- Vimalakirti Sutra
The Vimalakīrti Sūtra (Chinese: 維摩詰經) is a
Mahayana sutra , belonging toMahayana Buddhism. Thesutra expounds the Mahāyāna as opposed to Hinayana teachings. It is apolemical text since it portrays highly revered BuddhistArahant saints as being foolish and having incorrect understanding of the Buddhist teachings.The sutra claims to focus on the explication of the meaning of
nonduality . A important aspect of this scripture is that it contains a report of a teaching addressed to highly accomplished and revered Buddhist disciples (amongst whichSariputra ,Moggallana andMahakassapa ) by the layman (andbodhisattva )Vimalakīrti , who claims to expound the doctrine ofSunyata to them, and eventually resorts to silence. This particular teaching by Vimalakirti is thus used to portray the most accomplished disciples of the Buddha as deficient in understanding, in order to be able to present the ideal of Bodhisattvaship as higher than Arahantship.Translations
There are three classical Chinese translations extant:
*the 維摩詰所說經 "Wéimójié suǒshuō jīng" (trans. by Kumārajīva ; T 475.14.537a-557b).
*the 說無垢稱經 "Shuō wúgòuchēng jīng" (6 fasc. trans.Xuanzang . T 476.14.557-587)
*the 佛說維摩詰經 "Fóshuō wéimójié jīng" (2 fasc. trans. IAST|Lokakṣema . T 474.14.519-536).In addition to these, earlier translations had been done by
Zhiqian (223-228), IAST|Dharmarakṣa (308 ),Upaśūnya (545 ), andJñānagupta (591 ). Of the three extant renditions, Kumārajīva's has traditionally been the most popular.There are also two translations from the original Sanskrit into Tibetan.
ee also
*Yuimagyō Gisho, an annotated Japanese version of the sutra.
External links
* [http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln260/Vimalakirti.htm Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra] ("translation by
Robert Thurman ")
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