Texts in Context: A Reflection About the Hermeneutics of Buddhist Texts

Early Buddhists adopted a number of strategies for the composition of their canonical texts, developing and implementing techniques of literary composition which were functional, on the one hand, to the transmission of texts and, to the other hand, to their semiotic enrichment in the awareness that the shape/structure of a text influences and completes its content.

The formal and structural elements, in fact, may help to provide additional information compared to those obtained directly from the letter of the text. These factors may be extrinsic, concerning primarily the location of a passage in a larger context, or intrinsic, regarding its internal structure, the choice of terms, of formulas and their disposition, which, in the opinion of the speaker, do not have only a mnemonical function.

A survey of the techniques of literary composition in relation to the Buddhist canons is obviously not an end in itself. Trying to shed light on them is also important to develop more accurate heuristics and hermeneutics. In particular, a) the general context within which a passage is placed can tell us more about how to interpret the letter, b) the inclusion of keywords in it can better illuminate the scope of the teaching and perhaps even its original context, and c) the internal structure of a text can recall similar structures and thus allow the reference to other parts of the Canon.

Francesco Sferra (b. 1965) is Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Naples "L'Orientale". He studied in Rome under the guidance of Raniero Gnoli and Raffaele Torella. His research is focused on the study of tantric traditions of medieval India, in particular on the philosophical and soteriological doctrines of some schools of late Indian Buddhism and of some Hindu traditions of Kashmir. Among his publications are critical editions of two Buddhist Kalacakra works, the longer Sadangayoga by Anupamaraksita with its commentary by Raviarijnana and the Sekoddesatika by Naropa. Sferra is coeditor of the Manuscripta Buddhica Series.

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Organisation
The Buddhist Studies Lectures are organised by: IIAS and Prof. Jonathan Silk (Professor of Buddhist Studies at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies).