Guǎng shì pú tí xīn lùn 廣釋菩提心論
Extensive Exposition of the Bodhi-Mind (Bhāvanā-krama) by 蓮華戒菩薩 (Liánhuá-jiè púsà / Kamalaśīla, 造) and 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A four-juǎn prose-and-verse treatise by the Indian Madhyamaka-Yogācāra master Kamalaśīla 蓮華戒 (c. 740–795), translated into Chinese by 施護 (Dānapāla, fl. 980–1017) at the Sòng imperial Yìjīng-yuàn 譯經院. The Chinese title — “Extensive Exposition of the Bodhi-Mind” — corresponds in part to one or more of Kamalaśīla’s Sanskrit Bhāvanā-krama (“Stages of Cultivation”) works (three are preserved in Tibetan translation, of which the first survives in Sanskrit). The opening verse establishes the work as a “brief assembly of the practices of all the Mahāyāna dharmas”. Comparative analysis suggests the Chinese is closely related to the second and third Bhāvanā-krama in the Tibetan tradition, but the relationship is not perfectly straightforward — the Chinese may represent a different recension or a closely related work of Kamalaśīla.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1664) does not record an internal sub-division. The text is divided only by juǎn.
Abstract
The Taishō text opens “《廣釋菩提心論》卷第一 / 蓮華戒菩薩造 / 西天譯經三藏傳法大師施護奉 詔譯”. The opening verse honours “the Buddhas of past, present and future” and declares the work as a “brief gathering of the practices of all Mahāyāna dharmas”. The translation falls within Dānapāla’s prolific career at the Yìjīng-yuàn between 982 and his death around 1017. Kamalaśīla is one of the most important late Indian Buddhist philosophers — pupil of Śāntarakṣita, who together with him represents the late Yogācāra-Madhyamaka (Yogācāra-svatantrika-Madhyamaka) synthesis — and the principal Indian disputant at the famous bSam-yas debate (792–794) at the court of Khri Srong-lde-btsan, the King of Tibet, against the Chinese Chan master Mo-ho-yen 摩訶衍. The Bhāvanā-krama trilogy is the principal documentary witness to Kamalaśīla’s position at that debate. The Chinese version of part of the Bhāvanā-krama in the Sòng Yìjīng-yuàn is largely independent of the Tibetan transmission and provides important comparative material for the study of late Indian Buddhist philosophy.
Translations and research
- Tucci, Giuseppe. Minor Buddhist Texts, Part II: First Bhāvanākrama of Kamalaśīla. Rome: ISMEO, 1958. — Sanskrit text and Italian translation.
- Adam, Martin T. “Two Concepts of Meditation and Three Kinds of Wisdom in Kamalaśīla’s Bhāvanākramas: A Problem of Translation.” Buddhist Studies Review 23.1 (2006).
- Demiéville, Paul. Le concile de Lhasa. Paris, 1952. — Foundational study of the bSam-yas debate, treats Kamalaśīla extensively.
- Sharf, Robert. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002. — Treats the Mo-ho-yen / Kamalaśīla debate from the Chinese side.
- Williams, Paul, and Anthony Tribe. Buddhist Thought. London: Routledge, 2000. — Treats Kamalaśīla’s place in late Indian Buddhism.
Other points of interest
This is one of the very few works of Kamalaśīla preserved in Chinese — and perhaps the only one preserved in any complete form outside Tibetan. The fact that the Sòng Yìjīng-yuàn obtained and translated a manuscript of one of Kamalaśīla’s foundational works in the late tenth or early eleventh century is itself a significant testament to the continued circulation of late Indian Madhyamaka literature in Northern India centuries after the bSam-yas debate, even as the institutional Buddhist tradition there was approaching its end. Kamalaśīla’s place in Tibetan tradition is canonical; in East Asia he is largely unknown.
Links
- CBETA
- Wikipedia
- 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/