. do Jong (Dept of S. Asian and Buddhist Studios, The Australian National University, Canberra) Gurulekha, the author enumerates twenty-four synonyms of the impurities (klesa). These synonyms are listed in the same order in the Abhidharma samuccaya (ed. P. Pradhan, Santiniketan 1950, p.44, 15-18). Pradhan's text enumerates only twenty-three items but, as pointed out by Walpola Rahula in his translation, one must add upayasa after paridana (le compendium de la super-doctrine (philosophie) (Abhidharma samuccaya) d'Asanga, Paris 1971, p. 71, note 3). Very similar to this 1180 18 the one found in the Yogacarabhumi (ed. V. Bhattacharya, Calcutta 1957, pp. 166-7). with the help of these two lists it 18 possible to correct the edition of the Tibetan text and the translation. The third verse of the letter by Avalokitesvara contains several difficulties. Avalokitesvara writes that the way which all munis have gone 18 'subtle, difficult to understand and beyond the domain of words'. Dietz's interpretation of this line is different : 'dieser Weg... nicht Bereich subtiler und schwer zu begreifender Worte ist'. The real difficulty is in the third line : phyogs tsam rtog pas sgro btags rgyal ba'i mthus brjod na. Dietz sees in this line an allusion to the philosophy of Dignaga and translates : 'wenn man ihn dir] mit der Kraft eines siegreichen (Buddha) dem man ihm mittels des Bildens von Vorstellung nur einen Aspekt beigelegt hat?' Probably phyogst sam renders Sanskrit dinmatra 'a mere indication'. Sgro btags 19 a philosophical term for attributing reality to something which is not real. Here it must have a more general meaning, such as 'to imagine'. The author says that he explains the way with the help of the Jina after having imagined having understood a mere indication of its real meaning in cittaratnavisodhanakramalekha 4.3.3, it is said that one must successively practise compassion (snin rje), joy (dga' ba) and equanimity (btan snoms). These are the second, third and fourth of the four infinitudes (apramana). The first 18 kindness (byams pa) and the text explains that it 18 impossible for compa881on to act if one has not first paid attention to kindness : ... byams pa yid la ma byas par... snin rje ga la 'Jug ste. This passage has been misunderstood by Dietz (cf. p. 177). Another passage which can be interpreted differently 18 Sarasamgrahalekha 4.3.15, where the text says that one must listen to somebody who has meditated a little even if he 18 not learned (thos pa man po; Sanskrit bahusruta). Dietz ren Buddhist Formal Logic. A study of Dignaga's Hetucakra and Kueichi's Great Commentary on the Nyayapravesa. R.S.Y. Chi. Royal Asiatic Society, London 1969; revised edition, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1984. 1xxx11 + 222 pp. Re. 100. To open a book on Dignaga's system of logic and find it full of tables of figures and other symbols is an intimidating experience if you are not familiar with the techniques of twentiethcentury symbolic logic. However, if you are ready for this sort of treatment you will find the book a treasure both of symbolic logic and of Buddhist thought. In a way it is as if the author wanted to produce a study of the principal system's of modern symbolic logic, comparing them, relating them to each other and even developing them to further lengths of subtlety, using Dignaga as material on which to produce their application. A very good and striking example of his methods is the list of sixteen Venn diagrams on p.58 illustrating the sixteen possible relations between two classes - inclusion, exclusion, overlap combined with the possibilities of being empty or not empty - classes filling between them or not filling between them the whole field of enquiry. Reference is even made to two empty classes in an empty-field of enquiry, perhaps in one sense incubi and familiars as classes of evil spirits. The number sixteen 18 arrived at by pure mathematical necessity once the Venn diagram 18 accepted as a good symbol for two related classes. The author then goes on to show how many of these relations are found in Dignaga's and other systems of formal logic and how far they are properly distinguished. The mathematically minded will appreciate the beauty of his devices and the clarity of his tables.