Many Buddhas, One Buddha - A Study and Translation of Avadānaśataka 1-40 - Naomi Appleton
Third Decade (Stories 21-30)
Many Buddhas, One Buddha - A Study and Translation of Avadānaśataka 1-40 - Naomi Appleton
Naomi Appleton [+]
University of Edinburgh
Naomi Appleton is Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research interest is the role of narrative in early South Asian religions. She is the author of Jātaka Stories in Theravāda Buddhism (Ashgate, 2010), Narrating Karma and Rebirth: Buddhist and Jain Multi-Life Stories (CUP 2014) and Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative (Routledge 2017) as well as a number of articles on Buddhist and Jain narrative.
Description
The third chapter is about pratyekabuddhahood, or the awakening of ‘solitary’ or ‘independent’ buddhas, who achieve awakening in times of no Buddhism. Eight of these ten stories concern people predicted by Śākyamuni Buddha to achieve pratyekabuddhahood in future lifetimes, and these echo the stories of the first decade. The two remaining stories are told by Śākyamuni to explain the crumbling stūpas (reliquaries) of past pratyekabuddhas that he and his disciples encounter.