Internal and External Opposition to the Bodhisattva's Gift of His Body

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Among the many Indian Buddhist jātakas celebrating the innumerable deeds of virtue and compassion performed by the Buddha during his previous lives, a significant number involve astonishing and gruesome acts of bodily self-sacrifice: In his birth as King Śibi, for example, the Buddha gouged out his eyes and gave them to a blind man; in his birth as Prince Mahāsattva, he allowed his body to be devoured by a starving tigress; in his birth as King Maitrībala, he encouraged five rākṣasas to feed on his flesh and blood; and in his birth as King Candraprabha, he cut off his own head on behalf of a greedy brahman.[1] Such stories are primarily didactic in nature, serving to illustrate, in the starkest possible way, the great selflessness and compassion cultivated by the Buddha during his long career as a bodhisattva. In terms of the bodhisattva's cultivation of the perfections (pāramitā), they are almost always classified as preeminent examples of the perfection of generosity or giving (dāna). Because stories involving the bodhisattva's bodily self-sacrifice are so frequently perceived in terms of dāna, I refer to all such stories collectively as "gift-of-the-body" stories and to the theme of bodily self-sacrifice itself as the "gift-of-the-body" theme.[2]
The plethora of Buddhist stories involving such gruesome acts of self-mutilation and self-sacrifice has often been met with dismay on the part of modern scholars. One of the earliest scholars to address the gift-of-the-body theme in any detail was Har Dayal, who collected, summarized, and discussed a series of gift-of-the-body stories in his influential 1932 work, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.[3] Despite his obvious interest in the theme, Dayal seems dismayed by the excesses of its execution. "The idea of giving away one's limbs has given rise to some curious stories", he plaintively states, "which are intended to be highly instructive and inspiring, but which are simply silly and puerile" (1932: 175). A few pages later (1932: 181-182), he continues:

The heroes and heroines of these stories give away wealth, limbs, life, wives and children in a spirit of exaggerated and fantastic philanthropy. The lack of a sense of proportion and harmony is the fatal flaw of the Indian temperament as exhibited in literature and religion. The Indian thinkers and writers often push a good idea to such extremes that it becomes grotesque and ridiculous.

