T374 The Nirvana Sutra, Vol. I

Back Matters

Notes

1 In the Pāli Canon, the Mahāparinibbāna-suttantacan be found as suttanumber sixteen in the Dīghanikāyacollection. For the Pāli Text Society English translation by T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids, see Bibliography. A Sanskrit text has been reconstructed from fragments and translated into German by Ernst Waldschmidt, Das Mahāparnirvāṇasutra; Text in Sanskrit und Tibetisch, verglichen mit dem Pāli nebst einer Übersetzung der chinesischen Entsprechung im vinaya der Mūlasarvāstivādins(Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1950; Kyoto: Rinsen, 1986, reprint).

2 That is, the name Nirvana Sutra (Niepan jing涅槃經) as used in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese exegetical commentaries and essays from the medieval period only designated Taishō nos. 374, 375, and 376. Some scholars today use the terms "Hinayana Nirvana Sutra,

" or "the Nirvana Sutrain Pāli" (Sonya S. Lee, Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual Culture [Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010]) but this is not traditional and potentially misleading. There are other Pāli texts called Nibbāna suttathat consist of short dialogues in the Aṅguttara Nikāya and Udānain which the topic of nibbānais discussed; they have no content relationship to the original detailed narrative on the great decease of the Buddha or the massive Mahāyāna discourse here in which there is no decease of the Buddha. 3 Although the tradition in modern scholarship has been to date this effort 416-423, Jinhua Chen (2004), has argued convincingly that despite the contradictory information in his biographies, Dharmakṣema did not arrive in Guzang until 420, and the biographies are consistent that he added a significant amount to his translation at the end of his life, his death coming in 433.

4 Taishō no. 475, 14.544a29. See Étienne Lamotte, The Teaching of Vimalakīrti,translated by Sara Boin (1976), p. 114. 5 Sal is the anglicized name for the Sanskrit śāla,Latin Shorea robusta, still grown for its timber in South Asia today. It is speculated that this type of tree may have had some religious significance for the Śākya family. The river's name in the Faxian translation is instead Hiraṇyavatī, which agrees with the story as told in the Pāli version of the sutra. Regarding Kuśinagara, the urban center for the Malla kingdom at that time, there is some difference of opinion as to how to reconstruct the name for this location. In Pāli it is Kusinārā and usually rendered Kuśinagara in Sanskrit. MPNS Sanskrit Fragment (hereafter SF) 2, however, has Kuśinagarī, yet Kuśinagara is used in the Gandharī MPNS fragment published in Buddhist manuscripts in the Schøyen 339

Notes

Collection(Braavig, 2000), vol. 1, p. 248. The Chinese here only gives the first three syllables of the name, ju shi na拘尸那. It is thus not clear in what form the name was transmitted in the case of this text, so I have used the conventional pronunciation here. The present-day city of Kuśinagar in eastern Uttar Pradesh serves as a Buddhist pilgrimage site.

6 The "triple world" means "all known forms of life in saṃsāra. " Specifically it refers

to three different types of existence, the division reflecting the degree of spiritual attainment of the inhabitants of the three worlds. First is the realm of desire and form (kāmadhātu), which is the plain upon which our known world operates. Second is the realm of form only (rūpadhātu), where individuals have removed their desires through religious discipline. Third is the realm of neither desire nor form (ārūpya dhātu), where only consciousness remains. 7 The palāśatree is identified as the Butea monospermaor Butea frondosa.Written palāsain Pāli, there are two stories called Palāsa Jātakain the Jātakacollection. The Francis and Cowell translation of the Jātaka(Cowell 1897, vol. III, nos. 307 and 370) translate it as "Judas tree" but today it is more commonly referred to as bastardteak or dhak, anglicized from the Hindi ḍhāk.In addition to its medicinal qualities, in Buddhist writing, the bright red palāśaflowers are symbols of monks wearing red robes and the three-pronged leaf as a symbol of the Three Jewels. 8 These "four immeasurables" (Skt. catur-apramāṇa) are also known as "four noble abodes" (brahmavihāra): kindness (maitrī), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā), and equanimity or impartiality (upekṣā). This set also occurs in the Yoga Sutrasand probably predates Buddhism.

9 The eight qualities found in the ideal form of water: that it is sweet, cool, soft, light, clear, odorless, not harmful to the throat, and not harmful to the stomach. 10 In other words, they complained openly about what was expected of them as homemakers. There are many kinds of dharmas from many different sources presented in the MPNS, with the Buddha's dharma usually identified as such. In this particular case, the allusion is to dharma in the sense of social duty.

11 This is a medicinal plant seed called tinglizithat is still used today. Although tinglizi matches a Sanskrit word for mustard seed (sarṣapa-phala) below in SF 14, in Chinese herbal medicine tinglizihas been identified variously as Lepidium apetalum (Willdenow), Lepidium micranthum (Lebour), Descurainia sophia,and so forth. 12 The Licchavis (or Licchavaīs) were a regal and powerful kṣatriyaclan in India at the time of the Buddha. Their capital was the city of Vaiśālī, the site of the Second Buddhist Council, held approximately a hundred years after Śākyamuni's death. In Buddhist literature they appear as devout followers of the Buddha, but in other literature they are seen following other teachers. They play an important role in this sutra because one of Ajātaśatru's core ambitions was to destroy them, and he succeeded in conquering Vaiśālī.

340

Notes

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 The usual Indic basis for this name Guangmutian is Virūpakṣa, one of the four world protector (lokapāla) deities. But as this deity is clearly female, the reconstruction tentatively presents this name in female form.

The Buddha dies on the bank of this river. The Hiraṇyavatī River is identified today as the Little Gandak River, which runs through the Gorakhpur and Kushīnāgara districts in Uttar Pradesh. In his trek to this area, the Buddha insists on crossing this river before stopping to rest, despite his ill health. Although this line is the only allusion to the river in this text, this story is related in some detail in the Mahāpārinibbāna-sutta. The red flowers of the aśokatree are appropriate here because in the version of the Buddha's life story that appears in the Divyāvadānahe was born under an aśokatree (rather than a sal tree), and Xuanzang records being taken to that same aśokatree when he visited Lumbini in the seventh century. The aśokais identified as the Saraca asoca (aka Saraca indica).

Uttarakuru is one of the traditional nine geographical divisions of the world in ancient India. Located north of Mount Sumeru, it was conceived as a land of "eternal beatitude. " Trāyastriṃśa, or the Heaven of the Thirty-three, is the second of six heavens in the desire realm (kāmadhātu). Located atop Mount Sumeru, it is ruled by the god Indra, and Nandanavana is the name of a park therein.

The term vaijayantais normally understood as an epithet of the palace of Indra, from vijayaor viyanta.The names Śakra and Indra are used interchangeably in the MPNS. Maheśvara is famous as an epithet of Śiva, and is considered to be the Buddhist form or name of that deity. In the Vajrayāna, Maheśvara appears in the Womb (Garbha) Mandala with characteristics of destruction and healing similar to those of Śiva. The allusion on p. 146 to Maheśvara as representing or inhabiting a realm of quietude is unclear. Maheśvara also appears in the Lotus Sutra;Leon Hurvitz (1976: 2, 404) translates the name as "the Great Self-Mastering God.

"

The term "peak existence" (Skt. bhava-agra) at times refers to the highest of the four heavens in the rūpadhātu,the realm of form that transcends sense pleasure, but here it is merely a reference to the rūpadhātuitself, of which there are sixteen heavens beginning with the Brahmā realm, or brahmāloka.

Māra Pāpīyas (if inflected to nom. sg., then Māraḥ Pāpīyān), elsewhere abbreviated to either Māra or Pāpīyas, is normally depicted as an enemy of the Buddha who represents an opposing set of values, such as indulgence in desire, violence in the service of personal ambition, and so forth. He famously appears right before the Buddha is about to attain complete awakening in an attempt to dissuade him from completing the path. Here he is depicted interestingly as a kind of enforcer god of hell who, when faced with the Buddha's imminent disappearance, becomes compassionate and works to help the hell beings gain liberation. In general, the MPNS perspective is that there are many māras about in the world that work at cross-purposes to the Buddha and may succeed in deceiving unsuspecting individuals. There is scant suggestion that they are part of a vast conspiracy led by "King Māra,

" but as a powerful deity Māra also has

341

Notes

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 the power to manifest himself in manifold ways. It should also be mentioned that due to the nature of Chinese syntax it is often unclear if the sutra intends the word "Māra" to be read as plural or a singular. One recurring trope in the MPNS is the notion of "four māras,

" functioning as a metaphor for four areas of human experience that thwart spiritual progress (see n. 27). The name Māra is also applied, perhaps figuratively, as a label to false teachers preaching false doctrines, some in the form of sutras and vinayas; they are thus accused of misrepresenting the Buddhist perspective. This listing has already occurred above twice: devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, and mahoragas.

