Three Early Mahāyāna Treatises from Gandhāra

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Leo Rivers
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Three Early Mahāyāna Treatises from Gandhāra

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Tw excerpts from:
Three Early Mahāyāna Treatises from Gandhāra
[Some definitions from The Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism inserted.]
:coffee:
"At the beginning of BC 4 (§ 1), the author of the text advertises detachment and presents the prospect of every kind of fortune (sampatti), contrasting these fortunes to their opposites. The benefits (BHS anuśaṃsa) are exemplified and enumerated in two lists,

of which the first is related to states and experiences in this life and the next (sāṃdr̥ṣṭika/ dr̥ṣṭadhārmikaand sāmparāyika),

and the second refers to meditation or physical issues during the development of the path (see table 1).2 The prospects are a good destination (sugati), meetings with worthy men (satpuruṣadarśana),and liberation (mokṣa). While reborn as a human, one will experience only good things: physical ease and mental happiness (sukha), as well as pleasant (śubha) and wholesome (kuśala) states.3 During practice one will be mentally and physically alert (jāgaryā, laghūtthāna),one will know what to do and do it [with words, thoughts, and deeds] (kr̥tya, karman),and one will achieve states of comfort and health (BHS spr̥śana, ārogya). By relinquishing attachment to the skandhas that constitute existence, one will finally attain liberation from rebirth (§ 2). The knowledge helping one let go of everything [relating to the triple world] is the knowledge of what is useless and painful. This is indirectly equated with the prajñāpāramitā (§ 3–6), the realizationof the emptiness

of all dharmas,4 which is obtained in this lifetime after one has formed the intention to attain awakening for the first time (prathamacittotpāda).

In § 3 the bodhimaṇḍa is said to be void, thus indicating an understanding of emptiness that is not only related to the self but to everything, as is common in prajñāpāramitā literature and Madhyamaka philosophy.

5 That the prajñāpāramitā was esteemed as a shortcut to awakening is indicated in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā in a passage also (partly) preserved in the Gāndhārī version; cf. AsPSp 5-55 (Falk and Karashima 2013: 162–63).

One of the most important parts of BC 4 is its section 6, since due to its contextual and structural elements, it can be compared to a praṇidhāna, i.e., the resolution of a bodhisattva to strive for awakening for the sake of others.6 If we compare this passage to other praṇidhānas (cf. Binz 1980: 88 ff.), all essential parts are included:

(1) the intention to become a Buddha,

(2) the duties of a bodhisattva (kuśalamūla, “wholesome roots”),

(3) the dedication.

(1) By this knowledge of [what is] painful and this knowledge of [what is] useless, every suffering [that will be] taken up will be accepted [and] looked at with an even mind. Every happiness [that will be] given up will be accepted. In this way, having reached complete extinction, I will leave this world.

(2) Avoiding [what is] unwholesome, doing [what is] wholesome, honoring Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha in (*every) respect, acting for the profit of [all] living beings, teaching this Dharma, which is the knowledge of [what is] useless and painful, and establishing [all] beings in awakening,

(3) [then] certainly before long every fortune will exist for me and every misery will not exist; [there] will be welfare for myself, welfare for others, and welfare for every living being.

The position of a praṇidhāna within a bodhisattva career is principally at its beginning,

together with the cittotpāda. This is followed by a long period of practicing the pāramitās until one finally reaches buddhahood."
In Buddhism

Cittotpāda (चित्तोत्पाद) refers to the “production of the mind of awakening”, according to Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra (chapter 41). —Accordingly, “[The eighteen āveṇika-dharmas ('special attributes')]— [...] (10). The Buddha has no loss of wisdom.
"In comparison to the bodhisattva career as found in other Mahāyāna texts, BC 4 comes closest to the system presented in the Daśabhūmikasūtra, where the bodhisattvacaryā begins with the resolve to attain awakening (bodhicittotpāda) and not give up, after which the adept is to practice the pāramitās while ascending the ten stages to buddhahood.9 In BC 4, however, the concept of ten stages is not referred to, and nothing more is said about the bodhisattva’s career.10 The main issue concerns the performance of good and

the avoidance of bad things. The duration of such practice seems to be considered joyful and pleasant. Similar statements can be found in other texts, as for example, in the Ratnāvalī, where the fruits of following the Mahāyāna are not only future awakening, but all kinds of comfort or happiness during the journey, both in this life and the next (verses 126–27, 222, 285, 398).

One of the duties is also quite simply avoiding unwholesome actions and striving for wholesome ones (verses 22, 222, 227, 230), as well as practicing non-attachment due to realizing the truth as it really is (verses 290, 230). Likewise, in the Pratyutpannabuddhasaṃmukhāvasthitasamādhisūtra, to the realization of truth, i.e., understanding and accepting that all dharmas are in fact unarisen and empty (cf. Harrison 1998: 103, T 13 no. 418 p. 919b6)."
Above from:

Three Early Mahāyāna Treatises from Gandhāra
Bajaur Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 4, 6, and 11
Andrea Schlosser
Copyright © 2022 by Andrea Schlosser
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
Seattle
ISBN 9780295750736 (hardcover)
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