CHAPTER THREE THE HISTORY OF BUDDHIST SANSKRIT LITERATURE AND THE A$!TASAHASR]KA- PRAJNAPARAMITA -SUTRA

Buddhism rose in India and it is used to decline in India; nevertheless, the zeal of the early Buddhist missionaries spread the faith far beyond the boundaries of its native land. There is no lack of authentic histories of Buddhism; however, no systematic history of the Buddhist literature in Sanskrit has appeared up to now. Buddhism has had an immense literature. The religion had early branched into several sects and each of them had a sacred tongue of its own. Therefore, there is not one sacred language of Buddhism. However, the literary productions of the Buddhists fall into two divisions. It is yet a moot question what the original language of Buddhism was and whether we have any fragments of the tongue employed by the Buddha himself. Whatever that original language was; it is now certain that Pali has no claim to that distinction. Strictly speaking, there are only two sacred languages of the Buddhists, Pali and Sanskrit. Pali is the hieratic language of the Buddhists of Ceylon, Siam and Burma who observe a prosaic and more ancient form of Buddhism. In Tibet, China and Japan, the sacred language of Buddhism is Sanskrit and although very few books on Buddhism written"in Sanskrit have ever been discovered there, it is unquestionable that at one time there was an immense Buddhist literature, a vast amount of which was translated into Tibetan and Chinese and latter scholars have succeeded in

65 recovering a portion of the Sanskrit canon which was believed to have perished beyond recall. Pali Buddhist literature has the merit of being compact and has been studied more or less vigorously by various Western as well as Asian scholars while the Sanskrit has had the disadvantage of being looked upon with suspicion. It was believed to be a later production. Very few scholars are now skeptical regarding some of the texts which this Sanskrit Buddhist literature embodies and which date from an antiquity as respectable as any of the Pali texts. ni.l History of Buddhist Sanskrit Literature and the Origin of the Astasabasiika-PrajSaparamita -Sutra in. 1.1 The origin and development of Buddhist Sanskrit literature

Extraordinarily rich and extensive Pali literature of India, Ceylon and Burma represents only the literature of one sect of Buddhism, namely Theravadd^^. Alongside of it in India itself and apart from the other countries where Buddhism is the dominant religion, several sects have developed their own literary productions, the language of which is partly Sanskrit and partly a dialect''^ which we may call the mid-Indian and which IS given the designation of "mixed Sanskrit" by Senart. In the North and North-West of India, there were great centers of learning, such as the universities of Nalanda and Takkasila (Taxila) where for hundreds of years not only all branches of secular knowledge,

"" Maurice Wintemitz, A History of Indian Literature (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1999), 217. '" According to Vinitadeva (8th century (A.D.) the Sarvastivadins used Sanskrit, the Mahasanghikas Prakrit. Cf. Ryukan Kimura, "A Historical Study oftlie Terms Hmayana and Mahayana and the origin of Mahayana Buddl\isnf\ Calcutta, 1927, p. 7 "^ Previously it was usually called "Gatha dialect" (see Maurice Wintemitz, "/4 History of Indian Literature'' (Vol. I, p.41) which is all the more inappropriate as it is also widespread in inscriptions

66 especially medicine, but also the philosophical and theological literature of the Buddhists were cultivated with great zeal. Indian scholars went thence to Tibet and China, learned Tibetan and Chinese, and translated Sanskrit works into these languages. Chinese pilgrims like Hsuan-Tsang learnt Sanskrit at Nalanda, and translated Buddhist texts into Chinese. Of this Sanskrit literature there remains many voluminous books and fragments of several others while many are known to us only through Tibetan and Chinese translations. The major portion of this literature, in pure and mixed Sanskrit, which we for brevity's sake call Buddhist Sanskrit literature, belongs to or or has been influenced by the school known as that of the Mahayana. The most ancient Buddhist school, the doctrine of which coincides with that of the Theravada, as perpetuated in Pali tradition, sees in salvation or nirvana, the supreme bliss and in the conception of arhatship, which is already in this life a foretaste of the coming nirvana^ the end and goal of all strivings,—a goal which is attainable only by a few with knowledge acquired only in ascetic life. This original objective of early Buddhism has not been rejected by the adherents of the later or Mahayana school, it has been recognized as originating with the Buddha himself. It is characterized, as the HTnayana or the "inferior vehicle" which does not suffice to conduct all beings to cessation of sorrow. What the later doctrine teaches is the Mahayana or the "great vehicle" is calculated to transport a larger number of people, the whole community of humanity, over and beyond the sorrow of existence. This new doctrine, as is claimed by its followers, rests upon a profounder understanding of the ancient texts or upon later mystical revelation of the Buddha himself and it replaces the ideal of the arhat by that of the bodhisattva. Not only the monk but every human being- can place before himself the goal to be reborn as a

67 bodhisattva, which means an enlightened being or one who may receive

11 ^ supreme illumination and bring salvation to all mankind. If this goal is to be made attainable by many there must be more efficient means for making it accessible to all. Therefore, according to the doctrine of the Mahayana, even the father of a family occupied with worldly life, the merchant, the craftsman, the sovereign, even the laborer and the pariah can attain salvation on the one hand, by the practice of commiseration and goodwill for all creatures, by extraordinary generosity and self-abnegation, and on the other, by means of a believing surrender to and veneration of the Buddha, other Buddhas and the bodhisattvas. In the Pali canon, the Buddha is already sometimes shown as a superman, but he becomes such only because of his attainment to supreme illumination which enables him to perform miracles and finally to enter nirvana. What has remained for us as an object of veneration after his passing away is only his doctrine or at any rate his relics. In the Mahayana, on the other hand, the Buddhas fi"om the first are nothing but divine beings and their peregrinations on the earth and their entry into nirvana are no more than a fi-eak or thoughtless play. And if in the HTnayana there is the mention of a number of Buddhas, predecessors of Shakyamuni in earlier eons, the Maiiayana counts its Buddhas by the thousands, or by the millions. Moreover, innumerable millions of bodhisattvas are worshipped as divine beings by the Mahayana Buddhists. These bodhisattvas who are provided with perfections iparamita) and with illumination, out of compassion for the world, renounce their claim to nirvana. The ancient Buddhism had explained the origin of suffering by the pratitya-samutpada (psXv.paticcasamuppada), i.e. the formula in which it is shown that all the elements of beings originate only in mutual inter- "^ Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The doctrinal foundation {London: Routledge,2003), 21.

68 dependence. The Hinayana derives from this formula the doctrine of anatta (Sanskrit/awatoa/?), of the 'non-self i.e. the doctrine that there are corporeal and physical phenomena which change every moment. The Mahayana derives from this same formula the doctrine of simyata i.e. the doctrine that "all is void" {sarvam, simyata) meaning "devoid of independent reality". The Prajhaparamitahrdaya Sutra runs: '"''sarvadhatmah sunyatalaksana anutpanna aniruddha amala na vimala nona na paripurnaH\{All phenomena are empty, that is, without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not stainless, undiminished, unfiUedf^'^. However, the Buddhistic Sanskrit literature is by no means exclusively Mahayanic. There are also a number of important Hinayana texts, which are written exclusively in pure and mixed Sanskrit. There is no complete copy of this Sanskrit to be found. We know it only from larger or smaller fragments of its Udana-varga, Dharmapada, Ekottaragama and Madhyamagama which have been discovered from the xylographs and manuscripts recovered from Eastern Turkistan by Stein, Grunwedel and Le Coq, as well as from quotations in other Buddhist Sanskrit texts like the Mahavastu, Divyavadana and Lalitavistara and finally from Chinese and Tibetan translations. The main texts of the canon of the Mulasarvastivadins were translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing in the years 700-712. There are, however, Chinese translations of single texts dating from the middle of the 2nd century onwards, and there were adherents of the Sarvastivada in India as early as the 2nd century B.C. In wording and in the arrangement of the texts, the Sanskrit Canon has great similarity to the Pali Canon, but on the other hand, there are many points of difference too. A feasible explanation of this is that both canons had a common source, probably the lost MagadhTCanon, from which

''" Donald S.Lopez,Jr., The Heart Sutra Explained: Indian and Tibetan Commentaries (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1990), 19.

69 first the Pali Canon branched off in one part of India, and then, later on, the Sanskrit Canon in another district. Fragments of the Pratitnoksa-Sutra of the Sarvastivadins as well as other texts of the Vinayapitaka of the Sanskrit Canon, have been found in Central Asia (Eastern Turkestan) , and a few in Nepal too. It is also possible to reconstruct the Pratimoksa-Sutra from Chinese and Tibetan translations. Both the Sanskrit Canon of the Sarvastivadins and the Vinayas of the Maliisasakas, Dharmaguptas, and Mahasanghikas, show manifold divergences in separate details from the Pali Canon and from one another; in the rules of the Pratimoksa and also the rules of the Vinaya in general. Nevertheless, the original stock of rules is one and the same. It is in the preface to the rules that relate occasions the Buddha proclaimed the rules in question, that the texts show greater divergences. The Mulasarvastivada Vinaya contained many legends having reference to the conversion of Kashmir and North western India to Buddhism. Some of these legends are also to be found in the Divyavadana, which borrowed a large portion of its tales from the Vinayapitaka of the Mulasarvastivada. The NikayasoithQ Pali Canon find their parallel in the Agamas of the Sanskrit Canon; the DTrgliagama corresponding to the DTgiianikaya, the Madhyamagama to the Majjliimanikaya, the SamyuJdagama to the Samyuttanikaya, and the Ekottaragama to the Anguttaranikaya. Fragments of various Sutras of the DTrgliagama, the Madhyamagama, the Sarnyuktagama, and the Ekottaragama have been found in Central Asia.''^ These fragments are not always in agreement with the corresponding Pali texts. The comparison of the Chinese Agamas With the corresponding Pali Nikayas, has also shown both agreement to a considerable extent, and notable divergences.

