The Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra; Cultivation of the Bodhisattva Path to Perfection; Twenty-four vows; Pingdengjue jing; Da amituo jing
摘要
This paper is the first annotated English translation of the twenty-four vows in the Pingdengjue jing in the field. It is commonly believed that: (i) the formation of the vows of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra evolved from the earliest version of the twenty-four vows in the Da Amituo jing, to the second version of the twenty-four vows in the Pingdengjue jing and then to the forty-eight vows system in the Later Recension of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra; and: (ii) the vows of Amitābha in the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka sūtra were derived from the system of the forty-eight vows in the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra. In accordance with this assumption, the marked differences present in the different versions are generally regarded as having their origins in the diverse systems of manuscripts that developed in different Indian regions. However, no scholar has presented a good interpretation of how and why the author of the Pingdengjue jing revised those twenty-four vows in the Da Amituo jing to those of the Pingdengjue jing. Because it is a significant issue related to the formation of the early Mahāyāna sūtras, it is necessary to reconsider the formation of the two versions of the twenty-four vows of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra. With my series of research papers focusing on the formation of the Da Amituo jing, I realized that the Pingdeng jue jing is the best integral text to be used as a reference in the research on the formation of the Da Amituo jing, even the process of the formation of all versions of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra, but it was overlooked by scholars so that there was almost no research focusing on this version. As the primary stage of further study of the formation of the Pingdengjue jing, this paper undertakes the task of presenting an English annotated translation of the twenty-four vows of the Pingdengjue jing.
目次
Abstract Introduction 179 An Annotated English Translation of the Twenty-four Vows in the Pingdeng jue jing 180 References 199
