The Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā: A Buddhist Scripture on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory

152 Pages·1990·8.376 MB·English

by  Alex Wayman, Hideko Wayman

THE
LION'S ROAR
OF QUEEN
SRIMALA
A Buddhist Scripture
on the Tathjgatagarhha Theory
Tram/llted, with Introduction and Notes by
ALEX WAYMAN
Alv~D
HIDEKO WAYMAN
MOTILAL BANARSIDAss PUBLISHERS
PRIVATE LIMITED. DEL·HI
·First Published: New York, 1974
First Indian Edition: Delhl,199O
.' Copyright C 1974 Columbia Universily Press
This cdilion by special arrangement wilh Columbia University Press
(or sale in India~ Bangia Desh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka only.
ISBN:, 81"-Z08-073~-~
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Library of Congrcss Calaloging in Publica lion Dalil
SrimAIi!sQlra. English
The lion's roar of Queen Srim;1li,
Translation ofthe losl Sanskrit work'made from a collalion of tile Chinese.
Japanesc, and Tibelan versions'.
Bibliography: p. (133)-138
I. Wayman,Alex, tr. II. Wayman, Hidcko Ir. III. Title.
,BQ1792.E5Wl!l4, 294.3'82 .7J-9673
I!RJNn!D IN INDIA
IIY, JAINENIlRA PllAKASH JA'IN AT SHR'I JAINENUKA PR~SS. A-45 NARAINA
!NPUsTRIAL,,, ARI!A, PHASE I" NEW I)ELHI 110028 ANI) PUBLISHED BY
Nj\RENDRA PRAKASH JA1,N FOR',MOT.lLAL BANARSInASS PUBLISHERS
. PVT. LTD• .: BUNClALO\V ROAD, JAWAftAR N'AClAR, DELHt' 110097'
To
the Commentators
of]ore and now
FOREWORD
The Mahayana Buddhilit scripture SiimdldsirJlhallllda-sQlra is I~re
translated from Tibetan, Sino-Jllpanese, and Sanskrit quotation.s. The
translators, Alex.and Hideko Wayman, have not taken any version as
the basic one, !lut used all these versions to produce an· English ~cdition
that hopefully recreates the meaning of the original. Wm. Theodore de
Bary wrote a generous Foreword to the first publication in 1974 when it
was in~luded among lh~ Trans-lations fro.m the Oriental Classics, sa}·ing:
"Considering the popularity and importance ·of th.. e Sri-Malasutra in
.
Mahayana Buddhism, both in thc Fa-r East and in India, it is remal'kable
that no translation of it has appeared in a Western I.anguage. No doubt
this task awaited the l'&ther special combination of talent~ repl'csented
by Professor and Mrs, Wayqtan, who together have ~n able to dea,l
with the many·l~ngua~es in\rolvcdin· its p'roper study. We are fortunate
that the Waymlt,ns have persisted in this long and arduous project and
have thereby achieved a mih:stone in ·Wcstel'n study of the basic scriptures
of Buddhism."
The scripture i~ initially noteworthy for its forceful and cloquent
portra ya! of "Elilbrace of the lIlustrious Doctrine". And later particularly
·ror its exposition of the Tathigatagarbha theory (the· .potentiality of
.Buddhahood in sentient beings), for· which it is the chief scripture. It·is
an important sour:ce Jor the "0ne· Vehicle" (ekl!)'dna) doctrine, .and
pro~ably unparalleled in its teaching of the lay Bodhisattva path. Among
the important tenets of thi~ scripture. is its manller of differentiating the
Arhats and Pt'atyekabuddhas from the Tathagatas by asset,ting that those
first two have still not eliminated the nescience entrenchment (avidJlI.vc1sa
hhi1!ni) even though. having temporarily stopp~d flux .(4srallu). The
the
scri.pture annolinces the· l'el1\al'kable doct,;ine that Arhats; ·Pratyeka
buddha~. and Bodhisattvas who have attiUneq ~o'~.cl' to be on the last
three Bodhisattva stages, l\ave reSpectively three .bodies made of"mind
f~oma)'a-kdya) by whid~, and by the nescience·entrenchment, they are
eventually· reborn.
Ther'e is the.striking.feature of having a queen ~med Srimili· as the.
viii FOR,EWORD
interlocutor, contrasting with other Mahiyima scriptures where either
weli~lmown disciples sULh as Siriputra, or bodhisattvas such as Mai!.ju~ri,
~re employed as interlocutors. The translators accepted thi~~ feature, as
the scripture's way of honO\'ing certain queenK in the Andhra region of
So.uth India who in the third century A.D. were supporting the Buddhist
establishments t~ere: Mr. Wayman also insisted thar this sCI'ipture is an
outcome of the Mahisil"p.ghika sect of Buddhism, by dint of their
scriptw'e called MahliJJfJs~u dovetailing in certain ways with the chapters
of the Srimiilii scripture. Since few of the Mah';i.yana scriptures have
detc\'mined places of composition, and it is also stl'iking to claim that a,
