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A Study of the Buddhabhūmyupadeśa: The Doctrinal Development of the Notion of Wisdom in Yogācāra Thought (2014)

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In this volume John Keenan provides access to an otherwise largely unstudied Mahāyāna text, the Buddhabhūmi-sūtra, along with two commentaries that interpret the sūtra in terms of Yogācāra thought: the Buddhabhūmivyākhyāna by Śīlabhadra, extant in Tibetan, and Bandhuprabha’s Buddhabhūmyupadeśa from the Chinese, which expands on Śīlabhadra’s text with additional explanation. Due to the influence of these two commentaries, the Buddhabhūmisūtra has traditionally been considered a Yogācāra text. In the course of his studies Keenan has come to understand this sūtra as an important part of the Indic literature of Pure Land Buddhism. His approach to the text thus provides a more expansive understanding of the historical origins of Pure Land thought and practice, as well as highlighting the interpretive processes through which sūtra texts can be mined for a variety of different meanings. This important study offers a resource for developing contemporary interpretations of Pure Land teachings.(Source: University of Hawaii Press)

Citation	Keenen, John P. A Study of the Buddhabhūmyupadeśa: The Doctrinal Development of the Notion of Wisdom in Yogācāra Thought. Contemporary Issues in Buddhist Studies. Berkeley, CA: BDK America, 2014.

Contents

• Foreword by Richard K. Payne vii
• Preface: Buddhabhumi Reflections ix
• Introduction xxvii

• Part I. The Context of Indian Buddhism
• Chapter 1. The Commonsense Understanding of the Nikāyas and the Āgamas 3

• Chapter 2. Abhidharma: The Rise of Theory 13

• Chapter 3. Prajñāpāramitā: The Rise of Mystic Consciousness 25

• Chapter 4. Madhyamaka: The Notion of Emptiness 33
  • Nāgārjuna's Intent 33
  • The Meaning of Emptiness 35
  • The Meaning of Dependent Co-arising 37
  • The Two Truths 39
  • Nāgārjuna's Critique of the Means of Cognition 42

• Chapter 5. Tathāgatagarbha: Beyond Abhidharma and Madhyamaka 55
  • The Nonorigination of Discrimination and the Originally Pure Mind 57
  • The Existence of Tathāgatagarbha 59
  • The Need for Faith 62

• Chapter 6. Yogācāra: The Context of Interiority 67

• Chapter 7. The Initial Yogācāra Statement 75
  • The Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra 75
  • The Mahāyānābhidharma-sūtra 82

• Chapter 8. The Place of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra 87

• Chapter 9. The Classical Formulation of Yogācāra by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu 105
  • Vijñānapariṇāma: The Evolutions of Consciousness 106
  • Trisvabhāva: The Three Natures 118
  • Satyadvaya: The Two Truths 126
  • Trikāya: The Three Bodies of Buddha 130

• Chapter 10. An Alternative Yogācāra Synthesis: The Mind of Original Purity 141

• Chapter 11. Dignāga's Critical Epistemology 161

• Chapter 12. Dharmapāla's Lineage 179

• Part II. Analysis of the Buddhabhūmi Texts

• Chapter 13. The Buddhabhūmi-sūtra 201
  • The Place of the Buddhabhūmi-sūtra 201
  • Doctrinal Lineage 211

• Chapter 14. The Buddhabhūmyupadeśa 219

• The Buddhabhūmyupadeśa: An Annotated Translation
• Preface 241
• Introduction 243

• The Arising of the Teaching
  • Chapter 1. The Arising of the Teaching 251
  • Chapter 2. The Merits of the Pure Land 257
  • Chapter 3. The Buddha's Merits 287
  • Chapter 4. The Merits of the Bhagavān's Retinue 305
  • Chapter 5. The Distinction between Bodhi and Nirvāṇa in Regard to the Mahārāvakas 313
  • Chapter 6. The Merits of the Bodhisattvas 319

• The Content of the Teaching
  • Chapter 7. An Analysis of the Five Bodhidharmas 333
  • Chapter 8. Pure Dharmadhātu 363
  • Chapter 9. Mirror Wisdom 391
  • Chapter 10. Equality Wisdom 417
  • Chapter 11. The Wisdom of Intellectual Mastery 429
  • Chapter 12. The Wisdom of Duty Fulfillment 449

• The Practice Based on the Teaching
  • Chapter 13. The Experience of Wisdom 465
  • Chapter 14. The Concluding Verses 475
  • Chapter 15. Bandhuprabha on Trikāya 501

• Bibliography 517
• Index 531

Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

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sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

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abhidharma - Abhidharma generally refers to the corpus of Buddhist texts which deals with the typological, phenomenological, metaphysical, and epistemological presentation of Buddhist concepts and teachings. The abhidharma teachings present a meta-knowledge of Buddhist sūtras through analytical and systemic schemas and are said to focus on developing wisdom among the three principles of training. The Abhidharma is presented alongside Sūtra and Vinaya as one of the three baskets of the teachings of the Buddha. Skt. अभिधर्म Tib. ཆོས་མངོན་པ། Ch. 阿毗达磨

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་,ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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trisvabhāva - According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). Skt. त्रिस्वभाव Tib. རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་

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trikāya - The three enlightened forms of a buddha one attains when one becomes fully enlightened. They include the truth body (dharmakāya), enjoyment body (saṃbhogakāya), and the emanation body (nirmāṇakāya). The three bodies comprise the many qualities and powers associated with buddhahood and thus are the result sought through Mahāyāna Buddhist practice. Skt. त्रिकाय Tib. སྐུ་གསུམ། Ch. 三身

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bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt. बोधि Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་ Ch. 菩提,悟,覺

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dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

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