The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Translation Grants in Buddhist Studies

Buddhabhiseka is a chanting Pali text in the Siamese Buddha image consecration ritual. One of its main aims is to infuse some of the Buddha’s noble qualities and his biographical account into Buddha image(s) through repeated recitation and chanting. The Pali text on the infusion of some of the Buddha’s noble qualities and his biographical account is probably a unique Pali textual presentation, which hardly appears in other Theravada Buddhist ritual contexts. Despite the fact that the broad ritual aspect of the Buddhabhseka has so often been discussed, its textual features and content have been relatively less discussed. In fact, there is no complete English translation of any of the Pali Buddhabhiseka versions.

The aim of this project is to translate an extensive, seminal 12th-century Chinese Buddhist text, the “Essays on the Pure Land from Longshu” by Wang Rixiu (1105-1173). Wang’s Essays are the first extensive discussion of the tenets of the Pure Land School of Buddhism from the perspective of an elite, Confucian-trained, lay Buddhist. The text is ten fascicles long and, written by a highly erudite 12th-century literatus, not without difficulty. The resulting translation will be c. 60,000 words in English.

"Zenkai ichiran" (A Ripple in the Sea of Zen) is an apologetical work written by Zen master Imakita Kosen (1816-1892) in which the author draws on classical Chinese texts and their commentaries to argue for a distinctively Zen Buddhist interpretation of thirty well-known Confucian passages. The treatise sheds valuable light on efforts to confront the anti-Buddhist rhetoric that was endemic in intellectual and political discourse in nineteenth-century Japan, and later played an influential role as a teaching text in Rinzai Zen education throughout the twentieth century. It became the basis for several lecture series and commentaries by well-known modern Zen masters in Imakita's lineage, notably Shaku Sōen (1859-1919). With the support of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global, the Chinese (kanbun) original is being translated into English in preparation for publication as a book project that will include a scholarly introduction in addition to the fully annotated text.

This project produces the first English translation of the exegesis of the first grave offense for monks in Vajirabuddhi-Tika (Vjb), the oldest legal sub-commentary, ca. tenth century CE, on the Mahavihara school’s monastic law code (Vinaya). This exegesis spans 54 printed pages in the Sixth Council Burmese edition. In order to base the translation on a text that is as reliable as possible, ten palm-leaf manuscripts are used to supplement the three available editions. Relevant sections of the more recent legal sub-commentaries are referred to in the footnotes to show how they have reused and discarded Vjb's statements. The translation is accompanied by a detailed introduction discussing Vjb’s quotes from lost commentaries, hermeneutical strategies and legal tenets.

According to Derge Catalogue, 144 texts ascribed to Acarya Nagarjuna are available. His every work is important and profound. Currently, all the texts are available in the Tibetan language, and only a few have been translated into English so far. Similarly, even fewer texts are available in the original Sanskrit. Acarya Nagarjuna’s six texts are introduced in the syllabi of several departments and institutions in India, particularly in West Bengal. Except Mulamadhyamakakarika, no other texts are available in the Bengali language. For the benefit of Bengali speaking students and readers, this project makes these valuable texts accessible in the Bengali language by duly translating, editing, and publishing them.

This project will produce a critical translation of 200 "inner" and "public’" Carya songs performed by Newar priests to reinvigorate the Vajrayana tradition. The songs chosen from print, ritual manuals, and unpublished manuscripts will represent varied temporal layers and diverse deities, life-cycle, and ritual occasions. The project proposes to translate the Carya songs, composed in New Indo-Aryan and Mid Tibeto-Burman languages, into Newari and Nepali to enable inheritors of the millennia-old tradition engage with their original expression and content. The project will see (a) collating primary and secondary literature; (b) inputs from ritualists, linguists, artists, historians, and digital humanists; and (c) publication and dissemination of the critical edition of Carya songs through a digital platform-independent site.

This project focuses on five ancient Tibetan books from Dunhuang kept in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Three of these books contain texts translated from Sanskrit: The Sutra of the Supreme Sublime Samadhi, The Mahayana Sutra on Prajñaparamita in the Seven Hundred [Lines], and The Mahayana Sutra of Noble Mahabala. Another book contains sacral formulas— dharani— and one more comprises a collection of short texts forming a ritual program. This project produces the edition of these books, their full annotated translation into English and Russian, and a comprehensive text-critical analysis—comparing them with all available canonical versions and other Dunhuang fragments from the same texts.

