Product Description

-- Journal for Asian Studies

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242723 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
A new translation of any of the classics . . . from the hand of Burton Watson is an event to be welcomed with gratitude.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

About the Author

Burton Watson is one of the world's best-known translators from the Chinese and Japanese. His translations include The Lotus Sutra, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, Ryôkan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, Saigyô: Poems of a Mountain Home, and The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, all published by Columbia.

Customer Reviews

The Bodhisattva's Way
While it would be hard to find something to say that hasn't already been said this will be an attempt none-the-less to praise this work still further. This sutra explains, beautifully, why one should take the path of the bodhisattva. Everyone will benefit from reading this.

So good you can read it out loud to friends
Although I have a slight preference for the magnificent translation of this very funny and insightful sutra by Columbia University's Robert Thurman, this translation by Burton Watson was the first version that I read. And re-read--many times. Once you enter into the story, it is remarkably funny. One disciple after another declines Lord Buddha's request to go see the "ailing bodhisattva", Vimalakirti. "Why?" they say, why won't they go see Vimalakirti? Each has a different reason, but in short, they won't go because the last time they ran into this fellow, he gave them a very hard time indeed about whatever they were doing, said things that they are still puzzling over, and enlightened many thousands of listeners in the process. Those readers who are familiar with the puzzles of Zen koans will be at home with many of the dichotomies, but this narrative goes much further than just short anecdotes for meditation. The entire way of the Bodhisattva is spelled out in the pages of this book in unforgettable detail. It is one of the earliest and greatest works of Mahayana Buddhism with many of the key ideas that would be developed later schools like the Madhyamika.

I highly recommend both translations to all serious dharma students.

Not into Propaganda
No reflection on Mr. Watson's translation--the book is very readable and is of historical interest. But it's mostly an apologetic for Mahayana vs. Theravada Buddhism. Though it does indicate that a layman can spiritually reach higher than monks. While compassion is very appealing this book is unconvincing that Mahayanists have higher enlightenment than Theravadists. True, this book does have the "koan" in which the protagonist is speechless to demonstrate a lack of duality. But, it was disappointing as a whole. Per David Snellgrove: "The fault in this plot is that it makes us expect too much from Vimalakirti's argumentative power. Modern novelists make the same mistake...the actual quality of his discourse is not good enough. We are left wondering why all the Saints stood in such awe of him. The author of this sutra tries to make up for this defect by a series of flighty miraculous episodes, which serve only to enhance the general effect of triviality." p. 272 in Edward Conze, I. B. Horner, David Snellgrove, & Arthur Waley, Buddhist Texts through the Ages (Boston: Shambhala, 1954).