133. Yogcrabhmi, T. 1579, XLI, 517b; Sanskrit text in the Bodhisattvabhmi, ed. Wogihara (Tokyo, 1930), 165–166, and in La Vallée Poussin, “Notes bouddhiques, VII: Le Vinaya et la pureté d’intention,” Académie Royale de Belgique, Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres, 5th ser., T. XI (1929), 216, with a translation, 212. On the purity of intention which sanctifies sin, see also La Vallée Poussin, “A propos du Cittaviuddhiprakarana d’Aryadeva,” B.S.O.S. 6.2 (1931): 411–413.
134. Mahyna-samgraha, trans. E. Lamotte (Louvain, 1939), 2.2:215–216.
135. Bu-ston, History of Buddhism, trans. E. Obermiller (Heidelberg, 1932), 216 and n. 1.
136. This text, the Ardhyardhaatik (or Prajñpramit-naya) from one of the Tantric Prajñpramits, is often cited: “O Vajrapi! Anyone who has heard this naya, will retain it and will recite it, even if it destroys all the beings of the three dhtu [another version: if it kills them], he will not descend into the three durgati: for this is in order to tame them.” Chinese text edited in Toganoo Shun, Rishuky no kenky (Kyasan, 1930), 8. Also see J. Filliozat in L’Inde classique, §2357.
137. On the argument of the emptiness of the individual, see above, 352–353.
138. Ajtaatru-kaukrtya-vinodana (“The Catharsis of Ajtaatru’s Remorse”), T. 627, iii, 424a–425a, translated in 286c; cf. Lhasa Council, 1:160n8; and above, 384n2. The king Ajtaatru attempted to take his father’s, Bimbisra’s, life. This doesn’t prevent him, after converting to Buddhism, from becoming an eminent protector of the Real Law. This episode is sometimes cited in the T’ien-t’ai sect to justify the Emperor Yang-ti (606–617) from the Sui sect’s participation in the assassination of his father; the founder of the Tche-yi sect (538–598) had maintained close ties with the future Yang-ti before his accession. Cf. Tch’en Yin-k’iue, Bull. Ac. Sin. 5.2 (1935): 141–142.
139. Ratnakta stra, T. 310, CV, 590b–c (Susthimati-pariprcch).
140. Kaustaki Upanisad, III, 1, trans. Renou (Paris, 1948), 49: “If you know me you will not lose your estate, even if you know me through flight, or through the abortion (or murder) of a Brahman, or through the murder of your mother, or through the murder of your father.” Bhagavad-gt, ii, 18–19, trans. Senart (Paris, 1944), 6: “Bodies end; the soul enveloped by the body is eternal, indestructible, and infinite. … Therefore, fight, O Bhrata! Believing that one does the killing, thinking that the other is killed, is to be dually mistaken; one neither kills, nor is killed”; ibid., xviii, 17 (Senart, 54): “The person who does not is not led astray by his egocentricity [literally: he who does not create a “me,” nhankrta], and whose intelligence is not cloudy, might kill every living creature, for he does not kill, he takes responsibility for no chain.”
141. Houei-yuan, Ming pao-ying louen, in Kouang hong-ming tsi, T. 2103, 33b–34b. Cf. W. Liebenthal, JAOS 70 (1950): 253.
142. This last sentence was inspired by the Lao-tseu, §L.
143. Above, 29.
144. D. T. Suzuki, Essays on Zen Buddhism (London, 1927), 1:262 and 270. The saint must make himself as indifferent as the unconscious—innocent—forces of nature, while eliminating all personal and conscious thought within his all “too human” intentionality: through this, he creates a morality “outside good and evil” which allows him to violate the precepts without being responsible for his actions, becoming “pure” in every sense of the word. This is explained in the Treatise of Absolute Contemplation, a short text from the Dhyna school probably from the eighth century, of which several manuscripts have been discovered in Touen-huang in Kuno Hry, ed., Shky kenky 14.1 (Jan.–Feb. 1937): 136–144; and Suzuki Daisetsu in Bukky kenky 1.1 (May–June 1937): 57–68. We read therein, for example (Kuno, 140; Suzuki, 62):
Can we not, in certain instances, kill a living being?—The brush fire burns the mountain; the hurricane destroys the trees; the cliff that falls asunder kills wild animals; the flood that inundates drowns insects. The man who renders his mind similar [to the forces of nature] is entitled to do equally as much. However, if he feels the slightest hesitation, if he [imagines] he’s “seeing” a living being [in the recipient of his act], “seeing” a murder [in his act], if there remains the least bit of thought [not depersonalized], then if he kills only an ant, he is connected to the act [karma], and his life is implicated by it.
