Śikṣānanda

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Śikṣānanda(652 - 710)

Śikṣānanda. (C. Shichanantuo; J. Jisshananda; K. Silch'anant'a 實叉難陀‎) (652-710). A monk from Khotan (C. Yutian), who was an important translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese during the Tang dynasty. The Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690-705) invited Śikṣānanda to the Chinese Capital of Luoyang, asking him to bring from Khotan its Sanskrit recension of the Avataṃsakasūtra (alt. Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra; C. Dafangguang Fo huayan jing), which was longer and more comprehensive than the sixty-roll version then in use in China, which had previously been translated by the Indian monk Buddhabhadra (359-429). Śikṣānanda arrived in Luoyang in 695 and supervised a translation team in rendering this Khotanese recension into Chinese; his team included Bodhiruci (693-727), Yijing (635-713), and Wǒnch'ǔk (613-696). Śikṣānanda and his team finished their translation in 699, after four years of work, in a total of eighty rolls. The translation that Śikṣānanda supervised is typically called within the tradition the "new" (xin) translation, in contrast to Buddhabhadra's "old" translation. (Li Tongxuan's commentary to Śikṣānanda's new rendering of the text is, for example, called the Xin Huayan jing lun; see Huayan jing helun.) Śikṣānanda continued with his translation projects until 705, when he returned to Khotan to care for his aged mother. Some thirteen other translations are attributed to him, including the Laṅkāvatārasūtra and several shorter dhāraṇī sūtras, as well as a version of the Dasheng qixin lun ("Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna"). Emperor Zhongzong (r. 705-710) invited Śikṣānanda to return once again to China in 708, but he died of illness in 710 at the age of fifty-nine without beginning any new translation work. It is reported that after his cremation, his tongue remained untouched by flames—an indication of his remarkable erudition. (Source: "Śikṣānanda." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 820. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Library Items

Book
Manifestation of the Tathāgata
What does it mean to be a Buddha? This new translation of the "Manifestation of the Tathāgata" chapter from the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, considered the most profound and comprehensive Buddhist scripture, offers the reader a rare glimpse of the sublime realm of Buddhahood in language that is rich in meaning and in captive imagery.
      Venerable Cheng Chien lucidly introduces the reader to the meaning of Buddhahood and explains the origin, transmission, and special features of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. He presents us with an understanding of the stature of the "Manifestation of the Tathāgata" chapter in the context of the entire sūtra, as well as its relation to other scholastic texts. (Source Accessed Nov 23, 2020)
Chien, Cheng (Mario Poceski), trans. Manifestation of the Tathāgata: Buddhahood according to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1993.
Book
Soûtra de l'Entrée à Lankâ
Voici la première traduction française du Soûtra de l'Entrée à Lankâ (Lankâvatâra) qui, avec le Soûtra des Dix Terres (Dashabhûmika) et le Soûtra du Dévoilement du sens profond (Sandhinirmocana), forme l'assise scripturaire de ce qu'il est commode mais inexact d'appeler l'«idéalisme bouddhiste».

Négation pure et simple des Idées - platoniciennes, cartésiennes ou «modernes» -, cet idéalisme singulier n'est pas le contraire du matérialisme car, s'il ramène effectivement l'être au concept et les choses à la pensée, il n'admet pas non plus la réalité ultime de la conscience ni de tout ce qui entre dans les catégories du spirituel : il s'agit plutôt, comme l'ensemble de la philosophie bouddhiste, d'une dénonciation rationnelle des limites et dangers du réalisme naïf qui semble dominer la pensée humaine.

Manuel de réalisation intérieure, le Lankâ décrit la vacuité de la matière, où il ne voit que les représentations, et la vacuité du psychique, lequel peut se ramener à autant d'idées fictives, avant de proposer une méthode contemplative radicale, fondée sur la «nature de bouddha» en tant que «claire lumière naturelle de l'esprit», dont le chan/zen et le tantrisme sont les applications les plus abouties.

La présente traduction, réalisée sur la version chinoise de Shikshânanda (702), est agrémentée de quelques indispensables notes que devraient compléter les brillantes remarques de Fazang du Huayan, assistant styliste du traducteur, dans ses Mystères essentiels de l'Entrée à Lankâ, à paraître prochainement. (Source: Fayard)
Carré, Patrick, trans. Soûtra de l'Entrée à Lankâ. Trésors du bouddhisme. Paris: Fayard, 2006.
Text
Laṅkāvatārasūtra
An important Mahāyāna sūtra that was highly influential in East Asia as well as in Nepal, where a manuscript was discovered that remains the only extant Sanskrit recension of this text. It is notable for its inclusion of many doctrinal features that would come to be associated with the Yogācāra philosophy of Mind-Only (Cittamātra), such as the ālayavijñāna, or store-house consciousness, that acts as a repository for the seeds of karmic actions. It also includes several lengthy discussions of tathāgatagarbha and, though it is never actually referenced in the Uttaratantra, it is often listed among the so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras. While its lack of mention in the Uttaratantra has been interpreted by scholars as evidence that the sūtra postdates the treatise, it should be noted that the ways in which the tathāgatagarbha is discussed in the sūtra is often at odds with its presentation in the Uttaratantra.
Text
Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra
One of the longest works in the entire Buddhist canon, the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra is widely considered to be a compilation of independent scriptures, which was expanded upon over the course of time. It was extremely influential in East Asia, where it was preserved in an eighty-scroll recension. The Tibetan translation of this work fills four volumes in the Derge Kangyur. Though only two sections—namely, the Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra and the Daśabhūmikasūtra—have survived in Sanskrit, both of which have also circulated as independent works.
Text
Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa
One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially in terms of the last of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the activities.
Text
Aśvaghoṣa: Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra
The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna is an immensely important treatise popular in all traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. It was written in China in the middle of the sixth century, heavily influenced by Indian Yogācāra and tathāgatagarbha teachings, providing a scriptural foundation for both buddha-nature theory and the doctrine of original enlightenment. The text synthesized tathāgatagarbha and ālayavijñāna theories to explain how the mind is the source for both enlightenment and ignorance. A relatively short text at just nine pages, it lucidly, if densely, explains important topics such as the nature of mind and consciousness and the threefold bodies of the Buddha, concluding with elegant meditation instructions. Although traditionally said to have been composed by Aśvaghoṣa and translated by Paramārtha, contemporary scholarly consensus has raised doubts about this attribution, and the text's authorship is typically said to be unknown. There is no known Tibetan translation but the text is mentioned three times in Saṃdhigambhīranirmocanasūtratīkā written by the Chinese scholar Wan tshik (རྒྱའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཝན་ཚིག་གིས་མཛད་པ་ འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ཟབ་མོ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་བའི་མདོ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ།) and translated by Gö Chödrup.

