1. Vimalakīrtinirdeśa: The Teaching of Vimalakīrti Translated by Luis Gómez and Paul Harrison with the Mangalam Translation Group. Mangalam Press, 2022. $24.95 (paperback).
2. Reviewer Affiliation: Santa Clara University, USA
摘要
The "Teaching of Vimalakīrti" or Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra is one of the best known Mahāyāna Buddhist scriptures in the West due to both to the sophisticated content of the scripture itself as well as its popularity in East Asia (see Richard B. Mather, 1968, "Vimalakīrti and Gentry Buddhism," History of Religions 8:1, 60–73), largely on account of the elegant Chinese translation prepared by the central Asian monk Kumārajīva and his translation team in 406 CE. Composed most likely during the second century of the common era, as indicated by its early third-century translation into Chinese, it is a provocative work that co-emerged with the "Middle Way" Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy (it dates to roughly the same era as the groundbreaking Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna). It also points toward key teachings of the Chan/Zen and tantric traditions, which emerged centuries later. The Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra is a Mahāyāna scripture focusing on Vimalakīrti, a Licchavi merchant living in the city of Vaiśālī, who is portrayed as a contemporary of Śākyamuni Buddha. Despite his lay status, he is also portrayed as a master of Buddhist thought and practice, an advanced bodhisattva or “awakening hero” who aspires toward complete awakening, whose wisdom and eloquence rivals that of the great bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, famed for his wisdom. The work focuses on the theme of “stratagem” (upāya), the ability of a bodhisattva to find the best approach to teach based upon the needs of their audience. Vimalakīrti is portrayed as a master strategist, and the plot of the scripture largely concerns his deployment of various pedagogical strategies. The scripture opens with a teaching of Śākyamuni Buddha in Vaiśālī; knowing that Vimalakīrti is ill, or rather is feigning illness as a pedagogical strategy, he sends the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī along with a large entourage to call upon him. The bulk of the scripture is a teaching given by Vimalakīrti, largely in dialogue with Mañjuśrī and the elder monk Śāriputra, revered as the “wisest” among the Buddha’s disciples in early Buddhist literature, but here he plays the role of a straw man to advance Mahāyāna teachings on themes such as emptiness or the lack of any ultimate reality underlying our words and concepts. The true nature of things, which is ultimately inconceivable, and the possibility of communicating this are major themes of the work.
