Notes on the Deśanā-ritual in the Bodhicaryāvatāra: Evidence of Its Revision

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

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The four Tibetan manuscripts of the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra (BSA)[1] found among the Dun-huang materials collected by Stein and Pelliot are different from the existing Sanskrit version of the same text, Bodhicaryāvatāra (BCA), as well as its Tibetan translations found in the Tibetan Tripitaka. It has been over a decade since Dr. Akira Saito discussed the differences among the chapter arrangements and the number of verses between the existing BCA and these Dun-huang versions[2].
      The popular Sanskrit version consists of ten chapters: chapters 1 to 4 are devoted to the generation of the "Thought of Enlightenment": 5 to 9 include the five pāramitās of śīla to prajñā: and the tenth chapter is devoted to the transformation of merits. On the other hand, the Dun-huang version, unlike the Sanskrit, combines chapters 2 and 3 into one, giving us nine chapters in all. While the BCA contains 913 verses, there are only 701.5 verses in the BSA. That is, the difference is more than 200 verses. Many verses of BCA are omitted in the BSA and yet the BSA has verses that are not found in the BCA. Moreover, at times, different Tibetan translations are given to words which seem to be identical in Sanskrit. In that sense, the BSA is a quite different version. What must be noted, however, is the fact that, aside from their dissimilar organization of chapters 2 and 3, the Sanskrit and Dun-huang versions differ mainly in chapters 5 through 9.
      Although the reason for the transmission of two versions is unknown, Saito assumes that the author himself could not have written two different versions. Based on the records of the two texts by Bu-ston and Tāranātha, both entitled History of Buddhism, Saito concludes that the BSA reflects the original form of the text, while the BCA was a later version created by the addition of more verses or by the elaboration of the earlier text. The discussion in the present paper is based on Saito's view.
      Recent research on the BCA is conscious of the differences between the two versions. When scholars discuss the second and third chapters of the BCA, they operate on the shared assumption that in the original text these two chapters were not separate[3]. This is because a series of rituals commonly called "Supreme Worship" are discussed there. Especially in Tibetan Buddhism after the time of Atiśa, the BCA, along with Śikṣāsamuccaya (ŚS), was thought to represent the liturgy of the Madhyamaka tradition. From this fact we can see the special position of the BCA in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism[4]. I would point out that verses 97, 98 and 105 in chapter 5 are included only in the BCA, and that they are devoted largely to the liturgy of Madhyamaka.
      In this paper, I will discuss these three verses in order to demonstrate how they contributed to the compilation and transmission of the two versions: the BCA and the BSA. (Ishida, "Notes on the Deśanā-ritual in the Bodhicaryāvatāra," 199–200)

Notes

The original title of the Dun-huang version is Byaṅ c(h)ub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa. Catalogue numbers of the manuscripts in the Stein Tibetan collection are: Nos. 628, 629 and 630-l; that in the Pelliol Tibetan collection is No. 794. I base my comments in this paper on the manuscript No. 628 in the Stein collection, which is almost the complete text. See Marcelle Lalou. Inventaire des Manuscrits tibétains de Touen-houang. conservés à la Bibliotheque Nationale I. Paris 1939: 174 and L. de la Vallée Poussin. Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts from Tun-huang in the India Office Library, London 1969: 196-197.
Akira Saito, "Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra Ascribed to Ācārya Akṣayamati." Zuiho Yamaguchi (ed.), Buddhism and Society in Tibet, Tokyo 1986: 79-109 (in Japanese). do ., A Study of Akṣayamati (= Śāntideva)'s Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra as Found in the Tibetan Manuscripts from Tun-huang. Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Tsu 1993 (in English).
Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton (tr. with Intro. and Notes). The Bodhicaryāvatāra. Oxford/New York 1996: intro. xxxiv and 9 ff. Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. "Das Ritual der Entschlussfassung im Bodhicaryāvatāra (Kap. II und Ill)." Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart Ill. Śāntidevas "Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung," Hamburg 1999: 11-23.
Daien Kodama, "Chibetto ni okeru Kairitsu no Dento ni tsuite." The Bukkyo Daigaku Kenkyū Kiyō 53, 1969. Kokan Fujita, "A Study of the bodhisattva-śīla in the 'Sila-paṭala' of the Bodhisattvabhumi." JIBS :34-2: 874-867. do .. "One Aspect of the Acceptance of the bodhisattva-śīla in Tibet." JIBS 36-2. 1988: 878-871. There are three anthologies of the verses selected from the BCA. In two of them (BCAṣp and BCp), both edited by Dharmapāla of Suvarṇadvīpa, half of the verses deal with bodhicitta and "Supreme Worship." This fact suggests how the BCA was regarded in Tibet.

Citation

Ishida, Chiko. "Notes on the Deśanā-ritual in the Bodhicaryāvatāra: Evidence of Its Revision." In Taga Ryūgen Hakushi Koki Kinen Ronshū (Buddhist Thought and History: A Volume in Honour of Dr. R. Taga on His 70th Birthday), 199–216. Tokyo: Sankibō Busshorin, 2001.

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Scholarship on

Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

Classical WorksAbout this item

An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.