BUDDHIST TEXTS THROUGH THE AGES f hMPER t:oRchBOOks EDITORS' NOTE: A check-list of Harper Torchbooks, clas sified by subjects, is printed at the end of this t'o[ume. BUDDHIST TEXTS THROUGH THE AGES TRANSLATED FROM PAll, SANSKRIT, CHINESE, TIBETAN, JAPANESE AND APABHRAMSA EDITED BY EDWARD CONZE IN COLLABORATION WITH I. B HORNER, D. SNELLGROVE, A. WALEY , HARPER TORCHBOOKS THE CLOISTER LIBRARY HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, EVANSTON, AND WNDON BUDDHIST TEXTS THROUGH THE AGES Printed in the Umted States of America. ThIs book was originally published in 1954 by Bruno Casslrer (Pub hshers) Ltd., Oxford, under the auspIces of The Royal IndIa, Pakis tan and Ceylon SocIety, and is here reprInted by arrangement. First HARPER TORCHBOOK edItIon pubhshed 1964 by Harper & Row, Pubhshers, Incorporated 49 East 33rd Street New York 16, N. Y. TABLE OF CONTENTS introduction First Part THE TEACHING OF THE ELDERS By I. B. Horner THE SAMGHA THE ORDER OF MONKS AND' NUNS Conversion of Anathapindika 17 Conversion of General Siha 20 Ol'flination of Pajapati the (deat 23 Visakha, the Laywoman SUPPorler 26 Schism 28 SKILL IN MEANS 33 ARAHANTS 42 THE BUDDHIST APOCALYPSE 45 THE DHAMMA THE FIVE FACULTIES The Five Faculties collectively 51 The Five Faculties separately 52 Faith 52 Vigour 54 Mindfulness 56 Concentration 60 Wisdom 64 CONDITIONED GENESIS Conditioned Genesis collectively 65 Cond:tioned Genesis separately 70 Ignorance 70 6 Table of Contents Consciousness 70 FeeUng 72 Craving 73 Grasping 74 Birth, Ageing and Dying 76 THE OBJECT OF WISDOM Crossing Over 82 Emptiness 90 NIrvana 92 THE BUDDHA AND TATHAGATA 103 Second Part THE MAHAYANA By Edward Conze BASIC NOTIONS 119 CRITICISM OF THE HINAYANA POSITION Bodhisattvas and DisciPles 119 The Conversion of Sariputra 120 The two Nirvanas 124 THE BODHISATTVA Descriptions 127 His Infinite Compassion i31 The DedicatIon of M erst 132 THE SIX PERFECTIONS Definition 135 The six Perfections and the Body 136 The Perfection of Giving 136 The Perfection of Patience 137 The Perfection of Meditation 138 THE BUDDHA The Tathagata as a Rain-cloud 139 The real Buddha 140 The Tathagatas' Coming and Going 143 The Dharma-body 143 Tathagata and Suchness 144 The I8 SPecial dharmas of a Buddha 145 T fUJle of Contents NEW WISDOM SCHOOL THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM 146 THE ELUSIVENESS OF PERFECT WISDOM 149 THE DOCTRINE OF PERFECT WISDOM IS2 EMPTINESS Preliminary M edilations IS8 Definitions and Synonyms of Emptiness 163 Negations 172 Contradictions 17S Unreality of the World 177 Emptiness and Salvation 179 The Germ of Buddhahood in all Beings 181 THE BUDDHISM OF FAITH FAITH 18S THE ACTS AND REWARDS OF DEVOTION 186 THE OBJECTS OF DEVOTION The Buddha 190 A valokitesvara 194 Tara 196 THE PURE LAND 202 YOGACARINS MIND ONLY 207 TWOFOLD EGOLESSNESS 2I1 IRREALITY OF THE WORLD 212 THE BUDDHA AS THE BASIS OF ALL 216 Third Part THE TANTRAS By David Snel/grOfJe The Cleansing of Thought 221 Supreme Enlightenment 221 Saraha's Treasury of Songs 224 Anangavajra, The Attainment of the Realization of Wisdom and Means 240 8 Table of Contents Note on the Mandala 246 Advayavajra, The fivefold M anijestaJion 249 An Evocation of Prajnaparamita 252 The Mandala conceived within 254 The Story of Tanti 255 Mila Repa and the Novices 257 Fourth Part TEXTS FROM CHINA AND JAPAN By ArthuT Waley Introduction TEXTS ORIGINATING IN INDIA 274 The Parable of Me and Mine 274 On the Curing of Illness contracted during Dhyana Practice 274 Meditation upon the Element Water 275 Judging the Character of a Dhyana Pupil 276 The Bracelets 278 All Words are true 278 Buddha's Doctrine 279 The Negation oj Dhyana 280 Po Chu-i. Poem On Readsng the Dhyana Sutra 281 Nationality 282 The Intermediate State 283 Devas repeople the Earth 283 Buddha's Pity 285 287 TEXTS ORIGINATING IN CHINA AND JAPAN A Hinayana Sect in early ChJna 287 The Truly So 290 From the Lives of the Nuns 291 On Trust in the Heart 295 From the Conversations of Shen-hui 299 A nice M ounlain 302 Rain-making 302 BIBLIOGRAPHY 307 SOURCES 3II GLOSSARY 313 ABBREVIATIONS 323 Introduction A comprehensive Anthology of Buddhist Texts has never before been attempted. The documents are distributed over so many languages that no