"' J.K.Nariman,(trans.), Literary History of Sanskrit Buddliism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1972), 9.

70 In the first place, there is no agreement on the order of the sutras in the separate Agamas. In the Samyuktagama, the division into Vargas and Samyuktas is totally different, and there are Samyuktas in the Pali which are missing in the Chinese version; on the other hand, there are some in the Chinese which do not occur in the Pali. The greatest differences are those between the Ekottaragama and the Anguttaranikaya. The points of agreement and the divergences prove that the Sanskrit Agamas and the Pali Nikayas were compiled from the same materials but were arranged in different ways in the different schools. In the Chinese Tripkaka, there are texts which, though bearing the same titles as the corresponding Pali texts, are essentially different. Thus, there is a Brahmajala-Sutra, which was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva, and is held in high esteem in China and Japan but which teaches Buddhist ethics in the spirit of the Mahayana. There are in the Abhidharma-Kosa-Vyakhya, several quotations from a Brahmajala-Sutra, which correspond to the Pali text''^. The Chinese Tripitaka contains ten different translations of the Maha-Parinirvana-Sutra. Three of these translations belong to the Hmayana and seven to the Mahayana:^ and the only thing they have in common are speeches which the Buddha is supposed to have uttered prior to his death {parinirvana). The Sanskrit canon also contained a ''Ksudrakd'' corresponding to the Khuddakanikaya . We do not know whether this included all those texts which in the Pali canon are counted as belonging to the fifth Nikaya:, but we do know that the Sanskrit canon also contained the Sanskrit texts Udana, Dharmapada, Sthavira-Gatha, Vimana-Vatthu and Buddha-Vamsa. In the

^'^ Cf. La Vallee Poussin in JRAS 1903, 359 ff, Anesaki in ERE, Vol. V, p. 452. The Chinese "Fan wang King" or ^'Brahmajala-Sutra." a Vinaya work of the Mahayana, translated by Kumarajiva from an unknown Sanskrit text, has been edited and translated into French by J. J. M. De Groot; Another Brahmajala-Sutra in the Tibetan Kanjur, corresponds to the Pali text in the DTghanikaya "^ A Ksudraka is mentioned by Hsuan-Tsang as the fifth Agamas of the Sravakapitaka, Cf Maurice Wintemitz, A History of Indian Literature { Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1999), 227.

71 Chinese Tripifaka, it is true, there is no single text to correspond to the Suttanipata, but more than half of the texts included in the Suttanipata occur in the Agamas, for instance the texts corresponding to the Atthaka- Vagga and the Parayana. Fragments of the Sanskrit version of the two last- mentioned have been found in Eastern Turkestan too. A collection corresponding to the Itivuttakas was translated into Chinese by Hsuan Tsang in about 650 A.D. Considerable quotations, forming a parallel to passages from the Khuddaka-patha, the Vimana-Vatthu, Buddha Vamsa and Dhammpada, are to be found in the Mahavastu. Mahavastu or Mahavastu Avadana is one of the most important works belonging to the old school of the Hmayana. The work calls itself a book "of the Vinayapitaka according to the text of the Lokottaravadms belonging to the Mahasanghika^\ The Mahavastu treats the life of Buddha in three sections; the first begins with the life of the bodhisattva at the time of the DFpahkara Buddha and tells of his life at the time of the other earlier Buddhas. The second section takes us to the heaven of the Tusi'ta-gpds where the bodhisattva who is reborn there, decides to take rebirth in the womb of Queen Maya and tells of the miracles of the conception and birth of the prince, of his exit from his native town, his fights with Mara and the enlightenment which he accomplishes under the Bodhi tree. The third section narrates at last, concurring with the Mahavagga of the Vinayapitaka in its main features, the history of the earliest conversions and the origin of the community of monks. And this is also the reason why the Mahavastu describes itself as belonging to the Vinayapitaka, although it contains practically nothing about the actual Vinaya, the rules of the order. It cor-

"* In the Sanskrit, version of the Atfhaka-Vagga is mentioned as the arthavargTyani Satrani'm the Divyavadana, prose narratives precede the verses, but there are none such in the Pali. There are also other divergences from the Pali text. The Sanskrit text is shorter.

72 responds to that part of the Vinayapitaka which tells the history of the origin of the order. Although the Mahavastu belongs to the Hmayana and contains much that could likewise occur in the Pali texts of the Theravadins, it also contains something that makes it come closer to the Mahayana. The reason for many such traits is probably that the conception of Buddha prevalent among the Mahasanghikas and the Lokottaravadins represents a transition to the Mahayana. Thus, we find in the first volume a big section on the ten steps {bhumis) which a bodhisattva must go through and the description of the virtues which he must possess in each of the ten steps. It also represents the spirit of the Mahayana when it is said, that the purity of Buddha is so great that even the worship of the Exalted One already suffices for attaining nirvana and that one earns unlimited merit when one simply saunters around a stupa and worships it with gifts of flowers etc. That fi-om the smile of the Buddha rays go out which light up the entire Buddha-field {Buddha-ksetrd) occurs many times in the Mahayana texts. It is also Mahayanic when there is a talk of a large number of Buddhas and when it is said that the bodhisattvas are not bom to father and mother but that they are bom directly through their properties. While the Mahavastu describes itself as a work belonging to the Hmayana but which has taken up some features of the Mahayana, the Lalitavistara ''^is considered as one of the holiest texts of the Mahayana, describes itself as a Vaipulyasutra, a common term for Mahayana Sutras, and exhibits all features of a Mahayana Sutra although the work originally contained the description of Buddha's life for the Sarvastivadins htlongmg to

"' First edition by Rajendralala Mitra in Bibl. Ind. 1877 (very faulty), a better edition by S. Leffmann, Halle A. S. 1902 and 1908. The English translation by Rajendralala Mitra (Bibl. Ind. 1881-1886) only goes as far as Chapter XV. Chapters 1-V translated into German by S. Lefmann, Berlin 1875; a complete French Translation by Ph. Ed. Foucaux in AMG t. 6 et 19 (Paris 1884, 1892).

73 the HTnayana. But even the title Lalitavistara i.e., "the exhaustive story of the sport (of Buddha)" corresponds to the Mahayana ideas. The life and work of Buddha on the earth is thus described as the 'sport' {lalita) of a supernatural being. And as an exalted, divine being Buddha appears in the introductory chapter also. It begins certainly in the manner of the Pali sutras with the words: ""evaih maya srutamj ekasminsamaye bhagavan sravastyam viharati sma jetavane'nathapindadasyarame",^^^ (Thus have I heard: Once the Lord was staying at Sravasti in the Jeta-grove in the garden of the Anathapindada). In the Pali texts after this or similar stereotyped introductory words in which the Lord is presented to us as surrounded by some disciples or at most by a retinue of five hundred monks, immediately the actual sutra begins, in the Lalitavistara as in all the Vaipulyasutras of the MaJiayana first one more picture is drawn of Buddha bathed in the light of divine splendor. He is surrounded by 12,000 monks and not less than 32,000 bodhisattvas, "all of them bound to just one more rebirth, all bom with the perfections of a bodhisattva, all enjoying the knowledge of a bodhisattva, all in possession of the insight into the texts of miraculous powers" etc. we do not know when the final editing of the Lalitavistara took place. It has been erroneously maintained that the work was translated into Chinese as early as the 1st century A.D.Although there is an exact translation of the Sanskrit text into

199 the Tibetan one , it was made only in the 9th century. The whole of the Buddhist Sanskrit literature discussed so far, belong to the borderland which forms the transition between HTnayana and

'^^ Vaidya, P. L., Lalitavistara (Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning, 1958), 3. '^' ^'evampramukhairdvadasabhirbhilisusahasraih sardham dvatrimsata ca bodliisattvasatiasraih sarvairekajMipratibaddhaih sarvabodhisattvaparamitanirjataih sarvabodhisattvabhijmtavikrTditaih sarvabodhisattvadharanrpratibhanapratilabdhaih sarvabodhisattvadhararirpratilabdhaih ..."(LaJitavistara,p.3) '^^ It is published and translated by Ph. E. Foucaux into French (Rgyatcher-rol-pa, Version tibetaine du Lalitavistara) Paris 1847-48.

74 Mahayana Buddhism. We shall now turn to those works which belong entirely to the Mahayana. The Mahayana does not possess a canon of its own, and can't possess one, for the simple reason that the Mahayana doesn't represent one unified sect. There is, indeed, an account of a council which is supposed to have assembled under King Kani'ska, but it is doubtful whether any canon was established at all at this council, and if so, in which language and by which sect. It is true that a Chinese text translated by Hsuan-Tsang makes mention of a '"''Bodhisattvapitakd'' consisting of a long list of Mahayana texts, a Vinayapkaka and an Abhidharmapitaka, and the same text enumerates a lengthy list of Mahayana-Sutras. However, as the text goes on to say that "there are hundreds of myriads of similar Mahayana-Sutra^\ we are scarcely justified in regarding this as an attempt at a classification of "the Mahayana Canon. The so-called "nine Dharma^'' are not the canon of any sect, but a series of books which were compiled at different times, and which belonged to different sects, but which, at the present day, are all held in great honor in Nepal. The titles of these nine books are: Astasahasrika Prajha-Paramita, Saddhanna-Pundarika, LalitaVistara, Lahkavatara or Saddharma- Lahkavatara, Suvarna Prabhasa, Gandavyuha, Tathagataguhyaka or Tathagatagunajnana, Samadhiraja and Dasabhumisvara. All these works are also called " Vaipulya-SutraS\ The most important Mahayana-Sutra, and certainly the one which stands foremost as a work of literature, is the Saddharma-Pimdarlka, "the Lotus of the Good Religion". In this sutra, there is not much of information about the historical Sakyamuni Buddha. The Buddha now is actually nothing less than a god above all gods, an infinitely exalted being, who has lived since countless eons in the past, and will live forever. ''lam the father of the

'^^ ""Dharmd' is here probably only an abbreviation of ''Dharma Paryayd' (religious texts).

