A Second Look at the 'Historical' Buddha

Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond lecture given by Bernard Faure (Columbia University).

For generations, scholars have been trying to extract an authentic biography of the Buddha from the mists of his legend, and the vast majority of writings on Buddhism accept the historical character of its founding figure. More recently, some scholars have argued for a "middle way" between myth or legend and history. However, even those who make this point then tend to slip back into a kind of reflexive historicism once they proceed to narrate the life of the Buddha. Yet the Buddha cannot be understood without fully acknowledging the mythological and the ritual aspects of his life, and their importance over the historical. Furthermore, rejecting that historicist approach may allow us to see all biographical traditions about the Buddha as being equally important and worthy of investigation, and to explore the stories of the Buddha that have been forged and transmitted over the centuries, in India, but also as far as China, Korea and Japan.

A French-born scholar, Bernard Faure is a historian of religions specialized in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, more specifically the Chan (Zen) and esoteric Buddhist traditions. He has taught at Cornell University, Stanford University, and Columbia University. He has published a number of books on Buddhism in English and French, among which: The Rhetoric of Immediacy; Chan Insights and Oversights; The Red Thread; The Power of Denial; Visions of Power; Unmasking Buddhism; and The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha. He recently completed a 5-volume series entitled Gods of Medieval Japan, and is working on two books on Buddhism, neuroscience, and AI.