one person could aim at know ing them all. More than a dozen collections of texts from the Pali Scriptures have been published and a fairly representative collection of Mahayana passages, translated by Prof. M. Wintemitz, has appeared in German. But there is no corre I sponding publication in English for the Mahayana, and nothing in any European language for the Tantras, or for China and Japan. The overwhelming majority of the texts preserved in Sanskrit, Tibetan and the Far Eastern languages are still un translated. Even where English translations of Mahayana texts exist, they were in most cases carried out at a time when the particular idiom of these texts was only imperfectly under stood. Only in recent years has it become possible to translate accurately, and work done in the middle of the 20th century is likely to be greatly superior to anything done fifty or more years ago. All the texts in this book have been newly translated from the originals. The book is designed as a sequel to Dr. Conze's book Buddhism,z which seemed to give a sufficiently authentic account of the development of Buddhist thought to serve as a basis for a collection of texts. In this Anthology only texts are given. They have not been encumbered with notes, on the assumption that the reader can find all the explanation that may be required in Dr. Conze's book. Considerable attention has been given to the problem of ensuring uniformity in the rendering of technical terms. A Glossary provides a list of the main terms, with their Sanskrit equivalents. In a number of cases we decided not to translate the term at all, as words such as Buddha, Dharma, Nirvana and others are likely in due course to be absorbed into the English language. In other • Religionsgeschichtliches Lesebuch, ed. A. Bertholet, no. IS: Der Mahayana-Buddhismus, Tiibingen, 1930. • 2nd Ed., Oxford, 1953. Introduction 10 cases the English equivalent adopted here can be considered as a makeshift only. It is, for instance, impossible to find one English term which contains and can convey the whole wealth of meaning of a term like moha. Such difficulties are inherent in any translation, and we hope that the Glossary will help to reduce the dangers of misunderstanding. The first section deals with the tradition of the Hinayana. The majority of the extracts chosen by Miss Horner are taken from the Pali Canon. A few passages from post-canonical works and from the old commentaries have been included. This limits the representation of the Hinayana to one school only, to the Theravadins. No extracts have been given to illustrate the traditions, or the specific doctrines, of any of the other seventeen Hinayana schools. This decision has been made merely for practical reasons, that is to say mainly be cause the Theravadin literature is both compact and, thanks to the editions and translations of the Pali Text Society, easily accessible. In any case, any differences found between various Hinayana sources concern only minor details of the doctrine, which fall outside the scope of this Anthology. The question of how to present the material in this section gave rise to various difficulties. We finally agreed that, how ever fundamental the triad of Morality, Concentration and Wisdom may be, it would be easier, for purposes of historical information, to group the material under another Buddhist triad, that of Buddha, Dharma and Samgha. The usual order of this triad is here reversed, so that Samgha comes first and Buddha last. It is hoped that thereby a clearer indication may emerge of the progress that devotees and aspirants, the ariyan disciples, ought to make. Beginning as monks and nuns, in a regulated' homeless life', they are disciplined from without and within by the authori tative rules and sanctions of the Samgha (monastic Order or Confraternity) to respond less and less to the demands of their sense-experiences. They can then strive the more ardently to acquire both a growing understanding and knowledge of Dharma and greater ease and success in practising it; thus they will become what they ought to be, in order finally to reach the Further Shore beyond the Rivers of Life and Death where they will stand on dry land, on the Isle of Nirvana, safe and secure