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This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive study of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka with specific emphasis on the bodhisattva ideal. The content of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka indicates that its exposition belongs to the earliest treatises on the bodhisattva. The practices and doctrines that are expounded are invariably rudimentary and show little of the complexities that characterise their discussions in later bodhisattva literature. The Bodhisattvapiṭaka's inclusion into the Mahāratnakūṭa rested probably on its pioneering account of the bodhisattvacaryā. Being by far the longest work on the bodhisattva in the whole collection, it expounds important practices and constitutes the hub for the remaining bodhisattva writings in the Mahāratnakūṭa.
The study falls into five parts. The first chapter considers the position of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka in Mahāyāna literature. It investigates the various usages of the term Bodhisattvapiṭaka, it considers the relationship between the Bodhisattvapiṭaka and Akṣayamatinirdeśa and discusses
the scholastic affiliation of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka. In addition, exploring the contents and evolution of the Mahāratnakūṭa collection, it establishes the scriptural context in which the Bodhisattvapiṭaka is placed. The second chapter provides an analysis of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka. It examines the structural and literary traits of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka, its chapter organisation and some aspects of the bodhisattva path in the Bodhisattvapiṭaka. Chapter three discusses
the bodhisattva ideal in the Mahāratnakūṭa collection. It distinguishes between the various categories of bodhisattva sutras in the Mahāratnakūṭa, it examines the bodhisattva practices and investigates whether there is evidence of a premeditated design that might have influenced the compilation of the Mahāratnakūṭa sūtras into one collection. Chapter four considers the bodhisattva doctrine as it is propounded in the Bodhisattvapiṭaka within the context of other
The term "Bodhisattva-piṭaka" has a wide currency in Mahāyāna Buddhist literature, and is thought by some scholars to refer to a collection which actually existed in early Mahāyāna of works concerned with the Bodhisattva practice. There are instances of the term which support this view, but the term "Bodhisattva-piṭaka" is also often used simply to indicate scriptures of the Mahāyāna.
The dhyāna chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra begins with a formulaic passage on the four dhyānas and then deals at length with the five abhijñās or supernormal faculties. This description comprises about half of the chapter. The remainder praises the dhyāna of the Bodhisattva, his aid of sentient beings and his spiritual knowledge, and ends with a verse section. Translations of both versions of the chapter, with notes, form Part Three of the dissertation. The Chinese texts, reproduced from the Taisho Tripiṭaka, are furnished in an Appendix.
A number of texts on dhyāna were examined for purposes of comparison with the dhyāna chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra. These were Saṇgharakṣa's Yogacarabhūmi, Asaṅga's Śrāvakabhūmi, and Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga, as "Hinayana"-oriented treatments of dhyāna, and as works which included a treatment of dhyāna within that of the group of pāramitās, the verses on dhyāna of the Ratnaguṇasamcayagatha and the Dharmasamuccaya, the dhyāna chapters of Āsaṅga's Bodhisattvabhūmi, Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra, and Ārya-Śūra's Pāramitāsamāsa, and portions of Śāntideva's compendium, the Śikṣāsamuccaya.