75 world,'' he says of himself (XV, Gatha 21), ""the self-existent, the physician and protector of all creatures, and it is only because I know how perverse and deluded the fools are, that I, who have never ceased to exist, pretend to have passed away."" Thus, it is only out of pity for the beings, out of consideration for the weakness of human understanding that he pretends to have entered nirvana. He is like that physician with many sons who were attacked by a severe illness during their father's absence. The physician returned and prepared medicines for them. Only a few of his sons however, take them, the others reject them. In order to persuade these also to take the medicines, he goes to distant parts, and gives out that he is dead. The children, who now feel deserted, take the prescribed medicines, and recover their health. Buddha has recourse to a similar artifice when he apparently enters nirvana, but yet returns again and again in order to preach.'^"^ It is his preaching which forms the link between him and the human beings. The Buddha of the "Lotus" does not, however, preach like the Buddha of the Pali sutras, who wanders from place to place as a mendicant monk, in order to proclaim his doctrine; on the contrary, he sits on the Grdhrakuta hill in a large assembly of monks and nuns, and in the midst of a still larger host of thousands of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, gods and demi-gods; and when he is about to pour down the great rain of the religion, to sound the great drum of the religion, to raise the great banner of the religion, to light the great torch of the religion, to blow the great shell trumpet of the religion, to beat the great kettledrum of the religion, a ray of light bursts forth from the hair between his eye-brows; this ray of light illuminates eighteen thousand Buddha-lands with all the Buddhas and all the beings in them, and permits the Bodhisattva Maitreya to see wonderful visions; for the Buddha of the Lotus is also a powerfiil magician, who loves

'^"Chapt. XV, Sacred Book of the East (SBE) 21, p. 304 ff.

76 to work upon the senses of his audience by means of splendid phantasmagorias. The doctrine of this Buddha differs just as greatly from that of the HTnayana, as his personality differs from that of the Buddha of the old texts. Though it is true that he too desires to lead the beings to the Buddha knowledge, to enlightenment, he gives them a single vehicle, the Buddha- vehicle, which carries them to their goal. Everyone who has merely heard the Buddha's preaching, who has performed any kind of meritorious actions, who has led a moral life, can become a Buddha. Moreover, even those who worship relics, erect stupas, construct any kind of images of Buddha, whether jeweled marble or wooden statues or frescoes, even children who in play make stupas of sand, or scribble figures of Buddha on the wall, those who offer flowers or perfiimes at stupas or make music before them, even those who only by chance, have on some occasion thought of the Buddha with the thought "honor to the Buddha"; all these will attain to the highest enlighten- ment. It is only in appearance that there are three 'vehicles', namely that of the disciples, that of the Pratyeka-Buddhas, and that of the bodhisattvas, by means of which nirvana can be attained. In much the same manner as Sakyamuni in the Saddharma-Pundaiika, there are two works which have come down to us in Sanskrit; one of considerable length and the other much shorter; both are entitled Sukhavati- Vyuha, and diverge widely from each other, though both of them describe "the blessed land" of the Buddha Amitabha or Amitayus. The longer SukhavatT-Vyuha teaches that those who have accumulated a large pile of good works, who direct their thoughts to enlightenment and think of Amitabha in the hour of death, go to the "blessed land", although those who

'^' Chapt. II, Gathas 61 ff., 74 ff SBE 21, p. 47 ff. '^^ Both texts have been published by Max Muller and Bunyiu Nanjio (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan Series, Vol. I, Part II, Oxford. 1883) and translated by Max Muller in SBE, Vol. 49. Part II

77 merely direct their thoughts to Amitabha and his Buddha-land, may possibly also reach Sukhavati. On the other hand, the shorter text teaches that the "blessed land" is not the reward for good works, but that anyone who merely hears the name of Amitayus Bind thinks of it in the hour of death, will be bom in this Buddha-XdJid. There seems to be no doubt that the longer text is the earlier one. Of the twelve Chinese translations of the longer Sukhavati-Vyuha which are said to have existed, five have come down to us in the Chinese Tripitaka, the earliest of which was made between 147 and 186 A.D. The shorter SukhavatT-Vyuha was translated into Chinese three times, by KumarajTva (402 A.D.), by Gunabhadra (420-479 A.D.) and by Hsuan-Tsang (about 650 A.D.). A third work, the Amitayur-dhyana-Sutra, which has come down only in the Chinese translation, deals less with the description of the blessed land, but devotes more space to the recommendation of meditations {dhyand) on Amitayus, by means of which one may reach that land. The loss of the Sanskrit original of this text is all the more regrettable, because it contains an interesting introduction, in which the story of Ajatasatru and Bimbisara is told, a story with which the Pali accounts are also familiar. For centuries, the three works on Amitayus and Sukhavati hscwQ formed the basis of the faith of the majority of Buddhists in China and Japan, who found consolation and comfort in the belief in Amitayus, and in the hope of the blessed land. Whilst the Maliayana-Sutras which have so far been mentioned, are devoted mainly to the glorification of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, there is a series of other sutras which are rather in the nature of philosophical treatises. The earliest of these sutras, those which are regarded with the greatest reverence, and which are of the greatest importance from the point

'" Translated from Chinese by J. Takakusu in SBE, Vol. 49, part 2 p. 159

78 of view of the history of reUgion, are the prajna-paramita^^^. They treat of the six "perfections"'^^ (paramitas) of a bodhisattva, but especially of prajna-paramita, the highest perfection, called "wisdom". This wisdom consists of the knowledge of sunyata, "emptiness", i.e., the insubstantiality of all phenomena, implying the conviction that all dharmas or objects of thought are only endowed with a conditional or relative existence. Among the later Mahayana-Sutras, there is the Samadhiraja Sutra, the sutra about king of meditations. Here, in a dialogue between Candrapradipa and Buddha, it is shown how a bodhisattva can attain to the highest knowledge by means of the various meditations, especially the highest of all, the ''''King of Meditationi\ and which preliminary conditions are necessary in order to prepare the spirit for this highest stage of meditation. Such preliminary conditions are the worship of the Buddhas, complete renunciation of the world, gentleness and goodness towards all beings, entire indifference as to one's own life and one's own health if there is a question of sacrificing them for others, and lastly the knowledge of the non- reality of the world, the steadfast belief in the unreality {sunyata) of all phenomena. in.1.2 The origin and development of the A^t^sahasrika PmjMparamita

The composition of pra/mparaniita texts extended over about 1,000 years. Edward Conze distinguished four phases in the development of prajnaparamita \itera.tur&.(\) The elaboration of a basic text (ca. 100 B.C. to 100 A.D.), which constitutes the original impulse; (2) The expansion of that text (ca. 100 A.D. to 300); (3) The restatement of the doctrine in short sutras

'^^ Prajna-Paratnita means both the perfection of wisdom' '^' Though in the Mahayana, as in the Hfnayana, there are sometimes ten Paramitas enumerated, yet more frequently there are only six, namely: charity, moral conduct, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom (DharmaSamgraha 17) '^^ Edward Conze, The Prajnaparamita literature ( Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,2008),l.

79 and in versified summaries (ca. 300 A.D. to 500); (4) The period of Tantric influence and of absorption into magic (600 A.D. to 1200). The place of origin of the Prajnaparamita has been the subject of some controversy. Several authors have claimed that it probably developed among the Mahasahghikas in Southern India, in the Andhra country, on the Kistna River. Near Amaravati and Dhanyakataka (the modem Dharanikot), the Mahasahghikas had two famous monasteries, which gave their names to the sects of the Purvasailas and of the Aparasailas. These sects are significant because they had a Prajnaparamita^^^ in Prakrit; they spoke of the dharmadhatu in the same sense as the Prajnaparamita, and their Buddhology prepared the way for that of the Prajnaparamita. The doctrines which the Kathavatthu attributes to the Andhakas are so much akin to the Mahayana doctrines that the latter may well have developed from them. Nagarjuna, whose name is associated with the consolidation of the Prajnaparamita, came from the South of India, and was probably connected with Nagarjunlkonda in the Andhra country, which is not far from Amaravati. His Suhrlleldia ^"^"^was dedicated to Satavahana, king of the Dekkhan, and according to the Harsacarita'^^ he collected sutras from the Nagas for the same king, and it is an often repeated in legend that he recovered the text of the Prajnaparamita from the palace of the Nagas in the Nether Regions. Nagarjuna lived in Dhanyakataka, and the name of the Bhadanta

'^' The verses are preserved in CandrakTrti, Prasannapada, p. 548. '^^ One of Hmayana sects Suhrllekha (The Letter to a Friend) is most popular works attributed to Nagarjuna, addressed to a South Indian king. Its Indian original has not survived, but there exist three independent Chinese and one Tibetian translation.In its main part (stanzas 4-118), the Letter to a Friend summarizes the essential tenets of Hmayana doctrine, thus serving as a kind of Buddhist catechism. Its Mahayana counterpart is the Necklace of Jewels (RatnavalT). Since 1886, the Letter to a Friend has been translated many times into various modem languages: English, German, French, Danish, Russian, Japanese, and others. Harsacarita (The Deeds of Harsa), is the biography of Indian Emperor Harsha by Banabhatta, also known as Bana, who was a Sanskrit writer of 7th century in India; Ed. L. Parab (Bombay, 1945), p. 250.-Cf. F. W. Thomas, Harshacarita, p. 252.