Or even (Kuno, 143; Suzuki, 67):
If every living being is just a phantasm or a dream, is it a sin to kill them?—If one “sees” them as living beings, it is a sin to kill them. If one does not “see” them as living beings, then there are not any living beings that can be killed; as when one kills another man in a dream: upon awakening, there is absolutely no one there.
It is perhaps useless to point out the Taoist inspiration through similar documents wherein the wou-sin is a Buddhist adaptation of the wou-wei. Nevertheless the unreality of the person, of the “living being” is perfectly in keeping with the most orthodox of Buddhist thought; see above, 352n5. The citation from the Abhidharma-mahvibhs, which notes from the Small Vehicle: “The sin of murder exists only insofar as one has the notion of a living being, even though such a thing does not exist.”
145. Enzan wadei-gassui sh, a collection of works by a Zen author from the fourteenth century, cited in Sat Kenichi, “The Precepts of Zen and the Five Precepts,” Zengaku kenky (June 28, 1929): 86–87.
146. Zenkai sh by Dtan (1668–1773), cited in ibid., 87.
147. T. 659–661; T. 489.
148. ntideva, iksamuccaya, ed. Bendall, notably 168: “It is said in the holy Ratnamegha that the murder of a man who intends to commit a sin worthy of immediate damnation is allowed.” Cf. La Vallée Poussin, La morale bouddhique (Paris, 1927), 244.
149. Ratnamegha stra, Tang version, T. 660, iii, 293b–c.
150. Or “theater therapy” as our psychiatrists say today; we are reminded of Moreno’s psychodramas. This sort of scenario is found for example in the Ajtaatrukau-ktya-vinodana, cited above, 380, where we also see the theme of the confession coming into play. The following are the particulars of the scenario: to be “cured” of repented matricide, Mañjur begins by transforming himself before the “killer” into a child who begins to argue with his parents and then kills them. In seeing this, the “killer” says to himself that after all he only killed one of his parents, and gradually he calms down. The metamorphosed child leads him before the Buddha, to whom the “child” confesses his crime. After the child’s confession, the Buddha teaches him about the emptiness of thoughts and accepts him as a monk. The “killer” then follows the example of the magic criminal. He, in turn, confesses, receives the same teaching from the Buddha, and he too becomes a monk.
151. Manuscript colophons discovered in Touen-houang and elsewhere, edited and studied by Yabuki Yoshiteru in Sankaiky no kenky (Research on the Third Level Doctrine) (Tokyo, 1927), pl. XIII and explanatory text, 748–759; and in Meisha youn (Echoes of the Singing Sands) (Tokyo, 1933), pl. XCIII and explanatory text, 278–281; see also T. 660, ii, 292a–b.
152. T. 660, 293n4 (note from the Ming edition).
153. The agreement of the four Chinese versions leaves no doubt on the authenticity of the passage; besides, it is confirmed by the citation from the Sikssamuccaya (above, 383, n.).
NOTES
1. The word parivarta normally indicates a chapter title. However, Indian Buddhist sources cite from multiple chapters of the Bodhisattva-gocara-upyaviayavikurvaa-nirdea stra under the title, Satyakaparivarta.
2. Zimmermann renders “vikurvaa-nirdea-stra” as Stra Which Expounds Supernatural Manifestations. Michael Zimmermann, “A Mahynist Criticism of Arthastra, the Chapter on Royal Ethics in the Bodhisattva-gocaropya-viaya-vikurvaa[sic]-nirdea-stra,” Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University for the Academic Year 1999 (2000). In my understanding, Satyavaca is the manifestation that expounds the stra. Regarding the spelling of the title, some sources and catalogues have “vikurva” rather than “vikurvaa.” All the Tibetan editions I have seen give a p
honetic rendering of “vikurvaa.”
3. Zimmermann, “A Mahynist Criticism of Arthastra”. Zimmermann at the time of his study was apparently unaware of Jamspal’s dissertation, and I became aware of both only after doing my own translation work. See also “Only a Fool Becomes a King: Buddhist Stances on Punishment,” in Buddhism and Violence, ed. Michael Zimmermann (Kathmandu: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2006).
4. Lambert Schmithausen, “Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude towards War,” in Violence Denied: Violence, Non-Violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History, ed. E. M. Houben and K. R. Van Kooij (Leiden: Brill, 1999).
5. Zimmermann, “A Mahynist Criticism of Arthastra,” 179. According to Tatz, passages related to compassionate killing were omitted from three out of four Chinese translations of the Bodhisattva-bhmi. Mark Tatz, Asaga’s Chapter on Ethics with the Commentary of Tsong-kha-pa (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986), 296, note 396.
