Dharmakṣema
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धर्मक्षेम
Dharmakṣema(385 - 433)
竺法豐
Indian Buddhist monk who was an early translator of Buddhist materials into Chinese. A scion of a brāhmaṇa family from India, Dharmakṣema became at the age of six a disciple of Dharmayaśas (C. Damoyeshe; J. Donmayasha) (d.u.), an Abhidharma specialist who later traveled to China c. 397-401 and translated the Śãriputrãbhidharmaśãstra. Possessed of both eloquence and intelligence, Dharmakṣema was broadly learned in both monastic and secular affairs and was well versed in mainstream Buddhist texts. After he met a meditation monk named "White Head" and had a fiery debate with him, Dharmakṣema recognized his superior expertise and ended up studying with him. The monk transmitted to him a text of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra written on bark, which prompted Dharmakṣema to embrace the Mahāyāna. Once he reached the age of twenty, Dharmakṣema was able to recite over two million words of Buddhist texts. He was also so skilled in casting spells that he earned the sobriquet "Great Divine Spell Master" (C. Dashenzhou shi). Carrying with him the first part of the Mahãparinirvãṇasūtra that he received from "White Head," he left India and arrived in the Kucha kingdom in Central Asia. As the people of Kucha mostly studied hīnayāna and did not accept the Mahāyāna teachings, Dharmakṣema then moved to China and lived in the western outpost of Dunhuang for several years. Juqu Mengxun, the non-Chinese ruler of the Northern Liang dynasty (397-439 CE), eventually brought Dharmakṣema to his capital. After studying the Chinese language for three years and learning how to translate Sanskrit texts orally into Chinese, Dharmakṣema engaged there in a series of translation projects under Juqu Mengxun's patronage. With the assistance of Chinese monks, such as Daolang and Huigao, Dharmakṣema produced a number of influential Chinese translations, including the Dabanniepan jing (S. Mahāparinirvãṇasūtra; in forty rolls), the longest recension of the sūtra extant in any language; the Jinguangmingjing ("Sūtra of Golden Light"; S. Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra; in four rolls); and the Pusa dichi jing (S. Bodhisattvabhūmisūtra; in ten rolls). He is also said to have made the first Chinese translation of the Laṅkāvatārasūtra (C. Ru Lengqie jing, but his rendering had dropped out of circulation at least by 730 CE, when the Tang Buddhist cataloguer Zhisheng (700-786 CE) compiled the Kaiyuan Shijiao lu. The Northern Wei ruler Tuoba Tao, a rival of Juqu Mengxun's, admired Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise and requested that the Northern Liang ruler send the Indian monk to his country. Fearing that his rival might seek to employ Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise against him, Juqu Mengxun had the monk assassinated at the age of forty- nine. Dharmakṣema's translation of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese had a significant impact on Chinese Buddhism; in particular, the doctrine that all beings have the buddha-nature (foxing), a teaching appearing in Dharmakṣema's translation of the Mahāparinirvãṇasūtra, exerted tremendous influence on the development of Chinese Buddhist thought. (Source: "Dharmakṣema". In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 247–48. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27)
6 Library Items
Mahāmeghasūtra
One of the tathāgatagarbha sūtras, this text is based around a narrative in which the Buddha is questioned by the bodhisattva Mahāmeghagarbha. According to Radich (see scholarly notes below) the exposition of tathāgatagarbha doctrine in the Mahāmeghasūtra echoes that of the Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra. It preaches the theme of secret teachings, the idea that tathāgatagarbha/buddha nature is to be “seen,” and the fact that sentient beings have tathāgatagarbha within them like a separate entity.
Mahāmeghasūtra;tathāgatagarbha;History of buddha-nature in India;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Dharmakṣema;'phags pa sprin chen po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Great Cloud Sūtra;Mahāmeghasūtra;महामेघसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Nirvana Sutra (Yamamoto)
This book is the full Dharmakṣema version of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. This particular book is unique in that the passages are numbered, making it easier for people to find verses of importance. It is translated by Kosho Yamamoto.