A yojanais a measure of length used from ancient times in India. Its meaning changed over time and thus it is unclear precisely how it should be interpreted here. Generally, in Buddhist literature it is taken to be approximately 4.35 miles (seven kilometers). This fabric is identified by Shimoda (1993, 91) as kācalindika,from the Tibetan transliteration ka tsa li nda.

Dānavaand asuraare two different kinds of fearsome occult spirits. They also appear together on p. 18 as part of a longer list of beings from the spirit world, but there their company are generally attractive types. In the MPNS, dānavaare clearly regarded as demons, while the asurahave a more complex identity. In this particular passage, the asuraare treated as loathsome as dānavato make the point that the MPNS has the power to turn around "such beings" by inspiring compassion in them. Note, too, that like yakṣaand rākṣasa,but not dānava, asuras are singled out as having a king (Vemacitra) who leads them to the expected great decease with offerings. This is the first mention of icchantikas, a class of beings that are guilty of a number of moral and spiritual crimes, such as disrespecting the Mahāyāna teachings and violating the rules of morality. They will figure prominently below. A reference to seven types of sinful behavior that binds one to saṃsāra. These are divided into forms of bad action (killing, stealing, and improper sexual activity) and bad speech (lying, idle talk, slander, and offensive language). This alludes to the six pāramitās or "perfections" that are the normative basis for the practice of a bodhisattva: 1) charity (dāna), 2) morality (śīla), 3) patience (kṣānti), 4) assiduousness (vīrya), 5) meditation (dhyāna), and 6) wisdom (prajñā). A reference to prajñā-cakṣus,the doctrine of the five kinds of "seeing as understanding. " That is, seeing through the physical organ (carma), through the eyes of a deity (divya), by means of the teachings (dharma), as a buddha does (buddha), and by means of wisdom (prajñā).

The MPNS has lists of three or four māras that represent a symbolic list of "demons" as the basic sources of duḥkha.Namely, the defilements as demon (kleśa-māra), the five aggregates as demon (skandha-māra), death as demon (mṛtya-māra), and the demon of Māra as a deity ruling over Paranirmitavaśavartin, the sixth heaven in the 342

Notes

29 30 31 32 33 34 35 world of desire, who tries to prevent living beings from doing good (devaputra-māra). These are listed on p. 42; see also note 18 regarding the term māra. Udumbarapuṣpa.The flower of the udumbara(glomerate fig tree) was thought to bloom only once in three thousand years.

A reference to the sixth and highest heaven in the world of desire (kāmadhātu), one of the triple worlds. The triple world is discussed in note 3. These are physical or spiritual changes that signify the transformation of someone from a living being (sattva) to the status of buddha. The thirty-two and eighty marks are physical changes that happen to the body; the last refer to eighteen characteristics that are religious qualities with which a buddha is endowed.

The sārasais a water bird, usually translated as "crane" and identified in the Pāli Text Society Dictionary as Ardea sibirica.

The mythical Lake Anavatapta (P. Anotatta), one of seven great lakes, appears in the Aṅguttaranikāya/Ekottarāgama,in the Jātakaand Divyāvadanacompilations, in the ParamatthajotikāII commentary on the Sutta-nipāta(see Murakami and Oikawa, Pāri Bukkyō jiten[Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 2009], p. 132), the Lotus Sutra, Dazhidulun, and so forth. See HōbōgirinI.33 under Japanese pronunciation Anokudatsu. A nāgarāja(serpent/dragon king) lives there who is mentioned in the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra, and in the Anavataptanāgarājaparipṛcchā-sūtrahe is saved by means of studying the Prajñāpāramitā. The Anavatapta gāthāappears in both Sarvāstivāda and Pāli sources and is linked to this sutra: just before the Buddha'sparinirvāṇafive hundred of his disciples fly to Lake Anavatapta to proclaim how their karmic history led them to liberation. See Richard Salomon and Andrew Glass, Two Gandhari Manuscripts of the Songs of Laka Anavatapta (Anavatapta-gāthā)(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009). Mention of the lake in the Divyāvadānaalso suggests a link to a monk named Subhadra, who lives at Kuśinagara but also frequents Lake Anavatapta; this monk then describes a disciple of Śāriputra named Cunda, who also spends time there. In the first chapter of his Datang Siyuji,Xuanzang mentions the same myth mentioned here, naming the four great rivers whose waters originate from it: Gaṅga, Sindhu, Vakṣu, and Sītā, and adding that Lake Anavatapta is eight hundred liin circumference. The eight inopportune births, or akṣana, are a list of eight forms of birth in existential or saṃsāric conditions that make it extremely difficult to see a buddha or hear his teachings. These are: 1) to be born in a hell realm, 2) to be born in the hungry ghost realm, 3) to be born in the animal realm, 4) to be born in a heaven where life is long and pleasurable, 5) to be born in the Uttarakuru region (where there is similarly too much pleasure), 6) to be born human but with sensory impairment, 7) to be born as a philosopher wedded to the ways of the world, or 8) to be born in a time between buddhas. See Edgerton 2.

The word kāṣāyameans defect or impurity, and refers to a mixture of dyeing agents used to color the cloth of monastic robes. This distinguished them from the white 343

Notes

36 37 38 39 40 41 robes of laymen and masked the often disparate origins of abandoned fabrics collected and sewn together to make them.

This refers to the letter "i" in the Brāhmī script, which is written with three dots in the shape of an equilateral triangle as ∵ or some variation thereof. The long vowel "ī" is written as ∷, four dots in the shape of a square.

This is a curious simile. There is no question that qi ye七葉 translates saptaparṇa ("seven leaves"), as the same Chinese form is used in saptaparṇa-guha,the name of the cavern near Rājagṛha where the First Council was held. The saptaparṇatree is known for its medicinal qualities in Āyurveda and is still used for that purpose today. But "saptaparṇaflower" never occurs in the Chinese canon outside the MPNS, with one exception as the name of a tree (T. 721) with no metaphorical meaning. In addition, saptaparṇais widely identified as Alstonia scholaris,a tree that typically grows leaves in clusters of seven but whose flowers are quite fragrant. Yet mention of saptaparṇa flowers as having no scent occurs three times in Dharmakṣema's translation, twice in comparison to the very fragrant vārṣikaflower, ruling out the possibility of a scribal error. The term saptaparṇaflower does not occur in Faxian, but it is found in the Tibetan translation, rendered clearly as sab ta par na yi me tog(D 142a7), in the section corresponding to Dharmakṣema's usage at 424b19. So however nonstandard for the tree in general, perhaps in the location where the MPNS was written a species of saptaparṇagrew in which the flowers had no scent.

The term "brahmacaryapractices" in general refers to a pure monastic lifestyle in which the precepts are carefully kept, sometimes with specific reference to celibacy, but it also alludes to the way a man of the brahman caste is supposed to comport himself during his student period, when a similar set of precepts are required. This refers to the elder monk who many saw as receiving the mantle of leadership for the sangha as a whole after the Buddha's passing. Remember, however, that like in the original Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, Mahākāśyapa is not present in the assembly at the time the Buddha is delivering the Nirvana Sutra, but is on his way. This raises the question of how Mahākāśyapa is to be the caretaker of the Buddha's dharma and teach it to others if he is not present to hear this discourse, particularly when the point is made repeatedly that this supersedes all previous sutras. Ba zhong shu. This represents eight areas of medical training in the Āyurvedic tradition (*aṣṭāṅga-āyurveda). Today the classical list is of 1) surgery, 2) diseases of the head, 3) medicine, 4) spirit possession, 5) pediatrics, 6) toxicology, 7) preventative measures, and 8) aphrodisiacs. But the Tang dynasty Yiqie yinyi (T.54:466c) presents a slightly different list that appears to represent the received tradition in medieval China: 1) the internals of the body, 2) ophthalmology, 3) dermatology, 4) pediatrics, 5) spirit possession, 6) toxicology, 7) gynecology and fertility, and 8) astrology. Thus the half-phoneme ardhākṣarabecame a "half-character" in the Chinese translations, and though the Chinese reader would naturally interpret this to mean an incomplete or partially written character probably without the intended phonetic 344

Notes

42 43 44 45 46 meaning, the intended metaphorical meaning of a complete versus incomplete expression was still communicated. We know this because Zhiyi uses these terms in his influential essays Moho zhiguanand Fahua xuanyi,which in turn resulted in its lasting presence in the East Asian Buddhist lexicon. In this translation, because it generally takes two or more characters in English to produce a syllable, depending how these terms are used, the translation will render "half-characters" either as "the alphabet" when the context is a metaphoric one about language learning (pp. 137-139), or "halfsyllables" when the dicussion is about phonemes (pp. 254, 260-261). For sārasa, see note 32. A kācilindi,also called kācilindika,is thought to be a white crane known for its soft feathers.

