Fóshuō bùzēng bùjiǎn jīng 佛說不增不減經
Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on Neither Increase nor Decrease translated by 菩提流支 (Pútíliúzhī / Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
T668 in one fascicle is one of the principal short tathāgatagarbha sūtras, transmitted into Chinese by 菩提流支 of the Northern Wèi. The text takes up the question of whether the realm of beings (sattvadhātu 眾生界) increases or decreases over time — i.e., whether buddhahood removes beings from the round of saṃsāra. The Buddha’s reply is “neither increase nor decrease” (不增不減): the realm of beings, the dharma-dhātu and the tathāgata-garbha are non-different in nature; what looks like decrease through liberation is in fact the manifestation of the originally pure tathāgatagarbha, which neither increases nor decreases.
Abstract
The attribution to 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, d. c. 527) is unanimous in the Chinese catalogues (Lìdài sānbǎo jì, Kāiyuán lù). Date bracket follows Bodhiruci’s documented translation activity at the Northern Wèi capital Luòyáng (508–527). The Sanskrit original is lost, but a Tibetan recension exists that confirms the doctrinal coherence of Bodhiruci’s translation.
T668 is a key witness to the early-sixth-century stage of tathāgatagarbha doctrine: the identification of tathāgatagarbha with dharma-dhātu anticipates the central thesis of the Ratnagotravibhāga (taken into Chinese as the Bǎoxìng lùn 寶性論, T1611). The text is brief — about 13 columns of Taishō text — but doctrinally dense, and it was extensively cited by later Chinese tathāgatagarbha exegetes including 法藏 and the early Chán tradition.
Related canonical texts: T1611 (寶性論 / Ratnagotravibhāga), with which T668 shares its conceptual core; KR6i0323 (大方等如來藏經 / T666) and KR6i0326 (佛說無上依經 / T669), the cognate tathāgatagarbha sūtras.
Translations and research
- Silk, Jonathan A. “Buddhist Sūtras Quoted in the Abhisamayālaṃkārāloka.” Indo-Iranian Journal 37 (1994): 365–369. Discussion of T668’s place in the tathāgatagarbha literature.
- Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion, 2014. Frames T668 within the tathāgatagarbha / Ratnagotravibhāga trajectory.
- Takasaki Jikidō 高崎直道. Nyoraizō shisō no keisei. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1974.
Links
- CBETA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (520, 530): CBETA, Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, ed. Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo, 1924–1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. dazangthings