On the Bodhisattva-prātimokṣa-catuṣka-nirhāra

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This 1988 article by Fujita Kōkan examines the Bodhisattvapratimokṣacatuṣkanirhāra (Toh 248, Ōtani 914), a Mahāyāna sūtra quoted extensively (under the abbreviated title Bodhisattvapratimokṣa) in Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya and referenced in Prajñākaramati's Pañjikā commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

Fujita first distinguishes this text from a superficially similar but textually unrelated "Bodhisattva-prātimokṣa" found in a Cambridge Sanskrit manuscript (introduced by N. Dutt in 1931), showing that the manuscript's composite text—combining a Bodhisattva-saṃvara-vidhi, part of the Vinayaviniścayopāliparipṛcchā, and a fragment of Nāgārjuna's Bodhicittavivaraṇa—is a different work entirely, despite a scribal colophon labeling it "bodhisattvaprātimokṣaḥ."

The article then surveys the actual content of the catuṣkanirhāra text (a sūtra framed as a dialogue between the Buddha and Śāriputra, transmitted via Atiśa's translation team), tracing through the fourteen passages Śāntideva quotes from it—covering topics like generosity, renunciation, humility, patience, and the bodhisattva's distinctive qualities versus those of śrāvakas. Fujita also reviews earlier Tibetan doctrinal debates (Grags pa rgyal mtshan, Tsongkhapa) over how a "bodhisattva prātimokṣa" relates to the śrāvaka prātimokṣa. He concludes that this sūtra treats the six pāramitās and related bodhisattva conduct in an unsystematized way (unlike a formal śikṣāpada code), with the arousal of bodhicitta as a key distinguishing feature from śrāvaka prātimokṣa. (Abstract generated by Claude.ai July 25, 2026])

Citation

Fujita, Kōkan. "On the Bodhisattva-prātimokṣa-catuṣka-nirhāra." (In Japanese.) Mikkyō Bunka (Journal of Esoteric Buddhism) 163 (1988): 132–117. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jeb1947/1988/163/1988_163_L132/_pdf/-char/en.

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1 Scholarship on

bodhisattvaprātimokṣacatuṣkanirhārasūtra [बोधिसत्त्वप्रातिमोक्षचतुष्कनिर्हारनाममहायानसूत्र]. byang chub sems dpa'i so sor thar pa chos bzhi sgrub pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སོ་སོར་ཐར་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Accomplishment of the Sets of Four Qualities: The Bodhisattvas' Prātimokṣa (84000)]. Translated by Atiśa, Śākya blo gros, Dge ba'i blo gros. Kangyur, RKTSK 248 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=248&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

In The Accomplishment of the Sets of Four Qualities: The Bodhisattvas' Prātimokṣa, Venerable Śāriputra requests the Buddha Śākyamuni to explain the conduct of bodhisattvas. The Buddha responds by describing how bodhisattvas train in many practices and in the cultivation of many qualities, here presented in sets of four, related to generosity and diligence in particular, and more broadly to their attitude, conduct, learning, insight, and teaching. In this way bodhisattvas swiftly progress along the path to buddhahood. (Source: 84000)