The five moral precepts (pañcaśīla) are injunctions to refrain from: 1) taking life, 2) taking what is not given, 3) engaging in improper sexual activity, 4) prevaricating or using false speech, and 5) ingesting intoxicants. The ten aspects of good character (daśakuśala) are comprised of the first four of these five precepts, along with refraining from slandering, using divisive or harsh speech, using intentionally affected speech, greed, anger, and holding right views.

The upavāsa/upoṣadha(P. uposatha) ceremonies were formal events where various communal religious activities took place. Sometimes referred to as the Buddhist sabbath, these ceremonies were held anywhere from two to six times a month. Here the scene is a ritual recitation of the precepts when the personal confessions of individualswho had violated them also occurs, but other services involve monastics' preaching to lay followers and observance of stricter precepts. In East Asia, under the influence of the MPNS, refraining from consuming animal products became one of these lay observances. The uposathais still observed in Theravādin countries, and Chinese Buddhist laypeople still abstain from eating meat and fish on designated upavāsadays. Guhyapāda Vajrapāṇi is a deity empowered to protect the religion. Though thought of by many as a Vajrayāna deity, he appears in the early Āgama scriptures as well. This list represents a version of the so-called sapta-karman(P. satta-kamma) punishments. The contents of this list differs somewhat in the vinayas of different schools, and as it is not clear at this time if the MPNS had a single or multiple vinaya lineages, this could help clarify its vinaya roots. The following reconstructions are based primarily on the Chinese interpretations of this section in the representative commentaries by Huiyuan, Zhanran, and others, projected back onto similar vinaya material found in Chinese translations, in this case specifically the Sarvāstivādin and Mūlasarvāstidin Vinayas: *pravāsaṇīya-karman,

*nigarhaṇīya-karman,

*niśrāya-karman,

*pratisāraṇīya-karman,

*adarśana-utkṣepanīya-karman,

*nāśanīya-karman,and

*pāpikā-dṛṣṭi-anutsarga-karman.Note that there is no one vinaya text in Chinese translation that contains this entire list in this form, and Huiyuan and Guanding used various materials in their glosses, among them the Sarvāstivādin Vinaya translated by Kumārajīva (Shisong lu,T. 1435), the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya(Wufen lu,T. 1421), and the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayatexts translated by Yijing, especially T. 1442 and T. 1453. Note that while all seven are called karman,here transliterated jiemo羯磨, 345

Notes

47 48 in the usual vinaya context only the first four are called karmanand the latter three are instead called pravrājana,usually rendered binchu擯出, meaning expulsion or exile from a sangha. Some read these punishments as permanent, others do not, but the general purpose of these rulings is to reform wayward individuals rather than expel them.

The Ganges River flows east from the Himalayas, emptying into the Indian Ocean at Calcutta (Kolkata). The Yamunā River, measuring eight hundred and fifty-one miles in length, is the largest tributary of the Ganges and joins it at Allahabad. The Sarayu River (Sarabhū in Pāli) runs through Uttar Pradesh and is also a tributary to the Ganges. It is thought to be where the ancient city of Ayodhyā was located and frequently figures in ancient myth. In the great Indian epic the Rāmayāṇa,Rāma bathes in the Sarayu to return to his supernatural state. The city of Śrāvastī was located on the Ajiravatī (also called Ajitavatī) River. Śrāvastī was the capital of Kośala and the Buddha retreated to the nearby Jetavana monastery during the rainy season. Mahī is a river mentioned in the Āgamas as located near the city of Vaiśālī, but not much is known about it today, though W. Hoey tried to track it down in his article "The Five Rivers of the Buddhists" (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland[1907]: 41- 46). Sindhu is the Sanskrit name for the river that is now called the Indus and the basis for the name of Sindh province in Paki stan, site of a prominent pre-Aryan civilization of the Indian subcontinent. The Indus flows more than one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four miles from Tibet through the Karakoram Range and the whole of Pakistan, eventually entering the sea at Karachi. The Vakṣu (or Pakṣu) is generally accepted as the name used for the Oxus River (Mizutani 1971, 8b; Edgerton 1953, 466b), which is now known as the Amu Darya. But it may also refer in a more limited way to what is known today as the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan, a tributary of the Oxus. Most likely the two rivers were not universally distinguished as one flowed into the other. Known to the Greeks and Romans, the Oxus is one of the longest rivers in Central Asia, flowing eight hundred and seventy miles from the Pamir Mountains west to the Aral Sea, today serving as Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Finally, the Sītā River is identified with the Tarim River, which flows east from Tibet through the Tarim Basin. There are various references to other lists of "great rivers" scattered throughout the canon but it appears that only the MPNS has this list of eight. The five supernatural powers (pañcābhijñā) are: 1) the power to see what others cannot, 2) the power to hear what others cannot, 3) the power to discern the thoughts of others, 4) the power to know past events, and 5) the power to go and come anywhere. 49 The term "ordinary person,

" translates pṛthagjana(P. puthujjana), essentially a nonspecific term used to indicate the perspective of common folk. But as a technical term in Mahāyāna literature, at times it also embodies varying degrees of pejorative nuance, going beyond its original meaning of someone who has not committed to a religious life or does not understand religious thinking to indicate someone who obstinately 346

Notes

50 51 52 53 54 55 56 refuses to recognize the value of either. Although it has appeared earlier in the sutra, this is the first example of the somewhat idiosyncratic way in which the MPNS uses the term by linking it with its doctrine of icchantikawhen specifically applied to errant Buddhists. In this particular usage, the "ordinary people" are Buddhist followers guilty of misusing and misrepresenting the Buddha's teachings, implying the danger of passing on a distortion of the truth to future generations. Note that I have translated the phrase fei you wei, fei wu wei非有爲非無爲, based on the usual Chinese reading of you wei/wu wei,as representing saṃskṛta/asaṃskṛta. However, the Tibetan here is yod pa ma yin pa,suggesting instead asti/na asti,meaning simply "it is and is not.

"

The Dharmakṣema translation uses gong de功德 to translate both guṇa(virtue, quality) and puṇya(merit). But based on the Tibetan yon tan,in this section it appears to represent guṇa. The question is about people who have not formally joined the sangha but who nevertheless study the sutras and preach on the benefits of the Buddhist teachings to others. They are something like self-ordained popular preachers operating outside the proper ecclesiastical channels of authority.

The lion's roar is a metaphor for the power and authority in the voice of the Buddha. In this context, it implies the authority of someone who has attained full understanding of the Buddha's teaching. In other words, these people can preach and help others in their work, but they are limited in what they can do because they have not attained bodhiand therefore cannot be a source of refuge for a Buddhist. That is, a layman. The tradition in India at this time was that lay men and women wore white robes, whereas monastics, ascetics, and yogis wore colored robes. Skt. *avadāta-vasana.

A pārājikaoffense is the most serious category of precept violation for a monk or nun. Pruitt and Norman (The Pātimokkha,2001, p. 9, etc.) and others translate it as "defeat" or "entailing defeat.

" To be accused of a pārājikaviolation requires adjudication and if found guilty, one is "deserving of expulsion. " Whether this resulted in

permanent expulsion, temporary expulsion, shunning but not losing monastic status, and so forth, is not always clear, as the number of violations considered pārājika increased dramatically from the original four, and as a result the severity of their criminality diminished. The original four pārājikaoffenses were murder or causing another's death, theft of a serious nature, sexual intercourse, and false claims of supernatural ability. This notion was quite fluid throughout the tradition, especially in the Mahāyāna, and is taken up in detail below, where we find many other offenses regarded as pārājika.

The readings in this paragraph are based on Sanskrit fragments 12.8 to 12.12 in Habata (2007). Although this sutra at times distinguishes between cooled, solid clarified butter (ghṛta) and the froth that forms on top of heated, liquid clarified butter (sarpis 347

Notes

57 58 59 60 61 62 or sarpirmaṇḍa), based on a comparison with the Sanskrit fragments and Tibetan translations, it turns out that the Chinese term tihu醍醐 (Jp. daigo) is used for both. In this case, tihucorresponds to the Middle Indic form gṛta,which is the equivalent of the Sanskrit ghṛta.

