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Literal Means and Hidden Meanings: A New Analysis of Skillful Means
Abstract
The Buddhist concept of skillful means , as introduced inMahāyāna sūtras, exposes a new awareness of the gap between text and meaning. Although the term is sometimes taken to point to the Buddha's pedagogical skills, this interpretation ignores the provocative use of the term in Mahāyāna texts. Treating skillful means as a universal Buddhist concept also fails to explain why and for what purpose it first became predominant in the Mahāyāna. Looking at the use of skillful means in the Lotus Sūtra and in the Skill in Means Sūtra reveals a hermeneutic device aimed at criticizing an existing corpus of Buddhist literature. As such, skillful means is used to demonstrate that the old doctrine and the life of the Buddha contained fictitious features and were nothing but skillful means. This indicates a growing awareness of a gap between literal expressions and their hidden meaning that can only arise after some kind of religious corpus has been established.
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“Even though Federman's overriding argument concerning the emergence of skilful means as a Maha ¯ya ¯nist 'radical hermeneutic device' 7 be valid, its concomitant emphasis on the literalism of the Pali canon fails to do full justice to several canonical passages exhibiting a high degree of self-aware linguistic sophistication.”
From The Buddha’s Wordplays: The Rhetorical Function and Efficacy of Puns and Etymologizing in the Pali Canon (2016) · cites this paper as Federman (2009)
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Research works printed but not linked: 19
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- Pye, Michael. 1978/2003. Skilful Means-A Concept in Mahayana Buddhism. London: Routledge.
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- Watson, Burton, trans. 1993. The Lotus Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press.
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Visigalli, P. (2016) · Journal of Indian Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10781-015-9286-3 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Federman, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Warwick (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Federman, Asaf
- Venue
- Philosophy East and West
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2009-04
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 125-141
- ISSN
- 0031-8221 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-1898
- OpenAlex
- W2106083752
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 7.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Philosophy East and West (publishedVersion)
- Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (acceptedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Keywords
- skillful means, Mahayana Buddhism, Lotus Sutra, hermeneutics, text and meaning, Buddhist sutras
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