80 Nagarjunacarya occurs on an inscription found in the neighborhood of the stupa of Jaggayyapata.'^^ The Astasahasn'ka Prajnaparamj'ta states that "after the passing away of the Tathagatd' the perfection of wisdom will "proceed to the South", and from there spread first to the West, and then to the North. The different recessions of the Prajnaparamita, from the earliest onwards, as preserved in Chinese, all agree, with one exception, that the itinerary of the Prajfiaparamita began in the South, or South-East . Further, the Manjusnmulatantra, as Obermiller points out specifies four regions for the recitation of various Mahayana Sutras, and the Prajfiaparamita "is to be recited in the South". The evidence for the Southern origin of the Prajriaparamita is merely circumstantial, and by no means conclusive. The whole theory has recently been challenged by E. Lamotte who is inclined to localize it in the North­ west and the region of Khotan. It is clearly speculative in that it refers to a period antecedent to the one for which documents have survived. The new creed may well have originated in one area in which circumstances, historical and climatic, were unfavorable to the survival of documents, and then shifted from that to another area, i.e. the North-West where some documents survived the universal destruction and were preserved either in the climate of Nepal and Central Asia, or in translations into Chinese and Tibetan. It is not unreasonable to assume that the new texts existed for a time orally in the Prakrit of the regions in which they originated, and were only later on, around the beginning of the Christian era, transferred into a written language, i.e. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. This is unrelated to the Southern Prakrits, but has many affinities with Ard/iamagadhr and Apabliramsa and contains a number

'^'J. Burgess, Notes on the Amaravati Stupa {\%%2), p. 57. According to Hsiian-tsang's translation oi Astasahasn'ka and Pancavitjisatisahasrika. '" Edward Conze, The Prajnaparamita literature ( Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd,2008),4.

81 of Middle-Iranian words introduced by Indo-Scythians. In any case, the entire story is a late avadana'^^ which was added to the Astasahasn'ka centuries after its doctrines had been quite clearly formulated. In other words I believe that Lamotte has shown no more than that the Prajnaparainita had a great success in the North-West at the Kushana period, and that region may well be the "fortress and hearth", though not necessarily the "cradle" of the Mahayanistic movement. The oldest text of prajnaparamita literature is the Astasahasrika Prajhaparamita QX the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines, in 32 chapters. Most of the sijtras oHJciis class, although in prose, are named after the number of lines (slokas of 32 syllables) which they contain. According to Nepalese tradition, there was first of all a Prajfiaparamita- Mahayana Sutra of 125,000" Slokas" and this is supposed to have been abridged successively to similar Maiiayana-Sutras of 100,000, 25,000, 10,000 and 8,000 'Slokas' respectively. According to another tradition, however, the Sutra of 8,000 'Slokas' is the original one, and was gradually enlarged more and more. The latter tradition appears to be the likelier one. The English translation of the Astasahasrika is about 110,000 words long. Some parts of this basic Prajiiaparamita'pvoh2h\y date back to 100 B.C. Other sections were added at later times, and the composition of the whole may have taken over two centuries. The Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita was first edited by Rejendrahal Mitra and published in Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1888. This edition was based on six Mss. five of which were obtained by different scholars fi^om Nepal and one was a Bengali transcript of a Nepalese original. The oldest dated Ms. bears the date 1061 A.D.; one of the Cambridge Mss. is held by Rajendralal Mitra to bear the date of 1020 A. D., while Bendall thinks that its date to be A. D. 1155 or 1255. Two more Mss. used by Rajendralal Mitra are

'^* Which has its counterpart in SaddarmapundarJka ch. 22 and Samadhiraja ch. 33

82 copies prepared in Nalanda or its neighborhoods in the reigns of Govinda and Rama of the Pala dynasty of Bengal-Bihar. Professor Wogihara, the editor of Haribhadra's commentary called Aloka, then re-edits the text in the earlier edition for the benefit of his readers (1930-1935). Again, it was edited by Dr. P.L.Vaidya and published by The Mitrila Institue of Post- Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning, Darbhaga, 1960.1 use this edition for my research. Eward Conze translated the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita in to English under the name ''The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Linei"" in 1951 and it was first published in 1958 by The Asiatic Society of Calcutta. In all probability the earliest of prajnaparamita literature is the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, which was, on the one hand, expanded into the larger works, and the contents of which were, on the other hand, condensed in the shorter texts. It is also considered to belong to the earliest Mahayana Sutras. Firstly, the ancient dialogue form, which is familiar to us from the Pali sutras, is still more conspicuous in these than in other Mahayana sutras, and secondly, Buddha ( called Bhagavan, "The Lord") generally appears in conversation with one of his disciples especially Subhuti. In other Mahayana sutras, Buddha usually talks to a bodhisattva. At any rate, a considerable number of prajha-paramita texts of all lengths were already in existence in India, and their number increased even more in China and Tibet. Hsuan-Tsang translated 12 different Prajna- Paramita Sutras in his Maha Prajna-Paramita: the longest is that of 100,000 'Slokas', and the shortest that of 150'Slokas'. In the Chinese Tripitaka, the first large section is made up of the Prajna-Paramitas.'^^ In the Tibetan

'^' The Dasasahasrika Pr. ('Pr. of 10,000') was translated into Chinese for the first time in 179 A.D., and then repeatedly till the 10th century; s. Nanjio, Nos. 5-8, 927; Bagchi I, pp, 40, 156. 186 f., 289. The Vajracchedika Pr. was translated first by Kumarajiva (405 A.D.) and then often, s. Nanjio, Nos 10-15 Bagchi I, 192, 258, 255, 425. Apart from the numerous Chinese translations of

83 r Kanjur, in which the Prajna-ParamitaiQxis constitute the Ser-phyin section in 21 books, there are translations of the Pmjna-Paramita of 100,000, 25,000, 18,000, 10,000, 8,000, 800, 700 and 500 'Sloka^, of the VajracchedM {With 300 'Slokas') right down to an Alpaksara or Svalpaksara Prajna-Paramita, Prajna-Paramita of (very) few syllables, and even a 'the sacred Prajna- Paramita of One Syllable, of the mother of all Tathagatas", in which the perfection of wisdom is concentrated in the one sound 'a'. The following texts are still preserved in Sanskrit: Prajna-Paramita of 100,000 'Slolca^ (SatasahasriJca)^'^^, of 25,000 {Paricavimstisagatisaliasrilca), of 8,000 {Astsahasriki^^^, of 2,500 {Sardiiadvaisahasrika), of 700 (Saptasatika), the Vajracc/iedika Prajna-Paramita, 'the diamond cutter Prajria-Paramita,' i.e., the Prajna-Paramita}'^^ cutting as sharp as a diamond £md also the Alpaksara Prajna-Paramita'"^^ and Prajna-Paramita iirdaya SUtras, which are only used as protecting magic formulas. The Astasaiiasrika contains in 32 chapters dialogues between Buddha and his disciples Subhuti, Sariputra and Punta Maitrayaniputra, and frequently Sakra, the prince of the gods, and sometimes a bodhisattva joins them. The work begins with introductory verses, in which the Prajiiaparamita, the perfection of wisdom, is personified and praised as 'the sublime producer and the beloved mother of all heroes", she whose mind is fixed firmly on the

Indian texts, there is a still greater number of original Chinese works dealing with the Prajna- Paramita; s. 0 Franke in OZ 4, 1915-16,207 ff. '"^ Edited by Pratapacandra Ghosa in Bibl. Ind. 1902-1914; Cf Raj Mitra, Nep. Buddh. Lit. 177 if.; Bendall, Catalogue, pp. 143-148; B. Bidyabinod, Fragment oidi f'rajna-ParamitaMs. from Central Asia (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 32), 1927. ""Edited by Rajendralala Mitra in Bibl. Ind. 1888; Chapt. XVIII translated by Haraprasada Sastn inJ.B.TS.II, 1894. '''^Edited by F. Max Muller. in Buddhist Texts fromJapan , Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan Series, I, 1, 1881, and translated by the same scholar in SBE Vol. 49, part II, pp. 109-144 '""^ Haraprasada Sastn, Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS..in the Asiatic Society of Bengal, I No. 16; Chinese translation, s, NanJioNo 797; Tibetan translation in the Kanjur, s. Koros, AMG II, 202.

84 highest goal, "as the kind grand-mother of ail beings" etc. Edward Conze sums up the thousands of lines of the Prajnaparamita in the following two sentences: (1) One should become a bodhisattva (or, Buddha-tobe), i.e. one who is content with nothing less than all-knowledge attained through the perfection of wisdom for the sake of all beings. (2) There is no such thing as a bodhisattva, or as all-knowledge, or as a 'being', or as the perfection of wisdom, or as an attainment. To accept both these contra-dictory facts is to be perfect. Astasahasn'kameans 8000; The Sanskrit term 'Prajnaparamita'\s often translated as 'perfection of wisdom'. Tnis'means consciousness, knowledge, or understanding and 'pra' is an intensifier; hence, Prajfia is wisdom. According to Prasatrasena, the commentator of Prajna-Paramita hrdaya Sutra, there are three kinds of understanding (jnaj:the mundane, the supramundane, and the unsurpassed understanding. Mundane understanding is corrupted with the belief that the impermanent is permanent, the impure is pure, the miserable is pleasurable, and that the selfless is self Supramundane understanding is that of the HTnayana disciples of the Buddha, who realize that persons are selfless, that conditioned phenomena are impermanent and miserable, and that nirvana is peacefiil. The unsurpassed understanding is that of the Tathagatas, realization that persons and phenomena are selfless and understanding signlessness, wishlessness, and emptiness. Wisdom (prajfia) is this unsurpassed understanding, The term paramita, commonly translated as 'perfection', has two etymologies. The first derives from the word parama, meaning 'highest', 'most distant', 'chief, 'most excellent'. Hence, the substantive can be rendered 'excellence' or 'perfection'. This reading is supported by the

''*'' Edward Conze, The Prajnaparamita literature (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,2008),7.

85 Madhyantavibhaga (V. 4), where the twelve excellences (parama) are associated with the ten perfections (paramita)."'^ The Heart Sutra commentator, Vimalamitra supports this idea, he writes: ''That of which there is nothing superior in the world is said to be excellent (parama); the excellence of wisdom is the perfection of wisdom." A more creative yet widely reported etymology divides paramita into para and mita, with para meaning 'beyond', 'the further bank, shore, or boundary', and mita, meaning 'that which has arrived', or '/Ya'meaning 'that which goes', paramita, then, means "that which has gone beyond", "that which goes beyond", or "transcendent". This reading is reflected in the Tibetan translation pha rol to phyin pa, ("gone to the other side") and is supported by such renowned figures as Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Chandrakirti''*^, as well as the Heart Sutra commentators Jfianamitra, Prasastrasena, and Vajrapani. There is a range of opinion, however, as to what it is that has passed beyond and what constitutes the further shore. Asanga says in the Mahayanasamgraha that the perfections go beyond in the sense that they surpass all the roots of virtue of worldly beings, sravakas, and pratyekabuddhas. Vasubandhu says in commenting on Abhidharmakosa'"^^ that the perfections have gone beyond to their respective accomplishment (sampad)!'*^ Candrakirti, in the first chapter of his Madhyamakavatara, defines the 'beyond' as the shore or port of the ocean of samsara and identifies it with Buddhahood, which has the nature of having abandoned all

"" R. Pandeya, ed., Madhyanta- Vibhaga- Sastra {DQM: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971), 151. '"^ Tibetan Tripitka, 5217, Vol. 94,279.5.5-6 (Tokyo: Tibetan Tripataka Research Foundation, 1956) According to Candrakirti, it is param rather than para because in this instance the accusative singular ending is not elided before the second member of the compound. See Louis de la Vallee Poussin, ed., Madhyamakavatara par Candrakirti, Bibliotheca Buddhica IX (Osnabruck: Biblio Verlag, 1970), 30. ^^^ Abhidharmakosa, IV. 112b. "" P. Pradhan, ed., Abhidharmakosablasyam of Vasubandhu, (Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1975), 267.

86 of the afflictive obstructions (kJsavaranaJ and the obstructions to omniscience (jnevarana). The renowned six perfections of giving, ethics, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom that are practiced on the bodhisattva path receive the name 'gone beyond' because when they are performed with a dedication to enlightenment, it is certain that they will go beyond to Buddhahood. Haribhadra identifies the omniscient wisdom of a Buddha, which results from hearing, thinking, and meditation as the beyond and defines wisdom as the thorough discrimination of phenomena.'^' Vajrapani says that 'gone beyond' means having passed beyond being an object of the mind, by which he presumably means ordinary consciousness. The relationship between prajna and paramita is not explicitly addressed by the Prajnaparamita commentators, although it can be inferred that it is wisdom which has gone to the further shore of nirvana, or it is wisdom by which the ocean of samsara is traversed to arrive at the far shore. The Tibetan translation of Prajnaparamita puts prajna in the genitive case which, in this instance, according to an oral commentary, can be read in either an instrumental or appositional sense. Thus Prajnaparamita could be read as either, "the wisdom which goes beyond or by which one goes beyond" or as "the state of having gone beyond, which is wisdom". Prasatrasena writes: "This understanding (jiia) refers to the highest understanding. Superior (arya) [(an adjective often affixed to the titles of Mahayana sutras)] means that with this understanding, one is far separated from sorrow and suffering. Pra [means] the wisdom that is supreme among the mundane and supra mundane, that is the highest, hence, prajiia regarding 'gone beyond' (paramita) the sufferings of birth

'" Louis de la Vallee Poussin, ed., Madhyamakavatara par Candrakirti, Bibliotheca Buddhica IX (Osnabruck: Biblio Verlag, 1970), 30-31. U. Wogihara, ed., Abhisamayalamkara Prajnaparamitavyakhva {Tokyo: Toyo bunko, 1973), 23.2-6. '" Tibetan Tripitka, 5219, Vol. 94,288.3.5 (Tokyo: Tibetan Tripataka Research Foundatw

87 _., , Put**, and death are this side, nirvana is the far side. Sentient beings who are driven by the desires of sarmsara are [caught] in the middle. This wisdom acts as a raft and ship, delivering them to the shore of nirvana."'" There is a verse sutra which is considered as the summary of the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, named Ratnagurasamcayagatha (Verses on the Accumulation of the Precious Qualities of the Perfection of Wisdom) in irregular Vasantatilaka meter. Many of the early Mahayana sutras exist in two forms, in verse and in prose. Usually the verse form is the earlier of the two. The original of this text is now lost. All we possess is Haribhadra's revision, which to some extent brings the text in line with the chapter divisions of the Astasahasrika, as they existed in the 8th century. The status of this work is not clear. There are three possibilities: Firstly, the verses formed originally part of the Astasahasrika, and were later on separated. Secondly, the verses are the original form of the Astasahasrika. And finally, the verses have been made up afterwards. It is very difficult to come to a decision on this, because, whereas in some instances the correspondence between Ratnagurasamcayagatha and Astasahasrika is nearly literal, in others where the text oi Astasahasrika \s summed up or rewritten, it sometimes appears that the text of Astasahasrika is prior to Ratnagurasamcayagatha, because Ratnagurasamcayagatha is elliptic and unintelligible without reference to Astasahasrika. However, the verses which are given under chapters 29 to 32 of Ratnagurasamcayagatha do not at all correspond to the text of the Astasahasrika. Chapters 29 to 31 describe the five paramitas, begirming with the dhyanaparamita and ending with the danaparamita, while chapter 32 first

^'^Tibetan Tripitka, 5220 Vol. 94, 292.2.7-292.3.2 (Tokyo: Tibetan Tripataka Research Foundation, 1956)

88 of all explains in 5 verses the rewards of practicing the six perfections; with verse 6 forming the conclusion of the whole work and giving its title.

Not everything that we find in our present text of the Astasahasrika belongs to the same period. Like many other oriental works, the Astasahasn'ka has been subjected to additions and alterations in the course of the centuries, to suit the taste of different generations. The internal evidence of the text itself, a comparison with Ratnagurasarncayagatha, with the larger recessions of the Prajnaparamita and with the early Chinese translations make it possible to separate the most obvious accretions from the basic original text which, in its turn, must have grown gradually.

in.2 The Main Doctrines in the Astasahasrika PrajHaparamita

in.2.1 Origin and Development of the Doctrine of the Boddhisattva

Early Buddhism inculcated the ideal of the arhat and nirvana. The Buddha converted his first disciples by preaching the four noble truths and the eightfold way and laying stress on the transitoriness and non-substantiality of all the constituents of human personality. The disciples were called ariiatsanA Buddha himself was described as an artiat. The conception of arliatship was gradually widened and elaborated by the Teacher and his successors. Thus, an arhat was also supposed to comprehend the formula of the twelve nidanas (causes). He was defined as one who had eradicated the three asravas (intoxicants, sins and errors) of sense-desire, love of existence, and ignorance, and also the fourth supplementary asrava of speculative opinion. He practiced the seven factors of enlightenment: mindfiilness, investigation, energy, joy, serenity, concentration and equanimity. He freed himself from the three "roots of evil": sense-desire, hatred and delusion. He practiced self- restraint, concentration, and acquired various wonder-working powers. He frilfilled the triple discipline of virtuous conduct, concentration and wisdom.

89 He was pure in his physical acts, his words and his thoughts. He was free from the threefold craving for pleasure, life and annihilation. He practiced the four meditations, the four ecstatic attainments and the supreme condition of trance. He eschewed the extremes of severe austerities and sensual self- indulgence. He had faith in the Buddha, enjoyed good health, and cultivated sincerity, spiritual energy and insight. He was firmly established in the seven bases of arhatship, viz. keen desire for the discipline, for insight into the doctrine, for the suppression of hankerings, for the need of solitude, for energy, mindfulness, perspicacity and intuition of the truth. He cultivated the eight positions of mastery and the eight deliverances. He knew well the four sublime subjective states of love, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. He practiced all the thirty-seven principles that were conducive to enlightenment, viz. the four fields of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of wonder-working Power, the five controlling Principles, the five Powers, the seven factors of enlightenment and the eightfold way. Above all, he was absolutely free from the three or four asravas, and this freedom made him an arhat. An arhat, who was thus liberated, knew that he would not be re-bom. He had accomplished what was to be done. He had laid down his burden. He had lived the holy life. He attained undefiled and final emancipation of mind and heart. He was alone, secluded, zealous, earnest, and master of himself Such an arhat also went forth as a preacher and taught the doctrine of the Buddha to the people. The Master had exhorted his disciples to wander and preach the truth foir the welfare and liberation of the multitude, as he loved his fellow-creatures and had pity on them. The Buddha says: "Ovadeyya 'nusaseyya asabbha ca nivaraye satam hi so piyo hot!

90 asatam hoti appiyo. (The man of wisdom should admonish others; he should give advice and should prevent others from doing wrong; such a man is held dear by the good; he is disliked by the best.)'^^ Such was the ideal of the arhat, as it was understood during the three centuries after Gautama Buddha's death. But it seems that the Buddhist monks began to neglect certain important aspects of it in the second century B.C., and emphasized a few duties to the exclusion of others. They became too self-centered and contemplative, and did not evince the old zeal for missionary activity among the people. They seem to have cared only for their own liberation from sin and sorrow. They were indifferent to the duty of teaching and helping all human beings. The bodhisattva (Pali: bodhisatta) doctrine was promulgated by some Buddhist leaders as a protest against this lack of true spiritual fervor and altruism among the monks of that period. The coldness and aloofness of the arhats led to a movement in favor of the old gospel of "saving all creatures". The bodhisattva ideal can be understood only against this background of a saintly and serene, but inactive and indolent monastic order. *^^ The exponents of the new ideal also protested against the arhat's summum bonum of nirvana. They declared that mere cessation of duhtdia (pain, evil) or the conquest of the asravas was not enough. They may have pointed out that the word 'nibbana'did not occur in the earliest records of the Buddha's first sermons, but that anuttara samwa-sambodhi (perfect supreme enlightenment) was mentioned in them. The Buddha acquired such bodhi: hence every one could and should do the same. The arhat's ideal of nirvana

'''' Dammapada, verse 77,158. '" Daw Mya Tin, (trans). The Dammapada: Verses & stories (Delhi: Sri Satguru publications, 1990), 29. '^* Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Literature (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004), 3.