This is a rare example of sarcasm in a Buddhist sutra. Clearly the Buddha is ridiculing the potential donor whose motives for giving are rooted in vanity rather than empathy. It is also worth noting, however, that in his response we see that the Buddha's choice of an example to illustrate his category of what is essentially "fitting the question to the questioner" shows that he does not preach one message to everyone, and that he will not hesitate to withhold his teaching from someone who is not ready or capable of receiving it.

This refers to the monastic precept concerning the restrictions on meat preparation that, if met, permitted Buddhist monks to eat meat. In Chinese they were known as bujian, buwen, buyi不見不聞不疑: meat that was not seen by the monk to have resulted from an animal killed expressly for him, meat that the monk did not hear to have resulted from a killing done for him, and meat that the monk did not suspect came from a killing done for him.

Although the sutra does not list the nine animals whose flesh was previously deemed "pure" and therefore edible, in Fascicle XVIII (T.12:473c1-2) a list of ten kinds of meat is given that the Buddha had not permitted his monks to eat, and thus most likely represents the mention of "impure" meat. The ten forbidden meats are that of humans, snakes, elephants, horses, donkeys, dogs, lions, pigs, foxes, and macaques. But this category of nine kinds of pure meat is not mentioned again in the MPNS and does not appear in any other extant sutra in Chinese. Huiyuan offers an unnamed person's interpretation (37.665a17-20) that it refers to the dried meat of animals that had died naturally, and meat from birds.

Monks were forbidden from requesting better quality foods or an abundance of food, a violation labeled praṇīta-vijñāpanaat Mahāvyutpatti8462. See P. paṇīta.What Kāśyapa is therefore inferring is that by disallowing meat and fish the Buddha has reclassified them as praṇīta-vijñāpana.

In other words, do not take this rule to the extreme of refusing all offers of material support. The Nirgranthas were one sect of the competing Jain religion. They were known for refusing to wear any clothes out of an extreme devotion to asceticism and a desire to avoid killing even the microbes that live in clothing and would be destroyed each time a garment is washed.

"Downfall" translates duo墮. This is probably *pātayantika,one of three grades of monastic transgression along with saṃghāvaśeṣa/saṃghādiśeṣaand pārājika.In the northern tradition there are thirty relatively serious offenses called niḥsargikāḥ pātayanikā dharmāḥ, where niḥsargikameans "forfeiture" of sangha rights, followed by ninety offenses called pātayanikā dharmāḥ.Note that the strong language of the 348

63 64 65 66 67 68 69 Notes

sutra here refers to falling into hell for these transgressions only if they are not confessed to, repented of, and atoned for.

These are the eight traditional divisions of the precepts or rules guiding the lives of the monks (there are six divisions of the rules for nuns) within the vinaya of the Dharmaguptaka school as translated in the Sifunli(Taishō no. 1428) and the ritual texts based on it (Taishō nos. 1429 and 1430), which had been translated just a few years before Dharmakṣema's arrival. See Satō Tatsugen's study of Gyōnen's summary of the Dharmaguptaka vinaya, Gendaigo yaku Risshū kōyō(1994), p. 163. The Śūraṅgamasamādhi-sūtrais an early Mahāyāna text, obviously predating the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra,which extolls the special nature of this particular samādhi, explained as attainable only by bodhisattvas at the tenth and final stage (bhūmi). It is famous for explaining the lifetime of Śākyamuni as merely a performance undertaken by him for the purpose of teaching, akin to the description in this sutra, and for its many depictions of supernatural events in which enlightened beings are able to manifest themselves in other forms to spiritually aid others. See The Śūraṅgama Samādhi Sutra, translated from the Chinese of Kumārajīva by John McRae (Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1998), and a study of the miracles in this text by Kajiyama Yūichi, Bukkyō Daigaku Sōgō Kenkyūsho Kiyō II(1995). That is, the uṣṇīṣa,one of the distinguishing physical marks of a buddha. This distinction rests on the function of the prefix an as a negation in Sanskrit. So the opposite of anāgāmin(nonreturner) would be āgāmin(returner). This is unclear because while the term anāgāminis an established Buddhist term, āgāminis not. This refers to the four general class divisions or castes in India, and the fact that in the prevailing religious system referred to today as Brahmanism, the brahman priests (brāhmaṇa) believed they were entitled to a hereditary monopoly on ritual language as a source of power. The other three castes mentioned are warriors and kings (kṣatriya), farmers and merchants (vaiśya), and workers and servants (śūdra). As confirmed in SF 16, vaitulyais the Sanskrit word rendered by Dharmakṣema in the MPNS as fang deng 方等, which is translated here as "well-balanced. " The term

is code for the Mahāyāna sutras and teachings as distinguished from what this sutra regards as pre-Mahāyāna. This is actually the second appearance of the term but when it was used earlier (p. 76) that context did not include specific reference to the Mahāyāna, although the knowledgeable reader would have inferred it. This note is here because this passage clearly names the vaitulyascriptures as Mahāyāna for the first time in this sutra and does so in a way that implies that the word vaitulyaalso represents a new and expanded conception of the Buddhist canon as somehow more complete. This is made more explicit below where the word vaitulyaalone is used to identify sutras as Mahāyāna in nature.

This verse is from Dhammapada92 and Udānavarga725.

"Full knowledge of food"

(parijñātabhojana) refers to the ideal of repugnance toward food in the mind of an 349

Notes

70 71 72 73 74 arhat, traditionally understood as threefold in nature. According to the Dhammapada atthakathā,these are knowing exactly what one is eating (ñāta-pariññā), knowing that food is repulsive (tīrana-pariññā), and taking no pleasure in eating (pahāna-pariññā). If the message in this passage is a bit unclear, it is because the Buddha is taking a different tack toward his śrāvaka disciples than he usually does in this sutra. Elsewhere in the Nirvana Sutrathe Buddha complains that some of the taboo things listed here are in fact kept by some sanghas, so here he is speaking of the śrāvakas positively in terms of both their proximity to him and his ideal for them. Nonetheless, the last comment is the Buddha's recognition that many of them have indeed succeeded in leaving their worldly values behind, but they have yet to arrive at the truth as embodied in this sutra.

Here the sutra draws an important distinction betweenparinirvāṇaand mahāparinirvāṇain the context of the Buddha's passing away. It would appear that his parinirvāṇarefers to the famous scene of his death, in which he is shown lying on his right side between sal trees; that is, the death of Siddhārtha Gautama as a buddha in a transformation body (nirmāṇakāya). In contrast, mahāparinirvāṇarefers to the continual, unchanging existence of the Buddha as a dharma body (dharmakāya). Key to this passage is that both bodies are present simultaneously; thus the meaning of the death of the body is to be understood as occurring within the context of the much larger picture of the dharma-body Buddha in which there is neither birth nor death. Skt. aṣṭa-mahāpuruṣa-vitarka;P. aṭṭhamahāpurisa-vitakka.This doctrine is derived from the Anuruddhamahāvitakka-suttain Aṅguttara-nikāya8:30, where the Buddha praises Anuruddha for displaying a list of eight attitudes or mental observances that are typical of a "great person" in the sense of a committed spiritual adept. The list thus represents mental guidelines for all followers of Śākyamuni: 1) desiring little (Skt. alpeccha;P. appiccha), 2) feeling content (saṃtuṣṭa; santuṭṭha), 3) seeking solitude or seclusion (pravivikta; pavivitta), 4) acquiring heroic zeal (vīrya-ārabdha; āraddha-viriya), 5) maintaining mindfulness (upasthita; upaṭṭhitassati), 6) practicing meditative concentration (samāhita), 7) having wisdom (prajñā; paññā), and 8) being free of false or contentious speech (niṣprapañca; nippapañca). Note that this last item, niṣprapañca,is somewhat unclear as it is used for a wide array of ideal mental states, such as thinking without conceptualization, without objectification, and so forth.

This is the first of eighty-eight descriptions of the nature of liberation, probably translating mokṣa, vimokṣa, vimukti,or something similar. Many of these statements include figurative expressions. Some are disanologiesin that they offer analogical examples that do share something with the initial statement but in the end are false, and thereby serve to clarify what the descriptive language should not be inferred to mean. This refers to the heaven reached in deep meditation or dhyānacalled naiva saṃjñā na asaṃjñā āyatana. Behind this discussion is the tradition that there are two versions of this realm, one experienced in the so-called "realm of form" without desire (rūpa dhātu), and one in the "formless realm" without either form or desire (ārūpya dhātu). 350

Notes

75 76 77 78 79 80 81 The two heavens thus reflect different levels of attainment, but what is surprising about this passage is the fact that the nirvāṇa reached from the higher attainment in the formless realm is what is taught to the Hīnayāna disciples, but the lower attainment of the realm of form is what is described here as the nirvāṇa for buddhas. This appears to be the sutra's attempt to overturn conventional Mahāyāna wisdom up to that point by asserting the primacy of form or nonemptiness (aśūnya) over nonform or emptiness (śūnya).

