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REMARKS ON TANTRISTIC HERMENEUTICS
The means which earlier Buddhist, especially mahāyānistic exegesis has applied in its interpretation of the authoritative revelation (agamaḥ, lun) have been explained by E. Lamotte. Here we find a unison-as characteristic for every living religion-of change or deepening of beliefs and development of exegetical methods which enable one to understand the resulting differences in accordance with tradition.
mChan 'grel
P PKr
Religious contents, beliefs, are subject to history. They stagnate and die as soon as they become unresponsive to new needs and questions arising in the societies harbouring them, but they also lose their religious value I when they deviate from tradition by such changes. Hermeneutics2 works against such deviation. Its methods have been established in order to separate, via an act of interpretation, the various forms of religious contents
PKrTip Prad
Prad. abhis. prak.
Prad, uddy. Prad. tika Man goal
VJIST bSad sbyar
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BY
T
ERNST STEINKELLNER (Vienna)
1=
Pradipoddyolanābhisamdhi prakāśikā (Bhavyakirti). P 2658a,b. Pradipoddyotanodyotaḥ (Sri Karuņaśripada). P 2655. Pradipoddyotanatikā (Aryadova). P 2659.
=dPal ysan ba 'dus pa'i bsad pa'i rgyud Ye ses rdo rje kun las blus pa'i rgya cher bśad pa, rGyud bsad thabs kyi man nag ysal bur bstan pa (Tson kha pa). P 6198. Vajrajñānasamuccatantram. P 84.
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Abbreviations
rGyud thams cad kyi rgyal po dpal gsan ba 'dus pa'i ryya cher bsad pa sgron ma gsal ba'i tshiy don ji bźin 'byed pa'i mchan gyi yan 'grel (Tson kha pa). (Title of Sendai-catalogue No. 5282) P 6166. Peking Edition. Ed. D. T. Suzuki, Tokyo-Kyoto 1955-1961. Pancakramaḥ (Nāgārjuna): Études et textes tantriques, Pañcakrama. Ed. L. do la Vallée Poussin, Gand-Louvain 1896. Pancakramatippani (Parahitarakşita): cf. P'Kr.
Pradipoddyotana (Candrakirti): cf. n. 6.
sGron ma rab tu gsal bar byed pa'i bśad sbyar, mtha' drug rab tu ysal bar byed pa (Bu ston). Collected Works. Ed. Lokesh Chandra, Now Delhi 1967. Vol. Ta, 3. f. 1-271a.
La critique d'interprétation dans le bouddhisme: Annuaire de l'Institut de philologie
et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves 9 (1949), pp. 341–361.
L.e. the study of those methodological principles which rule over the interpretation and explanation of revelatory texts.
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