91 did not include intellectual perfection and supreme wisdom. The arhats also believed that a monk, who attained nirvana in his life, could not remain in touch with this world of conditioned phenomena after his death, whatever his state of existence might be. He was not reborn on earth or in the heavens: that much was certain. He ceased to exist, or he existed in an indefinable, inconceivable sphere somewhere or nowhere (asamskrta); or nothing could be predicated about him.'^^ At any rate, he was lost to the world of men and devas as a friend and helper, there was nothing that bridged the gulf between the samskrta (conditioned) and the asamskrta elements (unconditioned).

1 CO Nirvana was of course regarded as an asainsiqta-dhatu. Thus the arliat, once deceased, was dead and gone, as far as his relations with the world of living beings were concerned, whatever his destiny, positive or negative, might be. The bodhisattva doctrine was promulgated also as a protest against this theory of arhatship, which was regarded as doubly defective. It disregarded the higher duty of acquiring the perfect wisdom of a Buddha; and it deprived the world of the services of the holy men and women who had attained nirvana and passed away. A bodhisattva was defined as one who strove to gain bodhi and scorned such nirvana, as he wished to help and succor his fellow-creatures in the world of sorrow, sin and impermanence. No word such as bodiiisattva, or any word composed of similar elements, occurs in the voluminous Vedic literature and the same is true of

'^' "Kayassa bheda uddam jTvita-pariyadana na dakkhinti deva-manussa W {DTgha, i, 46); '''Khwanipuranam, navarn n'atthisambhavanf {Sutta-nipata^o 235, p.41); "-parinibbutoBhagava na ca Bhagava pujarp sadiyatP (M/nJinda, 96) "* The word dhatu, derived from dha, means "a primary element", and also signifies "factor, item, principle"; "natural condition", etc. The Buddhists divide the entire sum of things into seventy-five dhatus, of which seventy-two are "compounded, made up" (samskrta) and three are "uncompounded" (asamskrta). The three dhatus, which are uncompounded, are: (1) akaca (Space, Ether). (2) Apratisahkhya-nirodha (Cessation, which is not due to premeditation or deliberate intention). (3) Pratisankhya-nirodha (Cessation, which is due to pre-meditation or deliberate intention, i.e. nirvana, or the cessation of the production of new thoughts).

92 the literature of early Hinduism and Jainism, This leads to the tentative, though unprovable conclusion, that the concept in its original form arose in a purely Buddhist framework, without influence from outside in its inception, whatever influences may have been felt in the development of the idea of the bodhisattva in its later Mahayana form. The Sanskrit word bodhisattva has been explained in different ways. 'Bodhi' means 'knowledge' in the sense of supreme knowledge, spiritual knowledge, knowledge of reality' and it also means 'awakening' in the sense of awakening to the ultimate truth of things, penetrating to the heart of existence. Bodhi is usually translated as 'enlightenment', which is good enough as a provisional translation, provided that we understand the word not in the eighteenth-century rationalistic sense but in its full spiritual transcendental sense. Bodhi is supreme spiritual knowledge, the great awakening that is the ultimate goal of the Buddhist life. However, several interpretations of the word sattva have been offered by ancient and modem scholars. Sattva may mean "essence, nature, true essence";'^^ The Pali word satta may also mean "substance".'^" The great modem lexicographers seem to interpret sattva in this sense. Thus, Monier William translates bodhisattva as "one who has bodhi or perfect wisdom as his QSSQncQ}^^Sattva may mean "spirit, mind, sense, consciousness"; The Pali word satta may mean "soul". Thus, the word bodhisattva would mean "one whose mind, intentions, thoughts or wishes are fixed on bodhi". Moreover, sattrva (masculine) may also mean "any living or sentient being" The Pali word satta may mean "a living being, creature, a sentient and rational being, person" Most modem

'^'Skt. Dicy. Pbg. & Skt. Dicy. M.W '^"PaliDicy. s.v. '*' Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Literature (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Pulishers, 2004), 4.

93 scholars adopt this interpretation. Therefore, a bodhisattva means an enhghtenedbeing, a 'being of awakening', a being whose whole life is dedicated, whose entire energies are devoted to the attainment of enlightenment. The bodhisattva doctrine probably originated in the second century B.C. The word 'bodhi'satta' is very old and occurs in the PaJi Nikayas. Gautama Buddha speaks of himself as a bodhisattva, when he refers to the time before the attainment of enlightenment. This seems to be the earliest use of the word. It was applied to Gautama Buddha as he was in his last earthly life before the night of enlightenment. The following clause recurs frequently in the Majjhima Nilcaya: "Pubbeva me, bhilddiave, sambodha anabhisambuddhassa bodhisattasseva sato etadahosi" , "Monies, before my awalcening, while I was the a bodhisatta..." The word also seems to be used only in connection with a Buddha's last life in the Mahapadana sutta'^'* and the Acchariy-abbhuta-dhamma-sutta'^^. In the Jatalca book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, as is well known, the word ' bodhisatta' figures at least once in each of the 547 stories, and a fully elaborated doctrine of the bodhisattva, according to the Theravada system, has already developed. We may be sure that Jatakas, and with them the doctrine of the bodhisattva, were important elements in popular Buddhism by the time of the carving of the reliefs of the Bharhut stQpa railings, which depict about thirty Jataka tales. These, from an inscription on one of the pillars, can be definitely dated to the Suhga period, and thus we can say with confidence that by about 100 B.C. at the latest, the Theravada concept of the bodhisattva was widely popular.

'*^M,I, 17; I, 1I4;I, 163. '*^I.B. Homer (trans.), The collection of the Middle Length Sayings, Vol. I (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Pulishers, 2004), 22;148;206. '"/?., II, 13. '"M, III, 119.

94 In the Buddhist texts which pre-date the teaching of the bodhisattva ideal, there seem to be so few unequivocal statements to the effect that the aim of the spiritual life is to gain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. However, a few such statements are to be found in the Pali canon. In the Anguttara-Nikaya, for example, the Buddha speaks of four kinds of people: people who help neither themselves nor others; people who help others but not themselves; people who help themselves but not others; and people who help both themselves and others.'^^ That is quite clearly in the territory of the bodhisattva ideal. And in the Mahavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka, the Buddha addresses the first sixty arhats (an arhat —literally 'worthy one' — being one who has gained Enlightenment through the Buddha's teaching), saying '""Go forth, oh monks, for the good of many people, the welfare of many people, out of compassionr^^^ Here again the other regarding emphasis is very clear. In the Katha-vatthu, certain questions are raised with regard to the bodhisattva's actions; the signs on his body, his rebirth in a state of woe, and the possibility of his harboring heretical opinions or practicing asceticism are discussed. It is clear that the previous lives of Gautama Buddha and other saints have now begun to excite interest and speculation. But there was no new systematic doctrine in the middle of the third century B.C., when the Kathavatthu was composed. The idea of a bodhisattva's renunciation of personal nirvana is stated clearly and unequivocally in the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita which belongs mainly to the first century B.C. When Subhuti asks Buddha what is meant by the word 'boddhisattva'\

'** F.L.Woodward {Xx&ns.),TheBookofthe Gradual Sayings, Vol. II (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Pulishers, 2004), 105. "*' VinayaPitaka,\,20-2\

95 he answers: "Nothing real is meant by the word 'Bodhisattva'. Because a bodhisattva trains himself in non-attachment to all dharmas. For the bodhisattva, the great being, awakes in non-attachment to full enlightenment in the sense that he understands all dharmas. Because he has enlightenment as his aim, an 'enlightenment- being'[^of/A/lsaffva], a great being, is so called."'^' In the course of time, the concept of bodhisattva became clearer. It fully developed in many mahayana sutras like Saddharma-Pundarika, Lalita- Vistara, Lankavatara or Saddharma- Lafikavatara, Suvarna Prabhasa, GandavyuAa, TatJiagataguhyaka or Tathagatagunajnana, Samadhiraja and Dasabhumisvara. in.2.2 Nature oiBoddbisattvaD^V!A.Qdi in the AstasabasrikaPmjMparamita

The bodhisattva is one of the most important Buddhist concepts in the history of Buddhism. But only in Mahayana did it received such a wide meaning that the term 'bodhisattva vehicle' or 'bodhisattva way' (bodhisattvayana) has become a synonym of Mahayana. The bodhisattva is one of the concepts that is clearly defined in the Astasahasrika PrajMparamita. In this respect, it can be considered as a purely PrajnaparamitaXoxm. The definition and the nature of bodhisattva are given in the very first chapter, which may indirectly refer to the primary importance of the term: "sarvadhamianam hi subhute bodhisattva mahasattvo'saktatayaih siksatej sarvadharmanam hi subhute bodhisattva mahasattvo'nubodhanarthena asaktatayamanuttaram samyaksathbodhimabhisambudhyatel bodhyarthena tu subhute bodhisattvo mahasattva ityucyatd'^^^

"^ ''sarvadharmanam hi subhute bodhisattva mahasattvo'saktatayaih siksatej sarvadharmanam hi subhute bodhisattva mahasattvo'nubodhanarthena asaktatayamanuttaram samyaksambodhimabhisambudhyatej bodhyarthena tu subhute bodhisattva mahasattva ityucyate" (Asta.;\).9) '*' Edward Conze (trans), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary{DeM: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 91. ™ Astasahasrika Prajaaparamita. Ed.by P.L.Vaidya (Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1960), 9.

