Lévi, S.

Lévi, S. on the DRL

Authors of French Works • Professors

English Phonetics	Sylvain Lévi

Dates

Birth:	1863/03/28
Death:	1935/10/30
Place of birth:	Paris, France

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Biographical Information

French Orientalist who wrote on Eastern religion, literature, and history and is particularly noted for his dictionary of Buddhism.

Appointed a lecturer at the school of higher studies in Paris (1886), he taught Sanskrit at the Sorbonne (1889–94) and wrote his doctoral dissertation, Le Théâtre indien (1890; "The Indian Theatre"), which became a standard treatise on the subject. After his appointment as professor at the Collège de France (1894–1935), he toured India and Japan (1897 and 1898) and published La Doctrine du sacrifice dans les Brâhmanas (1898; "The Doctrine of Sacrifice in the Brāhmaṇas"). Another book resulting from these travels was Le Népal: Étude historique d’un royaume hindou, 3 vol. (1905–08; "Nepal: Historical Study of a Hindu Kingdom"). In L’Inde et le monde (1926; "India and the World"), he discussed India's role among nations.

Subsequent travels to East Asia (1921–23) generated his major work, Hôbôgirin. Dictionnaire du Bouddhisme d’après les sources chinoises et japonaises (1929; "Hōbōgirin. Dictionary of Buddhism Based on Chinese and Japanese Sources"), produced in collaboration with the Japanese Buddhist scholar Takakusu Junjirō.

Lévi also worked with the French linguist Antoine Meillet on pioneer studies of the Tocharian languages spoken in Chinese Turkistan in the 1st millennium AD. He determined the dates of texts in Tocharian B and published Fragments de textes koutchéens . . . (1933; "Fragments of Texts from Kucha"). (Source Accessed Jan 29, 2020)

Links

Wiki Pages

• Lévi, S. on the DRL
• Lévi, S. on the LIB
• Lévi, S. on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
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All beings have Buddha-nature
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If "Qualified", explain:
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Which Wheel Turning
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Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
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Zhentong vs Rangtong
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Promotes how many vehicles?
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Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
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What is Buddha-nature?
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Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
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Causal nature of the vajrapāda
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Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.