This comparison showed a great variety in treatments of dhyāna in Buddhist literature, which we have roughly categorised as "Hinayana" and "Mahayana" in style. The "Hinayana" approach, is technical and expository, explaining methods of dhyāna for the practitioner, while the "Mahayana" approach emphasises the fact that the Bodhisattva practices dhyāna in order to aid sentient beings, and in extolling the Bodhisattva path may say relatively little about the practice of dhyāna as such. These two "phases" of the treatment of dhyāna occur together in certain works, and it seems that Buddhist writers did not feel them to be mutually inconsistent. The dhyāna chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra is almost entirely Mahayana in the style of its treatment of dhyāna. An assessment of its distinguishing qualities and its position in Buddhist tradition awaits further comparison with Mahayana sutra literature as well as commentarial and verse works such as those discussed here.Scholarship
In this paper, I intend to present a series of observations concerning the relationship between the Bodhisattvapiṭaka and Akṣayamatinirdeśa.[1] Analysis of these sūtras has shown that the Akṣayamatinirdeśa is greatly indebted to the Bodhisattvapiṭaka for its material, often to the extent of reproducing entire passages from the Bodhisattvapiṭaka verbatim. Presumably in response to changes in current Buddhist thinking, the Akṣayamatinirdeśa deliberately introduced also a number of unambiguous doctrinal and editorial adjustments. On the whole, they are rather minor and are well blended into the wider context of the exposition, affecting only selected aspects of the Bodhisattva career. In several instances, modifications indicate doctrinal development and allow us to establish the chronology of the two works beyond reasonable doubt.[2] The main body of the Akṣayamatinirdeśa consists of an exposition of eighty inexhaustible (akṣaya) faculties and attributes of a Bodhisattva. Here, many of the more important practices of the Bodhisattva-training are discussed and set into an early Mahāyāna context.[3] Significantly, only the first ten of the eighty akṣayas bear unmistakable marks of Mahāyāna thought. Virtually all other practices fall within the scope of pre-Mahāyāna Buddhism and figured, in one way or another, already in the sūtras of early Buddhism. (Pagel, introductory remarks, 333–34)
Notes
- All references, unless stated otherwise, refer to the Peking Edition of the Tibetan Tripiṭaka (ed., D.T. Suzuki, Kyoto, 1958); vols. 22/23 for the Bodhisattvapiṭaka, vol. 34 for the Akṣayamatinirdeśa and vol. 104 for the Akṣayamatinirdeśaṭīkā. However, since I have produced elsewhere a critical edition of chapter eleven of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka, utilising the sNar-thang, sDe-dge, Peking and sTog-Palace editions as well as two manuscript fragments from Tun-huang, I have occasionally incorporated data from this critical edition included in my doctoral dissertation "The Bodhisattvapiṭaka: Its Doctrines and Practices and their Position in Mahāyāna Literature”, London, SOAS, 1992. When translating quotations from the Akṣayamatinirdeśa and Bodhisattvapiṭaka, I follow as a rule the Peking reading. Only where the Peking text deviates considerably from the other four editions I adopt the reading of my own edition. In these instances I provide the Peking reading in round brackets. Square brackets in the Tibetan text point to those passages in my quotations that I left untranslated because of the need for brevity. In my translations, they are indicated by the insertion of three ellipsis points in the appropriate lacuna.
- Except for a few Sanskrit quotations of the Akṣayamatinirdeśa that are extant in the Śikṣāsamuccaya, Mūlamadhyamakavṛtti and Arthaviniścayasūtra, my comparison is wholly based on Tibetan sources. For an array of references to Sanskrit quotations from the Akṣayamatinirdeśa, see Jens Braarvig, "The Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra and the Tradition of Imperishability in Buddhist Thought", Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oslo, 1989, Ivi-lxi. Confirmed Bodhisattvapitaka quotations are much rarer and do not appear in surviving Sanskrit works. But compare the following sections: Śiks, 316.13–317.13, Akn, TTP, 69.4.2-5.6, Bdp, TTP, 86.3.2-4.5; Śiks, 233.6-8, Akn, TTP, 67.2.3-3.3, Bdp, TTP, 83.1.4-2.3; Śikṣ, 278.4-14, Akn, TTP, 72.2.2-3.2, Bdp, TTP, 87.1.4-2.3; Śikṣ, 117.13-16, Akn, TTP, 69.1.1-2, Bdp, TTP, 86.1.4-5; Śiks, 236.6-13, Akn, TTP, 68.3.5-4.1, Bdp, TTP, 84.2.1-5; Arthav, 320-322, Akn, TTP, 70.4.4-71.2.1, Bdp, TTP, 85.1.1-3.4.
- As Wayman has demonstrated in his article on the samādhi-list in the Akṣayamatinirdeśa ("The Samādhi Lists of the Aksayamatinirdeśasūtra and the Mahāvyutpatti", AOH, 34, 1980, 305-12), it is this enumeration of eighty akṣayas that was taken as a basis in the Sūtrālaṃkāra where the Aksayamatinirdeśa is cited as authority for the twenty-two forms of generating the thought of enlightenment (S. Lévi, ed., Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, Paris, 1907, iv.15-20). Cast into twenty-two similes in the Sūtrālaṃkāra, they correspond in content and sequence to the eighty aksayas listed in the Aksayamatinirdeśa. The similes themselves, however, did not originate in the Aksayamatinirdeśa, but appear to have been derived from a number of sources, including passages in the early Prajñāpāramitā literature. The list of the similes is, for instance, contained in three Kārikās of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra (Th. Stcherbatsky, ed., Abhisamayālaṃkāra, St. Petersburg, 1929, 4, vv.18-20).