The phrase "four hundred and four illnesses of the body" seems to be a metaphor for all the known illnesses a person could possibly have, calculated on the basis of there being one hundred and one different ills that can potentially arise from each of the four basic elements (earth, water, air, and fire) that make up the physical body, when they lose their natural balance working together, and increase or decrease disproportionately. This is an ancient notion found in the Āgamas. See Nakamura, 529b. The vārṣika(Jasminum sambac) is a beautiful flower that blooms during the monsoon season and summer, white in color and sweetly fragrant. Called Arabian jasmine in English, it is a national flower in Indonesia and the Philippines, and used in making jasmine tea. It is also known for its medicinal qualities.

Khadirais a kind of acacia, identified as Acacia catechu,a hardwood tree whose resin has medicinal qualities. Candanais the sandalwood tree, santalum album,still used for making perfume and incense. Aguru,or agaru,is a form of aloe tree also called tagaraand identified as Aquilaria agallocha; aguru was known for its fragrance and medicinal qualities.

Āmalaka, which Monier-Williams identifies as Emblic myrobalan. Probably the same fruit called amlatoday, it yields an oil that is used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat intestinal disorders and as a cosmetic. It resembles a gooseberry in appearance and grows on trees throughout South Asia.

Harītakīis Yellow Myrobalan, from the myrobalan tree, which was used as a purgative. Together with the previous entry, these two descriptions present two different sides of lust or desire, one negative and one positive. Thus desire or yearning for the dharma is explained here as a positive manifestation of empathy for other living creatures. The goal is therefore not the suppression of desire but rechanneling it toward a higher purpose.

The Atharvavedamentions four poisonous snakes: asita(black), tirashiraji(crosslined), svaja(a kind of viper), and babhru(dark-brown or reddish-brown). This seems to correspond to the more common list of the four most dreaded poisonous snakes in India: cobra (Skt. kālasarpa; Latin Elapidae najaor Naja naja), krait (kālaka; Bungarus caeruleus), Russell's viper (Daboia russelii), and saw-scaled viper (bhujyu or pṛdāku; Echis carinatus). This allusion is probably meant as a metaphor for the "three poisons" (mentioned in the previous line) of craving, anger, and delusion, to which is added the defilement of arrogance. Another possible gloss is the four elements of the physical body (mahā bhūta).

351

Notes

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 Here buddha-nature, fo xing 佛性, corresponds to the Tib. sangs rgyas kyi khams,or buddha-dhātu, suggesting both a relic of a buddha and a realm where a buddha resides. In other words, rather than it being simply a self-improvement methodology, people are expected to turn to Buddhism for help with serious problems in their lives; or, put another way, from a perspicacious insight into duḥkha.It is uncertain what the reference to the evil hunters suggests beyond this being a predatory symbol from the simile about deer. On the four māras, see note 28.

This is probably the same bird that appears on p. 19, however the orthography differs: qipoqipo niao耆婆耆婆鳥 in the earlier instance and mingming niao命命鳥 here. Also written jīvajīva, jīvajīvaka,etc., the mythical form of this bird has two heads, and in one avadānastory they represented a feuding Śākyamuni and Devadatta. See Changhwan Park, "The Sautrāntika Theory of Seeds Revisited,

" Ph.D. dissertation, (Berkeley:

University of California, 2007), p. 209, n. 505.

The number eight here signals the eighth stage for a śrāvaka, but this is generally also interpreted to be the equivalent of either the third of the ten bodhisattva stages (in the daśabhūmischeme), or the fifteenth of the darśana-mārga("path of seeing") stages.

I interpret this to indicate positions in the daśabhūmischeme. According to the Dazhidu lun,the fourth bhūmicorresponds to the completion of the srotāpannalevel, and for bodhisattvas this stage is designated as nonretrogressive; the fifth bhūmiis defined as the completion of the sakṛdāgāmin(once-returner) stage.

Ju shi luo jing瞿師羅經. This sutra appears to be lost, and the name may be either Ghoṣila or Ghoṣita. In Pāli we have two similar names, written Ghosaka and Ghosita; Ghosaka is the name of a deva,and Ghosita appears in the name Ghosita seṭṭhi, a wealthy merchant who donates a park in Kosambī with residences for the Buddha and his disciples, in Sanskrit called Ghoṣitārāma ("Goṣita's grove"), in Pāli Ghositārāma. While there is text called the Ghosita-suttain the Pāli canon (SamyuttaIV.129; PTS IV.71), it is concerned with diversity in the physical world and shows no trace of the passage quoted here. Moreover, the use of the character luo羅 in transliterations generally represents an "l" or "r" sound, and the personal name Ghoṣila appears in the Divyāvadāna,so although there is no Ghoṣila-sūtrain the Āgamas extant in Chinese, it appears likely that Ghoṣila and Ghoṣita were two different people. The garuḍa,though best known as the mount for Viṣnu, also has a dangerous aspect to his mythical profile. Derived from the verb "

gṛ,

"meaning "to devour,

" the garuḍa

was "originally identified with the all-consuming fire of the sun's rays" but is also known as an "enemy of the serpent race" (Monier-Williams, 348). Interestingly, the secondary form gāruḍais an antidote against poison.

This is the first usage of a word containing the character bai稗, which is used in the Nirvana Sutrato indicate either an edible grain or a noxious weed. The usage here represents the former, where bai zi稗子 represents millet. Specifically this is kodo 352

Notes

90 91 92 93 94 95 millet (L. Paspalum scrobiculatum,Skt.

*kodrava), a kind of poor man's grain still

grown in the Deccan plateau. Elsewhere, in compounds such as ti bai梯稗 and bai hui稗穢, I take baito be "barnyard grass" (L. Echinochloa crus-galli,Skt. *varuka),

as it represents a weed injurious to crops. Note that ti baialso occurs in the Zhuangzi, ch. 22, as an example of something worthless that the Dao nevertheless inhabits; James Legge (1891) rendered it "panic grass.

"

SF 16 here has various iterations of this formula, but the basic form is na punar arthaṃ saṃpūrṇaṃ vijñāsyanti,

"however their understanding of its meaning will

not be complete.

"

Originally caṇḍālas were defined as the offspring of mixed-caste couples (traditionally defined as between a brahmanwoman and a śūdraman), but it then developed into a kind of taboo caste of its own. Many ended up as slaves or in polluting occupations in cemeteries or animal slaughter. Buddhism had a spotty record on accepting them, and the MPNS is similarly ambivalent: there are allusions to excluding them from ordination as well as to their potential for buddhahood.

The capping ceremony was a public ritual in China that marked the transition from adolescence to adulthood for twenty-year-old men.

Here the word "dharma" refers to the social obligations of his family and clan, alluding to rules of propriety that prevented the other brahmans from recognizing a caṇḍāla as king.

The four necessities are four standard items that are supposed to be included in formal offerings to monks: clothing, food and drink, bedding, and medicines. This mention of the eight impure things monastics are not supposed to possess or store at their residences is one of the more famous lines in the Nirvana Sutra,but the sutra itself never delineates what they are. Chinese commentaries on the sutra have ferreted out their own lists, three of which are given by Mochizuki, at 10.815. Two lists commonly cited are: gold, silver, male and female slaves, cattle, stores, and farmed crops; and cultivated lands, personally farmed crops, stores of grain or cloth, servants, animals or birds, money or jewels, cushions or pans, and furniture decorated with ivory or gold.

96 See note 15.

97 The word kālakameans "black" or "dark blue" and is used to name a wide variety of phenomena, including a snake that appears in this sutra. Monier-Williams (277) gives different usages of the term for plant matter, but probably most relevant here is some kind of Terminaliatree. The tindukais either a Diospyros embryop terisor Diospyros peregrina Gürke,a kind of persimmon or mangosteen tree that grows up to fifteen meters in height.

98 The different paths pursued by different kinds of Buddhists are figuratively labeled "vehicles" (Skt. yāna), as in the term Mahāyāna ("Great Vehicle"), because they are 353

Notes

the conveyance that brings a person to liberation or awakening. As in the Lotus Sutra, the major contrast here is between the śrāvakayāna,representing the Buddhist communities that do not recognize the Mahāyāna sutras, and the bodhisattvayāna, which do. In addition, in this section the discussion of which sutras are "definitive" alludes to a paradigm called nitārtha/neyārthain Sanskrit. This distinction is used variously within the canon and in the commentarial traditions of each Buddhist culture as a hermeneutic to establish authority among conflicting doctrines, scriptures, and interpretations, expressing the notion that the neyārthateachings are not fully expressed or revealed and are therefore preliminary, incomplete, or require additional explanation. 99 See note 28 for the usual usage of the term "four māras.

