The Buddha in the Pali Exegetical Literature

This book brings together several of Professor Toshiichi Endo’s previously published articles on the Buddha-concept in the Pāli Commentaries. Overall, it deals with two spiritual powers of the Buddha: the knowledge power (ñāṇabala) and the physical power (kāya-bala). It discusses first, the knowledge power, by way of examining in-depth such topics as the Buddha’s omniscience, Buddha’s eye (buddha-cakkhu), ten powers (tathāgata-bala), and four kinds of self-confidence (catu-vesārajja), and the second, the physical power, by exploring such topics as the Buddha’s eighty minor bodily marks (asīti anuvyañjana), marks of hundred merits (sata-puñña-lakkhaṇa), and the fathom long halo (byāma ppabhā). The book takes a comparative approach to the Theravāda materials on the topic to treat them within the larger Indian Buddhism. Hence it provides references to the Sanskrit and Chinese sources of other Indian Buddhist schools like Mahāsaṅghika and Sarvāstivāda. By so doing, it interprets the Theravada conception of the Buddha in the Pāli Commentaries as a theoretical response to that of other Indian Buddhist schools.
 

Bibliography:

Endo, Toshiichi. The Buddha in the Pali Exegetical Literature. The University of Hong Kong: Centre of Buddhist Studies. 2023