Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
The principal works in class 4 are two translations, one fuller than
the other, of the Hua-yen or Avatamsaka Sûtra[714], still one of the
most widely read among Buddhist works, and at least sixteen of the
other items are duplicate renderings of parts of it. Class 5
consists of thirteen works dealing with the death of the Buddha and
his last discourses. The first sûtra, sometimes called the northern
text, is imperfect and was revised at Nanking in the form of the
southern text[715]. There are two other incomplete versions of the
same text. To judge from a specimen translated by Beal[716] it is a
collection of late discourses influenced by Vishnuism and does not
correspond to the Mahâparinibbânasutta of the Pali Canon.
Class 6 consists of sûtras which exist in several translations, but
still do not, like the works just mentioned, form small libraries in
themselves. It comprises, however, several books highly esteemed and
historically important, such as the Saddharmapuṇḍarîka (six
translations), the Suvarṇaprabhâsa, the Lalitavistara, the Lankâvatâra,
and the Shorter Sukhâvatîvyûha[717], all extant in three translations.
In it are also included many short tracts, the originals of which are
not known. Some of them are Jâtakas, but many[718] deal with the ritual
of image worship or with spells. These characteristics are still more
prominent in the seventh class, consisting of sûtras which exist in a
single translation only. The best known among them are the Śûrângama and
the Mahâvairocana (Ta-jih-ching), which is the chief text of the
Shin-gon or Mantra School[719].
The Lü-tsang or Vinaya-pitaka is divided into Mahâyâna and Hînayâna texts,
neither very numerous. Many of the Mahâyâna texts profess to be
revelations by Maitreya and are extracts of the Yogâcâryabhûmiśâstra[720]
or similar to it. For practical purposes the most important is the
Fan-wang-ching[721] or net of Brahmâ. The Indian original of this work is
not known, but since the eighth century it has been accepted in China as
the standard manual for the monastic life[722].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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