The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti

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The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti: A Mahāyāna Scripture

Book

Translations of Sutras (Tib-Eng)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This book presents the major teachings of Mahāyāna Buddhism in a precise, dramatic, and even humorous form. For two millennia this sūtra, called the “jewel of the Mahāyāna Sūtras,” has enjoyed immense popularity among Mahāyāna Buddhists in India, central and southeast Asia, Japan, and especially China, where its incidents were the basis for a style in art and literature prevalent during several centuries.

Robert Thurman’s translation makes available, in relatively nontechnical English, the Tibetan version of this key Buddhist scripture, previously known to the English-speaking world only through translations from Chinese texts. The Tibetan version is generally conceded to be more faithful to the original Sanskrit than are the Chinese texts. The Tibetan version also is clearer, richer, and more precise in its philosophical and psychological expression. The books of the sūtra are accompanied by an introduction by Dr. Thurman and by three glossaries: Sanskrit terms, numerical categories, and technical terms. (Source: Penn State University Press)

Citation

Thurman, Robert, trans. The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti: A Mahāyāna Scripture. Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions (IASWR). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003.

Publisher Link

https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-01209-4.html

Table of contents

- PrefaceIX
- Introduction1
1 Purification of the Buddha-Field10
2 Inconceivable Skill in Liberative Technique20
3 The Disciples' Reluctance to Visit Vimalakīrti24
4 The Reluctance of the Bodhisattvas34
5 The Consolation of the Invalid42
6 The Inconceivable Liberation50
7 The Goddess56
8 The Family of the Tathāgatas64
9 The Dharma-Door of Non duality73
10 The Feast Brought by the Emanated Incarnation78
11 Lesson of the Destructible and the Indestructible84
12 Vision of the Universe Abhirati and the Tathagata Akṣobhya91
- Epilogue: Antecedents and Transmission of the Holy Dharma96
- List of Abbreviations103
- Notes105
- Glossaries137
  - Sanskrit137
  - Numerical Categories147
  - Technical Terms157

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra [आर्यविमलकीर्तिनिर्देशनाममहायानसूत्र]. 'phags pa dri ma med par grags pas bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [འཕགས་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པར་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra "The Teaching of Vimalakīrti" (84000)]. Translated by Chos nyid tshul khrims, Kumārajīva, Zhiqian, Xuanzang, Dharmarakṣa. Kangyur, RKTSK 176 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=176&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

Vimalakīrtinirdeśa (T. Dri med grags pas bstan pa'i mdo; C. Weimo jing; J. Yuimagyō; K. Yuma kyǒng 維摩經). In Sanskrit, "Vimalakīrti's Instructions"; one of the most beloved Indian Mahāyāna sūtras, renowned especially for having a layman, the eponymous Vimalakīrti, as its protagonist. The text probably dates from around the second century CE. Among the seven translations of the sūtra into Chinese, the most famous is that made by Kumārajīva in 406. His translation seems to have been adapted to appeal to Chinese mores, emphasizing the worldly elements of Vimalakīrti's teachings and introducing the term "filial piety" into the text. The sūtra was also translated by Xuanzang in 650. The sūtra was translated into Tibetan twice, the more famous being that of Chos nyid tshul khrims in the ninth Century. It has also been rendered into Sogdian, Khotanese, and Uighur. The original Sanskrit of the text was lost for over a millennia until a Sanskrit manuscript was discovered in the Po ta la palace in Tibet in 2001. The narrative of the sūtra begins with the Buddha requesting that his leading Śrāvaka disciples visit his lay disciple Vimalakīrti, who is ill. Each demurs, recounting a previous meeting with Vimalakīrti in which the layman had chastised the monk for his limited understanding of the dharma. The Buddha then instructs his leading bodhisattva disciples to visit Vimalakīrti. Each again demurs until MañjuśrI reluctantly agrees. Vimalakīrti explains that his sickness is the sickness of all sentient beings, and goes on to describe how a sick bodhisattva should understand his sickness, emphasizing the necessity of both wisdom (prajñā) and method (upāya). A large audience of monks and bodhisattvas then comes to Vimalakīrti's house, where he delivers a sermon on "inconceivable liberation" (acintyavimokṣa). Among the audience is Śariputra, the wisest of the Buddha's śrāvaka disciples. As in other Mahāyāna sūtras, the eminent śrāvaka is made to play the fool, repeatedly failing to understand how all dichotomies are overcome in emptiness (śūnyatā), most famously when a goddess momentarily transforms him into a female. Later, a series of bodhisattvas take turns describing various forms of duality and how they are overcome in nonduality. Vimalakīrti is the last to be invited to speak. He remains silent and is praised for this teaching of the entrance into nonduality. The sūtra is widely quoted in later literature, especially on the topics of emptiness, method, and nonduality. It became particularly famous in East Asia because the protagonist is a layman, who repeatedly demonstrates that his wisdom is superior to that of monks. Scenes from the sūtra are often depicted in East Asian Buddhist art. (Source: "Vimalakīrtinirdeśa." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 971. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)