"The Meaning of the Two Truths" by Jizang (549-623) is an influential text shaped by an exegetical tradition in medieval China that based its interpretations of Buddhist doctrinal literature from India on the "Three Treatises" attributed to the early Madhyamaka masters Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. The project focuses on the translation of this work of Jizang, who developed his understanding of the two truths by discussing and refuting other positions and interpretations of his time. The result of the translation shows the Western reader the philosophical diversity in the Chinese Buddhist debates of the sixth century.

This project will produce an annotated translation and academic introduction to "The Ray of Sunlight," the fifteenth-century biography of Rigdzin Gödem, the revealer of treasures and founder of this important tradition.

This project asks how doctrinal and devotional commitments play out in the everyday, as Buddhists grapple with life, death, anxiety, love, and hope. It does so through the literary translation of prayer-texts (ganmon) from Japan’s Heian period (794–1185), inviting English-language readers into the aesthetic and ritual dimensions of devotion to the buddhas. By conveying the allusive elegance of prayer-texts, it aims to show that prayer in general and Buddhist prayer in particular is ineluctably literary: the style and sheer craft of its expression are central to how—and what—it means, feels, and does.

This project translates from Pali into English and Slovene the Mahasatipatthanasutta of the Dighanikaya, considered the most important text on mindfulness, its commentary the Mahasatipatthanasuttavannana, and the corresponding sub-commentary (tika) of the Linatthapakasinitika. The two commentaries, of which this will be the first complete translation, are invaluable for understanding the sutta; they discuss important doctrinal points as well as mindfulness practice, and provide valuable information on the historical and cultural context in which they arose. The English translation will be submitted for publication to the Pali Text Society, and the Slovene to Studia Humanitatis Asiatica, making them available to scholars as well as to a broader readership interested in Buddhism.

The Manusara dhammasattha is a Buddhist legal treatise coauthored in Burma in 1651–2 CE by a monastic vinaya scholar and a lay jurist. The text comprises 525 Pali verses and a vernacular Burmese commentary (nissaya) thereon. The treatise claims jurisdiction over the entire Buddhist community, including sangha and laity. It promulgates substantive laws related to criminal, civil, and ritual affairs, and discusses judicial procedure as well as questions of Buddhist jurisprudence and legal theory. This project will result in an annotated critical edition and translation of the Pali verses and a translation of the vernacular commentary based on all surviving manuscript witnesses to the text. It will also include as an appendix a Pali-Burmese-English glossary of Buddhist legal terminology.

This project focuses on the English translation of an essential Buddhist Tantra—the Laghutantra-tika—by Bodhisattva Vajrapani. This text is the oldest work among the three foundational commentaries of the Kalacakra tradition. In 2001, the grantee edited and published the Sanskrit text of the Laghutantratika in the ISMEO Oriental Series (Rome), by working on six Sanskrit manuscripts and the Tibetan translation. This grant will support the publication of an English translation and the production of a parallel translation into Italian in order to better disseminate this text in Italy.

"The Mañjukīrti Corpus" is a group of three Sanskrit texts transmitted in a single, hitherto critically unedited manuscript. It deals chiefly with the rituals for beginners (ādikarmika) on the Buddhist path, but it also contains important extraneous materials. Next to preparing a critical edition and English translation of the Corpus, this project includes a prefatory study which argues that this material is an invaluable source to understand the day-to-day practices of the Buddhist laity in South Asia before the year 1200 CE.

This project is about the section on the Nobles’ Four Truths in Dharmakirti’s Pramanavarttika together with the most accessible commentary on it—the Vrtti composed by Manorathanandin, probably eleventh century, and Vibhuticandra’s glosses, from twelfth to thirteenth century, found in the manuscript that bears Manorathanandin’s commentary. This project offers a scholarly English translation of these Sanskrit texts together with explanatory comments. The project’s results provide access to how the Pramanavarttika—one of the most important Sanskrit works of the Indian philosophical tradition—discusses the Four Truths at the intersection of doctrinal issues and philosophical questions.

Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga, dated before 489 CE, is the encyclopaedic keystone of the voluminous Theravada commentary tradition. The sub-commentary explicating the Visuddhimagga is entitled either Paramatthamanjusa—Treasure chest of ultimate truth—or simply Mahatika—Great sub-commentary. While there are complete translations of the Visuddhimagga into English and other languages, the Paramatthamanjusa has only been completely translated once into Burmese—Mahasi 1966-1969. This project creates a critical and annotated scholarly translation of Paramatthamañnusa’s Chapter 14 into English.

This project will produce a complete, extensively annotated English translation of the Liu du ji jing in book and digital form, the former accompanied by a substantial introductory essay tackling complex issues of textual history, such as transmission, translation, reception and audience.