Classes of Mahayana Scriptures

For the purposes of study, it may be useful to list the types of scripture that exist and then discuss some of their class histories in the coming posts (groupings courtesy of Rupert Gethin):

“Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita)” Scriptures (that teach about the “emptiness” and Compassion of the Bodhisattva life)

Scriptures such as the “Dasabhumika Sutra” and “Bodhisattva-pitaka” (that set out stages on the Bodhisattva path)

Meditation Sutras (that teach about meditation)

“Mind-Only” Scriptures (that stress the way the mind “constructs” the world and getting past the self)

“Embryo of Tathagata” or “Buddha Nature” Scriptures (that teach of the Buddha within all of us – their taxonomy overlaps somewhat with that of the “Mind-Only” group)

Scriptures Central to East Asian Buddhism, especially (such as the Saddharmapundarika Sutra)

“Pure Land” Scriptures (regarding the “pure land” of Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light)

The class believed to be the oldest in origin is the Prajnaparamita class and the oldest of the class is probably the “Perfection in 8,000 Lines (Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita)” being first written in 8,000 lines of Sanskrit. Paramita means perfection, Prajna means wisdom and the class is collectively called the Prajnaparamita sutras. They don’t have the clear historical moorings of any of the Tripitaka Canon (especially the first two pitaka) and their style is more poetic, certainly, than the 3^rd pitaka, the abhidharma, against the intellectualism of and scholasticism related to which they are thought, in part, to be a criticism. The style is also visionary and there is much allusion and reference to mythology and cosmology. We can regard it as somewhat breaking the so-called “noble silences” of Siddhartha concerning such things as I mentioned in an earlier post. It directly teaches the ultimate nature of reality in a less intellectualising and more intuitive way than the abhidharma does and promotes this form of teaching over the way of the scholastics. The symbol of the sword as seen in pictures and statues of the Buddha Manjusri as below is often used in its imagery:

This sword possibly symbolises the radical and heroic nature of Mahayana Buddhism and also the tool (prajña) required to ‘cut away’ all illusion. The realisation expected in this state of prajña is that all is nothingness or no thing-ness (sunyata) so in effect the sword, too, is an illusion. It is the ineffable true nature of ‘things’ that there is no thing. Those who developed these ideas realised that this would be regarded (and perhaps disparaged) as nihilism (and suggest that prospect as the reason it wasn’t the first thing that Siddhartha taught). It’s more radical even than non-self. The world is likened to things like a dream or a flame. Even nirvana is so regarded and, in case we think there is anything or anywhere else that could exist or not or both or neither, we’re told there isn’t anything else that isn’t no thing-ness, too.

Traditionally, these teachings were withheld until a Bodhisattva was well into the Bodhisattva path. Anyone else, proponents argued, would certainly misuse them. They are taught as the answer but only for the so-initiated. The powers (cittis) that are said to come from meditation in the jhanas for such people include the ability to walk through walls, teleport, fly and read minds but are themselves taught as being unwanted distractions (at best) from arriving at the final truth of sunyata. They are in fact temptations that may lead to pride, which is certainly undesirable. The cittis are really regarded as quite dangerous for those reasons.

It is unclear how literally this belief in no thing-ness is meant to be taken. Perhaps the idea is simply meant to make ‘letting go’ of ‘things’ easier (since if they don’t really exist in the first place it can’t make sense to ‘hold on’ to ‘them’). Letting go is after all what ‘the doctor (Siddhartha)’ ordered.

Mahayana sutras say things like ‘awakening is openness’, ‘awakening is liberation rather than negation’ and ‘awakening is radiance, awareness and beauty’ so it can’t really be nothing. It may be both nothing and something, though. No opinion (drsti) of this can be anything other than limited, of course, because all of our elaborations (prapancas) of the world are limited of necessity. The ideas are regarded as quite scary from a normal human perceptual viewpoint. Sunyata is the basic focus of the second turning.

The “Mind-Only” class (and the classes below) are regarded as firmly within the third turning.

The “Mind-Only” sutras, especially, are about ‘getting over ourselves’, basically.

The “Embryo of Tathagata” or “Buddha Nature” class are all about us having the same kind of mind as Siddhartha’s and other Buddhas’ and the consequence that we all have the potential to be Buddhas.

As I wrote above, the group I’m calling “Scriptures Setting out the Stages of the Bodhisattva Path” includes the Dasabhumika Sutra. This sutra sets out ten stages (bhumas) on the Bodhisattva Path each perfecting a different Buddha quality. On this scale Prajnaparamita is only stage six. Stage seven (perfecting upaya) is how we learn to teach others the first six. Whether the stages need to be undergone in order isn’t entirely clear, although it seems likely. Here are the names of the ten in order from one to ten:

Perfection of: Name of Stage:

Generosity Joyous

Good Conduct Stainless

Patience Radiant

Vigour Resplendent

Meditative Concentration (Dhyana) Invincible

Wisdom Face-to-Face

Upaya Far-Reaching

Determination Unshaking

Strength Excellent

Knowledge Cloud of Dharma

The scriptures central to East Asian Buddhism, especially, include the well-known sutra “Lotus of the True Dharma” or simply the Lotus Sutra.

The “Pure Land” sutras discuss at least one other realm (perhaps more) that one may get in touch with/get to in order to progress to Buddhahood faster and/or more easily. Some Japanese “Pure Land” sects teach that reciting the Japanese version of Amitabha (the name of the Buddha that rules a “Pure Land” realm – he may be regarded by many as the head of all the Buddhas) will lead to rebirth in his realm. Here ‘he’ is (with my obligatory feminist ‘scare quotes’):

Amitabha in Japan (from Wikipedia)

The meditation sutras are about just that (meditation). The Pratyuptpanna-buddha-samukhavasthita-samadhi Sutra teaches how to get to meet the Buddhas face-to-face during meditation (and that’s basically the meaning of the long title).