Buddhapada and the Bodhisattva Path

Contents List of Figures 7 Foreword 9 Michael Zimmermann and Steffen Döll Introduction 11 1 Seeing the Footprint 15 1.1 Introduction 15 1.2 Translation 17 1.3 The Nature of an Awakened One 20 1.4 The Different Footprints 23 1.5 Problems with Marks on the Footprint 27 1.6 The Thousand Spokes 30 1.7 The Wheel 36 1.8 Summary 41 2 A Vision of the Thirty-two Marks 43 2.1 Introduction 43 2.2 Translation 44 2.3 The Webbed Feet and the Protuberance 51 2.4 The Buddha’s Footprints on the Stairs from Heaven 55 2.5 The Buddha’s General Appearance 57 2.6 The Significance of the Thirty-two Marks 61 2.7 The Thirty-two Marks as Brahminical Lore 63 2.8 Summary 68 3 The Great Lineage of Buddhas 71 3.1 Introduction 71 3.2 Translation 75 3.3 Visual Elements in the Description of Vipaśyin 84 3.4 The Marks and dharmatā 87 3.5 The Birth of a Buddha 89 3.6 Seeing the Marks as a Means of Conversion 94 3.7 Seeing the Marks as a Means of Healing 100 3.8 Summary 101 4 The Karma of the Wheel-mark 103 4.1 Introduction 103 4.2 Translation 105 4.3 Assessing the Lakkhaṇa-sutta 106 4.4 Introducing the Karmic Perspective 110 4.5 The Marks in Their Karmic Setting 113 4.6 Aspiring to Be Endowed with the Marks 122 4.7 The Marks and Masculinity 128 4.8 Summary 134 Conclusion 137 Abbreviations 141 References 143 Index 171 List of Figures Figure 1: Fragment Description of Footprint 24 Figure 2: Different Footprints 25 Figure 3: Footprints with Wheel 39 Figure 4: Worshipping the Buddha’s Footprints 40 Figure 5: Buddha with Webbed Hand 53 Figure 6: The Buddha’s Descent from Heaven 56 Figure 7: Footprints with svastikas 62 Figure 8: The Buddha and His Six Predecessors 73 Figure 9: Baby Footprints 86 Figure 10: Footprint with Birds 99 Figure 11: Footprint-Wheels with many Spokes 104 Figure 12: Lion Capital 116 Figure 13: Wheel-marks on the Feet of a Seated Buddha 127 Foreword About Hamburg Buddhist Studies Ever since the birth of Buddhist Studies in Germany more than 100 years ago, Buddhism has enjoyed a prominent place in the study of Asian reli- gions. The University of Hamburg continues this tradition by focusing research capacities on the religious dimensions of South, Central, and East Asia and making Buddhism a core subject for students of the Asien-Afrika- Institut. The Numata Center for Buddhist Studies is proud to have found a home at one of Europe’s pioneering academic institutions. With its Ham- burg Buddhist Studies book series it honours the University’s long-standing commitment to research in the field of Buddhist Studies and aims to share its results with both the academic community and the wider public. Today, Buddhist Studies as an academic discipline makes use of a broad spectrum of approaches and methods. The field covers contemporary issues as much as it delves into the historical aspects of Buddhism. Similarly, the questions shaping the field of Buddhist Studies have broadened. Under- standing present-day Buddhist phenomena – and how such phenomena are rooted in and informed by a distant past – is not at all an idle scholarly exercise. Rather, it has become clear that fostering the understanding of one of the world’s major religious traditions is a crucial obligation for modern multicultural societies in a globalized world. Accordingly, Hamburg Buddhist Studies addresses Buddhism as one of the great humanistic traditions of philosophical thought, religious praxis, and social life. Its discussions will undoubtedly be of interest to scholars of religious studies and specialists of Buddhism, but also aim at confronting Buddhism’s rich heritage with questions the answers to which might not easily be deduced by the exclusive use of historical and philological research methods. Such issues require the penetrating insight of scholars who approach Buddhism from a broad range of disciplines, building upon and yet going beyond the solid study of texts and historical evidence. 10 Buddhapada and the Bodhisattva Path We are convinced that Hamburg Buddhist Studies will contribute to opening up the field to those who may have no training in the classical source languages of the Buddhist traditions but approach the topic against the background of their own disciplinary interests. With this book series, we would like to also encourage a wider audience to take an interest in the academic study of the Buddhist traditions. About this Volume It is our great pleasure to introduce with the present study, Buddhapada and the Bodhisattva Path by Bhikkhu Anālayo, the eighth volume in the Hamburg Buddhist Studies series. Building on his ground-breaking The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal, with the present