Buddhavacana
Buddhavacana (T. sangs rgyas kyi bka' སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་; C. foyu 佛語) is translated as "word of the Buddha." It refers to teachings that were given directly by the Buddha, or were given under the sanction of the Buddha.[1] Generally speaking, the three pitakas are accepted as buddhavacana; the texts in these collections are considered to be the direct word of the Buddha, or to carry the authority of the Buddha.
Criteria for Buddhavacana
According to Donald Lopez, criteria for determining what should be considered buddhavacana was developed at an early stage, and that the early formulations do not suggest that the Dharma is limited to what was spoken by the historical Buddha.[2] The Mahāsāṃghika and the Mūlasarvāstivāda considered both the Buddha's discourses, as well those of the Buddha's disciples, to be buddhavacana.[3]
A number of different beings such as buddhas, disciples of the buddha, ṛṣis, and devas were considered capable to transmitting buddhavacana.[4] The content of such a discourse was then to be collated with the sūtras, compared with the Vinaya, and evaluated against the nature of the Dharma.[5][6] These texts may then be certified as true buddhavacana by a buddha, a saṃgha, a small group of elders, or one knowledgeable elder.[7][6]
Surveying the corpus of Buddhist texts that originated in India, Ronald Davidson writes that Indian Buddhists were prolific writers of buddhavacana literature, and that was a special quality of Indian Buddhism:[8]
Given the extraordinary extent of material passing at any one time under the rubric of the "word of the Buddha," we might simply pause and acknowledge that Indian Buddhists were extraordinarily facile literateurs. [...] Institutional creativity of this order, at this level, over this length of time, is sheer inspired genius.
In Theravada Buddhism
In Theravada Buddhism, the standard collection of buddhavacana is the Pali Canon. The oral tradition of the Theravadin recension of Buddhist texts dates back to the time of the Buddha but was not written down until 29 BCE, with continuous revisions up to about 500 CE, taking its present form.
In East Asian Buddhism
In East Asian Buddhism, the buddhavacana is collected in the Chinese Buddhist canon. In this traditon, Mahayana sutras are included within the buddhavacana.
According to Venerable Hsuan Hua from the tradition of Chinese Buddhism, there are five types of beings who may speak the sutras of Buddhism: a buddha, a disciple of a buddha, a deva, a ṛṣi, or an emanation of one of these beings; however, they must first receive certification from a buddha that its contents are true Dharma. Then these sutras may be properly regarded as buddhavacana.[9]
In Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhism, the buddhavacana is collected in the Kangyur branch of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon. In this tradition, the Mahayana sutras and a collection of tantras are included within the bhuddavacana.
See also
References
- ↑ Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Buddhavacana.
- ↑ Lopez, Donald. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. 1998. p. 28
- ↑ Lopez, Donald. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. 1998. p. 28
- ↑ Lopez, Donald. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. 1998. p. 28
- ↑ Lopez, Donald. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. 1998. p. 29
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Skillton 1997, p. 83.
- ↑ Lopez, Donald. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. 1998. p. 29
- ↑ Davidson, Ronald. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: Social History of the Tantric Movement. p. 147
- ↑ Hsuan Hua. The Buddha speaks of Amitabha Sutra: A General Explanation. 2003. p. 2
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University- Skilling, Peter (2010). "Scriptural Authenticity and the Sravaka Schools". The Eastern Buddhist. 41 (2): 1–48.
- Lamotte, Etienne (1983-1984). The Assessment of Textual Authenticity in Buddhism, Buddhist Studies Review 1 (1), 4-15
- Lamotte, Etienne (1985). The Assessment of Textual Authenticity in Buddhism, Buddhist Studies Review 2 (1), 4-24
- Lopez, Donald S. (1995), Authority and Orality in the Mahāyāna, Numen 42 (1), 21-47
Skilton, Andrew (1997), A Concise History of Buddhism, Windhorse Publications
External links
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
sangs_rgyas_kyi_bka', Rangjung Yeshe Wiki