On the topic of this person

Article
A Clue to the Authorship of the Awakening of Faith: "Śikṣānanda's" Redaction of the Word "Nien"
The text, Ta-ch'eng ch'i-hsin lunf (The Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna, henceforth abbreviated as AFM), has been the center of a long controversy in the field of Buddhist studies. It has been suspected by Mochizuki Shinkōg'"`UNIQ--ref-000041D9-QINU`"' and others to be a Chinese fabrication, while Tokiwa Daijō and others defend its alleged Indian origin. The present short article will not review the past and present scholarship on the AFM or bring in my own studies on the matter.'"`UNIQ--ref-000041DA-QINU`"' It will be devoted to one tiny but crucial issue: the fate of a key concept in the two "translations"—Paramārtha's original (AFM) and Śikṣānanda's version (AFMS for short). The concept is nien and wu-nien. To state the conclusion here so as to simplify our discussion: the nien complex, in my opinion, cannot be understood without reference to a pre-Buddhist (Han Chinese) usage of the term. It is foreign or jarring enough to the person responsible for the AFMS that it has been systematically modified or outright substituted so as to bring the AFM in line with the Yogācāra (Wei-shih,i Vijñaptimātratā) philosophy. By showing the sinitic character of the nien ideology, its centrality in the AFM, and the redaction of it by the AFMS, we can come one step closer to resolving the long controversy over the authorship of the AFM. From the limited evidence in this one short study, it would appear that the AFM was authored in China and the AFMS was a conscious redaction of the AFM in China (or Korea?'"`UNIQ--ref-000041DB-QINU`"') to bring this work into line with the demands of Hsüan-tsang'sj Wei-shih philosophy.
      We will begin with a survey of modern Sanskritists' attempts at identifying nien and why such attempts have ultimately failed. Then we will look at a similar attempt by the AFMS to edit off the nien ideology and how by so doing it violated the integrity of the original AFM message. The sinitic meaning of the term nien and wu-nien will be demonstrated with precedents in Han thought, usages in the Six Dynasties and in Ch'an.k I will conclude with a word on why AFMS was produced. (Lai, "A Clue to the Authorship of the Awakening of Faith," 34–35)
Lai, Whalen. "A Clue to the Authorship of the Awakening of Faith: 'Śikṣānanda's' Redaction of the Word 'Nien'." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 3, no. 1 (1980): 34–53. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8506/2413.
Book
Soûtra de l'Entrée à Lankâ
Voici la première traduction française du Soûtra de l'Entrée à Lankâ (Lankâvatâra) qui, avec le Soûtra des Dix Terres (Dashabhûmika) et le Soûtra du Dévoilement du sens profond (Sandhinirmocana), forme l'assise scripturaire de ce qu'il est commode mais inexact d'appeler l'«idéalisme bouddhiste».

Négation pure et simple des Idées - platoniciennes, cartésiennes ou «modernes» -, cet idéalisme singulier n'est pas le contraire du matérialisme car, s'il ramène effectivement l'être au concept et les choses à la pensée, il n'admet pas non plus la réalité ultime de la conscience ni de tout ce qui entre dans les catégories du spirituel : il s'agit plutôt, comme l'ensemble de la philosophie bouddhiste, d'une dénonciation rationnelle des limites et dangers du réalisme naïf qui semble dominer la pensée humaine.

Manuel de réalisation intérieure, le Lankâ décrit la vacuité de la matière, où il ne voit que les représentations, et la vacuité du psychique, lequel peut se ramener à autant d'idées fictives, avant de proposer une méthode contemplative radicale, fondée sur la «nature de bouddha» en tant que «claire lumière naturelle de l'esprit», dont le chan/zen et le tantrisme sont les applications les plus abouties.

La présente traduction, réalisée sur la version chinoise de Shikshânanda (702), est agrémentée de quelques indispensables notes que devraient compléter les brillantes remarques de Fazang du Huayan, assistant styliste du traducteur, dans ses Mystères essentiels de l'Entrée à Lankâ, à paraître prochainement. (Source: Fayard)
Carré, Patrick, trans. Soûtra de l'Entrée à Lankâ. Trésors du bouddhisme. Paris: Fayard, 2006.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

avidyā - Literally "unknowing," it refers to a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the nature of reality. As such, it is considered to be the root cause of suffering and the basis for the arising of all other negative mental factors. Skt. अविद्या Tib. མ་རིག་པ་ Ch. 無明

actualized enlightenment - Actualized enlightenment is enlightenment that is attained through practice. It is contrasted with original enlightenment, which is the mind's innate purity in its natural state. Ultimately, there is no difference between them. Because of the presence of ignorance, sentient beings are blind to their true nature. By removing that ignorance, one actualizes enlightenment. Ch. 始覺

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

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