Dà fāngguǎng rúlái mìmì zàng jīng 大方廣如來祕密藏經
The Great-Extensive Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Secret Treasury (Skt. Tathāgatagarbhasūtra; alt. Rúlái mìmì zàng jīng 如來祕密藏經) translator unknown (失譯, 譯), assigned to the Three-Qín record (附三秦錄)
About the work
T821 in two fascicles is a Tathāgatagarbha-doctrinal Mahāyāna sūtra attributed by the canonical catalogues to the Three-Qín period (Eastern Qín, Western Qín, Later Qín — the dynasties that controlled the Cháng’ān corridor between c. 384 and 417). Per CANWWW the Sanskrit reflex is the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, but the actual content is closer to the broader Tathāgatagarbha-doctrinal corpus than to the canonical Tathāgatagarbhasūtra proper (T666/667 Dàfāngguǎng rúláizàng jīng). The text constitutes a separate but doctrinally related work, possibly a recension or related composition.
Abstract
The text opens at Mt Gṛdhrakūṭa near Rājagṛha, where the Buddha is seated with eight thousand bhikṣus and thirty-two thousand great bodhisattvas who possess dhāraṇī, the anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti, the abhijñā, and have already served immeasurable past Buddhas. The bodhisattva-list runs to several score, including Shānjīn 山剛, Dàshān 大山, Chíshānyán 持山巖, Shānjīwáng 山積王, Shíshānwáng 石山王, etc. — many of the names invoking mountain-imagery — concluding with the standard formula of the sixteen great bodhisattvas (賢護等十六大士) and the bhadrakalpa-bodhisattvas led by Maitreya.
A bodhisattva named Wúliàngzhì zhuāngyán wáng 無量志莊嚴王 (“King Adorned with Innumerable Aspirations”) of the Buddha-field of Bǎozhàng 寶杖 (“Jewelled Staff”), seventy-two koṭis of Buddha-fields to the east, descends to the present Buddha-field in the time of a strong man’s arm-flexion. He magically produces 84,000 jewelled platforms, on each of which is a tree, on each of which a lion-throne, and on each throne sits a Buddha-image identical to Śākyamuni — the entire array a manifestation of the aṇu-rajaḥ-pramāṇa-Buddha-kṣetra doctrine of universal Buddha-presence. He spreads a vast jewelled canopy that covers a hundred yojanas, the rain-like sound from its bells filling the trichiliocosm.
The body of the sūtra expounds the doctrine of the Tathāgata’s secret treasury (如來祕密藏 rúlái mìmì zàng) through a sustained dialogue between the Buddha, Mahākāśyapa, and the visiting bodhisattva. The doctrine is the tathāgatagarbha in its earlier formulation: that all sentient beings possess within them the embryonic Buddha — the garbha (treasury / womb / embryo) — that is the ground of their eventual awakening. The “secret” is that this garbha is hidden by the defilements (kleśa) but never lost, never produced, never destroyed; the Buddha’s appearance in the world is the manifestation of the garbha that is in all beings. The sūtra expounds the doctrine through the standard tathāgatagarbha similes (the Buddha hidden in the wilted lotus, the gold buried in the dunghill, etc.) and through a developed Mahāyāna doctrinal apparatus.
Translations and research
- Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002. (Authoritative on the Tathāgatagarbha corpus and its Chinese reception.)
- Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2009, pp. 103–128.
- Brown, Brian Edward. The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (417): [ 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. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/