Fó shuō fā pútíxīn pò zhū mó jīng 佛說發菩提心破諸魔經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra on Arousing the Bodhi-Mind and Crushing All Māras (Skt. Bodhicittotpāda type) translated by 施護 (Shīhù, Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
T838 in two fascicles is the Sòng-dynasty parallel translation of the Bodhicittotpāda-class sūtra of which [[KR6i0543|Fó shuō chūshēng pútí xīn jīng (T837)]] is the Suí version. Translated at the Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras at Kāifēng by 施護 (Shīhù, Dānapāla) between the Institute’s inauguration in 982 and Shīhù’s death in 1017. The Sòng title amplifies the Suí title with the additional motif of “crushing all Māras” (破諸魔 pò zhū mó) — a reference to the doctrine that the bodhicitta’s arising is itself the decisive defeat of the māra-saṃghāta that obstructs the path.
Abstract
The narrative frame is identical to that of T837: the Veṇuvana at Rājagṛha; the Kāśyapa-gotra Brahmin’s dream of the thousand-petalled lotus, the moon-disc within, and the male figure within the moon-disc; the Brahmin’s audience with the Buddha; the Buddha’s exposition of the four auspicious dreams (lotus, umbrella, moon-disc, Buddha-form). The Sòng version elaborates the doctrinal exposition over two fascicles, where Jñānagupta’s Suí version compressed it into one. The Sòng expansion includes additional treatment of the māra-doctrine: the four kinds of Māra (skandha-māra, kleśa-māra, mṛtyu-māra, devaputra-māra) and the way in which the arousing of the bodhicitta defeats each.
The doctrinal content remains the bodhicittotpāda exposition: the great benefit is the sarvajña of a Buddha; the sarvajña is attainable only through the bodhicitta; whatever fruit a being seeks (worldly or supramundane) requires the bodhicitta. The Sòng translation register reflects the developed late-tenth-century Buddhist Chinese technical vocabulary of the Institute, including elaborated gāthā-passages and refined doctrinal-terminological choices. See KR6i0543 for the basic doctrinal summary.
Translations and research
See KR6i0543 for the relevant secondary literature.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000): [ 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/