Fascicle One 85

Chapter 4 Translation Fascicle One

Introduction

Regarding the world honored ones, Vairocana Buddha and Śākyamuni Buddha, the original Buddha (Vairocana) is beyond past and beyond present, and be yond the gate of relative conceptualizations and the derivative Buddha (Śākya muni) is able to manifest the imprints (of his teachings) now and for an extended period of time, and open the path that embraces and saves (sentient beings) based on their capacities. (The Buddha) made these imprints from the time of his birth in Kapilavastu until he revealed the virtue of his final effect in Magadha. He provided wonderful opportunities (to hear his teachings) in sev en locations and in nine assemblies from beneath the Bodhi Tree to Jetavana Grove.1 He sowed the seeds for the wide rules of the three vehicles and one vehicle in Deer Park and at Ajitavatī.2 He expounded his teaching in eighty thousand ways properly based on what was necessary for sentient beings and revealed the imprints of his teachings in twelve divisions3 corresponding to the fundamental principles of Buddhism. (Mahākāśyapa and others compiled

1 The Buddha explained the Avataṃsaka Sūtra in 80 fascicles in seven locations and in nine meeting assemblies. However, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra in 60 fascicles explains the same teaching in seven locations and in eight meeting assemblies. 2 Ajitavatī is sometimes called Hiraṇyavatī. Śākyamuni Buddha is said to have attained parinirvāṇa beside the Hiranyavatī River. It may be in the vicinity of present-day Kaśia or Kushinagar in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. 3 The Twelve Divisions of Teachings is a system of classifying the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha into genres. The twelve divisions of the scriptures are “(1) sūtra, teachings in prose; (2) geya, restatements of sūtra in verse; (3) vyākarana, the Buddha’s predictions of the enlightenment of disciples; (4) gāthā, teachings set forth by the Buddha in verse; (5) udāna, teachings preached by the Buddha spontaneously without request or query from his disciples; (6) nidāna, descriptions of the purpose, cause, and occasion of propounding teachings and rules of monastic discipline; (7) avadāna, tales of previous lives of persons other than the Buddha; (8) itivrittaka, discourses beginning with the words “Thus the World-Honored One said” (according to another definition, stories that describe previous lives of the Buddha’s disciples and bodhisattvas); (9) jātaka, stories of the Buddha’s previ ous lives; (10) vaipulya, expansion of doctrine; (11) adbhutadharma, descriptions of mar velous events that concern the Buddha or his disciples (also applied to descriptions that praise the great merit and power of the Buddha and his disciples); and (12) upadesha, discourses on the Buddha’s teachings. There are also various lists of nine divisions from

the Tripiṭaka) at Pippalāyāna Cave. Later scholars (Mahāyāna followers) di vided themselves (from the mainstream followers), made two truths at Cakravāda Cave, and made a different way. The various sages appeared in ac cordance with proper times. Various wise ones also appeared in accordance with conditions and propagated the teachings of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna in the west (India) and displayed the true and provisional teachings in the east (China and Japan).4 Therefore, the Mother of Enlightenment, Mañjuśri Bod hisattva, spent four hundred fifty years (propagating the wisdom teachings).5 Maitreya Bodhisattva, who assists Śākyamuni Buddha and was born more than nine hundred years after the Buddha’s death, will be the next Buddha in the future.6 Each of them propagated the direct teaching which the Buddha ex pounded during this lifetime, and also transmitted the way of the true (Mahā yāna) teaching which the Buddha used to guide sentient beings. Kātyāyanīputra7 wrote the Abhidharma-jñānaprasthāna-śāstra8 and Harivarman9 wrote the Satyasiddhi-śāstra (True Attainment Treatise)10 in four sections.11 The Three Treatises12 have the profound meaning of the proper insight. The Five Treatises (by Maitreya Bodhisattva)13 have the profound meaning of the real phenomena

among these twelve.” The English Buddhist Dictionary Committee, ed., The Soka Gakai Dictionary of Buddhism (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 2002), pp. 773-774. 4 Generally the east refers to China. Here Gyōnen addresses Buddhist developments in China and Japan east of India. 5 In the Jōdo genryu-shō (Essay of Origin of Pure Land Buddhism), Gyōnen writes, “Mañjuśri Bodhisattva compiled the Mahāyāna scriptures and stayed for 450 years to propagate the teachings.” The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says in its 29th fascicle the Bodhisattva stayed with 10,000 Bodhisattvas on Mt. Qingliang (Mt. Wutai) in China. 6 Gyōnen refers Maitreya Buddha in two time periods. Some have said there are two Mai treya Buddhas, the historical Maitreya (c. 270-350 CE) who was the master of Asaṅga, thought to be around 900 years after the Śākyamuni’s death, and the mythical future Bud dha identified as Maitreya. 7 Kātyāyanīputra was a Sarvāstivādin scholar- monk, active during the late 2nd century BCE in Kashmir. His Jñānaprasthāna-śāstra is a summary of Abhidharma Buddhism according to Sarvāstivāda. 8 T.26, no. 1544. 9 Harivarman (c. 4th century CE) was from central India. 10 T. 32, no. 1646. 11 Each of the four sections corresponds to one of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. 12 The Three Treatises are Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamaka-kārikā (T.30, no. 1564), Nāgārjuna’s Dvādaśanikāya-śāstra (T.30, no.1568), and Āryadeva’s Śataka-śāstra (T.30, no. 1569). 13 Maitreya’s five major treatises are the Abhisamayālaṃkāra-śāstra (Ornament of Clear Realization), Mahāyānasūtralāṃkāra-śāstra (Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sūtras), Ma dhyāntavibhaṅga-bhāṣya (Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes), Dharma-dhar