Fó shuō fǎ chángzhù jīng 佛說法常住經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Permanence of the Dharma translator unknown (失譯, 譯), assigned to the Western Jìn record per Sēngyòu
About the work
T819 in one fascicle is a brief anonymous sūtra on the doctrine of the permanence of the Dharma (法常住 fǎ chángzhù), assigned by the canonical catalogues to the Western Jìn period. The colophon’s note 僧祐錄云安公失譯經人名今附西晉錄 (“the Sēngyòu Catalogue says that according to An [Dàoān]‘s catalogue the translator’s name is lost; now appended to the Western Jìn record”) preserves the typical apparatus of Six-Dynasties cataloguing for a translation whose authorship has been lost. The text doctrinally synthesises the Hīnayāna doctrine of the four noble truths with the Mahāyāna doctrine of the eternally-present dharma-kāya, on the borderline between the two doctrinal layers.
Abstract
The Buddha at the Jetavana addresses the bhikṣus on the doctrine that the Dharma is eternally present (法者常在 fǎzhě chángzài): “whether a Buddha exists or no Buddha exists, the Dharma abides as it is” (有佛無佛，法住如故). The Tathāgata appears in the world to expound and elucidate the eternally-present dharma, not to create it.
The body of the sūtra unfolds the doctrinal content of the eternally-present Dharma in a tripartite structure paralleling the three vehicles. For those of śrāvaka-disposition the four noble truths are taught: duḥkha (the suffering of birth, ageing, sickness, death, separation from the dear, union with the unwanted, not-getting-what-one-wants — summarised as “the suffering of the upādāna-skandha-body”); samudaya (the arising of suffering through the six sense-faculties’ attachment to the six objects, accumulating as the ṣaḍ-vidha-saṃskāra); nirodha (the cessation through the cultivation of body, mind and speech and the elimination of the ten akuśala-karma); and mārga (the path through the cutting of the twelve pratītya-samutpāda-links, the elimination of the three poisons, and the attainment of the trī-vimokṣa-mukha — emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness — by which one becomes an Arhat).
For those of pratyekabuddha-disposition the twelve pratītyasamutpāda are taught directly, with their forward and reverse generation, by knowledge of which one’s karmic root is cut and one becomes a pratyekabuddha.
For those of bodhisattva-disposition the emptiness of body (解身本空) is taught, together with the six pāramitās, the catur-apramāṇa, the catur-saṃgraha, and the thirty-seven bodhi-pakṣya-dharmas — through which the bodhisattva accomplishes the upāya-kauśalya and the perfection of prajñā.
The text is a small but doctrinally significant sūtra on the eternalism of the dharma in early Chinese Buddhism, anticipating the later development of the dharma-kāya and tathāgatagarbha doctrines.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. On the doctrine of the eternally-present dharma in early Chinese Buddhism see:
- Lai, Whalen. “The Predocetic ‘Finite Buddhakāya’ in the Lotus Sūtra.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 49 (1981): 447–469.
- Liu, Ming-Wood. Madhyamaka Thought in China. Leiden: Brill, 1994.