Yamamoto, Kosho, trans. Nirvana Sutra: A Translation of Dharmakshema’s Northern Version. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
Yamamoto, Kosho, trans. Nirvana Sutra: A Translation of Dharmakshema’s Northern Version. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.;Nirvana Sutra (Yamamoto);Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Dharmakṣema; Kosho Yamamoto;Nirvana Sutra: A Translation of Dharmakshema’s Northern Version
Stephen Hodge Translates (The Mahāyāna Mahāparnirvāṇa-Sūtra)
This electronic resource contains various translations from Stephen Hodge of diverse parts of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. It is presented on Dr. Tony Page's website entitled Nirvana Sutra: Appreciation of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra." According to Page, the passages translated by Hodge were taken from various parts of the Dharmakṣema Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and constitute words spoken by the Buddha within the sūtra. Hodge's translations are presented in four parts (on four separate pages) within Page's website. The page titles include: Stephen Hodge Translates, Stephen Hodge Translates 2, Stephen Hodge Translates 3, and Stephen Hodge Translates 4.
Page, Tony. "Stephen Hodge Translates (The Mahāyāna Mahāparnirvāṇa-Sūtra)." Nirvana Sutra: Appreciation of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra." Updated August 2019. http://www.nirvanasutra.net/stephenhodgetranslates.htm.
Page, Tony. "Stephen Hodge Translates (The Mahāyāna Mahāparnirvāṇa-Sūtra)." Nirvana Sutra: Appreciation of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra." Updated August 2019. http://www.nirvanasutra.net/stephenhodgetranslates.htm.; Stephen Hodge Translates (The Mahāyāna Mahāparnirvāṇa-Sūtra); Stephen Hodge Translates (The Mahāyāna Mahāparnirvāṇa-Sūtra); Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra; Dharmakṣema; Stephen Hodge;
The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra was translated into English by Kosho Yamamoto in 1973 from Dharmakṣema's Chinese version (Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 12, No. 374). The edition represented here is Tony Page's edited and revised version of Yamamoto's translation.
Yamamoto, Kōshō, trans. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. Translated into English from Dharmakṣema's Chinese version (Taisho Tripiṭaka vol. 12, no. 374). Edited and revised by Tony Page. n.p.: n.p., 2007. First published 1973 by Karinbunko (Ube, Japan). http://lirs.ru/do/Mahaparinirvana_Sutra,Yamamoto,Page,2007.pdf
Yamamoto, Kōshō, trans. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. Translated into English from Dharmakṣema's Chinese version (Taisho Tripiṭaka vol. 12, no. 374). Edited and revised by Tony Page. n.p.: n.p., 2007. First published 1973 by Karinbunko (Ube, Japan). http://lirs.ru/do/Mahaparinirvana_Sutra,Yamamoto,Page,2007.pdf;The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Dharmakṣema;tathāgatagarbha;Dharmakṣema; Kosho Yamamoto;The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra
The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra is one of the main scriptural sources for buddha-nature in China and Tibet. Set around the time of Buddha's passing or Mahāparinirvāṇa, the sūtra contains teachings on buddha-nature equating it with the dharmakāya—that is, the complete enlightenment of a buddha. It also asserts that all sentient beings possess this nature as the buddhadhātu, or buddha-element, which thus acts as a cause, seed, or potential for all beings to attain enlightenment. Furthermore, the sūtra includes some salient features related to this concept, such as the single vehicle and the notion that the dharmakāya is endowed with the four pāramitās of permanence, bliss, purity, and a self.
It may be noted that there are three different texts with similar titles in the Chinese and Tibetan canons. Of the three Tibetan texts with Mahāparinirvāṇa in their title, a short one (Derge Kanjur, No. 121) called Āryamahāparinirvāṇasūtra contains prophecies of events in the centuries after the Buddha's Mahāparinirvāṇa but has nothing on buddha-nature. Thus, this is not the Mahāparinirvāṇāsūtra which is considered as a Tathāgatagarbhasūtra. The two which deal with buddha-nature are Mahāyānasūtras and contain detailed accounts of the final teachings of the Buddha. The first sūtra, the longer one covering two volumes of Derge Kanjur (mdo sde Nya and Ta) is a translation from Chinese while the second one is a translation from Sanskrit. They appear to be two different recensions of the same original sūtra as they have similar titles and overlapping content. However, the one translated from Chinese is much longer and also contains information on the events after the Buddha entered Mahāparinirvāṇa.
Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Buddhabhadra; Devacandra;Gewai Lodrö;དགེ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས;dge ba'i blo gros;Dharmakṣema;Wangpabzhun;ཝང་ཕབ་ཞུན;Wang phab zhun;Gyatso De;རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྡེ;rgya mtsho'i sde;Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra;Jñānagarbha;rgya gar gyi mkhan po dznyA na garbha;Kamalagupta;Rinchen Zangpo;རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་;rin chen bzang po;lo tsA ba rin chen bzang po;ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་;Faxian;Fa-Hien;Fa-hsien;Xie Lingyun;Huiyan;Hui-yen;Huiguan;Hui-kuan;'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po theg pa chen po'i mdo;'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo chen po;'phags pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa chen po'i mdo;འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;Great Nirvāṇa Mahāyāna Sūtra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;大般泥洹經;महापरिनिर्वाणसूत्र;འཕགས་པ་ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
Commonly referred to as the Lotus Sūtra, this text is extremely popular in East Asia, where it is considered to be the "final" teaching of the Buddha. Especially in Japan, reverence for this text has put it at the center of numerous Buddhist movements, including many modern, so-called new religions. The esteemed status of this scripture is epitomized in the Nichiren school's sole practice of merely paying homage to its title with the prayer "Namu myōhō renge kyō".
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;Surendrabodhi;lha dbang byang chub; Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Kumārajīva;Dharmarakṣa;Dharmakṣema;Jñānagupta;Dharmagupta;Jiduo;dam pa'i chos pad ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།;White Lotus of the Excellent Doctrine Sūtra;Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;妙法蓮華經;सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्र;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
On the topic of this person
Reading the Writing on the Wall: "Sengchou's" Cave at Xiaonanhai, Early Chinese Buddhist Meditation, and Unique Portions of *Dharmakṣema's Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra
The Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra (particularly in the version entitled Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃經 T374, translated by *Dharmakṣema ca. 421-432) features centrally in the textual and iconographic programme of a remarkable cave at Xiaonanhai 小南海 in northern Henan 河南, which was rediscovered in the 1980s. The cave has close connections with Sengchou 僧稠 (480-560), a famous meditator, and one of the leading clerics in Northern China in the sixth century. This paper argues for a new interpretation of the programme of the cave, and considers what it allows us to see about religious life and practice in Sengchou's time. An appendix examines implications of the textual material featured at the cave for the nature and provenance of the bulky portions of Dharmakṣema's version of the Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra that are unparalleled in our other three main independent witnesses. (Source: Peeters Online Journals)
Radich, Michael. "Reading the Writing on the Wall: 'Sengchou's' Cave at Xiaonanhai, Early Chinese Buddhist Meditation, and Unique Portions of *Dharmakṣema's Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 42 (2019): 515–632.
Radich, Michael. "Reading the Writing on the Wall: 'Sengchou's' Cave at Xiaonanhai, Early Chinese Buddhist Meditation, and Unique Portions of *Dharmakṣema's Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 42 (2019): 515–632.; Reading the Writing on the Wall: "Sengchou's" Cave at Xiaonanhai, Early Chinese Buddhist Meditation, and Unique Portions of *Dharmakṣema's Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra; Reading the Writing on the Wall: "Sengchou's" Cave at Xiaonanhai, Early Chinese Buddhist Meditation, and Unique Portions of *Dharmakṣema's Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra; Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra; Dharmakṣema; Meditation; Michael Radich;
The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra
The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra was translated into English by Kosho Yamamoto in 1973 from Dharmakṣema's Chinese version (Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 12, No. 374). The edition represented here is Tony Page's edited and revised version of Yamamoto's translation.
Yamamoto, Kōshō, trans. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. Translated into English from Dharmakṣema's Chinese version (Taisho Tripiṭaka vol. 12, no. 374). Edited and revised by Tony Page. n.p.: n.p., 2007. First published 1973 by Karinbunko (Ube, Japan). http://lirs.ru/do/Mahaparinirvana_Sutra,Yamamoto,Page,2007.pdf
Yamamoto, Kōshō, trans. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. Translated into English from Dharmakṣema's Chinese version (Taisho Tripiṭaka vol. 12, no. 374). Edited and revised by Tony Page. n.p.: n.p., 2007. First published 1973 by Karinbunko (Ube, Japan). http://lirs.ru/do/Mahaparinirvana_Sutra,Yamamoto,Page,2007.pdf;The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Dharmakṣema;tathāgatagarbha;Dharmakṣema; Kosho Yamamoto;The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra