『大乗涅槃経』とアビダルマ仏説論 -- 恒河七衆生(水喩)の考察=The Mahāyana Mahāparinirvāņa-sūtra and the Buddha's Direct Preaching of the Adhidharma : Some Notes on the Metaphor of the Seven Types of Sentient Beings in the Ganges
The purpose of this paper is to show that some passages in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāņa-sūtra (大乗涅槃経 MMPS), especially the parts existent only in the Chinese version, have a closer similarity with the Āgama stories cited in the Mahābhivāşa-śastra (大毘婆抄論 MB) than with the original Āgama and to examine how these passages are related to the Buddha's direct preaching of the Abhidharma. ""The seven types of sentient beings in the Ganges 恒河七衆生"" is a metaphor for the seven stages of Buddhist training leading from delusion to enlightenment. I have investigated the passages about the seven types found in the chapter of Kāśyapa 迦葉品 of the MMPS. The Kāśyapa chapter enumerates the name of these seven stages first and annotates each of them. Some annotations in the Kāśyapa chapter in the third, fourth, and sixth stages contain stories which have their origin in the Āgama. These stories were also used in the MB. As a result of comparing the passages in the MB with the original Āgama, the stories in the Kāśyapa chapter evidently have a closer similarity with those used in the MB than the original Āgama. Therefore, I conclude that the author of the Kāśyapa chapter refers to the stories in the MB, not those found in the original Āgama. Next I have examined the same passages in the MB. It is likely that they have a connection with the theory of the Buddha's direct preaching of Abhidharma, which is indispensable to the Sarvāstivādin. The MB uses the theory of ""the disappearance of the sutras and the discovery of them with supernatural power"" three times. This theory functions as a justification of the Buddha's direct preaching of the Abhidharma. Usually, it is said that the Buddha's disciples preached the Abhidharma. But the Sarvāstivādin insists that it was the Buddha that directly preached some doctrines of the Abhidharma of the Sarvāstivādin. In order to support this insistence, the Sarvāstivādin says that some sutras concerning the Buddha's preaching, which taught these doctrines, had disappeared and these sutras were discovered by Katyāyana, who used them as the source of the Abhidharma of the Sarvāstivādin. As the passage which the author of the Kāśyapa chapter refers to is related to this theory, I hypothesize that the author of the Kāśyapa chapter knew this theory and referred to it with specific intent.
