維摩詰經=Vimalakirtinirdesa; 不二法門=non-duality dharma door ; 無生法忍=anutpattika-dharma-ksanti; 人間佛教=Humanistic Buddhism; 唯心淨土=Pure idealism
摘要
本論文主是探討佛教的創教者釋迦牟尼佛的傳記中的神話性. 首先以實例指出在真實的生活中，神話式的語言是佛教中常見的表述方式. 佛教信仰者對佛教神話有以純理性的角度想要去除，與全然的跳過理性，相信經典中的一字一句的純信仰兩種不同立場. 並以此提出，在面對佛教神話時，做為一個信仰者應如何才能既保存信仰，也擁抱理性？接著指出目前佛學研究過於偏重以歷史學方法研究為主的缺失與不足，故筆者以宗教學與神話學做為本論文研究「釋迦牟尼佛神話性」的方法，為信仰者做為信仰與理性間的橋樑，尋求佛傳神話的意義. 本論文所要討論的佛傳經典，以目前學術界最常用的《大正精修大藏經》﹙即《大正藏》﹚中的「阿含部」，「律部」與「本緣部」中的二十五部佛傳經典為研究的對象，其中「阿含部」的《長阿含．大本經》等的八部經為敘述毘婆尸佛等過去七佛的成佛故事，因與佛陀的成佛故事如出一轍，故也納入討論. 論文中初步的說明各佛傳經典較具神話性的情節，以十二分教來分析佛傳經典所使用的文體與內容形式，及其結構特色; 並以列表的方式，來分別整理佛傳經典各經的「序」，「降兜率相」，「出，入胎相」，「出家相」，「降魔相」，「成道與說法相」與「涅槃相」的內容. 以上述的研究為基礎，進一步的對佛傳的神話進行分析. 先介紹神話學家坎伯，依里亞德與布特曼等人的神話學理論，說明「神話」的一些正確基本概念與態度. 並以此對佛傳神話做一些澄清，分別的點出佛傳神話是「沒一個固定的作者」，它所「述說的是神聖的歷史」，並「以象徵的方式，傳達深層的蘊含」; 接著，抽離出「象徵的蘊含」，「超自然的力量的幫助」，「神聖時間與空間的建構」與「從歷史事件轉變為宇宙事件」等主題，對佛傳神話做分析; 最後，以「文化」，「宗教語言」與「行果」三方面，來作為信仰者在詮釋神話時所應掌握的原則. The prime of this thesis is to investigate into the mythicality of the legend of Buddha Sakyamuni，the originator of Buddhism. It is illustrated by examples to point out in reality，mythical language is a usual way of narration in uddhism. The buddhists view this basically from two different perspectives, either pure rationalism to demythologizing，or by pure faith to completely leaping-over reason to believe the inerrancy of the sutras. This thesis puts forth in facing of the buddhistic myths, how could buddhists keep their own faith and concurrently embrace reason? And then calls attention to the shortcomings of the undue emphasis on historical method of the contemporary research on buddhism. The methodology of this thesis to study the mythicality of the legend of Buddha is founded on religionswissenschaft and mythology that can bridge the cliff between faith and reason for the buddhists who are seeking for the meaning of buddhistic myths. The 25 sutras of legends of Buddha for discussion in this thesis are parts of Agama(阿含經)，vinaya pitaka(律藏)，pratitya nikaya(本緣部) from the “Dah Jeng Tzang”(大正藏)，especially the 8 books of that describe the stories of seven buddhas proceeded toward their buddha-ship. Because of the similarity to the legend of Buddha, they are also included for discussion. In the thesis, the legends having plots with more mythicality are discussed firstly on the literary style and form，and the structural peculiarities; then tabulating the content in 7 stages including the phases of preliminary，condescension，fetus, monkhood，exorcist，preacher-ship，and nirvana. Based on the foundation above，prior to analyzing the mythicality of the legend of Buddha, mythologies of Joseph Cambell，M. Eliade and Rudolf Bultmann are introduced for explanation of the correct concept of and attitude toward myths. and by means of this some mis-understanding on myths are clarified，such as the legends of Buddha were not composed by specific authos, but were narratives about the sacred history symbolizing connotative meanings behind the literal senses of the words. Then work on analysis along topics such as, the symbolised connotation，the assistance from supernatural power，the structure of sacred time and space，and the transformation to cosmic events from historical events. Finally，concluding culture，religious language，and behavioristic effects are the three points that should be held as principle on hermeneutics of myths.
