Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle

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Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts

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Sutras (Sanskrit)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Indian Buddhist literature falls roughly into two classes: the religious or scriptural (sūtra) and the philosophical (śāstra). The three parts of this volume contain studies and translations of two sūtras and one śāstra. Taken together, they permit the reader to confront the vast breadth and depth of Indian Mahayana

Buddhist literature.

The English translation of the first four chapters of the King of Samādhis Sūtra (Samādhirāja), accompanied by a detailed introduction, is the first western language translation of the introductory chapters of the scripture, which was a central source for the philosophy of Madhyamika Buddhism. This team translation, based on the Sanskrit text of the sūtra was conceived with a popular audience in mind.

Part II is Gregory Schopen's edition and translation of the so-called Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā), a famous scripture of the Perfection of Wisdom tradition. The Gilgit text presented here is one of the oldest available Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts and as such directly reveals one aspect of sixth-century Indian Buddhism. Textual notes accompanying the edition highlight the difficulties that face the student who would study such a text.

Masamichi Ichigō's study, edition, and translation of the Madhyamkālaṁkāra of Śāntarakṣita makes available one of the fundamental works of Indian Buddhist philosophy. A detailed introduction situates the thought of Śāntarakṣita in the Madhyamika philosophical system and emphasizes his contribution not only to Indian Buddhist thought but to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as well.

Through the texts included here and the different methods used in their study, this volume seeks to present an overview of modern research on Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist literature. It is the first volume in the series Michigan Studies in Buddhist Literature. (Source: back cover)

Citation

Gómez, Luis O., and Jonathan A. Silk, eds. Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts. Michigan Studies in Buddhist Literature. Ann Arbor: Collegiate Institute for the Study of Buddhist Literature and Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.

Table of contents

Prefacevii
List of Contributorsxv

PART I

The Sūtra of the King of Samādhis: Chapters I-IV: Translation Committee1

Abbreviations and Bibliography3
Introduction to the English Translation11
Translation ofthe King of Samadhis51
Notes79

PART II

The Manuscript of the Vajracchedikā Found at Gilgit: Gregory Schopen89

Abbreviations and Bibliography91
Introductory Note95
Transcription of the Gilgit Text99
Textual Notes109
Translation of the Gilgit Text123
Notes133

PART III

Śāntarakṣita's Madhyamakālaṁkāra : Masamichi Ichigō141

Abbreviations and Bibliography143
ntroduction: The Central Tenet of the Yogācāra-Mādhyamika School151
Śāntarakṣita's Madhyamakālaṁkāra185
The Madhyamakālaṁkāra-kārikā: Text and Translation189
Notes to the Introduction227
Appendix: Sūtra Quotations in the MAV and MAP237

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra [वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र]. 'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Sūtra on the Perfection of Wisdom "The Diamond Cutter" (84000)]. Translated by Bodhiruci, Śīlendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Kumārajīva, Paramārtha, Dharmagupta, Yijing, Xuanzang. Kangyur, RKTSK 16 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=16&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

One of the most revered and recited scriptures of the perfection of wisdom genre (prajñāpāramitāsūtras), perhaps second only to the Heart Sūtra, both of which became especially popular in the East Asian Buddhist traditions. It is a crucial source for Mahāyāna tenets of selflessness and the emptiness of phenomena, and its discourse is framed as an explanation of how to enter into the vehicle of the bodhisattvas by developing and sustaining their enlightened perspective.

1 Partial translation of

Sarvadharmasvabhāvasamatāvipañcitasamādhirājasūtra [सर्वधर्मस्वभावसमताविपञ्चितसमाधिराजसूत्र]. 'phags pa chos thams cad kyi rang bzhin mnyam pa nyid rnam par spros pa ting nge 'dzin gyi rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་མཉམ་པ་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་སྤྲོས་པ་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra "The King of Samādhis, the Revealed Equality of the Nature of All Phenomena" (84000)]. Translated by Śīlendrabodhi, Dharmatāśīla, Narendrayaśas, Hsien-kung. Kangyur, RKTSK 127 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=127&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

This sūtra, much quoted in later Buddhist writings for its profound statements especially on the nature of emptiness, relates a long teaching given by the Buddha mainly in response to questions put by a young layman, Candraprabha. The samādhi that is the subject of the sūtra, in spite of its name, primarily consists of various aspects of conduct, motivation, and the understanding of emptiness; it is also a way of referring to the sūtra itself. The teaching given in the sūtra is the instruction to be dedicated to the possession and promulgation of the samādhi, and to the necessary conduct of a bodhisattva, which is exemplified by a number of accounts from the Buddha's previous lives. Most of the teaching takes place on Vulture Peak Mountain, with an interlude recounting the Buddha's invitation and visit to Candraprabha's home in Rājagṛha, where he continues to teach Candraprabha before returning to Vulture Peak Mountain. In one subsequent chapter the Buddha responds to a request by Ānanda, and the text concludes with a commitment by Ānanda to maintain this teaching in the future. (Source: 84000)

2 Contains chapter or part

Schopen, Gregory, ed. and trans. "The Manuscript of the Vajracchedikā Found at Gilgit: An Annotated Transcription and Translation." In Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts, edited by Luis O. Gómez and Jonathan A. Silk, 89–139. Ann Arbor, MI: Collegiate Institute for the Study of Buddhist Literature and Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, The University of Michigan, 1989.

Articles1989About this item

An annotated transcription and translation of the manuscript of the Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra found at Gilgit, by Gregory Schopen.

Gomez, Luis O., and Jonathan A. Silk, eds. "The Sūtra of the King of Samādhis: Chapters I-IV." In Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts, translated by the Staff and Associates of the Collegiate Institute for the Study of Buddhist Literature, 1–88. Michigan Studies in Buddhist Literature. Ann Arbor: Collegiate Institute for the Study of Buddhist Literature and Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.

Articles1989About this item

No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:

The first paper in the volume contains a lengthy introduction to the Samādhirāja-sūtra and a translation of its first four chapters. This translation of the King of Samādhis is the result of an experiment in group translation, the members of the group consisting of faculty, visiting scholars, and advanced graduate students at the University of Michigan from 1982 to 1983. An effort was made throughout the introduction and translation to make the presentation of these materials accessible to the interested nonspecialist, while still maintaining rigorous scholarly standards. The introduction contains detailed bibliographic information about the sūtra, its classical versions and its modern editions, translations and studies. A text of capital importance for the Mahāyāna philosophical school called Mādhyamika, this sūtra is quoted extensively in śāstric literature. These quotations are documented in detail. Furthermore, an outline summary of the whole sūtra is given, chapter by chapter. It is hoped that the availability of some portions of the sūtra in English translation might prompt others to undertake translations of the remaining chapters in the near future.
For reasons explained in detail in Part I, the text taken as a basis for the translation is the version preserved in the Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts of Nepal. Since many Mahayana sūtras do not survive in their Indian-language originals, Tibetan and Chinese translations provide us with valuable textual materials for the study of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. Even in cases like that of the King of Samādhis, for which we still possess a Sanskrit version, careful and judicious use of the Tibetan and Chinese translations can aid our reading of the text. It is important, however, for modern scholars to avoid creating their own new, conflated text of a sūtra. Often scholars will fail to adequately distinguish the various recensions of a given text, using translations not to shed light on one version but to actually rewrite the text. The study in Part I cautions against such a method, and shows in the notes to its translation one

approach to the comparative use of classical translations of Indian Buddhist texts. (Gomez and Silk, preface, viii–ix)