" The term is clearly not being

used in the way it has appeared thus far in the text, but the precise usage here is not well explained. Huiyüan (T.37:687a2-11) suggests we take the text literally, designating a māra who preaches a false set of sutras, one who accepts those sutras, one who preaches a false set of vinayas, and one who accepts those teachings. But I rather think the key to understanding this is the narrative flow from the previous fascicle. I believe the text assumes that readers still have in mind the previous discussion of the four types of Buddhist believers (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen) who uphold, protect, and promote the religion, and thus the four māras here refers to those who adopt the guise of the same four "heroic" supporters of the religion but whose real intention is to weaken it.

100 Sanskrit reconstruction tentative, but if correct,

*Nālijaṅgha is mentioned in the Piyajātika-suttaas a brahman sent by Mallikā to the Buddha to confirm the Buddha's statement that loved ones bring sorrow and tribulation. See Majjhima-nikāya87, at M.II.108. Other possible reconstructions are Nalakuvāla, Nāḷikīra, Nāḷikera, or Narada. 101 The name Gu di de 羖羝德 is highly enigmatic, with some modern scholars taking it to be a phonetic transcription, others a translation. It could be a sobriquet for the previously mentioned Nālijaṅgha, for example. I read it as a translation because phonetic renderings usually use well-known characters but the first two here are extremely rare; this is supported by the Tibetan reading lug dpal,which mirrors the Chinese exactly if gu di is read as "sheep.

" If read phonetically, this name might represent

something like Ghāṇṭika, Ghatikāra, or perhaps Ghosita or Kotira. 102 Skanda is a relatively new deity in India, alternatively described as the son of Agni and Śiva. He is often depicted with six heads on one neck, wearing red garments and riding a peacock. Skanda is a powerful war god, leading armies, whose spear always hits its mark and then returns to him miraculously. Kātyāyana is alternatively called Mahākātyāna in SF 17. He is known as a great sage who also has a female form called Kātyāyanī (or Kātyāyinī), better known as Durgā. The defining myth of Kātyāyana reenacted in rituals begins with his disciple, Mahiṣāsura, who himself takes a female form to disturb a fellow disciple's practice, causing Kātyāyana to curse him, promising his future destruction by a woman. Later Mahiṣāsura grows in power and causes havoc among the gods, whereupon a ten-handed Kātyāyanī dramatically appears riding a lion to fight and kill the demon Mahiṣāsura.

354

Notes

103 This line alludes to an anti-Buddhist polemic derivation of the epithet tathāgata probably as tatha+ agatarather than the standard tatha+ āgata,such that agata functions as a negation of the root gamand thus means "unable" or "unsuccessful. "

104 The sthūlātyayais the second most serious group of precept violations after the pārā jikaoffenses. Generally these are "attempted offenses, " in the sense that they are

planned and instigated but never completed. Stūlameans "rough" or "crude. "

Sthūlātyayamay be serious offenses like necrophilia, or minor infractions like petty theft. The Sarvāstivādin vinaya lists four types of sthūlātyaya offenses. 105 The concept of nine sections or divisions of the canon is a code word for the Hīnayāna canon. The full Mahāyāna canon was usually conceived of as containing twelve parts, but here the contrast is between the numbers nine and ten, with the single difference being the well-balanced (Mahāyāna) sutras.

106 The point here is that the former individual is not motivated by any insight into the truth of the Mahāyāna treachings but views them merely in an instrumental way, that is, as an effective mechanism to gain the glories of liberation. His statement of acceptance is narcissistic and does not express the Mahāyāna value of deliverance for all living beings.

107 The allusion here is to the fact that when the top of a tālatree is cut off it does not grow back, a metaphorical reference to irreparably cutting one's ties with the sangha. 108 This is probably the Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra,Taishō nos. 666 and 667, perhaps the earliest known sutra professing the tathāgatagarbhadoctrine; or it may be Taishō no. 821, whose title has been reconstructed as Tathāgatagarbha-guhyakośa-sūtra. Although the title of the latter text looks closer to the one given here, the passage quoted is not found within it, and in fact Taishō no. 821 does not mention buddhanature or residing among buddhas, as is stated here, and contains very little that suggests tathāgatagarbhadoctrines.

109 Duṣkṛtaoffenses are the lightest of all infractions; essentially misdemeanors, they are reparable by confession to another monk. The allusion to how time is felt in the heavens denotes a temporal slowing down, and thus a longer period of punishment. 110 In other words, the entire system of moral responsibility that is the basis of karma is threatened if people feel they need not fear retribution. The system of teaching and enforcing the precepts, therefore, including penalties for violations, represents a commitment to the proper operation of a sangha. 111 The narrative here suggests 1) that sexual or gender insecurity in an individual may explain why a person acts with exaggerated self-interest, and 2) that if someone has a bisexual identity and acts upon those feelings with partners of both sexes, then the rule in effect is that they are to be excluded from both joining the sangha or even being accepted as a member of the Buddhist lay community.

112 Monier-Williams gives raṅku as a species of deer or antelope, and the term mahārāṅkavaappears to indicate garments made from the wool of this animal. This 355

Notes

is glossed asda jia yi 大價衣 in the Yiqie jing yinyi(Taisho 54.469b29), suggesting they were very expensive. It is forbidden in the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya for renunciants to wear clothing made of this material.

113 This section on the four inversions or misperceptions of truth (viparyāsa, viparīta, viparyasta) is one of the most prominent discussions of the MPNS. Luis Gómez (unpublished paper) translates this notion as a "backward way of understanding. "

The Faxian translation treats it as a separate chapter, and the Southern Edition of this translation does the same.

114 The personalist viewpoint was considered heretical within the Buddhist community, for there was one lineage of interpretation that advocated a notion of self called pudgala, meant to render something like "person,

" as opposed to the taboo notion of "self" as

in the term ātman.These people were known as pudgalavādins. In Chinese, however, both pudgalaand ātmanare both generally translated as wo我, a first-person pronoun, so this line is somewhat ambiguous.

115 This begins a series of five parables given to explain the relationship between buddhanature as one's true (but difficult to perceive) self, and the earlier teaching of nonself. In the Faxian translation and the southern edition of this translation, it constitutes a separate chapter. I have added the numbering of each parable. 116 This is a list of the differing caste statuses of beings based on past karma—warriors (kṣatriya), priests (brahman), craftsmen (vaiśya), workers (śūdra), mixed caste (caṇḍāla), and animals.

117 The question pertains to a certain anxiety that accompanies acceptance of the doctrine of karma, which in fact had a profound affect on developments in Buddhism, and is particularly evident in Mahāyāna thought. To wit, though one may know that he or she has karmic information from the past stored within themselves that has not yet manifested, one does not know what that karmic fruit will be. Even more troublingis the pressure this principle places on one's decisions now because he or she cannot be certain how current actions will bear fruit in the future. 118 That is, how is it that the three refuges as external expressions of the Buddhist truth in society and the buddha-nature within oneself all represent or contain the same essence?

119 Skt.

*uccheda-dṛṣṭi,literally,

"annihilationist perspective.

" Also referred to as the

nihilist position, though without the existentialist overtones, this represents the idea that karma is meaningless and that there is no moral consequence for one's actions. 120 Skt.

*śāśvatā-dṛṣṭi,literally,

"eternalist perspective.

" This is the opposite of the annihilationist position, i.e., the claim that all existence is permanent. 121 The two extremes here refer to being and nonbeing, permanence and impermanence, suffering and bliss, even self and nonself, and so forth.

356

Notes

122 In the Faxian version (885c21) the same metaphor refers to ordinary people who cannot follow what the Buddha is explaining, and in Faxian's rendering the weakened person takes the medicine too quickly and becomes disoriented, i.e., his condition worsens. 123 This line begins a long section of parallel constructions in which a series of standard doctrines are expressed without naming the speaker, the purpose of which is to communicate how these doctrines should be interpreted from a Mahāyāna perspective. Although there is no speaking subject given, the doctrines themselves are found in the sutras, and the Faxian translation names the speaker as the Buddha by using the first person pronoun "I,

" so the translation here reflects that perspective.

124 Yiqie gongde chengjiu jing一切功德成就經. Unclear referent, but appears to be selfreferential praise for the current discourse, i.e., the MPNS. The Fa xian translation gives a similar but not identical title, Yiqie gongde jiju jing一切功德積聚經 (Sutra that Accumulates All Merit) but makes no specific allusion to the sermon in progress, however. Neither text is mentioned again in the respective translations of the MPNS, nor indeed anywhere else in the Chinese canon.

