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The "Anunatvapur¿atvanirdesaparivarta" is a short Mahayana sutra extant in its entirety only in Chinese translation. To judge from its use as a proof-text in the seminal philosophical treatise "Ratnagotravibhaga", which quotes roughly half of the sutra, it is a fundamental scripture expressing ideas about the unitary nature of säsara and nirväa, and each individual's innate capacity for awakening, called in this text and elsewhere 'tathagatagarbha,' 'embryo of the tathagatas.' Although the text has hitherto drawn the attention primarily of Japanese scholars, this is the first critical edition of the sutra, aligning its Chinese text with the available Sanskrit, offering a richly annotated English translation, a detailed introduction which places the work in its historical and doctrinal context, and a number of appendices exploring key notions, providing a reading text shorn of annotation, and enumerating the prolific quotations of the work found in Chinese Buddhist literature. This volume is thus an important contribution to studies of developing Mahayana Buddhism, Buddhist doctrine and the textual history of scriptures.

Genshin (¿¿; 942-1017), also known as Eshin sozu (¿¿¿¿) , is one of the most prominent masters of Japanese Tendai Buddhism. This study focuses on one of his seminal works, the Ichijo yoketsu ¿¿¿¿ (Determining the Essentials of the One-vehicle), and evaluates its influence on subsequent representatives of the tradition in the medieval period. It elucidates how Genshin and his most significant writings, i.e. the Ichijo yoketsu and the Ojoyoshu ¿¿¿¿ (The Essentials of Birth in the Pure Land), were understood in the Buddhist milieu of the Japanese Middle Ages. By shedding light how the Ichijo yoketsu was quoted in connection to the sangoku mappo ¿¿¿¿ paradigm ("decline of the dharma throughout the three countries" of India, China, and Japan), the present book contributes original and relevant insights into Japanese Buddhism. It primarily takes an intertextual approach, which is carried out with the help of digital resources and tools. Yet another feature is the first English-language translation of the Genshin sozu den ¿¿¿¿¿ (Biography of the General Vicar Genshin), the oldest full-length biography of Genshin. While the work presents a wealth of new knowledge and hitherto unexplored angles, it does not intend to conclude its matter. Rather, it aims at inspiring further interest in the study of Genshin and his many unexplored works.

Helmut Krasser, despite tragically passing away much too early in 2014, left his mark on more than one generation of scholars of Indian and Buddhist philosophy. An eminent specialist on the so-called "logico-epistemological tradition," he devoted his Viennese dissertation and early work to the Buddhist philosopher Dharmottara, before broadening the scope of his research to Dignaga and Dharmakirti, the tradition's historical founders. In particular, he examined their ideas on the relationship between logic and soteriology. He also considered the very nature of their texts. Should they be understood as authored philosophical works? Or rather as edited lecture notes of students? Director from 2007 to 2014 of the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Helmut Krasser left behind a multi-faceted body of work, including editions of ancient Sanskrit manuscripts today found in the Tibetan Autonomous Region that had never before been published. This commemorative volume with more than thirty contributions not only reflects the multiplicity of his interests, it is also evidence of the deep impression he left on all those who met him. It is a document to the faithful friendship and highest respect still held by his friends and colleagues almost ten years after his death.

"How should one dwell in endtime? In this SPIDER-spun web of a book, Wendi Adamek guides readers to the visual and textual traces left by Buddhist nuns, monks, and devotees on mountainsides in Baoshan, north central China, and through them, the soteriology of Buddhism in the medieval world. The convents have vanished and the stones weathered, but the skillful work in maintaining co-constitutive relations is as palpable as ever. Thoroughly researched and artfully written, this deeply affecting book advances scholarship without leaving the lay reader behind. The comparative insights, theory-work, and appended transcriptions of this definitive study constitute a gift to past, present, and future travelers."(Dorothy Ko, author of The Social Lives of Inkstones: Artisans and Scholars in Early Qing China)