Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
: ''Āryabhadrakalpikanāmamahāyānasūtra'', , ''The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Good Eon”'') is a Mahāyāna sutra which discusses the names and deeds of over one thousand Buddhas of this "Fortunate Aeon" (''bhadra
kalpa
Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Niiralan monttu, Olvi Areena.
Team history
Established in 1929 as ''Sortavalan Palloseura'' in Sortavala, the club r ...
''). Most of the Buddhas in this sutra are future Buddhas, thus the sutra provides a future Buddhological long history of our world system.
The sutra contains 24 chapters and dates to around 200-250 CE. The sutra is the first sutra in the Kangyur's general sutra section and is one of the longest sutras translated into
Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
. Other parallel versions of the sutra are available in Chinese, Mongolian, and Khotanese in variants that differ slightly as to the number of Buddhas. For example, the Khotanese version has one thousand and five Buddhas.
In 2017, United States Representative,
Colleen Hanabusa
Colleen Wakako Hanabusa (, born May 4, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2015 and again from 2016 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she ran for her party's nomination for ...
, was sworn in on an English-translated copy of the ''Bhadrakalpikasūtra''.
History and background
The original Indic text is now lost, though fragments in
Gandhari
Gandhari (, ) is a prominent female character in the ancient Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. She is the daughter of King List of characters in the Mahabharata#Subala, Subala, the ruler of Gandhara kingdom, Gandhara, and becomes the wife of Dhritar ...
and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
do survive.Skilling, Peter (2010). Note On the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra. 創価大学国際仏教学高等研究所年報=Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University=ソウカ ダイガク コクサイ ブッキョウガク コウトウ ケンキュウジョ ネンポウ. pp. 195 - 230 One early Chinese translation of the ''Bhadrakalpikasūtra'' was done by
Dharmarakṣa
(; J. Jiku Hōgo; K. Ch'uk Pŏpho; c. 233-310) was one of the most important early translators of Mahayana sutras into Chinese. Several of his translations had profound effects on East Asian Buddhism. He is described in scriptural catalogues ...
, a native of
Dunhuang
Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was ...
, between third and fourth centuries. However this version is incomplete according to Peter Skilling. That the thousand Buddha motif was popular in the Dunhuang region is evidenced by the "Thousand-Buddha Cave", which are world-renowned grottoes at
Dunhuang
Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was ...
. Various lists of thousand Buddhas have also been found in Khotanese sources, verifying the importance of this narrative theme for the Buddhist Iranian
Kingdom of Khotan
The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Buddhism, Buddhist Saka kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinjiang, China). The ancient capital was origina ...
.Ajanta Cave no. II also includes epigraphic evidence for the idea of the one thousand Buddhas.
The Indian Vidyakarasimha and the Tibetan Dpal-dbyans translated the text into
Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
in the 8th century, during the early translation era.
The theme of the "good eon" (Skt.: ''bhadrakalpa,'' Pali: ''bhadda-kappa)'' is found in earlier sources, such as the ''Mahāvadāna'' (Pali: ''Mahāpadāna'') sutra in which the Buddha states:
In this very Fortunate Eon, four truly and fully Awakened Ones arise in the world: Krakasunda, Kanakamuni, Kāśyapa, and myself, Śākyamuni, at present. This is the nature of things.
According to Skilling, the idea that one thousand Buddhas will arise in this good eon "circulated in the north and northwest of the Indian subcontinent by the beginning of the Christian Era, if not earlier." The idea of one thousand Buddhas is also mentioned in the ''
Mahāvastu
The ''Mahāvastu'' (Sanskrit for "Great Event" or "Great Story") is a canonical text of the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda school of Early Buddhism which was originally part of the school's Vinaya pitaka. The ''Mahāvastu'' is a composite mult ...
.'' Various schools had different ideas about this. Some held that just five Buddhas will arise in this eon, others that five hundred Buddhas will arise (which seems to have been common in some Sarvastivada circles) and others held that one thousand Buddhas will arise. Numerous Mahayana sutras mention the idea of one thousand Buddhas in this good eon, including the ''
Lotus sutra
The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...