125 This reflects an Abhidharma argument about identity that questions the presumption of a certain degree of similarity in something that exists unchanging over "a continuity of time" (*saṁtāna, saṃtati, samāna-pravāha). In other words, coming into being is either a momentary event or, if not, then the identity of something has always been there, an "intrinsic nature" (svabhāva) inherently existing in its "continuity of time. "

126 The idea conveyed here is that there is an essential flavor component in milk that continues to appear in all products made from milk and that thereby characterizes them as dairy products, i.e., products of milk.

127 Pinus longifolia. Snigdhameans viscous, but this may be the red castor-oil plant, also called maricapattraka, pīḍa, manojña, sarala,and so forth. It grows at elevations of fifteen hundred to seventy-five hundred feet in the Himalayan range. See Waku #245, pp. 66-67.

128 In other words, while it cannot be ascertained decisively that whatever it is that is the root cause of milk curds is present in the milk beforeit is processed to make curds, the fact that curds arise from milk and only from milk, together with the fact that as a common, daily occurrence the making of curds from milk is not merely a random occurrence, means that there must be some causality involved even if it cannot be fully clarified. If obtaining curds from milk occurred only randomly, then a number of other random possibilities would have to be considered that either never occur (like rabbit horns arising from milk) or only occur in the rare instance that something is deliberately created for that purpose (like milk being poisoned). This argument alludes to satkāryavāda,the doctrine of the effect preexisting in the cause, associated in Buddhist writing with the Sāṃkhya school, a rival heterodox religious philosophy in India. 129 In other words, when raised in a particular way, any cow will produce exceedingly excellent milk; it is not that one cow is inherently superior or inferior to another. 357

Notes

130 I have corrected a scribal or translator error here, where "prince" was given instead of "king.

"

131 This section or chapter break does not appear in the Dharmakṣema original translation, or northern edition, but due to the unique nature of the discussion that begins here and the fact that it does not fit well into the flow of the sutra's narration, the traditional reading of the sutra in East Asia has always added a sectional division here, and I have done so as well. Moreover, it was marked as a separate chapter in Faxian (no. 14) and in the southern edition (no. 13), where it was called Wenzi pin文字品, "Chapter on

the Letters/Written Characters.

" I have avoided using this section title so as not to

violate Dharmakṣema's original chapter structure. Instead I have used a translation of the Sanskrit term for this kind of presentation, that is, a varṇamālā,or "garland of letters.

" Note, too, that the sounds listed here reflect the arrangement used by the Brahmī script, best known in East Asian by the orthographic form called Siddham. The following discussion presents religious significance to the letters and syllables and parts of syllables in the Sanskrit language. Most of these meanings are constructed from phonetic symmetry between the phonetic topic and glosses in Sanskrit or Prakrit, and the Chinese translation team working with Dharmakṣema made no attempt to duplicate this effect among the Chinese words selected to represent them. Since this entire section is intelligible only in terms of Sanskrit phonemes and morphemes, to the degree possible, speculated Sanskrit reconstructions from the Chinese for these words and letters are given.

132 The form ñānais a Middle Indic variation of jñāna.

133 The reference to the shape of the letter alludes to the half-circle that forms the letter ṭain the Brahmī script, including the Siddham form.

134 Like the example above, the shape of the letter alludes to the full circle that forms the letter ṭhain the Brahmī script, including Siddham.

135 Anāriyais a constructed Prakrit form of anārya.

136 Probably this is also a reference to the Brahmī syllable tha,which generally takes the form of an oval with a dot inside, reminiscent of silkworm inside a cocoon. 137 The three darts or arrows is a metaphor for the three implacable kleśas (defilements) that are also referred to as the three poisons, three errors, and so forth: greed or desire, anger or enmity, and delusion or ignorance.

138 The order of these three items has been changed based on T.414a26n7, following the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions.

139 The heaven of nonideation refers to one of the blissful states of trance so serene they were known as meditation heavens. In this one, the normal operations of consciousness cease.

140 This is the highest stage one can reach before attaining nirvāṇa, that is, the fourth meditation heaven of the formless realm.

358

Notes

141 This is an allusion to chapter 11 of the Lotus Sutra,

"The Apparition of the Jeweled

Stupa,

" in which a stupa miraculously rises from the earth and stands there in the sky (Skt. vaihāyasam antarīkshe). Notice how the rhetoric plays with the tension between mythic sutra knowledge and practical experience. The last phrase in which the nature of the sky or air is described as offering no support is based on reading wu zhu無住 as nirāśrayarather than the more common apratiṣṭha/apratiṣṭhitabecause the subject here is the place where abiding or residing may or may not occur, rather than the nonabiding nature of the subject itself. 142 That is, like the sky, the nature of a buddha extends forever. 143 This is based on the Indian myth of eclipses as caused by Rāhu as "the seizer" who grabs the sun and moon and yanks them off course. The traditional cause of eclipses in China was based on an entirely different myth, in which one of the heavenly orbs is debilitated as the result of being eaten by insects.

144 That is, although it varies from heaven to heaven, even in the lowest heaven one day lasts for fifty human years. As part of saṃsāra, the life span of everyone thus reborn as a "god" (deva) in a heaven is finite, yet they are always much longer than the human experience, lasting anywhere from nine million human years to eighty-four thousand eons (kalpas).

145 That is, the four types of followers of the Buddhist path: monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen.

146 Skt.

*maṇi-ratna.A miraculous gemstone that is often depicted in religious art, the maṇijewel has the power to grant wishes. One of its qualities is that it turns muddy water clear.

147 The meaning or purpose of this analogy appears to be that the tree's largesse is not discriminatory. In the same way, the listener is encouraged to take whatever is needed from listening to this Nirvana Sutra.

148 The logic of this passage is difficult to follow because Dharmakṣema's translation is missing a crucial line from the initial description of the medicine, which is a caveat to its magical ability to cure all illnesses. Thus it cannot help those for whom death is already determined because of the nature of the illness with which they are afflicted, translated in Tibetan as an incurable disease (gsor mi rung ba nad). The line does appear in the Faxian translation (892a25), however, and with it the analogy to the sutra's universality that still has limitations in the case of the icchantikas is much clearer. This is one of the most serious indictments against icchantikas, as in this instance they are unable to receive even the blessing bestowed on those who have committed the most serious moral transgressions of patricide, matricide, and so forth. 149 Here we have another example of the MPNS's use of poison as a metaphor for strong spiritual medicine. That is, the deconstructive nature of the teachings in this sutra is ultimately curative but also pernicious in that it may destabilize the identity of the person who considers them. Icchantikas are impervious to anything so dangerous 359

Notes

because they are careful to keep their distance from anything that threatens their complacency. The name of the medicine is derived from reconstructing the Chinese du yao毒藥 as Tiaridium indicum or Heleotropium indicum,a poisonous plant used in Ayurvedic medicine. Known in English as "scorpion's tail,

" it has at least twenty

names in Sanskrit, though probably viṣauṣadhior kumbhaare more likely here. 150 Probable equivalents are as follows. Purslane is the equivalent of the modern ma chi xianin China; also called pigweed, it is either Portulaca oleraceaor Portulaca quadrifida;since this is a translation rather than a transliteration, the Sanskrit is unclear, but for "purslain" (sic) Monier-Williams gives ghola, maṇṭapa, prabālika,and śākavīra. The śallakītree is known as olibanum, or Boswellia thuri fera.The karṇikāratree is somewhat unclear. Monier-Williams (257) identifies it as either Pterospermum acerifoliumor Cathartocarpus fistula,but Apte (57) recognizes it as Cassia fistula. The karṇikārais generally known for its bright yellow flowers with no smell, but they may also have red flowers at times.The tālais a palmyra tree, or Borassus flabelliformis. 151 For the khadira,see note 77. For the tinduka,see note 97. 152 See note 40.

153 There are eight categories of causes of fever (aṣṭa-jvara) in the Ayurvedic healing tradition in India, categorized on the basis of their causes: namely, fever caused by wind (vāta), by bile (pitta), by phlegm (kapha), by wind and bile, by bile and phlegm, by an aggregate of wind, bile, and phlegm, and fever resulting from external causes. 154 See Chapter 13, titled "Fortitude" in the Kumārajīva translation (T9.35c270) of the Lotus Sutra,in the Hurvitz translation on p. 202. In the Lotus Sutrathey are identified not specifically as śrāvakas but as "learners (śaikṣa) and those who had nothing more to learn (aśaikṣa).

