Suramgamasamadhisutra, The Concentration of Heroic Progress: An Early Mahayana Buddhist Scripture.

• Author: KROLL, PAUL W.
• Position: Review

Suramgamasamadhisutra, The Concentration of Heroic Progress: An Early Mahayana Buddhist Scripture. Translated and annotated by ETIENNE LAMOTTE. English translation by SARA BOIN-WEBB. Richmond, Surrey: CURZON PRESS, 1999; in association with The Buddhist Society. Pp. xxviii + 273. [pound]45.

Lamotte's French translation and study of the Suramgamasamadhisutra was published in 1965 as La Concentration de la march heroique, volume 13 of the series Melanges chinois et bouddhiques sponsored by the Institut Beige des Hautes Etudes Chinoises. The English translation of Lamotte's work was originally commissioned by the Pali Text Society and was completed before his death in 1983 (see his "Foreword to the English Edition," pp. xi-xvi) but, for whatever reason, it was never published. The Buddhist Society of London, with the support of Curzon Press, has now brought it into the light.

This English rendering has been done by Ms. Boin-Webb with the same deftness, accuracy, and attention to detail seen in her translatioons of Lamotte's L'Enseignement de Vimalakirti and his Histoire du bouddhisme indien, des origines a l'ere Saka. As was typical of Lamotte, his annotated translation of the scripture is preceded by a lengthy introduction on Buddhological matters pertaining to the...