Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts — SBE Vol. 49 — trans. Cowell, Müller & Takakusu (1894)

THE LARGER SUKHAVATi-VYUHA. According to the census of 189 1 Japan has about forty millions of inhabitants, of whom more than thirty miUions are Buddhists. Of these Buddhists the Shin-shiu sect claims about ten millions of followers, with 19,208 temples, and 11,958 preachers, with ten chief priests, and 3,593 students. The books on which the members of this sect chiefly found their faith are the two Sukhavati-vyuhas, the large and the small, and the A m itay u r-dhyana-sutra. They are sometimes called the Large Sutra, the Small Siitra. and the Sutra of Meditation ^. According to the Buddhists of Japan, Buddha preached the Amitayur-dhyana-sutra to queen Vaidehi in the city of R^£-agrzha.. This was during the fifth period of his life ; i. e. when he was between the age of seventy-one and seventy-nine. The outline given of this Siitra is as follows : ' Vaidehi, consort of king Bimbisara of Magadha, seeing the wicked actions of her son A^dtai-atru, began to feel weary of this world Saha (here as elsewhere explained as the patient, much-enduring earth). 5akyamuni then taught her how to be born in the Pure Land Sukhavati, instructing her in the method of being born in that world, enumerating three kinds of good actions. The first is worldly goodness, which includes good actions in general, such as filial piety, respect ' See Sukhavati-vyuha, in Anecdota Oxoniensia, p. ix.

VI THE LARGER SUKHAVATl-VVUllA.

for ciders, loyalty, faithfulness, &c. The second is the goodness of Sila. or morality, in which there are differences between the priesthood and the laity. In short, however, all who do not oppose the general rule of reproving wickedness and exhorting to the practice of virtue are included in this goodness. The third is the goodness of practice, which includes that of the four Satyas or truths, and the six Paramitas or perfections.

Besides these, all other pure and good actions, such as the reading and recital of the Mahaydna-sutras, persuading others to hear the Law, and thirteen kinds of goodness to be practised by fixed thought, are comprised in this. Towards the end of the Sutra, Buddha says : " Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought, and repeat the words Namo^mitdbhaya Buddhaya, or adoration to Amitabha Buddha.

This practice is the most excellent of all. ' At seventy-eight years of age Buddha is said ^ to have composed the Samanta-bhadra-bodhisattva-ztarya-dharmasutra, in the city of Vaij-ali. At the age of seventy-nine he is supposed to have ascended to the Trayastriw/ja heaven in order to preach to his mother, and after descending on earth again, he only published two more SCltras, the Nirvdwa-sdtra and the Sukhavati-vyuha. Very soon after he died.

The same three books, that is, the two Sukhavati-vyuhas and the AmitAyiir-dhyAna-sutra, form also the chief authority of the Codoshiu sect, the sect of the Pure Land. The followers of this sect state" that in the }'ear 2^32 A. D. Sarighavarman, an Indian student of theTripi/aka, came to China and translated the great Amit^yu//-sutra, i.e. the Larger Sukhavati-vyuha, in two volumes. This is the first and largest of their .sacred books. In the year 400 A. I), another teacher, Kumara^iva, came from India to China, and produced a translation of the

' These arc the statements of the Buddhists in Japan as rccordcfl by Hiinyiu Nanjio in ' .Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects,' Tokyo, 1886, p. xviii. ' I.oc. cit. p. 104.

INTRODUCTION. vii