Creatures: Saṅgharakṣita and the Shape-Shifting Nāga
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Creatures: Saṅgharakṣita and the Shape-Shifting Nāga
Article
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- The Array of Virtues of Mañjuśrī's Buddha Realm: Mañjuśrībuddhakṣetraguṇavyūha (Hinkle, T.)
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- The Diamond Sutra (Conze)
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- The Legend of Saṃgharakṣita
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- The Precious Discourse on the Blessed One’s Extensive Wisdom That Leads to Infinite Certainty: Niṣṭhāgatabhagavajjñānavaipulyasūtraratnānanta (Doctor, A.)
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- The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (2): Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā (Ewing, B.)
- The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (3): Sāgaranāgarājaparipṛcchā (Gyaltsen, Kalsang)
- The Range of the Bodhisattva: A Study of an Early Mahāyānasūtra - Āryasatyakaparivarta
- The Rice Seedling Sutra
- The Rice Seedling: Śālistamba (Raktrul, 6th)
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- The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 1: Introduction
- The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 2: Edition and Translation
- The Stem Array: Gaṇḍavyūha (Roberts, P.)
- The Strength of the Elephant: Hastikakṣya (Forgues, G.)
- The Sutra of the Householder Uncouth
- The Ten Bhūmis: Daśabhūmika (Roberts, P.)
- The Ugraparipṛcchā, the Mahāratnakūṭasūtra and Early Mahāyāna Buddhism
- The Vajradhvajapariṇāmanā: An Edition and Translation of the Tibetan Version
- The Voice of the Buddha
- The White Lotus of the Good Dharma: Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Roberts, P.)
- The Ākāśagarbha Sūtra: Ākāśagarbhasūtra (Tenzin, Jampa, et al)
- The Śālistamba Sūtra
- The Śālistamba Sūtra and Its Indian Commentaries, Volume I
- Vagrakkhedikâ, The Diamond-Cutter
- Śāntideva and the Mādhyamika: The Prajñāpāramitā-Pariccheda of the Bodhicaryāvatāra
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Description
This is an English translation of the story of Saṅgharakṣita (Saṅgharakṣitāvadāna) extracted from the Pravrajyāvastu (The Chapter on Going Forth) from the Vinayavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya.
Citation
Miller, Robert (Lozang Zopa), trans. "Creatures: Saṅgharakṣita and the Shape-Shifting Nāga." In The Chapter on Going Forth: Pravrajyāvastu. v 1.35.6. 84000.co, 2021. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh1-1.html.
Interconnections
1 Full translation of
The following description of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna is an extract from: Vogel, Claus, and Klaus Wille, ed. and trans. The Pravrajyāvastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Göttingen: Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den Turfan-Funden, 2014. http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil_elib/VoW014__Vogel_Wille_The_Pravrajyavastu_of_the_Mulasarvastivada_Vinaya.pdf.
. . . Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna, that is, the legend of a merchant's son named Saṃgharakṣita, who, after entering the Buddhist congregation, happened to get into the submarine world of serpent-demons and, back on earth, to reach various places of recompense[9]. It is meant to illustrate the precept that a monk shall not teach the Law without request[10], which was violated in this case inasmuch as Saṃgharakṣita was deemed to have been kidnapped by the serpent-demons for the purpose of preaching[11]. The said precept was formulated by the Buddha in the context of another legend, the so-called Nāgakumārāvadāna, which treats of a serpent-demon having turned monk[12] and makes up, as it were, the frame story of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna, with the tale of the present preceding and that of the past succeeding it. The aim of this superordinate Avadāna is to exemplify the maxim that a so-called phantom creature — an animal able to transform itself into a human being — must be removed from the congregation[13].
The whole former part of the Nāgakumārāvadāna and roughly the first quarter of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna have been lost in the original Sanskrit; they are, however, still extant in a Tibetan translation of the Vinayavastu dating from the latter half of the eighth century[14] and handed down in the Kanjur division of the Lamaist canon[15].
The gap at the outset of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna may be filled in a measure by means of the Divyāvadāna, the celebrated Mūlasarvāstivāda-oriented compilation of Buddhist legends probably dating from the third century, chapters XXIII and XXV of which are a shortened version of the same Avadāna but in a form subsequently vitiated by errors and alterations[16]. Owing to a mistake by its compiler, the Divyāvadāna also gives the final portion of the tale of the present relative to the Nāgakumārāvadāna, which is hardly comprehensible by itself and hence caused many a difficulty of interpretation and classification[17].
There are at least two canonical translations of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna in the Chinese Tripiṭaka. One introduces the fourth fascicle of the 出家事 Ch'u-chia shih[18]; done between 703 and 710 by I-ching, it sets in with the five hundred merchants sailing back to the seashore after Saṃgharakṣita's reappearance from the realm of serpent-demons[19]. The other is a separate sūtra from the time of the Eastern Chin dynasty (317-419) bearing the title 因緣僧護經 Yin–yüan Seng–hu ching[20]; it opens with a résumé of the tale of the present of the Nāgakumārāvadāna[21] and has the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna proper start with the five hundred merchants making up their minds to go on a business voyage, and to ask Saṃgharakṣita to keep them company and teach them the Law[22]. The latter version, without the 'preamble', has been quoted almost in full by Tao-shih (d. 683) towards the close of fascicle 92 of his 法苑珠林 Fa yüan chu lin[23].
The whole former part of the Nāgakumārāvadāna and roughly the first quarter of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna have been lost in the original Sanskrit; they are, however, still extant in a Tibetan translation of the Vinayavastu dating from the latter half of the eighth century[14] and handed down in the Kanjur division of the Lamaist canon[15].
The gap at the outset of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna may be filled in a measure by means of the Divyāvadāna, the celebrated Mūlasarvāstivāda-oriented compilation of Buddhist legends probably dating from the third century, chapters XXIII and XXV of which are a shortened version of the same Avadāna but in a form subsequently vitiated by errors and alterations[16]. Owing to a mistake by its compiler, the Divyāvadāna also gives the final portion of the tale of the present relative to the Nāgakumārāvadāna, which is hardly comprehensible by itself and hence caused many a difficulty of interpretation and classification[17].
There are at least two canonical translations of the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna in the Chinese Tripiṭaka. One introduces the fourth fascicle of the 出家事 Ch'u-chia shih[18]; done between 703 and 710 by I-ching, it sets in with the five hundred merchants sailing back to the seashore after Saṃgharakṣita's reappearance from the realm of serpent-demons[19]. The other is a separate sūtra from the time of the Eastern Chin dynasty (317-419) bearing the title 因緣僧護經 Yin–yüan Seng–hu ching[20]; it opens with a résumé of the tale of the present of the Nāgakumārāvadāna[21] and has the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna proper start with the five hundred merchants making up their minds to go on a business voyage, and to ask Saṃgharakṣita to keep them company and teach them the Law[22]. The latter version, without the 'preamble', has been quoted almost in full by Tao-shih (d. 683) towards the close of fascicle 92 of his 法苑珠林 Fa yüan chu lin[23].
