Kāśyapaparivarta
Kāśyapaparivarta (T. 'od srung gi le’u; C. yiri monibao jing 遺日摩尼寶經), or the “The Kāśyapa Chapter”, is an early Mahayana sutra that presents the practices of a bodhisattva. It is included in the Ratnakuta collection.[1]
This work, in its own right, was known as the Ratnakūṭasūtra in several Indian treatises, e.g. Mahāyānasūtralaṃkāra and Śikṣāsamuccaya.[2] Over time, the name Ratnakūṭasūtra came to be applied to the large collection of sutras, and this text came to be called the Kāśyapaparivarta.
The 84000 Knowledge Base states:
- Citations from a Ratnakūṭasūtra in works by Asaṅga, Śāntideva, and other authors all refer to the Kāśyapaparivarta, which is sometimes therefore designated the “old” Ratnakūṭa.[3]
The Kāśyapaparivarta is generally agreed as belonging to the group of ‘earlier’ Mahāyāna sūtras,[1][4] "probably dating from sometime in the first century CE."[1] It was one of the first Mahayana sutras translated into Chinese, by Lokaksema.[1] A Sanskrit manuscript for this text was "rediscovered" in Khotan in the 1890s.[1]
Jonathan Silk states:
- The Kāśyapaparivarta is often considered one of the fundamental scriptures of the emerging Mahāyāna movement. In it we find articulated a depiction of the bodhisattva's outlook, wherein a central articulation of the Mahāyāna message is developed.[5]
The Princeton Dictionary states:
- The sūtra offers an overview of practices emblematic of bodhisattvas, which are arranged in several groups of four practices apiece. The text cites a “bodhisattva canon” (bodhisattvapiṭaka) as the source for the teaching on the six perfections (pāramitā) and offers one of the earliest mentions of the “thought of enlightenment” (bodhicitta) in its Mahāyāna interpretation as the aspiration to achieve buddhahood. A bodhisattva who generates this thought even for the first time is said to be superior to the solitary buddhas (pratyekabuddha) and disciples (śrāvaka).[1]
Translation into English
- Pasadika (2015), The Kāśyapaparivarta, New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Kāśyapaparivarta
- ↑
Heap of Jewels
- ↑ Heap of Jewels (Kangyur Section), 84000 Knowledge Base
- ↑ Jonathan A. Silk, "The Nature of the Verses of the Kāśyapaparivarta", Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 23 (2009), pp. 181-190
- ↑ Jonathan Silk, "Articulating a New Message: Reading the Kāśyapaparivarta as an Earlier Mahāyāna Scripture", Stanford, Ho Center for Buddhist Studies
Further reading
- Jonathan A. Silk, "The Nature of the Verses of the Kāśyapaparivarta", Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 23 (2009), pp. 181-190
- Mahāyāna Composition: the Case of the Kāśyapaparivarta