6. Lozang Jamspal, The Range of the Bodhisattva: A Study of an Early Mahynastra, “ryasatyakaparivarta,” Discourse of Truth Teller, Ph.D. dissertation (Columbia University, 1991), 4.
7. Ibid., 210.
8. Chr. Lindtner, Ngrjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Ngrjuna (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987), 172.
9. Jamspal points out numerous examples from Ngrjuna’s Ratnval and Suhllekha that suggest the stra’s influences. Candrakrti’s Catuatakak also makes a number of arguments that could have been drawn from this stra, rather than the Aggañña Sutta, particularly in the discussion of the king as an employee of the people. See Karen Lang, “ryadeva and Candrakrti on the Dharma of Kings,” Asiatische Studien: Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Asienkunde/Études Asiatiques: Revue de la Société Suisse d’Études Asiatiques 46.1 (1992): 232–243.
10. See ntideva, iksamuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhist Teaching Compiled by ntideva Chiefly from Earlier Mahyna stras, ed. Cecil Bendall (The Hague: Moutons, 1957), 165; and Jamspal, “The Range of the Bodhisattva,” 228.
11. Tsong-kha-pa, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: Lam Rim Chen Mo, trans. Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion, 2000), 1:184, 236, 250, 256.
12. Majjhima.i.229; 239; The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, trans. Bhikkhu Ñamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (Boston: Wisdom, 1995).
13. See Michael Witzel, “The Case of the Shattered Head,” Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 13–14 (1984): 363–415; and A. Syrkin, “Notes on the Buddha’s Threats in the Dgha Nikya,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 7 (1984): 147–158. This model of menacing the insolent and rude with Vajrapi can be seen among the commentators of the Bodhisattva-bhmi. Tatz, Asaga’s Chapter on Ethics with the Commentary of Tsong-kha-pa, 130, 326.
14. All Jtaka references refer to the Pali Text Society numbering as in The Jtaka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births, 6 vols., trans. E.B. Cowell et. al (London: Pali Text Society, 1895–1907.
15. Zimmermann, “A Mahynist Criticism of Arthastra,” 180.
16. Charles Willemen, trans., The Storehouse of Sundry Valuables (Tsa-pao-tsang ching/Kudrakgama) (Berkeley, Calif.: Numata Center for Translation and Research, 2004), 59–62, 210–219.
17. John S. Strong, The Legend of King Aoka: A Study and Translation of the Aokvadna (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983), 232.
18. Lama Chimpa, trans.,Trantha’s History of Buddhism in India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1970), 178.
19. T. W. Rhys Davids, trans., The Questions of King Milinda (New York: Dover, 1963), vol. 1, 46.
20. Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans., The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Sayutta Nikya (Boston: Wisdom, 2000), 410, note 257.
21. ntideva, iksamuccaya, ed. Bendall, 162; and Jamspal, “The Range of the Bodhisattva,” 228.
22. Robert Florida, Human Rights and the World’s Major Religions: vol. 5, The Buddhist Tradition (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005), 57.
23. T. W. Rhys Davids, trans., The Questions of King Milinda, vol. 1, 254–257.
24. Terence P. Day, The Conception of Punishment in Early Indian Literature (Waterloo, Ont., Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982), 38–39, 200–205.
25. T. W. Rhys Davids, trans., The Questions of King Milinda, vol. 1, 280–281.
26. Jamspal, “The Range of the Bodhisattva,” 211.
27. Andy Rotman, “Marketing Morality: The Economy of Faith in Early Indian Buddhism,” International Association of Buddhist Studies Meeting, Atlanta, GA, June 23–25, 2008.
28. Jamspal, “The Range of the Bodhisattva,” 211.
29. Kautilya, The Arthastra, tr. L. N. Rangarajan (New York: Penguin, 1992), 637–639; The Law Code of Manu, tr. Patrick Olivelle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 200; Sayutta.i.100–102.
30. Zimmermann, “A Mahynist Criticism of Arthastra,” 202.
31. Arthastra 739; Law Code of Manu 113; The Mahbhrata: Book 11, The Book of the Women; Book 12, The Book of Peace, Part One, Volume 7, trans. James L. Fitzgerald (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 412; Dharmastra of Baudhyana, 18.11–12, in Dharmastras: The Law Codes of pastamba, Gautama, Baudhyana, and Vasiha, trans. Patrick Olivelle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 159; Dharmastra of pastamba, 2.10.10–11, in Dharmastras 53; Dharmastra of Gautama, 10.17–18, in Dharmastras, 94).
32. The Mahbhrata, 410.
33. Rupert Gethin, “Can Killing a Living Being Ever Be an Act of Compassion? The Analysis of the Act of Killing in the Abhidhamma and Pali Commentaries,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics (2004): 62.