This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive study of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka with specific emphasis on the bodhisattva ideal. The content of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka indicates that its exposition belongs to the earliest treatises on the bodhisattva. The practices and doctrines that are expounded are invariably rudimentary and show little of the complexities that characterise their discussions in later bodhisattva literature. The Bodhisattvapiṭaka's inclusion into the Mahāratnakūṭa rested probably on its pioneering account of the bodhisattvacaryā. Being by far the longest work on the bodhisattva in the whole collection, it expounds important practices and constitutes the hub for the remaining bodhisattva writings in the Mahāratnakūṭa.
The study falls into five parts. The first chapter considers the position of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka in Mahāyāna literature. It investigates the various usages of the term Bodhisattvapiṭaka, it considers the relationship between the Bodhisattvapiṭaka and Akṣayamatinirdeśa and discusses
the scholastic affiliation of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka. In addition, exploring the contents and evolution of the Mahāratnakūṭa collection, it establishes the scriptural context in which the Bodhisattvapiṭaka is placed. The second chapter provides an analysis of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka. It examines the structural and literary traits of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka, its chapter organisation and some aspects of the bodhisattva path in the Bodhisattvapiṭaka. Chapter three discusses
the bodhisattva ideal in the Mahāratnakūṭa collection. It distinguishes between the various categories of bodhisattva sutras in the Mahāratnakūṭa, it examines the bodhisattva practices and investigates whether there is evidence of a premeditated design that might have influenced the compilation of the Mahāratnakūṭa sūtras into one collection. Chapter four considers the bodhisattva doctrine as it is propounded in the Bodhisattvapiṭaka within the context of other
The term "Bodhisattva-piṭaka" has a wide currency in Mahāyāna Buddhist literature, and is thought by some scholars to refer to a collection which actually existed in early Mahāyāna of works concerned with the Bodhisattva practice. There are instances of the term which support this view, but the term "Bodhisattva-piṭaka" is also often used simply to indicate scriptures of the Mahāyāna.
The dhyāna chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra begins with a formulaic passage on the four dhyānas and then deals at length with the five abhijñās or supernormal faculties. This description comprises about half of the chapter. The remainder praises the dhyāna of the Bodhisattva, his aid of sentient beings and his spiritual knowledge, and ends with a verse section. Translations of both versions of the chapter, with notes, form Part Three of the dissertation. The Chinese texts, reproduced from the Taisho Tripiṭaka, are furnished in an Appendix.
A number of texts on dhyāna were examined for purposes of comparison with the dhyāna chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra. These were Saṇgharakṣa's Yogacarabhūmi, Asaṅga's Śrāvakabhūmi, and Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga, as "Hinayana"-oriented treatments of dhyāna, and as works which included a treatment of dhyāna within that of the group of pāramitās, the verses on dhyāna of the Ratnaguṇasamcayagatha and the Dharmasamuccaya, the dhyāna chapters of Āsaṅga's Bodhisattvabhūmi, Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra, and Ārya-Śūra's Pāramitāsamāsa, and portions of Śāntideva's compendium, the Śikṣāsamuccaya.
This comparison showed a great variety in treatments of dhyāna in Buddhist literature, which we have roughly categorised as "Hinayana" and "Mahayana" in style. The "Hinayana" approach, is technical and expository, explaining methods of dhyāna for the practitioner, while the "Mahayana" approach emphasises the fact that the Bodhisattva practices dhyāna in order to aid sentient beings, and in extolling the Bodhisattva path may say relatively little about the practice of dhyāna as such. These two "phases" of the treatment of dhyāna occur together in certain works, and it seems that Buddhist writers did not feel them to be mutually inconsistent. The dhyāna chapter of the Bodhisattvapiṭaka-sūtra is almost entirely Mahayana in the style of its treatment of dhyāna. An assessment of its distinguishing qualities and its position in Buddhist tradition awaits further comparison with Mahayana sutra literature as well as commentarial and verse works such as those discussed here.
