UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY Gift of JOSEPH M. KITAGAWA THE LANKAVATAKA SUTRA BODHIDHAEMA By SessM (U20-1506) />? .>* , THEi I I. i 'j _i..4.rV-iLANKAVATATfrAJ~- J. -ti-J-ILti. KJSTTTTTAI _Lt/xL XVa^. y U A MAHAYANA TEXT TRANSLATED FOR THE FIRST TIME FROM THE ORIGINAL SANSKRIT BY DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI EASTERN \&;^~M BUDDHIST LIBRARY LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LTD. BROADWAY HOUSE: 68-74 CARTER LANE, E. C. 1932 COPYRIGHT \ \-i CH1CW30I \ tlSUXf FEINTED AT THE SANSHUSHA PEESS, TOKYO PREFACE It is more than seven years now since I began the study of the LanMvatara Sutra quite seriously, but owing to various interruptions I have not been able to carry out my plan as speedily as I wished. My friends in different fields of life have been kind and generous in various ways, and I now send out to the perusal of the English-reading public this humble work of mine. There are yet many difficult and obscure passages in the Sutra, which I have been unable to unravel to my own satisfaction. All such imperfections are to be corrected by competent scholars. I shall be fully- content if I have made the understanding of this significant Mahayana text easier than before, even though this may be only to a very slight degree. In China Buddhist scholars profoundly learned and endowed with spiritual insights made three or four attempts extending over a period of about two hundred and fifty years to give an intelligible rendering of the Lankavatara. It goes without saying that these have helped immensely the present translator. May his also prove a stepping board however feeble towards a fuller interpretation of the Sutra! The present English translation is based on the Sanskrit edition of Bunyu Nanjo's published by the Otani University Press in 1923. I am most grateful to Mr Dwight Goddard of Thetford, Vermont, U. S. A., who again helped me by typing the entire manuscript of the present book. To assist me in this way was indeed part of the object of his third visit to this side ' ' of the Pacific. Says Confucius, Is it not delightful to have a friend come from afar?" The saying applies most appro- priately to this case. It was fortunate for the writer that he could secure the support and help of the Keimeikwai, a corporation organised to help research work of scholars in various fields of culture ; for without it his work might have dragged on yet for some vi PREFACE time to come. There is so much to be accomplished before he has to appear at the court of Emma Daiwo, to whom he could say, "Here is my work; humble though it is, I have tried to do my part to the full extent of my power." The writer renders his grateful acknowledgment here to all the advisers of the Society who kindly voted for the speedy culmination of this literary task a task which he tenderly wishes would do something towards a better appreciation by the West of the sources of Eastern life and culture. Whatever literary work the present author is able to put before the reader, he cannot pass on without mentioning in it the name of his good, unselfish, public-minded Buddhist friend, Yakichi Ataka, who is always willing to help him in every possible way. If not for him, the author could never have carried out his plans to the extent he has so far ac- complished. Materially, no visible results can be expected of this kind of undertaking, and yet a scholar has his worldly needs to meet. Unless we create one of these fine days an ideal community in which every member of it can put forth all his or her natural endowments and moral energies in the direction best fitted to develop them and in the way most useful to all other members generally and individually, many obstacles are sure to bar the passage of those who would attempt things of no commercial value. Until then, Bodhi- sattvas of all kinds are sorely needed everywhere. And is this not the teaching of the Lankavatara Sutra,,, which in its English garb now lies before his friend as well as all other readers ? Thanks are also due to the writer's wife who went over the whole manuscript to give it whatever literary improve- ment it possesses, to Mr Hokei Idzumi who gave helpful sug- gestions in the reading of the original text, and to Professor Yenga Teramoto for his ungrudging cooperation along the line of Tibetan knowledge. DAISETZ TEITAEO SUZUKI Kyoto, November, 1931 (the sixth year of Showa) CONTENTS BODHIDHAEMA, by Sesshu (1420-1506) Frontispiece Page PEERAGE v INTEODUCTION si CHAPTEE ONE. EAVANA, LOED OF LANKA, ASKS FOE INSTEUCTION 3 CHAPTEE TWO. COLLECTION OF ALL THE DHAEMAS . 