Fóyǔ jīng 佛語經
The Sūtra on the Speech of the Buddha translated by 菩提流支 (Pútíliúzhī, Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
T832 in one fascicle is a Mahāyāna prajñā-pāramitā / advaya-doctrinal sūtra on the paradoxical doctrine that “non-speech is the speech of the Buddha” (非語即是佛語), translated by the Northern Wèi Indian translator 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, d. c. 527) at Luòyáng during his post-508 translation career. The text is a sustained exposition of the Mahāyāna doctrine of prapañcopaśama (the cessation of conceptual elaboration) under the rubric of “Buddha-speech.”
Abstract
The text opens at Vaiśālī (毘耶離 Píyélí) on the great-forest pavilion (大林樓閣 = Mahāvana-kūṭāgāra), where the Buddha is teaching 8,000 bhikṣus and 84,000 bodhisattvas. A bodhisattva named Lóngwēidé shàngwáng 龍威德上王 (“Supreme King of the Dragon’s Awesome Virtue”) rises and asks the Buddha: “The Tathāgata has previously taught both Buddha-speech and non-Buddha-speech in the sūtras. What is the meaning of this distinction, and how should it be received?”
The Buddha’s response unfolds the paradoxical doctrine: Non-speech is the speech of the Buddha (言非語者即是佛語); the speech of the Buddha is itself non-speech, while the speech that conforms to the conventional referential structure of language is precisely not the speech of the Buddha. The exposition proceeds through a long series of negative formulations: speech that involves rūpa, vedanā, saṃjñā, saṃskāra, vijñāna is not Buddha-speech; speech without the pañca-skandha is Buddha-speech. Speech with kāya-, vāk-, manas-karma is not Buddha-speech; speech without is. Speech of the catur-mahā-bhūta is not Buddha-speech; speech without is. Speech of trī-doṣa (greed-hatred-delusion) is not Buddha-speech; speech without is. Speech of the sāsrava-anāsrava binary is not Buddha-speech; speech transcending the binary is. Speech with abhilāṣa (desire) is not; speech without is. Speech with high-low distinction is not; speech without is. And so on through some forty negative pairings.
The doctrinal core is the non-conceptual prajñā that escapes the binary of speech vs. non-speech: as long as speech operates within the conceptualised distinction between “speech” and “silence,” it is prapañca and not Buddha-speech. The Buddha-speech is rather the advaya-utterance from the prajñā-pāramitā ground that has transcended the speech/non-speech binary altogether — a doctrine recurring in the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa’s celebrated “thunderous silence” of Vimalakīrti and in Mahāyāna prajñā-pāramitā discourse generally.
The text also expounds the doctrine of the bodhisattva who, having understood that all dharmas are anātman, neither makes “I” with respect to rūpa nor “mine” with respect to its objects, and so passes beyond the reach of Māra. The closing teaching is that “the bodhisattva who can study thus” attains the anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti and is irreversibly established in the prajñā-pāramitā.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. On the Mahāyāna doctrine of prapañcopaśama and “the speech that is no-speech” see:
- Lamotte, Étienne. L’Enseignement de Vimalakīrti. Louvain: Université de Louvain, 1962.
- Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2009.
Other points of interest
The doctrine of “non-speech as Buddha-speech” was foundational for the development of Chán dharma-talk and the genre of “non-conceptual” exposition in East Asian Buddhism.
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/