Notes on the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra

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Notes on the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

I. The Thousand Buddhas of the Fortunate Aeon

Towards a literary history

The Tibetan version of the Bhadrakalpika is one of the longer Mahāyāna sūtras. The early ninth-century "Lhan dkar catalogue"[2] and the Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od, compiled in the late 1260s or early 1270s by Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri (1227–1305) at Snar thang monastery in Central Tibet,[3] give its length as 7008 śloka. The Lhan dkar ma, the nearly contemporary "'Phang thang ma catalogue", the register compiled by Bcom ldan rig ral, and the register given by Bu ston Rin chen grub (1290–1364) in his "History of Buddhism" (Chos 'byung, compiled 1322/23) all agree that the Bhadrakalpika is 26 bam po long, as do the versions available today for which I have information (Derge, Peking, Stog, and independent xylographs). Leaving aside the Prajñāpāramitā (Sher phyin) and Avataṃsaka (Phal chen) Divisions, the Bhadrakalpika is the longest text in the Mahāyāna Sūtra Division.[4] For this reason, it stands first in the early central Tibetan registers which order titles according to descending hierarchies of length within textual divisions. Such is the case, for example, in the "Lhan dkar catalogue", in the Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od, and in Bu ston's register. (Skilling, preliminary remarks, 195–96)

Citation

Skilling, Peter. "Notes on the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra." Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University 13 (2010): 195–229. http://iriab.soka.ac.jp/content/pdf/aririab/Vol.%20XIII%20(2010).pdf#page=197.

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Bhadrakalpikasūtra [आर्यभद्रकल्पिकनाममहायानसूत्र]. 'phags pa bskal pa bzang po pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [Sūtra of the Good Eon (84000)]. Translated by Ban de dpal dbyangs, Vidyākarasiṃha, Ska ba dpal brtsegs, Dharmarakṣa. Kangyur, RKTSK 94 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=94&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

Bhadrakalpikasūtra. (T. Bskal pa bzang po'i mdo/Mdo sde bskal bzang; C. Xianjie jing; J. Gengōgyō; K. Hyǒn'gǒp kyǒng 賢劫經). In Sanskrit, "Auspicious Eon Scripture"; a Mahāyāna text in twenty-four chapters, written c. 200-250 CE and translated into Chinese by Dharmarakṣa in either 291 or 300 CE. In this scripture, the Buddha teaches a special concentration (samādhi) through the mastery of which bodhisattvas come to be equipped with 2,100 perfections (pāramitā), 84,000 samādhis and 84,000 codes (dhāraṇī). He then lists the names of a thousand buddhas who will appear during the "auspicious eon" (bhadrakalpa) due to the merit they obtained from practicing this samādhi, as well as their residences, parents, disciples, spiritual powers, teachings, and so on. In the Tibetan bka' 'gyur the Bhadrakalpikasūtra takes pride of place as the first in the sūtra section (mdo sde); it is recited often, and it is not uncommon for the elaborate hagiographies (rnam thar) of important Tibetan religious figures or incarnations (sprul sku) to identify their subject as an earlier rebirth of one of the thousand buddhas. (Source: "Bhadrakalpikasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 106. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt प्रज्ञापारमिता  Tib ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་;ཤེར་ཕྱིན་  Ch 般若波羅蜜多  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Sūtra'

Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Bhadrakalpikasūtra [आर्यभद्रकल्पिकनाममहायानसूत्र]. 'phags pa bskal pa bzang po pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [Sūtra of the Good Eon (84000)]. Translated by Ban de dpal dbyangs, Vidyākarasiṃha, Ska ba dpal brtsegs, Dharmarakṣa. Kangyur, RKTSK 94 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=94&typ=1.

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Dhyāna - Skt ध्यान  Tib བསམ་གཏན་  Ch 禪;禪那;靜慮  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

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