contemporary and follower of Nāgārjuna, or again as a successor of Āryadeva. In addition to this, Saraha, the renowned Vajrayāna master, is also known as Rāhulabhadra.[1] Since the Bodhisattvagocarapariśuddhi is based on the Mahāyāna sūtras, and since it is included in the Madhyamaka section of the Tibetan Tenjur (bsTan ’gyur), one would be inclined to attribute it to Rāhulabhadra associated with Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva. However, such attribution cannot be made with any certainty because this work is not ascribed to him in any other
sources except for this one single entry in the Tibetan Tenjur.
. . . The text composed by Rāhulabhadra provides instructions on the mental attitude that a Bodhisattva should assume during his daily activities. According to this text, the principal goal of all such daily exercises is to purify the Bodhisattva's mental dispositions (saṃtāna) and actions, as well as the mental dispositions of all other living beings. . . . As the full title of this text indicates, it is based on the teachings of
the Mahāyāna sūtras. The daily practices described in this text do not appertain to the Bodhisattva's standard or major practices, but rather constitute an isolated and less known group of practices. (Skorupski, The Buddhist Forum, Vol. 6, 25–26)
Notes
1. D. Seyfort Ruegg, The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India, Wiesbaden,
| Citation | Rāhulabhadra. Bodhisattvagocarapariśuddhisūtrārthasaṃgraha [बोधिसत्त्वगोचरपरिशुद्धिसूत्रार्थसंग्रह]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod yul yongs su dag pa'i mdo'i don mdor bsdus pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པའི་མདོའི་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས་པ།]. [A Concise Summary of the Meaning of the Sūtra on Purifying the Field of Activity of a Bodhisattva (84000)]. Translated by Śākyaśrībhadra, Khro phu lo tsA ba byams pa dpal. Tengyur, RKTST 3306 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3306&typ=2. |
|---|---|
| Author | Rāhulabhadra |
