Bùbìdìng rùdìng rùyìn jīng 不必定入定入印經
Sūtra on the Seal of Entering or Not Necessarily Entering Concentration translated by 瞿曇般若流支 (Qútán Bānruòliúzhī / Gautama Prajñāruci, 譯)
About the work
T645 (one fascicle, alt. title 不必定入定印經; Sanskrit Niyatāniyatāvatāramudrā-sūtra, alt. Niyatāniyatagatimudrāvatāra-sūtra) is the Eastern Wei translation by 瞿曇般若流支 (Gautama Prajñāruci, fl. 538–543) of a Mahāyāna sūtra on the determinate and indeterminate paths into the bodhisattva’s concentration. The text is one of two Chinese versions of this sūtra; the Tang re-translation by 義淨 is T646 (Rùdìng bùdìng yìn jīng).
Abstract
瞿曇般若流支 (Gautama Prajñāruci, Qútán Bānruòliúzhī; fl. 538–543) was an Indian translator of kṣatriya (royal) lineage from a Gautama clan, active at Yè 鄴 under the Eastern Wei. He is to be distinguished from the earlier Bodhiruci I of the Northern Wei (fl. 508–537) — though the catalogs sometimes confuse them. Date bracket follows his attested productive period (538–543). The text is a short doctrinal treatise on the niyata (determined) and aniyata (undetermined) modes of bodhisattva entry into the path: some bodhisattvas are niyata — guaranteed to attain buddhahood from the outset — while others are aniyata — capable of advancing or regressing. The “seal” (mudrā) of the title is the meditative confirmation that distinguishes the two. This doctrine became important for later East Asian discussions of the bodhisattva gotra (lineage).
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse, vol. 4, n. ad loc. — discusses niyata / aniyata doctrine.
- Sakuma, Hidenori. Niyata-aniyata: Studies in Bodhisattva Categories. (Various Japanese-language studies.)
No book-length English translation located.
Links
- CBETA T15n0645
- Kanseki DB
- 瞿曇般若流支 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (543) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.