No doubt, gruesome stories that dwell in agonizing detail on the frenzied sacrifice of blood, flesh, limbs, and life have clashed with many earlier scholars' romanticized portrait of Buddhism as a thoroughly rational creed that treads a "Middle Way" and avoids all such extremes.
      Within their traditional context, on the other hand, it is clear that stories involving the gift-of-the-body theme were extremely popular in Indian Buddhism, appearing in innumerable variations throughout the history of the literary tradition and exerting a profound influence on Buddhist art, philosophy, and culture. They exist in the literature of all Mainstream Buddhist schools,[4] and (unlike many other types of stories) seem to fully retain their popularity within the literature of the Mahâyâna. Nor should such stories be thought of as "common fare" meant only to appeal to the vulgar tastes of the masses. Even the most sophisticated and elite Buddhist exegetes take such stories seriously and generally accord to the bodhisattva's gift of his body a very exalted place: The gift of the body is touted as the ideal gift and the paradigmatic manifestation of generosity, a perfect expression of the bodhisattva's selflessness and compassion.
       In many contexts, the ideal nature of the gift of the body is conveyed by conceiving it wholly in terms of the bodhisattva's dāna-pāramitā or "perfection of generosity." Gift-of-the-body stories are frequently chosen to illustrate dāna-pāramitā within narrative collections intended to illustrate the six or ten perfections: The Cariyāpiṭaka uses two gift of-the-body stories (out of ten) to illustrate dāna-pāramitā, while Ārya Śūra's Jātakamālā uses three. Similarly, gift-of-the-body stories are frequently invoked within exegetical discussions of dāna-pāramitā. In the Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra attributed to Nāgārjuna, for example, a long section devoted to an explanation of each of the six perfections answers the question "How does the bodhisattva fulfill dāna-pāramitā?" by stating: "He gives everything away without restriction, and when he gives even his own body, his heart experiences no regret: for example, King Śibi, who gave his body to a pigeon".[5] This is followed by a retelling of the story of King Śibi's gift of flesh to ransom a pigeon, this story itself serving as the complete explanation of dāna-pāramitā. Likewise, in the Pāramitāsamāsa attributed to Ārya Śūra, the author begins his discussion of dāna-pāramitāwith eight verses on the gift of the body (mentioning flesh, blood, and limbs), clearly treating this gift as emblematic of dāna-pāramitā as a whole.[6] Again in the Cariyāpiṭaka, the summary verses that conclude the first ten stories illustrating dāna-pāramitā explain that gifts of material goods constitute only the "preliminary requirements for giving" (dāna-parikkhārā), whereas the gift of one's limbs constitutes the "perfection of giving (dānassa pāramī), and the gift of one's entire body or life constitutes the "fulfillment" of the perfection of giving (pārami pūrayiṃ).[7] These and many other, similar contexts indicate that the gift of the body was often conceived as the paradigmatic example or fullest embodiment of the bodhisattva's dāna-pāramitā.
      The same high valuation of the of the body also comes across, however, in many contexts that make no reference to dāna-pāramitā. Instead, the gift of the body is invoked in association with various other ideal categories of dāna, categories that are always placed above — and favorably contrasted with — various lesser categories of dāna. In another section of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, for example, gifts are classified as "inferior", "medium", and "superior", with the gifts of head, eyes, blood, and flesh (as well as kingdom, riches, wife, and children) constituting the "superior" category.[8] In very similar terms, the commentary to the Cariyāpiṭaka states that all bodhisattvas must make five gifts throughout the course of their careers: those of wealth, children, wife, body-parts, and life.[9] By making these five gifts incumbent upon all bodhisattvas, the text suggests that they constitute the preeminent and superior forms of dāna.
      Another well-known classification of gifts that accords to the gift of the body a high status distinguishes between those gifts that are "external" (bāhira) and those that are "internal (adhyātmika). "External" gifts are objects that are "external to the self", or adventitious property or possessions, while "internal" gifts are objects that are "internal to the self", or that which constitutes an integral or inherent part of one's person. Thus, in the Sivijātaka (Pāli No. 499), King Sivi thinks to himself: "There is not a single external object that I have not given, [yet] external gifts (bāhira-dāna) do not satisfy me; I want to give an internal gift (ajjhattika-dāna).[10] The context clearly suggests that "internal gifts" are vastly superior to "external gifts", and cites, as examples of "internal gifts", the flesh of the heart, the flesh of the body, the blood, and the eyes. This distinction between material objects as "external gifts" and gifts of the body as (inherently superior) "internal gifts" appears in many later Buddhist texts as well, such as the Bodhisattvabhūmi, Pāramitāsamāsa, and Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra.[11]
      Thus, in numerous exegetical contexts by means of such categories as "superior" gifts, "internal" gifts, gifts incumbent upon all bodhisattvas, and gifts fulfilling dāna-pāramitā, the gift of the body is consistently depicted as an ideal form of dāna, hierarchically superior to more ordinary types of giving. When we consider the great popularity of these tales and their exaltation by Buddhist exegetes, it is clear, then, that the Indian Buddhist tradition admires and praises the bodhisattva's gift of his body as an ideal form of giving and an ideal expression of dāna-pāramitā. Nevertheless, the discomfort felt by scholars such as Dayal is not solely a modern phenomenon. In fact, despite its generally high valuation, there is ample evidence in Indian Buddhist literature that the bodhisattva's gift of his body was an ideal that caused a certain amount of ambivalence, and that its exalted position as an ideal form of generosity was sometimes contested. In various contexts, in fact, outright opposition to the bodhisattva's self-sacrifice is given full voice. By looking at the various forms such opposition took, we can discern not only the specific reasons why this one particular theme aroused ambivalence, but also what this ambivalence reveals about some of the deeper and more fundamental faultlines in Buddhist thought. This will be my aim in the present paper. (Ohnuma, preliminary remarks, 43–46)

