This paper argues that semantic elucidation (nirukta) served as a powerful rhetorical technique for authorial communities in the propagation of Mahāyāna texts to transform mainstream Buddhist states of attainment—such as the Stream-enterer (srota-āpanna), Nonreturner (anāgāmin), and Arhant—into spiritual levels embodied by bodhisattvas. The paper argues that this transformation of mainstream Buddhist levels of attainment occurred in early Mahāyāna formations before the structure of the bodhisattva ten stages (daśabhūmi) was established. The paper demonstrates, through drawing upon examples from sūtras such as the Śūraṃgamasamādhi, Saddharma-puṇḍarīka, and Avaivartikacakra, that the ‘method of nairukta’ (nairukta-vidhānena), through processes of transvaluation and substitution, hollowed out mainstream Buddhist understandings of spiritual attainment and reformulated them in terms of the bodhisattva way found among nascent Mahāyāna communities.
目次
Introduction 171 Semantic Elucidation in Mainstream and Mahāyāna Buddhist literature 174 The Rhetorical Nature of nirukti/nirvacana in Mahāyāna sūtras 176 Transvaluing Mainstream Buddhist Categories of Spiritual Attainment 177