22 I. Mahamati Praises the Buddha with Verses 22 II. Mahamati's "One Hundred and Eight Questions" 23 III. "The One Hundred and Eight Negations" 31 IV. Concerning the Vijnanas 33 V. Seven Kinds of Self-nature (svabTiava) 35 VI. Seven Kinds of First Principle (paramartfia) , and the Philosophers' Wrong Views regarding the Mind Eejeeted 35 VII. Erroneous Views held by Some Brahmans and Sramanas Concerning Causation, Continuation, etc.; The Buddhist Views Concerning Such Subjects as Alayavijnana, Nirvana, Mind-only, etc. ; Attainments of the Bodhisattva 36 VIII. The Bodhisattva's Biscipling himself in Self- realisation 39 IX. The Evolution and Function of the Vijnanas; The Spiritual Discipline of the Bodhisattva; Verses on the Alaya-ocean and Vijnana-waves 39 . X. The Bodhisattva is to Understand the Signification of Mind-only 44 XI (a). The Three Aspects of Noble Wisdom (dryajnana) 44 XI (b). The Attainment of the Tathagatakaya 45 XII. Logic on the Hare's Horns 46 $ XIII. Verses on the Alayavijnana and Mind-only : 49 XIV. Purification of the Outflows, Instantaneous and Gradual 49 XV. Nishyanda-Buddha, Dharmata-Buddha, and Nir- mana-Buddha 51 XVI. The Sravaka's Eealisation and Attachment to the Notion of Self-nature 52 XVII. The Eternal-Unthinkable 53 XVIII. Nirvana and Alayavijnana 55 XIX. All Things are Unborn 55 XX. The Five Classes of Spiritual Insight 56 XXI. Verses on the Triple Vehicle 58 vm CONTENTS XXII. Two Classes of the Icchantika 58 XXIII. The Three Forms of Svabhava 59 $ XXIV. The Twofold Egolessness (nairatmyadvaya- lalcshana) 60 $ XXV. Assertion and Eefutation (samaropapavada) .... 62 XXVI. The Bodhisattva Assumes Various Personalities ... 64 XXVII. On Emptiness (Siinyata), No-birth, and Non- duality 65 XXVIII. The Tathagata-Garbha and the Ego-soul 68 XXIX. A Verse on the Philosophers' Discriminations .... 70 XXX. The Four Things Needed for the Constitution of Bodhisattvahood 70 XXXI. On Causation (Six Kinds), and the Rise of Existence 72 XXXII. Four Forms of Word-discrimination 75 XXXIII. On Word and Discrimination and the Highest Eeality 76 XXXIV. Verses on Reality and its Representations 77 XXXV. Mind-only, Multitudinousuess, and Analogies, with an Interpolation on the Dualistie Notion of Existence 78 $ XXXVI. The Teaching (dharmadeSana) of the Tathagatas 84: XXXVII. Four Kinds of Dhyana 85 $ XXXVIII. On Nirvana 86 XXXIX. Two Characteristics of Self-nature 87 XL. Two Kinds of the Buddha's Sustaining Power (adMshthana) 87 XLI. On the Chain of Causation (pratityasamtutpada) . 90 XLII. Words (abhilapa) and Realities (bhava) 91 XLIII. On Eternality of Sound (nityaabda), the Nature of Error (bhranta), and Perversion (viparyasa) QZ $ XLIV. On the Nature of Maya 95 $ XLV. That All Things are Unborn 96 tf XLVI. On Name, Sentence, Syllable, and Their Meaning 97 XLVII. On Inexplicable Statements (vyalmtdni*) 98 XLVIII. All Things are and are not (Verses on Four Forms of Explanation) 99 XLIX. On the Sravakas, Srotaapanna, Sakridagamin, Anagamin, and Arhat; on the Three Knots (samyojani) 100 L. The Intellect (J)uddhi), Examining and Diserim- nating 105 LI. The Elements, Primary and Secondary 106 LII. The Five Skandhas 107 $ LIII. Four Kinds of Nirvana and the Eight Vijnanas . 108 LIV. The False Imagination Regarding Twelve Subjects 110 CONTENTS IX LV. Verses on the Citta, Parikalpita, Paratantra, and Parinishpanna ............................. 112 LVI. The One Vehicle and the Triple Vehicle ........ CHAPTEE THEEE. ON IMPEEMANENCY ................ 118 LVII. Three Forms of the Will-body (manomayaMya} . 118 Desire LVIII. The Five Immediacies (pancanantaryani) ; as Mother and Ignorance as Father .......... 120 LIX. The Buddha-nature (buddliata) ................ 122 LX. The Identity (samata) of Buddhahood and its Four Aspects .............................. 122 LXI. Not a Word Uttered by the Buddha; Self-realisa- tion and an Eternally-abiding Reality ........ 123 LXIL On Being and Non-Being; Bealism and Nihilism. 125 LXIII. Eealisatiou and Word-teaching ....... ......... 127 LXIV. Discrimination, an External World, Dualism, and Attachment ................................ 129 LXV. The Eelation between Words (ruta) and Meaning (avtlia) ................................... 133 LXVI. On Knowledge, Absolute (jnana) and Eelative (vijnana) ................................. 135 LXVII. Nine Transformations (parinama) ............. 137 LXVIIL The Deep-seated Attachment to Existence ...... 138 LXIX. Self-nature, Beality, Imagination, Truth of Soli- tude, etc.................................. 141 LXX. The Thesis of No-birth ........................ 144 LXXI. True Knowledge and Ignorance ................ 146 LXXII. Self-realisation and the Discoursing on it ....... 148 LXXIII. On the Lokayatika ........................... 149 LXXIV. Various Views of Nirvana ..................... 157 LXXV. Is Tathagatahood Something Made? Its Eelation to the Skandhas, to Emancipation, to Knowledge 161 LXXVI. The Tathagata Variously Designated; Eelation Between Words and Meaning; Not a Word Uttered by the Buddha ..................... 164 $ LXXVII. Causation, No-birth, Self-mind, Nirvana ........ 170 LXXVIII. Verses on No-birth and Causation .............. 172 LXXIX. Various Views of Impermanency ............... 176 CHAPTEE FOUE. ON INTUITIVE UNDEESTANDING .... 182 LXXX. Perfect Traiiquillisation Attained by Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas ; Stages of Bodhisattvahood ........................... 182 CHAPTEE FIVE. ON THE DEDUCTION OF THE PEEMA- NENCT OF TATHAGATAHOOD .................... 187 LXXXI. Permanency of Tathagatahood ................. 187 CHAPTEB SIX. ON MOMBNTAEINESS ................. 190 LXXXII.