Along with the Prajñāpāramitā and Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, the Brahmaparipr.cchā is an early Mahāyāna sūtra which expounds the ideas of emptiness (śūnyatā) and non-duality (advaya). Although the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa is better known in China and Japan, the Brahmaparipr.cchā seems to be more widely read in India. This is indicated, for example, by the fact that it is frequently quoted as a scriptural authority in Mādhyamika treatises such as the Prajñāpradīpa, Prasannapadā and Bhāvanākrama and in Yogācāra treatises such as the Mahāyānasam. graha and Mahāyānasūtrālam. kāra. I completed an MA thesis in 1980, which intensively dealt with the Brahmaparipṛcchā. Since then I have sporadically published several articles on the Tibetan translation, contents, and philosophical significance of this text. My ultimate aim is to publish a critical edition of the Tibetan translation based on the five block prints of Tibetan Tripitaka and the five manuscript versions, including the Batang and Phug brag manuscriptṣ Here I am offering an annotated Japanese translation of the first of the six chapters of the Tibetan version on the basis of an unpublished critical edition that I have prepared. The sūtra opens with the Buddha emitting rays of light that prompt Brahmā Viśeṣacintin, who lives in another Buddha-realm, to come to our Sahā world. Lauded by the bodhisattva Jālinīprabha as the foremost among all bodhisattvas, he asks the Buddha ten questions about “firm resolve” (adhyāśaya), and the Buddha replies to each question in four ways (caturdharma). Then Viśeṣacintin also replies to some of the questions posed by Jālinīprabha. Having listened to their questions and answers, the Buddha summarizes them by saying that neither transmigration nor nirvāṇ a is an object of cognitioṇ On hearing this, five hundred monks fall prey to doubts about their past practices and leave the assembly. Jālinīprabha criticizes them as non-Buddhists who seek nirvāṇ a, as if it were a real entity, in the same way as one might seek sesame oil from sesame seeds, and he asks Viśeṣacintin to try somehow to persuade them to come back. Viśeṣacintin explains to them that nirvāṇ a, like space, is nothing but a mere designation and that even when one is in its midst one can neither escape from it nor grab it. On hearing this, the five hundred monks attain liberation of the mind and explain to Sāriputra the purity of the field of merit and the purity of the Dharma-realm. Lastly, Viśeṣacintin questions the Buddha about traditional terms such as “field of merit” and other Mahāyāna terms, and after answering his questions, the Buddha states that someone in such a state is an “omnipresent” (sarvatraga) bodhisattva, who is then extolled in the closing verses of the first chapter.