34. Tib. de ltar thabs mkhas shing gyul legs par shom pa’i rgyal pos ni pha rol gyi dpung bkum mam | rma phyung yang des rygal po la kha na ma tho ba chung zhing bsod nams ma lags pa chung ba dang | ‘bras bu myong ba yang nges pa ma mchis par ‘gyur’o | | de ci’i slad du zhe na | ‘di ltar des snying rje ba dang | yongs su mi gtang ba’i sems kyis las de mngon bar ‘du bgyis pa’i slad du’o | | gang des skye dgu yongs su bskyang ba dang | bu dang chung ma dang | rigs kyi don du bdag dang longs spyod yongs su btang ste las de bgyis pas | gzhi de las bsod nams tshad ma mchis pa yang rab tu ‘phel lo | | Derge, mDo-sde, Volume Pa, 110.b.2–4.
35. Zimmermann, “A Mahynist Criticism of Arthastra,” 203–205.
36. Ronald M. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 24, 90.
37. Ibid., 88.
38. Christoph Kleine, “Evil Monks with Good Intentions,” in Buddhism and Violence, 80.
39. Malcom David Eckel, Bhviveka and His Buddhist Opponents (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2008), 183–189; See Candrakrti’s commentary on ryadeva’s Catuatakam, Chapter V, verse 105. ryadeva supports compassionate transgression and Candrakrti extends this to compassionate killing. Catuatakam: Candrakrtipratakay Sahitam, Sanskrit and Tibetan edited with Hindi translation, Gurucharan Singh Negi, Ph.D. dissertation (Sarnath: Central Institute Higher Tibetan Studies, 2005) 250–253; ntideva, iksamuccaya, ed. Bendall, 167–169; In Ratnval verse 264, Ngrjuna makes the analogy of a doctor cutting off a finger bitten by a poisonous snake in advising a king that it may be his duty to compassionately inflict pain. Ratnval of crya Ngrjuna with the Commentary of Ajitamitra, ed. crya Ngawang Samten (Sarnath: Central Institute Higher Tibetan Studies, 1990), 181–182. A comparative analysis of these sources will be offered in separate publication.
40. ntideva, iksamuccaya, ed. Bendall, 165.
41. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, 88. See also Michael Zimmermann, “War,” in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert Buswell Jr. (New York: Macmillan, 2003), 2:893–897.
42. Asaga, Bodhisattva-bhmi, Sanskrit Ed. Nalinaksha Dutt, K. P. (Patna: Jayasawal Research Institute, 1978), 114.2.
43. Asaga, Bodhisattva-bhmi, 114.3; Tatz, Asaga’s Chapter on Ethics with the Commentary of Tsong-kha-pa, 70–1.
44. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, 88. According to legend, Guaprabha, the iconic se
venth century vinaya master who wrote a commentary on the Bodhisattva-bhmi, was the tutor to King Hara. Historically this is questionable, but it does suggest the kind of political influence such figures may have had on Buddhist kings. Tatz, Asaga’s Chapter on Ethics with the Commentary of Tsong-kha-pa, 29; 43, note 36.
45. Samuel Beal, Si-Yu Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World (London, 1884; reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), 2:210; and D. Devahuti, Hara: A Political Study (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998), 92–94.
46. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, 88.
47. I specially thank Ronald Davidson who, despite his disagreement with my conclusions, generously read an earlier draft of this chapter and shared his criticism.
NOTES
1. Michel Foucault, “Two Lectures,” in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977 (New York: Pantheon, 1980), 89–90.
2. Ibid., 93.
3. Robert Thurman offers these romantic notions in Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A. F. Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet (New York: Abrams, 1991), 22:
From the 7th century on, Tibetans became more and more interested in Buddhism. Their own histories credit the Buddhist movement with giving them a whole new way of thinking, feeling, and acting that eventually transformed their personal and social lives. It turned their society from a fierce grim world of war and intrigue into a peaceful, colorful, cheerful realm of pleasant and meaningful living.
4. Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho (Fifth Dalai Lama), rgyal rabs dpyid kyi rgyal mo’i glu dbyangs/Song of the Queen of Spring: A Dynastic History (Lhasa, 1643; reprint, Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology, 1991).
5. Unless otherwise noted, the outline of the events leading up to Gushri Khan’s 1642 victory is drawn from chapters 6 and 7 of volume 1 of Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa, bod kyi srid don rgyal rabs (Kalimpong, India: Shakabpa House, 1976). My annotated translation of this comprehensive work is One Hundred Thousand Moons: An Advanced Political History of Tibet (Leiden: Brill, 2009). Hereafter, this title is referred to as Shakabpa, One Hundred Thousand Moons.
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