『十万頌般若』『二万五千頌般若』『一万八千頌般若』における「正法」説示の諸相 : 「正法陰沒」に関する記述を手がかりとして=Various Aspects of the Preaching Saddharma in the Larger Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras: Focusing on Descriptions of Saddharmasyântardhānα or the Concealing Saddharma
How have Buddhists been careful to keep dharma (Buddhist teachings) preached by the Buddha from disappearing? After the death of the Buddha, some of them seemed to have compiled the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras in oder to preserve saddharma, namely, the right teaching. And it is known that there are descriptions of the concealing saddharma in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. Those who compiled these scriptures had mentioned the way to keep saddharma from disappearing according to their understanding. Modern researchers have already studied in detail on the matter on saddharmasyântrardhāna meaning ‘the concealing the right teaching’ and saddharma-vipralopa meaning ‘the disappearing of the right teaching’ which are referred to in the Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā (Eight thousand [verses] of Perfection of Wisdom) and in the Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā (Diamond Cutter of Perfection of Wisdom). In this paper, I investigated on this matter referring to passages in the so-called Larger prajñāpāramitā Sūtra such as the Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā (One hundred thousand [verses] of Perfection of Wisdom). the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā (Twenty-five thousand [verses] of Perfection of Wisdom) and the Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā (Eighteen thousand [verses] of Perfection of Wisdom which researchers have not referred to on this topic before. Using mainly existing Sanskrit texts of these sutras and subsidiarily Tibetan translations of these sutras, I examined sample passages and gave the problem some consideration. Through carrying out this investigation, I intended to clarify one of various aspects of the preaching saddharma (the right teaching) mentioned in the prajñāpāramitā Sūtras spread over Buddhist cultural spheres in South Asia using Sanskrit and similar languages and in Inland Asia using Tibetan language. With regard to passages in the Daśasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā (Ten thousand [verses］ of Perfection of Wisdom). the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā (Eight thousand [verses] of Perfection of Wisdom) and other similar sutras. I will discuss this matter in another article.