Notes

For a full list of references for each of these four stories, see Grey (1990): s.v. Sivi, s.v. Vyāghrī or Mahāsattva, s.v. Maitrībala, and s.v. Candraprabha.
To some extent, of course, this is an artificial category. Buddhist stories involving self-mutilation and self-sacrifice fall into several different categories which should ultimately be treated as one large and interweaving thematic group, with the various types playing off each other in interesting ways. In order to limit my material, however, I have chosen to focus on those stories in which a gift of the body or a part of the body is emphasized, and to designate such stories as "gift-of-the body" tales. For further clarification of this category of tales and its relationship to other, closely related types of tales, see Ohnuma (1997: 40–43).
Dayal 1932: 181-187. The gift-of-the-body theme is frequently mentioned, but has not been treated in any sustained manner in the scholarship on Indian Buddhism. In his book Buddhist Parables, Burlingame (1922: 297-336) summarizes or translates nine such stories and has a useful collection of extracts from Christian texts that demonstrate striking parallels to the gift-of-the-body theme. Schalk (1983) is a more recent treatment, but is written in Swedish. Granoff (1990) is a close analysis of one gift-of-the-body story, the story of King Maṇicūḍa. For discussions of some closely related subgenres of Buddhist stories, see also Granoff [forthcoming] and Filliozat (1963).
I borrow Paul Harrison's term "Mainstream Buddhism" to refer to non-Mahāyāna Buddhism (see Harrison 1992: 77-78, n. 2).
Translated in Lamotte 1944-1980: 1, 255. Though attributed to Nāgārjuna, the Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra may be of Central Asian or Chinese origin; nevertheless, it is clearly based on Indian materials. I have taken the liberty of relying on this text for its many relevant discussions of the gift-of-the-body theme.
Pāramitāsamāsa 1.6-13 (Meadows 1986: 158-161). The Ārya Śūra who authored the Pāramitāsamāsa is most likely distinct from, and several centuries later than, the Ārya Śūra who authored the more famous Jatakamālā. See Meadows (1986: 1-21) for this argument.
Jayawickrama 1974: 2, 13, v. 146. This classification is not restricted to dāna pāramitā alone. In the Nidānakathā, after Sumedha resolves before Dipaṃkāra to fulfill the ten perfections, he states in reference to all of them: "The sacrifice of one's limbs constitutes the perfections; the sacrifice of material things constitutes the 'lesser' perfections; the sacrifice of one's life constitutes the 'ultimate' perfection" (Fausboll 1875-1897: 1, 25; all translations in the text and notes are my own, unless otherwise stated). As previously noted, however, the sacrifice of limbs and life are most commonly found associated with the perfection of giving.
Lamotte 1944-1980: 2, 750-751.
Cariyāpiṭakaṭṭhakathā 96, cited in Horner 1975: 2, 14, n. 1.
Fausboll 1875-1897: 4, 402.9-11.
In the Bodhisattvabhūmi, the two types of gifts are defined somewhat technically as follows: "What is the [bodhisattva's] gift of everything (sarvadānam)? In brief, everything refers to the two types of objects that can be given: internal and external. When a bodhisattva gives away his own body - even up to the marrow of his bones - that is referred to as the gift of a wholly internal object. When the bodhisattva ingests food and drink and then regurgitates it for the sake of those beings who eat regurgitated food, that is referred to as the bodhisattva's gift of a partly internal and partly external object. [Finally,] the gift of any object aside from those just mentioned is referred to as the gift of a wholly external object" (Dutt 978: 80.15-20). Likewise, the Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra observes that "the internal gift consists of giving one's life without regret for beings, as is recounted in the jātakas and avadānas" (translated in Lamotte 1944-1980: 2, 688). The Pāramitāsamāsa indicates the superior nature of the "internal gift" by advising the bodhisattva to think: "May those who desire my flesh take my flesh; may he who desires even my bone marrow take my bone marrow by drawing it out. For I bear this wretched body for the sake of the world - how much more an external object (vastu bāhyam)!" (Pāramitāsamāsa 1.7, Meadows 1986: 158)

Citation

Ohnuma, Reiko. "Internal and External Opposition to the Bodhisattva's Gift of His Body." Journal of Indian Philosophy 28 (2000): 43–75.

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