Home About Us Texts Print Publications Order Digital Texts Other Projects Contact Us Publication: Apocryphal Scriptures Publication Year: 2005 ISBN Number: 1-886439-29-X Number of Pages: 161 Dimensions: Weight: Binding: clothbound Description: This volume contains five scriptural texts that have been especially important and influential in the East Asian Buddhist tradition. The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra, purportedly the last teaching given by the Buddha to the monks, emphasizes the practice of monastic discipline through observance of the pratimok≈a, rules of conduct. This text was influential to Chinese Buddhists of the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties and considered a basic reference for the Chan (Zen) school in particular. In The Ullambana Sutra, the Buddha instructs the monk Mahāmaudgalyāyana on how to obtain liberation for his mother, who had been reborn into a lower realm, by making food offerings to the sangha on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. This practice is the basis of the Obon ceremony in honor of one’s ancestors that is still observed widely in Japan. The Sutra of Forty-two Sections is a compilation of brief passages drawn from many Buddhist sutras, including Pāli and Chinese Buddhist sources, particularly the Āgamas (canonical texts). Each section presents an ethical teaching intended for practice by Buddhist followers, and because of its practical relevance to moral behavior, the text has remained a popular general text among Chinese Buddhists up to the present day. The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, especially important in the Chan and Huayan traditions in China, deals with teaching of intrinsic enlightenment—the potentiality for Buddhahood shared by all sentient beings—that became a fundamental axiom on which uniquely East Asian forms of Buddhist belief and practice developed. The Sutra on the Profundity of Filial Love, known as the Buddhist book of filial piety, reveals the synthesis of native Chinese Confucian ideals with Buddhist teachings. Believed to have been produced by Chinese Buddhist monks in imitation of the Confucian Classic of Filial Piety, the text shows that Buddhism also teaches the idea of filial piety, though it is to be based on the aspiration to attain enlightenment, and how best to repay one’s indebtedness to one’s parents.   Add to Cart Taisho Number Title Description Authors/Translators 389 The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra 1 fascicle Translated by Kumārajīva Taishō No. 389 This sūtra, generally known as the Yui-kyō-gyō (Ch.: I-chiao-ching), contains the last teachings of Śākyamuni, delivered to the disciples assembled around his deathbed between two sal trees. In this last sermon Śākyamuni urges his disciples to strive for enlightenment through the practice of the three disciplines (precepts, meditation and wisdom), and after having expounded other concepts basic to Buddhist thought, he ends by saying that this is his last teaching. The sūtra has gained considerable popularity in Japan since it is said to record the Buddha’s last teachings, and it is held in especially high regard in the Zen sects. Translator: J. Cleary 685 The Ullambana Sutra 1 fascicle Translated by Dharmarakṣa Taishō No. 685 The Bon ceremony (Urabon-e) performed in Japan in memory of the dead is based upon the contents of this sūtra. It relates how Maudgalyāyana, one of Śākyamuni’s disciples, asked Śākyamuni how he might save his mother who had fallen into the realm of hungry spirits (Skt.: preta). Maudgalyāyana was instructed to make offerings of food and drink on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (the final day of the three-month retreat during the rainy season), and upon doing so his mother was relieved of her agony. The word yü-lan-p’ên in the title is said to be a transliteration of the Sanskrit word ullambana, which means ‘hanging upside down,’ a metaphorical reference to the suffering undergone in the realm of hungry spirits. Judging from the fact that the Bon ceremony is still performed in Japan today, one can say that this sūtra has had considerable influence. Translator: Shojun Bando 784 The Sutra of Forty-two Sections 1 fascicle Translated by Kāśyapamātaṅga and Chu-fa-lan (Jap.: Jiku Hōran; Skt.: Dharmaraksa?) Taishō No. 784 This “Sūtra of Forty-Two Sections” is said to be the first Buddhist scripture brought to China, but some scholars maintain that it is an apocryphal work produced in China. As the title suggests, it explains important tenets of Buddhist doctrine in 42 sections, thus serving as it were as an introduction to Buddhism. Basic Buddhist concepts such as suffering, impermanence and non-self as well as items relating to Buddhist practice, such as compassion and almsgiving, are elucidated by means of most apposite similes. Owing to the fact that it is written in very simple language, this sūtra was widely read in China, and there are as many as ten variant versions of the text. Translator: Heng-ching Shih 842 The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment 1 fascicle Translated by Buddhatrāta Taishō No. 842 This “Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment” takes the format of a dialogue between the Buddha and 12 bodhisattvas, starting with Mañjuśrī, who each puts a question to the Buddha. The central theme is the concept of ‘perfect and immediate enlightenment’ (yüan-tun; Jap.: endon), said to be the consummate teaching of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Although this sūtra is said to be an apocryphal work compiled in China, it was held in high regard in Ch’an schools. However Dōgen, the founder of the Sōtō Sect in Japan, rejected it on the grounds that it differs in con-tents from other Mahāyāna sūtras. Translator: Peter Gregory 2887 The Sutra on the Profundity of Filial Love 1 fascicle Taishō No. 2887 This “Sūtra on the Profundity of Parental Love” describes just how deep the love of parents for their children is, and then goes on to recommend that in order to repay this parental love one should perform the Bon ceremony (v. No. 36) and recite and copy this sūtra. Judging from its unnatural format and rather laboured contents, it is generally considered that this sūtra was composed in China, probably as a result of Confucian influence upon Buddhism. However, it won great popularity, being even quoted in literary works, and many commentaries were written on it. Translator: Keiyo Arai         Privacy Policy