monograph he approaches a closely related topic from the perspective of the bodily dimension as evi- dent in the thirty-two marks with which, according to tradition, the Buddha was endowed. The study begins by proposing that a cross-fertilization between text and art has influenced the conception of one of these marks, namely the wheel-marks on the soles of the Buddha’s feet. By way of a comparative study of the early discourses, Anālayo proceeds to show how the thirty-two marks – initially nearly imperceptible features – came to be more clearly visible and acquired salvific power. Eventually, he argues, these turned into a psycho-somatic chart for the bodhisattva path and thereby set a precedent for the prediction (commonplace in later Buddhist doctrine) that assures an aspiring bodhisattva of becoming a Buddha in the future. Michael Zimmermann and Steffen Döll Introduction Theme This study is a follow-up to my earlier exploration of The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal in the same Hamburg Buddhist Studies series, in which I employed the historical-critical method of comparative study of the early discourses to trace different elements that appear to have contributed to the coming into being of the bodhisattva ideal.1 With the present study I turn to the bodily dimension of the same trajectory, in particular to the thirty-two marks (lakṣaṇa) as the embodiment of Buddhahood. The chief source material for my present exploration remains the early discourses, found in the four main Pāli Nikāyas and their counterparts in Sanskrit fragments, the Chinese Āgamas, and at times parallels preserved in Tibetan and even Uighur translation. A distinct case is the Ekottarika-āgama preserved in Chinese translation (T 125). This collection has had a rather chequered history and it seems clear that material was added in China and that the whole collection under- went considerable reworking.2 Discourses in the Ekottarika-āgama can at ―――――― 1 Anālayo 2010a, in relation to which I would like to note a few corrections. Adopting suggestions by Silk 2013, I wish to change my translation p. 18 note 9 line 4f (MĀ 72 and MĀ 73) to: “at the time when I had not yet attained realization of the unsurpass- able, right and true awakening”, and my translation p. 82 note 86 line 3 (EĀ 38.4) to: “I saw an ancient place”; also on p. 21 note 23 line 2 the last term should be corrected to pariyeseyyaṃ (due to font conversion by the publisher, some diacritics were lost and I missed this one when proof reading). Another mistake occurs p. 18 note 10 line 2, where I unfortunately followed Lamotte 1980: 122 in stating that SĀ 285 and SĀ 287 “actually speak of a previous life of the Buddha”. This remark should be deleted. Closer study has in the meantime shown that they rather speak of the Buddha’s recollection of his past lives (presumably in the night of his awakening) as the occasion for his cultivation of insight into dependent arising. In addition, following an observation by Tournier (forthcoming note 57), the reference to “at an even earlier time” on p. 76 line 7 should be deleted, as in the Mahāvastu scheme the Buddha Sarvābhibhū is posterior to Dīpaṃkara. None of these corrections affects any of my conclusions. 2 Anālayo 2013c, 2014/2015, and 2015d. 12 Buddhapada and the Bodhisattva Path times document more evolved stages of development which in the early discourses of other collections manifest only in an embryonic form. In what follows my presentation falls into four parts, each of which is based on a translation of a discourse or a substantial portion of it, followed by a comparative study and further discussion. The focal reference point around which the whole study revolves is one of the thirty-two extraordi- nary physical marks of a Buddha, namely the wheel-marks on the soles of his feet and the resultant footprints they leave on the ground. The brahmin Droṇa’s vision of a footprint of the Buddha is the theme of chapter 1, in which I argue that the different descriptions of this footprint reflect stages in a development best understood as the result of a cross- fertilization between text and art. A brahmin by the name of Brahmāyus and his keen interest in the Bud- dha Gautama’s possession of the thirty-two marks feature in chapter 2, in which I explore in particular the function of these thirty-two lakṣaṇas as means of conversion. Another topic I take up is the significance of the at times hyperbolic description of the marks in early Buddhist discourse. Gautama’s predecessors come up for study in chapter 3, in which I am in particular concerned with the Buddha Vipaśyin.

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