'', the ''
Vimalakirti
Vimalakīrti ( ' "stainless, undefiled" + ' "fame, glory, reputation") is a bodhisattva and the central figure in the ',''Surangamasamadhi''.
Overview
The ''Bhadrakalpikasūtra'' depicts the names and circumstances of the one thousand and four (1004) Buddhas of this current eon. The frame narrative states that sutra was taught by
Shakyamuni Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...
in Vaiśālī on the request of Bodhisattva Prāmodyarāja. In the frame narrative, the Buddha states that far in the past, a monarch (which was a past life of the Akṣobhya Buddha) helped a Dharma teacher who was the
Amitābha Buddha
Amitābha (, "Measureless" or "Limitless" Light), also known as Amituofo in Chinese, Amida in Japanese and Öpakmé in Tibetan, is one of the main Buddhas of Mahayana Buddhism and the most widely venerated Buddhist figure in East Asian Buddhis ...
. As a result of the good merit of this, the monarch and his thousand sons spend eighty eons serving over three billion (3,000,000,000) Buddhas.
The sutra then presents a long teaching by Shakyamuni Buddha on the
six perfections
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...
. This long section on the six perfections contains around one hundred past life stories ( jātakas, pūrvayogas, avadānas) which illustrate the practice of the perfections.
After this teaching the Buddha proceeds to enumerate the names of all the 1004 Buddhas in this current eon in a set of verses. The list of thousand plus (the numbers varies in the different versions) Buddhas starts with Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni,
Kasyapa
Kashyapa (, ) is a revered Vedic sage of Hinduism., Quote: "Kasyapa (Rudra),(Vedic Seer)..." He is one of the Saptarishis, the seven ancient sages of the ''Rigveda''. Kashyapa is the most ancient and venerated rishi, along with the other Sa ...
, Shakyamuni, and
Maitreya
Maitreya (Sanskrit) or Metteyya (Pali), is a bodhisattva who is regarded as the future Buddhahood, Buddha of this world in all schools of Buddhism, prophesied to become Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha.Williams, Paul. ''Mahayana Buddhism: Th ...
and ends with Rochasimhakhya ("Roca, the One Called Lion").The Fortunate Aeon: How the Thousand Buddhas Became Enlightened, p. 1733
Following this enumeration is the most extensive part of the entire sutra, which contains extensive accounts of the details of each Buddha in mixed prose and verse. This includes their birthplaces, families, physical appearance, their sangha, chief disciples, lifespans, length of their teaching career and their relics.
The sutra then contains a third listing of the thousand plus Buddhas. This third enumeration (all in verse) explains the past life circumstances which lead each of the Buddhas to give rise to
bodhicitta
In Mahayana Buddhism, bodhicitta ("aspiration to enlightenment" or "the thought of awakening") is the mind ( citta) that is aimed at awakening (bodhi) through wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.Dayal, Har (1970). ''T ...
(the compassionate resolve aimed at awakening).
The sutra closes with a story about all the thousand Buddhas and how they were all sons of a king (who was a past life of Amitāyus) and with another story about a universal emperor (a previous life of Dīpaṅkara Buddha
).
See also
*
Mahayana sutras
The Mahayana sutras are Buddhist texts that are accepted as wikt:canon, canonical and authentic Buddhist texts, ''buddhavacana'' in Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhist sanghas. These include three types of sutras: Those spoken by the Buddha; those spoke ...
* ''
Heart Sutra
The ''Heart Sūtra'', ) is a popular sutra in Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the title ' translates as "The Heart of the Prajnaparamita, Perfection of Wisdom".
The Sutra famously states, "Form is emptiness (''śūnyatā''), em ...
Tabo Monastery
Tabo Monastery (or Tabo Chos-Khor Monastery) is located in the Tabo village of Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, northern India. It was founded in 996 CE in the Tibetan year of the Fire Ape by the Tibetan Buddhist ''lotsawa'' (translator) Rinc ...