Dàchéng sìfǎ jīng 大乘四法經
The Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Four Dharmas (Skt. Catur-dharma-nirdeśa-sūtra) translated by 地婆訶羅 (Dìpóhēluó = Divākara, 譯)
About the work
T772 in one fascicle is one of two short sūtra-translations of the Tang monk 地婆訶羅 (Divākara, 613–687), a Central Indian translator who arrived in Cháng’ān in 676 and worked at the Hóngfúsì 弘福寺 and other imperial monasteries in the period 680–688. This is the first of three closely related Chinese versions of the Mahāyāna Catur-dharma genre — together with the [[KR6i0470|Bodhisattvas’ Four Practices Sūtra 菩薩修行四法經]] of the same translator and the [[KR6i0471|second Dàchéng sìfǎ jīng]] of 實叉難陀 (Śikṣānanda).
Abstract
The text expounds four dharmas that the bodhisattva must possess in order to advance on the Mahāyāna path. The standard fourfold formulation in this group of texts — well attested in late-Indian bodhisattva-piṭaka literature — comprises: (1) never abandoning the bodhi-mind (不捨菩提心 bù shě pútíxīn); (2) never abandoning the spiritual friend (kalyāṇa-mitra); (3) never abandoning patience and forbearance (kṣānti); (4) **never abandoning the practice of the āraṇya (forest-dwelling) discipline. The Buddha addresses Mahā-彌勒 Maitreya or another bodhisattva interlocutor and urges that these four dharmas form the indispensable foundation of bodhisattva-practice; without them, the bodhi-citta will not mature into full awakening.
The text is one of a cluster of short Mahāyāna catur-dharma / catuṣka sūtras that circulated in late-Indian and early-medieval Indian Buddhist communities; comparable lists of “four indispensables” are found in the Bodhisattva-bhūmi and the Akṣayamatinirdeśa-sūtra. Divākara’s Chinese rendering, made under imperial Tang patronage, is one of the most accessible and was widely cited in subsequent Chinese commentarial literature on the bodhisattva-stages.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. For Divākara’s translation programme see:
- Forte, Antonino. Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock. Rome: IsMEO, 1988. (For Tang Buddhist court translation activity.)
- Chen Jinhua. Philosopher, Practitioner, Politician: The Many Lives of Fazang (643–712). Leiden: Brill, 2007. (For the Tang-period translation milieu in which Divākara worked, alongside 法藏 Fǎzàng.)
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- 地婆訶羅 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (680): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. dazangthings.nz