Wú liàng shòu jīng yōu bō tí shě 無量壽經優波提舍
The Upadeśa Treatise on the Sūtra of Amitāyus (Sukhāvatī-vyūhopadeśa) by 婆藪槃豆菩薩 (Vasubandhu, 造) and 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
The Sukhāvatī-vyūhopadeśa — the Upadeśa commentary on the [[KR6f0060|Larger Sukhāvatī-vyūha]] — is attributed to 婆藪槃豆菩薩 Vasubandhu and translated by 菩提流支 Bodhiruci I in the early Northern-Wèi period. The work is the foundational śāstra of Pure Land Buddhism in East Asia, providing the doctrinal framework for the Five-Fold Recollection (五念門 wǔ niàn mén) practice that became central to Pure Land devotional methodology. 曇鸞 Tánluán’s [[KR6f0101|Wǎngshēng lùn zhù]] (T1819) is the great commentary on this work and was the basis of the entire subsequent East Asian Pure Land doctrinal tradition.
Prefaces
No formal preface.
Abstract
The translation belongs to 菩提流支 Bodhiruci’s Northern-Wèi activity in Luòyáng (529 – 535 CE).
The Taishō text (T1524) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- Inagaki, Hisao, tr. T’an-luan’s Commentary on Vasubandhu’s Discourse on the Pure Land. Kyoto: Nagata bunshōdō, 1998 — includes the parent Upadeśa.
- Bloom, Alfred. Shinran’s Gospel of Pure Grace. University of Arizona Press, 1965.
Other points of interest
- Vasubandhu’s authorship of this Pure-Land Upadeśa is sometimes questioned by modern scholarship, given the apparent doctrinal distinctness from his major Yogācāra-school works; some scholars argue for an alternative Vasubandhu (the Yogācāra Vasubandhu vs. an earlier Sarvāstivādin) or for Indian-school authorial uncertainty. The traditional ascription remains the working assumption in East Asian Pure Land tradition.