Fódì jīng lùn 佛地經論
Treatise on the Sūtra on the Stage of Buddhahood (Skt. Buddhabhūmi-vyākhyāna / Buddhabhūmy-upadeśa) by 親光菩薩 (Bandhuprabha et al., 等造) — translated by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
A 7-fascicle Yogācāra-Vijñaptimātratā commentary on the Fódì jīng 佛地經 (T16 no. 680, KR6i0548 Sūtra on the Stage of Buddhahood), translated by 玄奘 Xuánzàng (602–664) in 649 CE (Zhēnguān 23) at the Cí’ēn-sì 慈恩寺. The Sanskrit original is attributed to a coalition of Yogācāra masters around the figure of Bandhuprabha (Qīnguāng 親光) — Xuánzàng’s signature line says Qīnguāng púsà děng zào 親光菩薩等造, “composed by the Bodhisattva Bandhuprabha and others”, indicating a multi-authored upadeśa compilation rather than a single-author treatise. The work is the principal Indian Yogācāra exegesis of the Fódì jīng, one of the foundational scriptures on the doctrine of buddha-bhūmi — the “stage of Buddhahood” or final perfected state — and it occupies a central place in the East Asian Yogācāra (Fǎxiàng-school 法相宗) doctrinal apparatus.
Abstract
Xuánzàng returned from India to Cháng’ān in Zhēnguān 19 (645) with 657 Sanskrit manuscripts and over the next nineteen years produced a translation corpus of unprecedented scale. The Fódì jīng lùn belongs to the early phase of his post-return work: the colophon places its translation in 649. Bandhuprabha (Qīnguāng) was Xuánzàng’s contemporary at Nālandā and a senior Yogācāra master; his Buddhabhūmivyākhyāna survives in this Chinese version (no Sanskrit manuscript is extant; a substantial Tibetan translation from a different Indic original-title is preserved in the Tengyur under Tōhoku 3999, but the Sanskrit-Chinese-Tibetan textual relationships are complex).
The treatise treats five doctrinal themes traditionally identified with the buddha-bhūmi: (1) the qīngjìng fǎjiè 清淨法界 (the pure dharmadhātu); (2) the dàyuánjìng zhì 大圓鏡智 (great-mirror cognition); (3) the píngděngxìng zhì 平等性智 (sameness cognition); (4) the miàoguānchá zhì 妙觀察智 (wondrous-investigation cognition); (5) the chéngsuǒzuò zhì 成所作智 (action-accomplishment cognition). Together these four-cognitions-plus-pure-dharmadhātu constitute the buddha-bhūmi in its Yogācāra technical articulation; the Fódì jīng lùn establishes their definitions, their interrelations, and their soteriological-doctrinal place in the Yogācāra path. The commentary is one of the principal sources for the East Asian Yogācāra-school doctrine of buddhahood as articulated by 窺基 Kuījī (632–682), 圓測 Wǒnch’ǔk (613–696), and the broader Cí’ēn-school tradition.
Translations and research
- Keenan, John P. The Interpretation of the Buddha Land. BDK English Tripitaka 18-III. Berkeley: Numata Center, 2002. — Full English translation of the Fódì jīng lùn.
- Lusthaus, Dan. Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch’eng Wei-shih Lun. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. — Treats the Fódì jīng lùn as a primary source for the Cí’ēn-school Yogācāra synthesis.
- Inoue Genzaburō 井上玄三郎. Bukkyō no shoichi-shōshō kenkyū 佛地經論研究. Tokyo: Daihōrin-kaku, 1980.
Other points of interest
The four-cognitions doctrine systematized in this treatise is the basis of all subsequent East Asian Yogācāra-school accounts of awakening, including the doctrinal synthesis articulated in Xuánzàng’s own Chéng wéishí lùn 成唯識論 (T1585) and the Kuījī school. The Fódì jīng lùn therefore stands alongside the Yogācārabhūmi and the Cheng wéishí lùn as one of the three foundational Yogācāra translation works of the Xuánzàng programme.