96 From the above definition, nothing real can express the meaning of the word ''bodhisattva\ It is because the bodhisattva carries three natures: Firstly, he trains himself in non-attachment to all dharmas. Secondly, he awakes in non-attachment to full enlightenment in the sense that he understands all dharmas; Finally, he has enlightenment as his aim and is so called an enlightened being, a great being/^' Prajnaparamita Ratnagurasamcayagatha summarizes the meaning and nature of the bodhisattva Qs: What is the reason why we speak of' bodhisattva^ 1 Desirous to extinguish all attachment, and to cut it off, True non-attachment, or the Bodhi of the Jinas is their future lot. 'Beings who strive for Bodhi' are they therefore called. The concept of bodhisattva has two meanings in the Astasahasriica Prajnaparamita: wider and narrower. First, the bodhisattva is a being who strives to change his mind. In this sense, he is only opposed to the 'common person', meaning those who do not aspire to change their state of mind. The Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, as well as many other Mahayana sources, describes three vehicles, three main possibilities to change one's state of mind: 'vehicle of sravakas^ {sravakayani), 'vehicle of pratyekabuddhas' ipratyelcabuddhayana), and the 'great vehicle' {MahayanajThus, a bodhisattva in the first meaning is a person who is characterized as abiding on one of the three vehicles mentioned above. It means that the personology of the Astasahasrika embraces three main types of bodhisattva: 'bodhisattva

'^' Edward Conze (trans.), the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary{TieM: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 89. '^^ "/r/'/T? karanam ayu pravucyati bodhisattva sarvatra sanga-ksaya icchati saiiga-chedil bodhitn sprsi$yatijinana asanga-bhutam tasma hu nama labhate ayu bodhisatva" (Akira Yuyama (ed.), PrajM- paramita- ratna- guna- samcaya-gatha (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 13. "Edward Conze (trans.), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary (J)Q\\\\: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 11.

97 abiding on the vehicle of sravakai (sravakayanika bodhisattva),' bodhisattva abiding on the vehicle of pratyekabuddhas' {pratyekabuddhayanika bodhisattva), and 'bodhisattva abiding on the vehicle of Mahayana' {mahayanika bodhisattva). In most cases, a bodhisattva abiding on the vehicle oisravakas is simply denoted by the term sravaka and the highest state of sravaka by the term arhattva^^^ or sravakatva.'^^ A bodhisattva abiding on the vehicle of pratyekabuddhas is accordingly denoted as a pratyekabuddha. The highest state of the pratyekabuddha is pratyekabodhi or pratyekabodhatva. The feature that is considered to be characteristic for sravakas and pratyekabuddhas is that they only aspire to free themselves. The Astasahasrika QxprQSSQS this as follows: "How then are the Disciples and Pratyekabuddhas trained? They make up their minds that "one single self we shall tame, one single self we shall pacify, one single self we shall lead to final Nirvana." Thus they undertake exercises, which are intended to bring about wholesome roots for the sake of taming themselves, pacifying themselves, leading themselves to Nirvana."^^^ The term pratyekabuddha is rarely used in the Astasahasrika and does not significantly enrich our knowledge of it. Moreover, this term is scarcely investigated in contemporary Buddhist studies. However, those who are denoted by the term sravaka have a positive meaning in the Astasahasrika. It is manifested in the fact that although sravaka is not the most important element in the Astasahasrika (i.e. according to the Astasahasrika, sravaka

™ Asta., Ill, p.30 '"yl5/'a.,XIV,p.l43 ''^ Asta.,m, p.30 '"yl5/'a.,XIV,p.l43 "^"katham ca subhute sravakayanikahpratyekabuddhayanika vapudgalah sik^ante? te?arp subhute evani bhavati - ekamatmanaip damayi^yamalf, ekamatmanam samayisyamah, ekamatmanam parinirvapayi^yamah, ityatmadamasamathaparinirvai^aya sarvakusalamulabhisaipskaraprayoganarabhantd'' {Asta., XI, p.l 16) '"Edward Conze (trans.). The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse 5'u/77/77a/7(Delhi: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 163.

98 cannot reach their purpose, which is only to free themselves), persons denoted by this term fulfill a certain function to support the aspirations of the bodhisattva-mahaasattva. They are to help the bodhisattva-mahasattva in achieving his goal by giving him their knowledge since they are capable of understanding the 'ultimate perfect awakening' but not to reach it. Mahayanika bodhisattva is opposed to the first two. In this way, they can be classified under one term sravakapratyekabuddha. The Astasahasrika describes mahayanika bodhisattva as the main type of bodhisattva. However, this does not mean that sravakayanika bodhisattva and sravakayanika bodhisattva are regarded as being something outside Buddhism. On the contrary, as the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita states they have their authoritative teaching that comes from Gautama himself The bodhisattva who has chosen the Mahayana vehicle should also develop qualities that for an outsider seem to be similar to those of sravaka. However, a mahayanika bodhisattva himself cannot be sure that he has completely overcome the level of sravaka and pratyekabuddhas. He can only become convinced of it by acquiring 'skill in means' and by understanding prajnaparamita step by step. The nature of mahayanika bodhisattva is described as: "ap/ tu khalu punali subhute bodhisattvena mahSsattvenaivam siksitavyam - atinanaiji ca tathatayam sthapayisyami sarvalokanugrahaya, sarvasattvan api tathatayam sthapayisyami, aprameyam sattvadhatiun parinirvapayisyamitr 'On the contrary, he should train himself thus: "My own self I will place in Suchness, and, so that all the world might be helped, I will place all beings into Suchness, and I will lead to Nirvana the whole immeasurable world of beings"'.'^^

'*''/l5/'a,XIV,p.l43 '*'/l5ra.,XI,p.ll6 "'^/l5/'a.,XI,p.ll6 '*^ Edward Conze (trans.), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary (Delhi: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 163.

99 Mahayanika bodhisattva is also called bodhisattva-mahasattva (the person who has chosen the vehicle of Mahayana) when we examine the meaning of the concept of bodhisattva in second major (narrower major). In this sense, there are several subtypes of bodhisattvas: bodhisattvayanika pudgala, bodhisattva dind bodhisattva-mahasattva. Bodhisattvayanika pudgaia and bodhisattva only appear in the Astasahasrika on a few occasions and even then mainly in the situations where a bodhisattva renounces the prajnaparamita and tries to read HTnayana texts. Sometimes, indeed, the term bodhisattva can also be encountered in a positive sense. The main term in the conception of the bodhisattva in the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita is bodhisattva-mahasattva. In contemporary Buddhist studies, mahasattva is normally translated as an epithet to bodhisattva meaning 'great-natured' or 'great being' and the bodhisattva- mahasattva is not considered as a subtype of bodhisattva. The Astasahasrika gives three definitions of the term mahasattva. Firstly, the Bagavat gives the definition about mahasattva that a bodhisattva is called 'a great being' in the sense that he will cause a great mass and collection of beings to achieve the highest^ {mahatah sattvarasermahatah sattvanikayasya agratarn karayisyati, tenarthena bodhisattvo mahasattva

1 on r _ ityucyate ) .The Sariputra makes it clearer that a bodhisattva is called a 'great being' in the sense that he will demonstrate dharma so that the great errors should be forsaken, such erroneous views as the assumption of a self, a being, a living soul, a person, of becoming, of not-becoming, of annihilation, Hn- 13107-

^^^ Asta.,X\,p.\\5 '*'/l5te.,XVI,p.l57 Edward Conze (trans.). The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary {T>Q\\\V. Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 89. '^^ Asta., I, p.9

100 on the void of the sutra. 'Profound' is a name of the void, of the signless, of the undetermined, of non-accumulating, of non-arising, of non-birth, of non- passion, of cessation, of nirvana, of departure. It is also a name for all things, and things that are void are also imperishable. The void is the immeasurable. Hence, in these things no distinction or plurality is found. It is not surprising that a system expressed in such terms should have been called negativism or even nihilism. It was even so-called by contemporary opponents, and Nagarjuna's commentator Chandrakirti had to deny that the Madhyamikas were nihilists. D. T. Suzuki says, "//^ simply means conditionality or transitoriness of all phenomenal existences.^' Stcherbatsky translates sUnya (void) and sUnyata (voidness) by 'relativity', and says, " we use the term 'relative' to express the fact that a thing can be identified only by mentioning its relations to something else, and becomes meaningless without these relations!'"' This explains the relative side, but says nothing about the positive. It is not the doctrine that all is relative, but that all is relative to an absolute. It is clear that a term which has to be interpreted in such an apparently arbitrary way as by Suzuki and Stcherbatsky is not self-evident. The choice of the term was due to the practice of the early Mahayanists of adopting certain established terms in a new sense.^'^ They were thus enabled to find evidence in the scriptures for their own doctrines. The term void in the literal sense of emptiness is often found. There are two sutras on emptiness in the Majjhima Nikaya (121, 122). The monk first meditates on the emptiness of an empty place, and then on the eight stages of concentration, each of which is

^'^ Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Outline of Mahayana Buddhism (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt.Ltd., 2007),42. ^'* Th. Stcherbatsky, The Concept of Buddhist Nirvana {^oM: Motilal Banarsidass Pulishers, 1977), 42. ^" Gambhlra, anutpada, animitta, apranihita, viraga, nidrodha, nirvana, all synonyms of the emptiness, are examples of such terms

111 empty with regard to the former, until he rests in signless (animitta) concentration of mind. Here the void is purely psychological. The universe (loka) is also said to be void of a self or of anything belonging to a self, and there is the same standpoint in Sutta-nipata, 1119: "As void one should look upon the worid, Oh, Mogharaja, being ever mindful; When he has destroyed the theory of a self, Then will he overcome Death." Three of the most characteristic terms of the doctrine of the void are also found applied to the sense-contact of one who rises from the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling : sunnata {void), animitta (signless), 991 and appanihita (undetermined, unapplied). It may be asked whether we have in this case the intrusion of later doctrine, but the probability is that, as in several other cases, the terms have later been given a new sense in the doctrine of the void. The old doctrine that there was no entity in a self beyond the elements that compose it were extended to things in general (dharmanairatmya). Existence consists of dharmas, things or objects, but what can be said of these objects. They are all impermanent and changing, and nothing can be said of them at one moment which is not false the next. They are as unreal as the atman itself A very interesting list of synonyms can also be found in Chapter XI of the Astasahasrika: "sarvam hi samskitamanityam sarvam bhayavagatam duhkham sarvam traidhatukam sunyam sarvadharma anatmanab '^^^ "For everything that is conditioned is impermanent. Anything that may cause

^^^ s., rv, 54 ^^' lbid.,295 ^^^ Asta.,X\,^.\2\.

