Fó shuō bā dàrén jué jīng 佛說八大人覺經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Eight Great-Person Awakenings (Skt. Aṣṭa-mahā-puruṣa-vitarka-sūtra) translated by 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, 譯)
About the work
T779 in one fascicle is one of the most widely-recited short sūtras of East Asian Buddhism, traditionally attributed to the Parthian monk 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, fl. 148–170), the foundational early translator who established the Buddhist textual tradition at Eastern Hàn Luòyáng. The title 八大人覺 (bā dàrén jué) — “the eight awakenings of the great person” — translates Skt. aṣṭa-mahā-puruṣa-vitarka, “the eight thoughts/topics of contemplation of a great person.” A Pāli parallel exists in AN 8.30, the Anuruddha-mahā-vitakka-sutta.
Abstract
The text enumerates eight topics for the daily contemplation of the Buddhist practitioner — eight “awakenings” of the mahā-puruṣa (great person, sage). These are: (1) the world is impermanent — the four great elements are suffering, all things are non-self; (2) the more one desires the more one suffers — birth, death, and ageing arise from craving and clinging; (3) the human mind is insatiable — only contentment with little leads to peace; (4) laziness is the path of fall — diligent practice destroys the kleśas and saves beings from the four māras; (5) ignorance is the cause of birth-and-death — bodhisattvas always study widely to develop wisdom and eloquence to teach all beings; (6) poverty produces resentment — the bodhisattva practices dāna to all without distinguishing friend or foe, without retaining old grudges; (7) the five desires are calamities — though one is in the lay world, one is not stained by worldly pleasures, and contemplates the three robes and the alms-bowl, aspiring to the śramaṇa life; (8) birth-and-death is fierce — one rouses the great Mahāyāna mind, vowing to save all beings universally and to bear infinite suffering on their behalf.
The sūtra’s brevity, doctrinal completeness, and devotional power have made it one of the most universally-recited short Buddhist scriptures in East Asian monastic and lay practice. It has spawned an extensive commentarial literature, of which two important Chinese examples — Bā dàrén jué jīng lüèjiě 八大人覺經略解 (KR6i0477) of 智旭 Zhìxù (Ǒuyì Zhìxù, Míng) and Bā dàrén jué jīng shū 八大人覺經疏 (KR6i0478) of 續法 Xùfǎ (Qīng) — are present in the same Kanripo division.
The Sanskrit / Pāli text-historical situation is complex: the Chinese text is fuller than the Pāli AN 8.30 and reflects Mahāyāna terminology in items 5–8 (the “great-vehicle mind,” vowing to save all beings, etc.), suggesting either a Mahāyāna recension or substantial Mahāyāna interpolation in the Indian source-text. Modern scholars including Sengupta and Nattier have raised the question whether the work is, in its present form, an Eastern Hàn translation of an Indian text or a Six-Dynasties Chinese composition; the standard catalogue ascription to Ān Shìgāo remains widely accepted but is not provable.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. “The Names of Maitreya/Metteyya in Buddhist Texts,” in Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University 11 (2008), 161–175. (Background on Hàn-period translation issues.)
- Saigusa, Mitsuyoshi 三枝充悳, ed. and trans. 『初期仏教の思想』. (For the Aṣṭa-mahā-puruṣa-vitarka doctrine in early Buddhist literature.)
- Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012. (For the Pāli parallel AN 8.30.)
- Iida, S. trans. The Sūtra of the Eight Realizations of Great Beings, Berkeley: Numata Center, 2009. (English translation of T779.)
Other points of interest
The Bā dàrén jué jīng is one of three “Buddhist Patriarchal Sūtras” 佛祖三經 traditionally grouped together for monastic instruction in late-imperial China — alongside Sìshí’èrzhāng jīng 四十二章經 (KR6i0483) and Yíjiào jīng 遺教經 (KR6i0571) (Buddha’s last teachings). The grouping is treated comprehensively in Fózǔ sānjīng zhǐnán 佛祖三經指南 (KR6i0488) of 道霈 Dàopèi (Qīng).
Links
- CBETA online T0779
- Wikipedia: Sutra of the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings
- Dazangthings source 1 — Dazangthings date evidence (160): [ 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.
- Kanseki DB
- 安世高 DILA