Volume 1

Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars.

Date:
1908-1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    five Buddhas of contemplation. They are not, however, incarnations of them, but rather ‘ re- flexes,‘ magical projections,’ nirmana- kaya. z. It is difficult to date Hodgson’s sources.* The same diffi- culty exists with regard to the poetical version of the Karanda- vyuha, of which the terminus a quo will perhaps he supplied by the date of the Tibetan translation of the prose version of the same text. In this prose edition, the only one which the Tibetans have known or have cared about, there is, indeed, a pas- ^ge wanting, namely th^ passage of the verse edition where Adibuddha, Svayambhu, Adinatha (first protector) appears at the beginning (adisamudbhuta) in the form of light (jyotirupa). He gives himself to ‘ meditation on the creation of the universe,’ and begets AvalokiteSvara as demiurge. It is not said that he creates the Buddhas, but rather that he is ‘ made up of the parts of the five Buddhas.’ i_ 3. The name ‘ Adibuddha ’ or ‘ Paramadibuddha ’ appears in more ancient documents. According to Csoma, who was the first and only one to deter- mine this chronology, this name and the system to which it is attached are closely connected with the Srikalachakratantra, a tantra openly Saivite in its inspiration, which was probably ‘ introduced (?) into India in the 10th cent, and into Tibet in the 11th century.’t Now, however, it is a recognized fact that the Tantras are much older than used to be thought. § It should at least be noticed that Manjusri (g.v.) is called Adibuddha in the Namasafigiti (vv. 55. 100), a book undoubtedly earlier than the 10th cent., if it is the case, as Taranatha believes, thatChandragomin, a contemporary of Chandrakirti (7th cent.) wrote a commentary upon it. || It is not necessary to discuss the question whether the interpretation, given in the commentaries of the Namasafigiti and numerous tantric works, 11 was accepted at the time when, according to this tradi- tion, the work itself was composed. There were good reasonj for ascribing to Man- jusri the character of an Adibuddha, inasmuch as he is the personification of the knowledge whence Buddhas originate, and since he is more than a Bodhisattva, viz., a ‘ Jnanasattva,’ in other words * Especially the Svayambhupurana (ed. Bibl. Indiea). See on its date Haraprasild Sastri, JBTS n. 2, p. 33, and L^vi (later than 1460); and for the contents Rajendralal, 249; Hodgson, 115 ; Burnout, 639, 640 ; L4vi, Nipal, i. 212; Fouoher, Cat. des peintures nipalaises, pp. 17 fil. Hodgson mentions also the Namasafigiti, Sadhanamala, Bhadrakalpavadana, Divykva- t See Burnouf, Introd. pp. 211-230. i See Bendali, Catalogue, p. 69; Cowell and Eggeling, Cata- logue, No. 49; Kandjur, Bgyud, i. 3: Paramadibuddhoahrta4ri- kalachakra nama tantrarajah (Csoma-Feer, p. 292); the Essays by Csoma; R6musat, Mildnges, p. 421; and, on a Hindu Kdlachakra, Haraprasad, Cat. Durbar Library, 1905, p. lx.; last, but not least, Griinwedel, Myth., pp. 44, 46, 60. Suchandra, who has the title of Kuhxa (nqs-ldan), thi ” Zhambhala kings, 1 (Orissa), and, returnii Kalaohakra mulatantr has Zhambhala; the Tibetan is bde-)..„ ,, „ __ bde-byed, Safikara; then hbyuii^bhava^bhala (Dr. P. Cordier); — c—i pp ^231 and 670; MS Hodgson, Dhanyakataka Thellambhala°Qrfinwe^el hoo^k pr . . 3 fixed by the . Munammaa (Maanumatj' - ^ (Makha), where the ri prevalent. Taranatha, p. ouo. The whole of the text preserved in the London and Cambridge MS (Sridvadaiasahasrikadibuddhoddhrte Srimati kdlachakre) is comnosed in a complicated metre, and professes to be only a m of the Adibuddha [tantra]. It ascribes to this book ^ ... kulUapada, and The god Kalachakra the honour of being the first to therefore gives to it the title ottant , Father, King, Teacher of the'Buddhas’, Bearer of the Universe ’; but this Adibuddha is at the same time the son of all the Buddhas, just as he remains young in spite of his old age, vrddho ’pi tvam kumarah sakalajinasuto 'py adibuddkas tvam ddau. § Haraprasad Sastrl, Report, 1895-1900; Proc. Be. BAS, 1900, August (Nisvasasattvasaihhita, about 800 A.D.). the Dharmakaya (see below) or the Dluirnuidha,- tuvdgi&vara. His attributes, in iconography, are the sword which destroys ignorance and the book of the Prainaparamita, ‘ the supreme book.’ King of sages (Vadiraj), Lord of the Holy Word (VagTs- vara), he is in his eternity (trikala) a S3mibolic Adibuddha, with a symbolism transparent enough, in the same way as the Prajnaparamita (later known as the Adiprajna) in very orthodox texts is called the mother of the Buddhas. Even if, as the texts inform us, he is ‘made up of a part of the Tathagatas,’ or, conversely, the five Buddhas emanate from his person; or if the icons place the five Buddhas on his head, or in the halo of radiance with which he is croivned; if his four faces, together with the fact that he is the spouse of Sarasvati, bring him singularly close to Brahma,* these are conceptions which do not alter his original character any more than does his accidental identi- fication with Ananga, the god of Love, or w-ith Siva, etc. Manjusri is Adibuddha, because he is the king of the Prajna.f 4. Although in certain documents Manjusri is a tantric Adibuddha, his origin is on the side of Eurely philosophical speculation. The Tantras ave an Adibuddha of a diSerent nature, nearer to Siva-Brahma than to Brahma or Visnu, viz. Vajrasattva-Vajradhara, whom later on we shall have occasion briefly to discuss. II. Antecedents of the Adibuddha system. —By more or less well - defined steps we can follow the evolution of Buddhism from its origin (Little Vehicle) down to the conceptions which have just been discussed. There remain for ex- amination the conceptions of the Buddha in nirvana, and of the Bodhisattva, the confusion of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva, the doctrine of the three bodies and the Dhyanibuddhas. I. Buddha in quasi-nirvana.—(1) We shall see (Agnosticism [in Buddhism]) that, according to the doctrine of the Vaibhajyavadins, and perhaps the Sthaviras, nirvana can scarcely be anything else than annihUation. The canonical texts, how- ever, are much less definite. It is said that ‘ the Buddha in nirvana evades the grasp of the intel- ligence, just as it is impossible to measure the waters of the ocean, they are too many.’ From this the conclusion may be, and has been, draira that nirvana is an undefinable state, but very different from nothingness. This is, moreover, the old meaning of the word nirvana. (2) It is not, however, necessary, as a matter of fact, to sift the question of nirvana, and to solve it in an unorthodox and Brahmanical way, in order to people the heavens with divine BudAas. For a ‘ sutta ’ of the first order represents Sakyaniuni as possessed of the power of prolonging his earthly existence to the end of the kalpa (see Ages OF the World [Buddhist]). There is no doubt that it was early believed that he continued to live ‘ invisible to gods and men,’ and the new theology proved less timid than the old. According to tlie Sukhavati (§ 2), a Buddha lives for a hundred thousand niyutas (millions) of kotis (ten millions) of kalpas, or more, without the beauty of his complexion being marred. Sakyamuni did not live eighty years! Only the Tathagatas understand the vast duration of his life.J (3) The Mahavastu relates that Sakyamuni, and as a rule any Buddha, or even a future Buddha * Devdtideva: brahmdtmakatvdt, elsewhere devendra: visnu- svabhdvatvdt. + See Foucher, Iconographie bouddhique. Part n., and Jnanasattvamaniu5ri-.adibuddhasadhana, Rgyud 61. MaujuSri is also the patron of arts, architecture, and image-makers ; see Haraprasad S.astrl, Cat. Durbar Library, Ixvii. J He is nityakdya. As regards the office and work of a Buddha before nirvana, according to the Little Vehicle, see Divya, 160, 17; Mahavastu, i. 61; compare and contrast the vows of Amitabha in the Sukhavativyuha.