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Richard S. Cohen provides an elegant and accessible translation of a heretofore unavailable Indian Buddhist Mahayana sutra, along with a highly engaging interpretive essay that illuminates how the sutra functions as 'scripture' and raises issues that extend far beyond Indian Buddhism itself. His book fills an important lacuna in the resources available for teaching Buddhism and makes a significant contribution to the cross-cultural study of sacred texts. Cohen has combined a fascinating Buddhist text -- a veritable manifesto on the ritual powers of mantra, inscribed word, and sculpted image -- with an incisive and lucid essay on the meaning of 'scripture' in religion. In its focus on gestures, practices, and their glorious exemplars in heaven, The Splendid Vision certainly rounds out the popular image of Buddhist texts and will make essential reading for courses on Buddhism, Asian religions, and scripture in world religions.

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Richard S. Cohen is associate professor of South Asian religious literatures and director of the Program for the Study of Religion at the University of California, San Diego. He earned his Ph.D. in Buddhist studies from the University of Michigan and is the author of Beyond Enlightenment: Buddhism, Religion, Modernity.

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