Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings - Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins - Naomi Appleton

Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings - Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins - Naomi Appleton

16. Jātaka Stories and Paccekabuddhas in Early Buddhism

Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings - Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins - 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

This article explores the role of paccekabuddhas in stories of the Buddha’s past lives (jātaka tales) in early Buddhist narrative collections in Pāli and Sanskrit. In early Buddhism paccekabuddhas are liminal figures in two senses: they appear between Buddhist dispensations, and they are included as a category of awakening between sammāsambuddha and arahat. Because of their appearance in times of no Buddhism, paccekabuddhas feature regularly in jātaka literature, as exemplary renouncers, teachers, or recipients of gifts. This article asks what the liminal status of paccekabuddhas means for their interactions with the Buddha and his past lives as Bodhisatta.

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Citation

Appleton, Naomi. 16. Jātaka Stories and Paccekabuddhas in Early Buddhism. Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings - Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 305-318 Oct 2019. ISBN 9781781798928. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=33398. Date accessed: 10 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.33398. Oct 2019

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