112 fear is ill.AU that is in the triple worid is empty. All dharmas are without self. As this passage is clearly a quote from a canonical sutra, these synonyms expressing an emotional shade of sunyata should not necessarily be considered as specifically related to the prajnaparamita. But at the same time this passage proves the statement of the Astasahasrika that the teaching of sunyata can also he proclaimed in other than Prajnaparamita Sutra. There are many English translations of the term sunyata on the basic of the Astasahasrika. Most of scholars translate it as 'emptiness' or 'voidness', including F.I. Streng and Edward Conze. Others translate it as 'relavity' or 'zero'. Each of these translations reflects a facet of this concept. When studying the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, Linnart Mall lists a large number of synonyms of sunyata just as: aprameya (immeasurable), asrnldiyeya (incalculable), aksaya (inextinguishable), anabhisamskara (unaffected), anutpada (unproduced), ajati (no-rebirth), abhava ( non- existence), viraga (dispassion), nirodha (stopping), nirvana (subsiding), advaya (non-dual), ajanaka (unknowable), apasyaka (invisible), akrta (undone), acintya (unthinkable), visuddhya (purified), tathata (suchness), atuiya (incomparable), anabhilapya (inexpressible). The doctrine oi sUnyata'is expressed clearly in first chapter of the sutra when Buddha asks the elder Subhuti to let a thought occur to him so that bodhisattvas may acquire the perfection of wisdom. The elder Sariputra wonders whether Subhuti will do it by applying his own wisdom or through the might of Buddha. Subhuti, knowing his thought, replies that everything

^^^ Edward Conze (trans), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eiglit Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary{DeXhi: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 168. "" Th. Stcherbatsky, The Concept of Buddhist Nirvana (Delhi: Motiial Banarsidass Pulishers, 1977), 232. ^^' Edward Conze (trans), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary(X>Q\h.\: Sri Satguru publications, 1994). ^^* Linnart Mall, Studies in the Astasahasriid Prajnaparamita and Other Essays (Delhi: Motiial Banarsidass Pulishers, 2005), 50-52.

113 that disciples say is done through the virile force of the Tathagata: "When one speaks of a 'Bodhisattva,' what dharma does that word 'Bodhisattva' denote? I do not Lord, see that dharma 'Bodhisattva', nor a dharma called 'perfect wisdom.' Since I neither find, nor apprehend, nor see a dharma 'Bodhisattva,' nor a 'perfect wisdom,' what Bodhisattva shall I instruct and admonish in what perfect wisdom? ... Morever, when a Bodhisattva courses in perfect wisdom and develops it, he should so train himself that he does not pride himself on that thought of enlightenment [with which he has begun his career]. That thought is no thought, since in its essential original nature thought is transparently luminous." Subhuti goes on to explain that in the state of non-thought there is neither existence nor non-existence. This state of non-thought is without change and without false imagination. Hence, a bodhisattva is to be considered as not capable of turning back from enlightenment, and is to be looked upon as not deprived of the perfection of wisdom. This perfection of wisdom should be heard by those in the stage of disciple, by those in the stage of pratyekabuddha, and also by those in the stage of the bodhisattva. For in the perfection of wisdom all the qualities of a bodhisattva are contained at length. The first chapter is devoted to repeating in different ways that the bodhisattva wins complete enlightenment by not accepting any dharma as real. Form, feeling, all the slcandhas are delusion (maya). The actual nature of things {dharmata) is dependent upon the nature of such delusion. Just as a clever conjurer may produce the illusion of a crowd of people, but when he makes them vanish he has not killed, them, so a bodhisattva takes countless beings to nirvana, though there is no being who attains nirvana. As we see those who say, "I shall attain nirvana when I am without grasping, and nirvana will be mine," hold a great false notion, the belief in a real self

^^' Edward Conze (trans), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary {Delhi: Sri Satguru publications, 1994),83-84.

114 {satkayadrsti). Here the doctrine of non-self is turned against the whole Hmayana scheme of salvation. In the Dhyayitamushti sutra, Mahayana sutra, in a conversation with Manjusri, the Lord describes the whole career of the disciple who enters the order, keeps the moral laws, thinks that all compounds are transitory, feels revulsion, practices the path, and realizes tranquility. He thinks, "I am released from all pains, there is nothing more for me to do, I am an arhat." Thus, he forms the idea of a self and at the time of death he is convinced of the rebirth (utpatti) of the self, so that doubt and uncertainty arise, and uncertainty about the enlightenment of an enlightened one. When he dies, he falls into the great hell, because although all things are unoriginated he imagines them as real. The Buddha speaks of how and why a bodhisattva should dwell in emptiness: "A bird dwells in space, but does not fall down. A fishdwell s amidst water, but does not die Just so the Bodhisattva who through the trances and powers has gone beyond, Dwells in the empty, but does not reach the Blessed Rest."^^' Sunyata'm. the Astasahasn'ka is not an ontological fact or 'existing state of affairs'. Neither is it the conception of a theory or an idea that should be understood and 'realized'. It most probably means spontaneously giving up any operations, positive and negative, performed by a person with dhannas and at the same time giving up such giving up. The word emptiness gains its true connotations in the process of salvation and has different meanings during the process. All things may be empty in the sense that they are devoid of definite nature, characteristic or function. Emptiness may be used to discredit theories and dismiss view-points. To claim that all things are empty

^^* Akasapak^i viharati na copatati Dakamadbya matsyu viharati na co marati Em eva dtiyanabalaparagu bodiiisattva Sunyaviiiarina ca nirvrtiprapunatT{Prjna Paramita Ratnagana Samcayagatha, p. 107) ^^' Edward Conze (trans). The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary (Delhi: Sri Satguru publications, 1994), 60.

115 may show that discursive reasoning and conceptual statements about the true nature of things are unacceptable. The term is also used to devalue and to designate things worthless, useless, to be discarded. To empty one's mind may mean that one sees the world as suffering and transcends it. The Mahayanist conception of nirvana as sunyata is that the Mahayanists deny the existence of elements altogether. Many of the aspects of their conception are brought out by the various terms used in Mahayanic works. For instance, when nirvana is equated with sunyata, the implication is that all things which are ordinarily supposed to exist are really nonexistent just as the mirage has no substantiality e.g., the prthivT-dhatu is sunyata of real origination, destruction, or existence in reality. When it is equated with tathata or dtiarmata, the implication is that all things of this world are essentially of the same nature, void of any name or substratum. It is that which is neither existence nor non-existence. ^iZnya^a represents the negative and Tathagata is the positive aspects of the truth. When it is called btiutakoti (true limit), it is implied that on analysis of dharmas, which are false designations, one arrives finally at the reality, beyond which it is impossible to pass and which alone is truth. In the third paragraph of the Hrdaya PrajHaparamita Sutra, we read: "Therefore, Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch, no phenomenon. There is no eye constituent, no mental constituent, up to and including no mental consciousness constituent. There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. Similarly, there are no sufferings, no origins, no cessations, no paths, no wisdom, no attainment, and also no non-attainment."^''^

^^° Donal S. Lopez, Jr., The Heart Sutra Explained: Indian and Tibetian Commentaries (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publishcation,1990), 95.

116 In this paragraph, we see that all the important and fundamental teachings of Buddhism are rejected: the five skandhas, the eighteen dhatus, the four noble truths, including nirvana and the holy path... are all abolished. This great view is succinct in one very famous sentence of Vajrachedika- Prajha-paramita Sutra that bodhisattva should develop a mind which does- not abide in anything. The dharma expressed by Buddha is not a doctrine of philosophy, if it is anything at all, it is therapeutic device cleansing men's innate coarse or subtle clinging. If Early Buddhism, the good deeds, the holy truth, nirvana - a state of perfect rest and happiness, and beyond the three worlds is the aim for practitioners. Then, the contention of the Mahayanists is that the only reality is. nirvana or dharmadhatu, or noble eightfold paths everything else being a total delusion of the mind, or therapeutic method. When a patient is cured i.e. freed fi-om clinging, then the four holy truths becomes useless and abandoned behind as 'a raft'. And that is the reason why The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom states that the Tathagata abides nowhere. This no-abiding mind itself is the Tathagata. Tathagata does not abide in conditioned things, or in the unconditioned. The Tathagata who abides in all dharmas is neither abiding nor non-abiding. Just so, a bodhisattva should also rest (his mind) in this maimer, At the moment one realizes this essence of dharma he does not distinguish or grasp one thing fi"om another. That is to say samsara is identical with nirvana, he becomes perfect, i.e., a Buddha, because the Mahayanists hold that all beings other than Buddhas are under delusions, the nature of which varies according to their spiritual advancement. So, one must eradicate from his mind the conception not only of his own individuality but also of the substantiality of anything whatsoever perceived or cognized by

^^' Garma C.C. Chang, Buddhist Teaching of Totality (Great Britain: The Pennsylvania State University, 1972), 94-95.

117 him. When a being attains a state of mind, in which he cannot distinguish himself from any other thing it corresponds to ontology of the world (relative reality) or from the (absolute reality) transcendentalism. He is said to attain nirvana which means the nature of absolute sunyata, absolute transcendentalism in the Mahayanic sense as the Hrdaya Sutra concludes that because bodhisattvas have no attainment they depend on and abide in the perfection of wisdom and their minds are without obstruction and without fear. Having completely passed beyond all error they go to the completion of

• - 232 nirvana.

Donal S. Lopez, Jr., The Heart Sutra Explained: Indian and Tibetian Commentaries (DeM: Sri Satguru Publishcation, 1990), 95.

118