Wúzì bǎoqiè jīng 無字寶篋經
The Sūtra of the Letterless Jewel-Casket (Skt. Anakṣara-karaṇḍaka-vairocana-garbha-sūtra) translated by 菩提流支 (Pútíliúzhī, Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
T828 in one fascicle is a Mahāyāna sūtra on the doctrine of the letterless (anakṣara) ground of all dharmas, translated by the Northern Wèi Indian translator 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, d. c. 527) at Luòyáng during his post-508 translation career. Two parallel translations survive: [[KR6i0535|Dàshèng lí wénzì pǔguāngmíng zàng jīng 大乘離文字普光明藏經 (T829)]] by Divākara of the Táng, and [[KR6i0536|Dàshèng biànzhào guāngmíng zàng wúzì fǎmén jīng 大乘遍照光明藏無字法門經 (T830)]] (Divākara’s re-translation). The Sanskrit reflex Anakṣara-karaṇḍaka-vairocana-garbha-sūtra is preserved in Tibetan and partial Sanskrit fragments. The “letterless jewel-casket” of the title refers to the dharma-treasury that, while taught through letters, is itself letterless — anticipating the later Chán doctrine of “no reliance on words and letters” (不立文字).
Abstract
The text opens at Mt Gṛdhrakūṭa near Rājagṛha, where the Buddha is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of koṭi-millions of bodhisattvas of vast attainment, all “skilful in penetrating the letterless dharma-gate” (善能通達無字法門), all “well-acquainted with the womb of the garbha” (得無言藏), all “beyond the three realms” (離於三界). The bodhisattva-list runs to several score, including Shèngxiǎng 勝響, Fǎxiǎng 法響, Fǎyǎn 法眼, Wénshūxiǎng 文殊響 (the “Echo-of-Mañjuśrī”), and many others. Among them is the bodhisattva Shèngsīwéi 勝思惟 (“Excellent-Contemplation”), surrounded by an immense retinue of Indra-and-Brahmā devas. Even the sun and moon devas of the ten directions, normally proud of their radiance, come to the assembly and find themselves dimmed before the Buddha — “like a lump of soot beside jambū-nada gold.”
The bodhisattva Shèngsīwéi rises and asks the Buddha to expound two things: (1) what is the one dharma that the bodhisattva is to extinguish? and (2) what is the one dharma that the Tathāgata has awakened to?
The Buddha responds with a series of “one-dharma” pronouncements: the bodhisattva must extinguish rāga (greed); must extinguish dveṣa (hatred); must extinguish moha (delusion); must extinguish ātma-dṛṣṭi (self-view); must extinguish kausīdya (laziness); must extinguish middha (sleep); must extinguish tṛṣṇā (craving); must extinguish avidyā (ignorance) — each pronouncement framed as “this is the one dharma that should be permanently extinguished.” Then the Buddha expounds the one dharma that the Tathāgata has awakened to: the anakṣara-dharma, the letterless ground of all dharmas, in which all opposites are dissolved and the dharma-dhātu is seen directly, without the mediation of kalpanā and prapañca. The doctrine is the advaya (non-duality) ground of Mahāyāna prajñā-pāramitā doctrine.
The text closes with the bodhisattva’s undertaking of the golden rule of Buddhist ethics — “what one does not desire for oneself, one should not urge upon others” (己所不欲，勿勸他人) — formulated here as the encompassing precept that “protects the entire treasury of the Tathāgata’s śīla” (護持如來一切戒藏).
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna. Vol. III. Louvain: Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain, 1970, pp. 1850–1853 (treatment of the anakṣara-doctrine).
- Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2009.
Other points of interest
The “letterless dharma-gate” (無字法門 wúzì fǎmén) of the title became a foundational concept for Chinese Chán doctrine: the advaya ground that lies beyond the conceptualised teachings is precisely the doctrine of “transmission outside the scriptures” (教外別傳) developed by Bodhidharma’s lineage.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (520, 530): [ 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/