[Buddha-l] Re: Magic

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Brad,

>While we're on the subject of magic and miracles and people's resistance to their presence in Buddhist traditions, I would like to hear about influential pieces of scholarship that present Buddhsim as wholly rationalist and thus completelty against assertions of the existence of supernormal phenomena. I'm writing a piece that is trying to argue that scholarship has not paid enough attention to supernatural concerns in Buddhism because it has been seen as wholly rationalist, and would greatly appreciate any feedback. 

I expect you will find useful information in Roger-Pol Droit's "Le culte du néant". Michel Strickmann holds Eugène Burnouf responsible for the introduction of tantric Buddhism in Europe and the negative a priori (Introduction à l'histoire du Bouddhisme indien, 1844). Strickmann IMO very convincingly shows there is nothing "tantric" lacking in "Mahayana Buddhism". A bit more research and the whole 3-vehicle montage will collapse ;-) The great Vallée Poussin (Bouddhisme: études et matériaux 1898) considered Buddhism as one of the forms of Hinduism and was appalled by the "pseudo-rationalist reductionism" of the "Palisants". He considered that Buddhism could not be separated from the Buddhists' practice of it.

Apparently François Bizot has found proof for a tantric Theravada Buddhism in Cambodga and Thailand.  

Joy