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Buddhism and Jainism share the concepts of karma, rebirth, and the desirability of escaping from rebirth. The literature of both traditions contains many stories about past, and sometimes future, lives which reveal much about these foundational doctrines. Naomi Appleton carefully explores how multi-life stories served to construct, communicate, and challenge ideas about karma and rebirth within early South Asia, examining portrayals of the different realms of rebirth, the potential paths and goals of human beings, and the biographies of ideal religious figures. Appleton also deftly surveys the ability of karma to bind individuals together over multiple lives, and the nature of the supernormal memory that makes multi-life stories available in the first place. This original study not only sheds light on the individual preoccupations of Buddhist and Jain tradition, but contributes to a more complete history of religious thought in South Asia, and brings to the foreground long-neglected narrative sources.

Karma --- Reincarnation --- Buddhist literature --- Jaina literature --- History and criticism --- Karma. --- Reincarnation. --- History and criticism. --- Past-lives regression --- Rebirth --- Regression, Past-lives --- Pre-existence --- Soul --- Theosophy --- Transmigration --- Parapsychology --- Religion --- Buddhist literature - History and criticism --- Jaina literature - History and criticism

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"Apparitions of the Self is an investigation into what is known in Tibet as "secret autobiography," an exceptional, rarely studied literary genre that presents a personal exploration of intimate religious experiences. In this volume, Janet Gyatso focuses on the outstanding pair of secret autobiographies by the famed Tibetan Buddhist visionary, Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798), whose poetic and self-conscious writings are as much about the nature of his own identity, memory, and the undecidabilities of autobiographical truth as they are narrations of the actual content of his experiences." "Gyatso is among the first to consider Tibetan literature from a comparative perspective, examining the surprising fit - as well as the misfit - of Western literary theory with Tibetan autobiography. She examines the intriguing questions of why Tibetan Buddhists produced so many autobiographies (far more than other Asian Buddhists), and how autobiographical self-assertion is possible even while Buddhists believe that the self is ultimately an illusion. Also explored are Jigme Lingpa's historical milieu, his revelatory visions of the ancient Tibetan dynasty, and his meditative practices of personal cultivation. The book concludes with a study of the subversive female figure of the dakini in Jigme Lingpa's writings, and the implications of her gender, her sexuality, and her unsettling discourse for the autobiographical subject in Tibet."--Jacket.

Lamas --- ʼJigs-med-gling-pa Rang-byung-rdo-rje, --- Abhidharma. --- Amoghasiddhi. --- Bhavabhadra. --- Black Elk. --- Bokenkamp, Stephen R. --- Buddhism. --- Candragomin. --- Dharmadhātustava. --- Dumont, Louis. --- Dāgistan. --- Four Tantras. --- Ghanavyūha. --- Great Perfection. --- Guhyagarbha. --- Hvashang Mahāyāna. --- Irigarary, Luce. --- Jaina literature. --- Joyce, James. --- Jung, Carl. --- Karmapas. --- Kepgya Nunnery. --- Kumārāja. --- Kālacakra. --- Lalitavistara. --- Loktripāla. --- Lord of Hell. --- Madhyamaka. --- Mahāyāna. --- Nāgārjuna. --- Oddiyāna. --- Parping. --- Potala paradise. --- Ramakrishna. --- aimless states. --- awareness-holders. --- cakras. --- chora. --- darśanamarga. --- datura. --- envoy. --- exemplars. --- field. --- furies. --- ganacakra. --- hagiography. --- harmers. --- heart-mind continuum. --- initiations. --- lineage. --- memory. --- nonduality. --- samayasattva.