" In SF 21, they are called mahāśrāvakas.

155 Note that in this passage the word "body" also implies self or identity, and indeed the Chinese word used here, shen,could be read in an entirely nonphysical way. One could thus translate each use of "body" here as "self,

" but I have left the literal reading

intact because the metaphor of the bamboo tree and water bubbles also suggest physicality. It would seem that a kind of fusion of identity in both a mental and physical sense is going on.

156 In other words, the imminent death of Śākyamuni is to be understood in the way that a snake sheds its skin. It is thus only the Buddha's body that is dying, he himself does not pass away. This is an expedient means of transitioning the Buddha into a nonphysical presence in the world. 157 The āmratree is identified as Mangifera indicaand the jambuas Eugenia jambolana. 158 The notion of mi yu密語 (saṃdhāvacanain SF 1 and 21), or "recondite language, "

designates the fact that sometimes the intended meaning of what the Buddha is saying is not immediately apparent or may appear abstruse. Unlike the later, "esoteric" form

360

Notes

of Buddhism, the true or essential meaning in the MPNS is never intentionally hidden as to make it impossible for noninitiates to understand. Rather, the sutra is referring to the fact that as nonbuddhas, we are often unable to immediately fathom which meaning the Buddha wishes to impart when he uses language that can be interpreted in different ways. Here the key to achieving understanding is explained as grasping the way in which what is expounded is contextualized; thus the emphasis is on upāya, or expediency. Fa xian (894b1-3) emphasizes the abstruseness of the Buddha far beyond Dharmakṣema here. Whereas Dharmakṣema only mentions the Buddha's speech as recondite or difficult to fathom, Faxian adds phrases with the same adjective mito describe the Buddha's body and teachings (though not his mind) as well. In addition, in the phrase fangbian mi jiao方便密教 he clarifies the Buddha's "recondite teachings" as a form of expediency. Finally, he specifically describes the manner in which the king gives orders to his staff as "secretly coded instructions, " or yinmi zhi

jiao隱密之教.

159 Although we do not have any Sanskrit text for this, I am fairly confident that the word in question is saindhava,meaning "the Sindhu one,

" alluding to the region or province

called Sindhu, where the Indus River flows into the sea. The parable exploits the different associations people had to the place and the word sindhuitself; sindhuis a literary reference to the number four, and thus there is also a play on words here in calling four different things by a secondary formation of the word sindhu.In general, saindhavarefers to various things associated with the Indus River, e.g., water, sea, floods, Varuṇa as the god of the sea, the land around the Indus, the people living on that land, even a serpent demon believed to have lived in the river. Today, Sindh is the name of the province in which the city of Karachi is located in present-day Pakistan. 160 This reading aided by SF 22, transcribed in Matsuda (1988), p. 65, as A-6 (Recto), part 2.

161 This may refer to the "minor" and "middle"parinirvāṇas just mentioned above or, more likely, the two types of nirvāṇa known as "nirvāṇa with residue" (sopādhiśeṣa nirvāṇa)—the attainment of complete enlightenment with a physical body, that is, while still living; and "nirvāṇa without residue" (nirupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa)—the final attainment of nirvāṇa when the phyiscal body is lost, i.e., at death. Note that the Fa xian translation here (895b8-11) gives a very different reading, stating that śrāvakas do not attain nirvāṇa at all, only buddhas do, as nirvāṇa is a realm only for buddhas, and "this is why this sutra is called the Great Nirvana Sutra, " implying that the MPNS

has now clarified this point.

162 That is, because arhats also have buddha-nature, they will eventually become buddhas as well, and therefore they potentially can attain the mahāparinirvāṇastate that is exclusive to buddhas.

163 Although the text does not say so explicitly, in Faxian (895b15), the question pertains not to the general nature of each group but specifically to buddha-nature, which fits the context, though this may have been inferred by Faxian. The answers that follow, 361

Notes

if read in this way, suggest that the metaphor of milk is intended to show that different stages of its processing reflect different degrees of refinement, yet all are nonetheless forms of milk, meaning that people at different spiritual stages experience buddhanature differently but their buddha-natures all stem from the same source. 164 From SF 23 we know this is sukhāvatīlokadhātu,the buddha land of Amitāyus or Amitābha Buddha.

165 The work "bushel" translates hu斛, which at this time was equal to ten dou斗, and a douis usually translated as "pint.

" So this amounts to eighty pints of rice, a considerable amount, particularly if this refers to a quantity of uncooked, dry rice. 166 This refers to the daśabhūmi,or the final ten stages of attainment for a bodhisattva approaching the final goal of buddhahood. It marks a major achievement in Cunda's spiritual progress to have reached this first of the ten stages without a regimen of monastic praxis, and the implication of Cunda seeing the miracle of the Buddha manifesting himself in so many forms for what is described as bringing joy to people may be an allusion to Cunda's achievement, for the first bhūmior stage is similarly chracterized as one of joy, or pramuditā,usually translated with the same word used here for joy, huan xi歡喜.

167 The apparent disconnect between the comment on these two verses quoted by Cunda and the verses themselves suggests a textual corruption in the second verse. Cf. the Faxian translation (897a28-29): "In all cases of giving donations, there is no criticizing the donor. But the merit of donating to a precept violator is lesser, and the merit of donating to a precept keeper is greater.

" Moreover, in the following discussion here

the Buddha alludes to "The precept violators that Cunda asks about, " referencing

these same two verses quoted by Cunda but where, in fact, there is no mention of precept violators. There are no alternative forms of this in the other extant recensions of the Dharmakṣema translation.

168 Godānīya is one of many names for the continent west of Mount Sumeru, also called Aparagodānīya, Aparagodāna, or Aparagoyāna in Pāli.

169 This would appear to be a reference to the sutra, but Faxian (898a8) suggests otherwise in his rendering: "peace and happiness in the nirvāṇa of the powerful, " suggesting

his reading of this as a statement about the different natures among the various forms of nirvāṇa. Therefore I have avoided putting any interpretive reading into the translation. 170 These verses seem to be based on Udānavarga18.9 or Dhammapada50. 171 Although a number of sutras mention ninety-five or ninety-six non-Buddhist paths, none actually name them. What is consistent is the notion of six heretical teachers or founders of those schools of thought, so some have speculated that this is a multiple of the number six, but though this works for the total of ninety-six, it is problematic for ninety-five. It is therefore quite possible that this number is used figuratively only to suggest a large quantity. See Mochizuki, pp. 671-672.

362

Notes

172 Although there are, strictly speaking, twenty-five possible existences where one can be reborn, it was common practice to speak simply of fortunate and unfortunate (translated by some as "evil") rebirth destinies. While the fortunate category generally includes only two—human and heavenly—even within this sutra the unfortunate category at times designates three, four, or even eight different rebirths. The common denominator of the latter is hells, hungry ghosts, and animals, but at times asuras, or even discriminated caste destinies such as caṇḍāla,are included. There is also a list of what I have translated as eight "inopportune" rebirths, listed in note 34. 173 This is the first mention of Ajātaśatru's crime and the Buddha's conversations with him. He appears in Fascicle I but only as a participant in the assembly that has gathered for this, the Buddha's last sermon, and there is he is described only as a sitting king. Ajātaśatru will appear numerous times later in the narrative and become one of its central characters.

174 In other words, the simple adage in the verse that dependence brings suffering but independence brings happiness does not always hold true. Some students are hamperedby the precedent and authority of their teacher, yet some never succeed even when they throw that off and go their own way.

175 Although I have not added this interpretation to the translation, this passage only becomes understandable if the reader adds that the person who commits the pārājika violation is otherwise regarded as a "wise and gracious" monastic. In addition, the passage seems to confuse wisdom and decency with the practice of obeying the precepts; the Sanskrit text may have been corrupted here. In fact, the southern edition and the Fa xian translation both offer quite different versions of what is supposed to be going on here: in Faxian (898c29) the offending wise person is unloved by other violators of the rules but there is no talk of being forced out of the sangha; in the southern edition (668c25), the witness to the crime is the one to be driven out. None of these are readily intelligible.

176 This passage can be read in two quite different ways. One is as a statement about the totality of the Buddha's teachings; that is, as a whole they are enough in and of themselves, but there are other meanings embedded in them that will become apparent only as one's sensitivity and understanding deepen. Another is as a statement about the need to discriminate different levels of authority in the teachings themselves; that is, some teachings are complete in and of themselves, while others require additional explanation or unpacking to reveal their true import. The latter reading reflects something akin to the hermeneutic of nītārthaand neyārtha,or "complete" and "incomplete" (i.e., upāya), which appears earlier in the discourse but only in reference to categorizing individual sutras rather than doctrines.

363