Anthologizing Buddhists: A Study of Avadāna Narratives and the Communities that Read Them in Early Medieval China > a study of avadāna narratives found in two related anthologies, the *Za piyu jing* 雜譬喻經 (T207) and the *Zhong jing xuan za piyu* 眾經撰雜譬喻 (T208). [...] These narratives are carefully constructed literary productions that offer a window into both the world of the Indic society in which they were initially composed and the Chinese society which translated them.

📖 A Study of Avadāna Narratives and the Communities that Read Them in Early Medieval China (A free, 197-page thesis from 2013)

Tags: #Medieval #ZenHistory #Avadana

Dharmadinnā Becomes a Nun: A Story of Ordination by Messenger from the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Translated from the Tibetan Version > This paper presents an annotated English translation of the story of the nun Dharmadinnā, translated here for the first time from the Tibetan translation of the Kṣudrakavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. > The protagonist is not able to enter the religious life because of her prenatal engagement and is finally ordained by an exceptional style of ordination ceremony performed through a messenger.

📰 A Story of Ordination by Messenger from the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Translated from the Tibetan Version (A free, 44-page article from 2017)

Tags: #Bhikkhuni #Avadana #StoryTime

Lasting Inspiration > For most of the women who became foremost leading disciples, or etadagga sāvikā, of the Buddha Gotama, it was not only their meeting with a past buddha, but also their seeing the Buddha together with an awakened woman, a leading bhikkhunī disciple of the Buddha, that truly stimulated their inspiration and galvanized their aspiration.

📰 Lasting Inspiration (A free, 18-page article from 2012)

Tags: #Avadana #Wisdom #StoryTime

Four Apadānas > The Buddhāpadāna further develops the concept of Buddha-field, in that it speaks of innumerable Buddha-fields in all ten directions in the multiverse. Thus the Apadānas clearly show the line of development from the concept of merit-field in the early Suttas to the Pure Land systems of later Mahāyāna.

🗒️ Four Apadānas (A free, 23-page essay from 2015)

Tags: #Karma #Buddhism #Avadana

ThaAp 392 Pubbakammapilotika Buddhāpadāna: The Traditions about the Buddha (known as) The Connection with Previous Deeds, or Why the Buddha Suffered This is a Pāli-English translation of ten stories from the commentary to Apadāna 39.10 on the unwholesome actions undertaken by the Bodhisatta in past lives and their karmic repercussions in his final life.

☸️ The Traditions about the Buddha (known as) The Connection with Previous Deeds, or Why the Buddha Suffered (A free, 64-page canonical work from 2012)

Tags: #Avadana #Karma #Buddha

T0203 雜寶藏經: The Storehouse of Sundry Valuables A collection of 121 stories ostensibly from the Sarvāstivāda spanning from the time of Śākyamuni and his disciples to the era of King Kaniṣka and Aśvaghoṣa in the second century C.E.

☸️ The Storehouse of Sundry Valuables (A free, 274-page sūtra translation from 1994)

Tags: #CentralAsian #EarlyBuddhism #Avadana

Avadāna: The Traditions about the Bodhisattva This work presents the poplar Buddhist story of Sudhana and Manoharā, found in the Avadāna, through photographs from Borobudur in Java.

📕 The Traditions about the Bodhisattva (A free, 288-page book from 2019)

Tags: #Mahayana #Avadana #Borobudur

The Pāli Apadāna Collection A general introduction to the collection.

📰 The Pāli Apadāna Collection (A free, 42-page article from 1994)

Tags: #BuddhismQuotes #Avadana

Prince Sudhana And The Kinnarī: An Indian Love-story in Ajanta > Visiting the caves of Ajanta in October 1969, I had the pleasure to identify another artistic representation of the Sudhana story.

📰 An Indian Love-story in Ajanta (A free, 13-page article from 1973)

Tags: #EarlyIndianArt #Avadana

The Nandimitrāvadāna: A Living Text From the Buddhist Tradition > This dissertation offers a comprehensive treatment of the textual sources of the Nandimitrāvadāna, a Buddhist narrative which is deemed an authoritative source for the cult of the Elders or Arhats in Central and East Asia.

📖 A Living Text From the Buddhist Tradition (A free, 300-page thesis from 2018)

Tags: #Avadana #Sutras #FridayReads

The Second Decade of the Avadānaśataka > Despite its richness as a source for one of the lost schools of Indian Buddhism (the Sarvāstivāda), and its potential contributions to our understanding of the development of narrative and ideology in early Buddhism more generally, the Avadānaśataka has never been fully translated into English.

📰 The Second Decade of the *Avadānaśataka* (A free, 36-page article from 2013)

Tags: #Buddha #Sarvastivada #Avadana

Nirvāṇa in Early Buddhist Inscriptions > Surveying pre-Gupta inscriptions, it becomes clear that the aspiration for nirvana has one recurring feature attached to it; the aspiration of the donor for the attainment of nirvana occurs when the donation is connected in some way or another to the relics or figural or non-figural representations of the historical Buddha.

📰 Nirvāṇa in Early Buddhist Inscriptions (A free, 27-page article from 2020)

Tags: #EarlyBuddhism #Avadana

The “Jātakāvadānas” of the Avadānaśataka: An Exploration of Indian Buddhist Narrative Genres > Their presence in an avadāna collection forces us to reflect upon what it might mean to be both a jātaka and an avadāna.

📰 An Exploration of Indian Buddhist Narrative Genres (A free, 23-page article from 2015)

Tags: #Avadana #RebirthStories

The Fourth Decade of the Avadānaśataka > I here present a translation of the fourth decade (stories 31-40) of the Avadānaśataka, using Speyer’s 1906-1909 edition as my base text.

📰 The Fourth Decade of the *Avadānaśataka* (A free, 35-page article from 2014)

Tags: #Sarvastivada #Avadana #Buddha

Apadāna: Legends of the Buddhist Saints The only complete translation of the Pāli Apadāna.

📖 Legends of the Buddhist Saints (A free, 1197-page book from 2018)

Tags: #Avadana #Poetry