Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > The Great Vehicle

(1.4.1) The Great Vehicle

By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)

Situ Penchen’s catalog does not divide up the Mahāyāna scriptures into detailed categories. Nonetheless, looking at the arrangement of the actual texts, it is possible to think of them as being in five basic groups.

The first is a group of fifty-four (D.95-D.148) sūtras—many of them translated by the famous imperial translation team of Jinamitra and Yeshé Dé (ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་, ye shes sde)—which are given pride of place at the beginning of the sūtra section primarily because of their fame. Indeed, the works here include some of the most popular literature in all of Buddhism: The Fortunate Eon (བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་, bskal pa bzang po, bhadrakalpika), a compendium of lives of Buddhas of this eon (D.95); the Living out of the Game (རྒྱ་ཆེར་རོལ་པ་, rgya cher rol pa, lalitavistara), the classic life of the Buddha as a bodhisattva (D.96); the Unraveling of Intention (དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་, dgongs pa nges par ’grel pa, saṁdhinirmocana), the principal scripture for theories of mind and interpretation (D.107); the Descent into Lanka (ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པའི་མདོ་, lang kar gshegs pa’i mdo, laṅkāvatāra), a major source for Buddha-nature thought (D.108, translated from Chinese); the famous Lotus Sūtra (དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་, dam pa’i chos pad ma dkar po, saddharmapuṇḍarika, D.114); the Pure Land Scripture (བདེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་བཀོད་པ་, bde ba can gyi bkod pa, sukhāvativyūha), the wellspring of Tibetan and East Asian Pure Land traditions (D.116); the Ornate Casket (ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ་, za ma tog bkod pa, karaṇḍavyūha), the source of myths of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara that were so important to the construction of Tibetan religious identity (D.117); the Great Passing (ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་, yongs su mya ngan las ’das pa chen po, mahāparinirvāṇa), the classic account of the Buddha’s final years (D.120-D.121); and so forth. The section concludes with a group of six “spell” texts (གཟུངས་, gzungs, dhāranī, D.139-D.144), followed by four minor sūtras (D.145-D.148) translated by Yeshé Dé (ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་, ye shes sde).

Secondly, we find a group of twenty-seven texts (D.149-D.175), which are the “requested” sūtras: scriptures whose titles contain the term “requested” (ཞུས་པ་, zhus pa, paripṛcchā), and which typically specify who requested the teaching from the Buddha.

Third are thirteen works (D.176-D.188) whose titles contain the term “taught” (བསྟན་པ་, bstan pa, nirdeṣa). Among these is the famous Sūtra Taught by Vimalakīrti (འཕགས་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པར་གྲགས་པས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་, 'phags pa dri ma med par grags pas bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo, vimalakīrtinirdeśa-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra, D.177).

These are followed by six sūtras (D.189-D.194) whose titles describe them as “prophecies” (ལུང་བསྟན་, lung bstan, vyākaraṇa). These are all short works, running from two to twenty-three folios. The first four are imperial translations, while the last two list no translator.

The fifth and final section of Mahāyāna scriptures is a sprawling collection of ninety-three works (D.195-D.287) in eight volumes. All of these are rather short works, with the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra (སོར་མོའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་, sor mo’i phreng ba la phan pa, D.214) in eighty folios being one of the longer within the group. Of note in this section are a number of scriptures of Central Asian provenance, including the Heart of the Sun (ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ་, nyi ma’i snying po, sūryagarbha, D.0258, the longest of the section in 157 folios), which treats among other things the twelve signs of the zodiac. Also here is the Ten-Wheeled Kṣitigarbha Scripture (དུས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལས་སའི་སྙིང་པོའི་འཁོར་ལོ་བཅུ་པ་, dus pa chen po las sa’i snying po’i ’khor lo bcu pa, daśacakrakṣitigarbhasūtra, D.240, in 141 folios) another Central Asian work, which extols the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, famous for rescuing people from purgatory.

Literature:

Below are sources on some of the major texts in this section of the Kangyur.

Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra

• Bhikku Ñāṇamoli and Bhikku Bodhi, trans. “The Aṅgulimāla Sutta.” In The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya, 710-717. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995.

Karaṇḍavyūha Sūtra

• Studholme, Alexander. The Origins of Oṃ Maṇipadme Hūṃ: A Study of the Karaṇḍavyūha Sūtra. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.

Lalitavistara

• Bays, Gwendolyn, trans. The Voice of the Buddha: The Beauty of Compassion, 2 vols. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1983.

Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra

• Sutton, Florin G. Existence and Enlightenment in the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra: A Study in the Ontology and Epistemology of the Yogācāra School of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.
• Suzuki, D.T., trans. The Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra: A Mahāyāna Text. London: G. Routledge, 1932.

Lotus Sūtra

• Groner, Paul. Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School. Berkeley: University of California, Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1984.
• Groner, Paul. Ryōgen and Mount Hiei: Japanese Tendai in the Tenth Century. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002.
• Hurvitz, Leon, trans. Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
• Reeves, Gene, ed. A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sūtra. Tokyo: Kosei, 2002.
• Stevenson, Daniel B. “Tales of the Lotus Sūtra.” In Buddhism in Practice, ed. Donald Lopez. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
• Tanabe, George Joji, and Willa Jane Tanabe, eds. The Lotus Sūtra in Japanese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.
• Watson, Burton, trans. The Lotus Sūtra. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra

• Liu, Ming-Wood. “The Doctrine of Buddha-Nature in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5 (1982): 63–94.
• Yamamoto, Kosho, trans. The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra: A Complete Translation from the Chinese Classical Language in 3 volumes. Oyama: Karinbunko, 1973.

Saṁdhinirmocana Sūtra

• Powers, John. Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-Sūtra. Leiden: Brill, 1993
• Powers, John, trans. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṃdhinirmocana-Sūtra. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1995.

Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra

• Gómez, Luis, trans. and ed. The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light, Sanskrit and Chinese Versions of the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.
• Inagaki, Hisao, trans. The Three Pure Land Sutras: A Study and Translation from Chinese. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 1995.
• Nattier, Jan. “The Indian Roots of Pure Land Buddhism: Insights from the Oldest Chinese Versions of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha.” Pacific World 5 (Fall 2003): 179–202.

Vimalakīrti Sūtra

• Lamotte, Étienne, trans. The Teaching of Vimalakīrti , translated from the French by Sara Boin. London: Pāli Text Society, 1976.
• Thurman, Robert A.F., trans. The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti: A Mahāyāna Scripture. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976.
• Watson, Burton, trans.. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.