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vii Acknowledgments My debt to friends and colleagues who have contributed so much to making this a better book is immense, and my gratitude to them all is impossible to express fully. Let me begin, however, with some appropriate institutional thanks. First, to Cornell University, where this book was written in its entirety, for providing a wonderful teaching and research environment. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Department of Asian Studies, particularly Ding Xiang Warner and JaneMarie Law, for the many conversations, dinners, and tumblers of single-malt scotch that accompanied this work (Ding Xiang Warner deserves most of the credit for the scotch and is no slouch of a cook to boot). I would also like to thank the Hull Memorial Publication Fund at Cornell for providing a generous subvention toward this publication. The American Council of Learned Societies provided much needed fellowship support that enabled me to devote a full year to this project at a crucial time in my research. The Cambridge University Library gave me access to the manuscript that served as the basis of my translation of the Râ½¾rapâlaparip¼cchâ-sûtra as well as to microfilm of the manuscript. I am particularly grateful to Craig Jamieson for facilitating this access. Special thanks are due also to Luis Gómez, who took this monograph on in the University of Hawai‘i series Studies in the Buddhist Traditions. His many efforts on my behalf will be forever appreciated. Pat Crosby at the University of Hawai‘i Press has seen this project through its final stages, and she has done so with immense patience. The high regard with which so many of my colleagues in Asian Studies hold her is entirely justified. I have been the very lucky recipient of the generosity of quite a number of friends and colleagues who have shared their reflections, insights, and observations with me at various stages of the project. Early on Paul Harrison alerted me to a number of infelicities in my translation, saving me from more than a few embarrassments. I am ever grateful for his keen eyes. Stephen Bokenkamp, Seishi Karashima, Tansen Sen, and Valerie Hansen all contributed in various ways from the sinological side (and Seishi especially at the end with his own ambitious projects weighing upon him). On the South Asian side, I owe a great debt to John Strong, who agreed to read the entire manuscript late in the game, viii Acknowledgments for sharing with me his many insights. The same goes for Richard Salomon, who has twice shared his observations with me, well above and beyond the call of duty, and to Kevin Trainor, whose comments on the manuscript came in the midst of burdensome professional responsibilities. Far afield from Asian studies , my good friend Chris Warner applied his sharp eye to the project and called my attention to things only an outsider would catch. A very special thanks is due to Jan Nattier, who has read parts of this project at various stages of completion, sometimes more than once, and who took the trouble to give the final draft yet another careful review. I have benefited greatly from the years of conversation with Jan on many matters of mutual interest. I am indeed fortunate to have been the frequent beneficiary of her seemingly endless generosity. As I was in the final stages of editing this book, I learned of the untimely death of Antonino Forte, who was once again serving as director of the Italian School of East Asian Studies in Kyoto, Japan. Nino was not involved directly with this project, but he contributed much toward making my yearlong stay in Kyoto productive some years ago. It was then that I first turned to my study of Dharmarak½a’s translation of the Râ½¾rapâla. I benefited greatly from his warmth, generosity, and sound advice. I will miss him deeply. I am also grateful to the many students at Cornell who have engaged my oral renditions of Mahâyâna history played out in this book. In particular, to my graduate student Shi Chikai, who endured a reading course on Dharmarak½a’s third-century Chinese translation with good cheer, and to John Johnson, for being a superb conversation partner in our readings in the sociology of religion. He was a wonderful sounding board for a number of the ideas that found a place in Chapter 4. Thanks are due also to Michael Willis of the British Museum...

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