Fó shuō shènshēn dà huíxiàng jīng 佛說甚深大迴向經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Profound Great Transference [of Merit] translator unknown (失譯, 譯), assigned to the LiúSòng record (附宋錄)
About the work
T825 in one fascicle is an anonymous Mahāyāna sūtra on the doctrine of transference of merit (pariṇāmanā / 迴向 huíxiàng), assigned by the Sēngyòu Catalogue (僧祐錄) to the Liú-Sòng period (附宋錄). The doctrine of pariṇāmanā — by which a bodhisattva “transfers” the merit accumulated through any meritorious act to the universal goal of anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi and the salvation of all beings — is foundational for the Mahāyāna bodhisattva-vow tradition and is the central topic of texts including the Bhadra-cārya-praṇidhāna and the closing chapters of the Avataṃsaka.
Abstract
The text opens at the Jetavana in Śrāvastī, where the Buddha is teaching an audience of 8,000 bhikṣus and surrounding bodhisattvas. A bodhisattva named Míngtiān 明天 (“Bright Heaven”) rises and asks: how is it that some bodhisattvas, cultivating few kuśala-mūla, attain great fruit, while others cultivating many merits attain only small fruit? The Buddha praises the question and explains that the difference lies in the profound great transference (甚深大迴向 shènshēn dà huíxiàng) by which merit is multiplied beyond its ordinary scope.
The body of the sūtra expounds the doctrine of pariṇāmanā through a sustained exegesis: the bodhisattva’s merit is to be transferred (1) to the anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, not to lower goals; (2) to the salvation of all beings, not to the individual self; (3) to the prajñā-pāramitā — the recognition that giver, gift, and receiver are all empty; (4) to the dharma-kāya, the universally-present dharmadhātu. Through such transference even a small act of generosity becomes karmically equivalent to a great offering, while merit that is not transferred — that is retained for the self, attached to the ātman-conception, or directed only to lower fruits — is karmically diminished even when its physical scale is great.
The text concludes with a series of verses on the doctrine and the standard formula of joyful reception by Míngtiān and the assembly. The doctrine is among the foundational Mahāyāna ethical-soteriological doctrines, and the sūtra is one of the few short stand-alone Chinese texts to treat pariṇāmanā as its principal subject.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. On the pariṇāmanā doctrine see:
- Hirakawa Akira 平川彰. A History of Indian Buddhism: From Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna. Trans. Paul Groner. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.
- Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2009, pp. 195–198 (on the doctrine of pariṇāmanā).
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (460): [ 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/