Mahayana scripture was composed by a so-called 'Hinayina', (Iessel'
vehicle)' s'ect, tlie rather cool reception to these, theories was reasonably
expected, especially on' the p'al't of modern authorities of the Tathigata
garbha Iilcr'ahll'c who had nO'1 mcnlioned or realized meh a possible
backgl'OlInd lor thl! tc:Xls Ill' theil' illlel'C:Sl. nUl a eonli)'lllluinn was ~oon
to come from a Buddhist art historian named E1izaheth S. Rosen. In an
articl~ "Buddl-ii~t .l,rchitectlll'c and lay pah'on~lge at ;>.i:'lg;':u:junakol).da."
published' in Th, SlIlpa: its Religious, Historical fllld ,Irchilectllrfll Significance
(Wiesbaden, 19110), this author points out'an inscription at Niigilrjuna-
k09cota on a nion\lme~t of the Aparamah.\vi,nllsdi,)'l\s, a IJrp.nch of the
later Mahflsal"llg1).ikas. Here the chief Clonatrix, Queen Cil'J1,tisiri, is
described in w,or~s as though echoing the sCI'iptural Srirn3li's eight~L
vow, a~ tJ'anslated herein. MI'. Wayman ~ls~ gathered togethel' the
doctrinal c\'idence for the Mah:isal'J1ghika connection with the
Tathii.g~til~arbha tht;~I')' of the Sriinilii scripture In a,n a'rticl!!:, "The
Mahas31pghika and the Tathagatagarbha (Buddhist Doc'trinai History,
Study I), Tht ]ollrRai of lilt intmlat;ollal Asso,iation of Buddhist Studies,
I :1.-1978;
Besides reaffirming those decisions about the background of this
scripture, it is ",dl to point ollt a certain passage of the translation for which
pr~~nt 'knowledge 'may sugges.t a, decided impl·ovement .. This is an
,impor~nt pass!1gc in the translation at p. 106. Mr. Wayn'i!'n, began. to
~otice tlus when stud)'ing commentaries on the Gllhyagarbhatallira that set
fprth three meanings of the term gflrbh'fJ. Also, th~ Indi;m lexicons give
definitions foi' gflrbha, namcl}" the mClIonings i,vomb' ,(krik/,), 'cmurro'
FOR E,WORO ix
(b~a) and (from Hemacandra) 'center' (madhyama) , The passage in
question mcntio~ the word garbha four times, immediately preceded oy
fouf statemcnts ~bout attitudes that prevent one from realizing those fOllr
kinds of garbha, In the originally published translation, preserved on that
pagc, the term garbha was rendered each time as 'embryo', no more correct
or
titan if one wcreto render it each time as 'matrix' as 'womb', By r~­
ordcring the eigJit 'statemellt~ to respectively combine~ them,. we arrive at
this forlll: "Lord. this Tathigatagarbha is the IIIu$triolis Dharmadhatu
womb, neitlter self nor sentient being; nor soul,nol; personality, Is the
Ohal'lnakiya-embry~" notthc domain of beings who £'\1\ into the belief in
al;e~1 personality;' Is . the supl'!Llnundane dhflrma-centel', not the domain of
~ings who adhere' to. waywal'd views, 15 tht: intl'insicall),-pure dharma
center, not t,he domain of beings who deviate f,'om voidness," The Asian
locnderings did not help much, because the Chint:sc I'egularly takes garblla
as
'wmnh', whil~ Tibe\.c'Ul sn;,; po n'~l'ces with the 'center' intcl'pl'ctali()II,
The point is that the Dhal'rnadhata is a realm 01' place which n:ruains
whcthel' a l'alhilgata, or any senti~rit h!!ing, arises or not, The DharmakA>'t.
is nllt. witnesscd' by persorL~ who imagine it by f,)rm 0\' sound, Till:
5upram~ndanc dharma-center can b(: constl'ued as dependent origination
(pralilya-samuf/l«da). which avoids the extremes of "!t exists" and "It dnes
not exist"--:-the wayward views, That 'centcl;',whcn regardcd as inlrinsi
can}, purc; .Is identified with voidness (JQn)'QUt) • sinc~ 'pure~ dharmadhdtll,
is,' void 'dhtJmuuJhdtu. . ,
Th~ scrip'tul'e Ileretranslated' Lion's ROQ; of QUieti S~i"!-i1lif may \vcll have
been the most s~cces.,fu.l MahayiRll scrip~ure composed in the Andhl'3
rcgion ~fIndia. whe~c the unknown co;n'po~r soug.l~t· to' ~xpose Buddhism
ill its profundity and,to justify unstinting devotion while the remarkablr:
art centel's of Amaravati and'Nagarjunakol)~a (as it would b,~ later en lied)
flourished apace, The scripture moved to China' where: devollt and Icamed·
Buddhist 1l10,nks po.urcd .over evel')' one of its words Il:nd made many
comm~ntari~ on it during 'the great T'ang Dynasty, mentioning it along
~ic:i~ of su~h famow scriptures aSlhe ,c;addharmapu~/(/.arik.a anti the V;lIIa{ak;rti,
Moving to Korea and then to Japan, it was an i1~ipor·ta ..i t scriptul'c' at lht:
early stage of Japanese Buddhism, AccOI'ding to the legend. Shi>toku
T~ishi l,ad lectured on.th~ $~i-m{ilti-~r7tr(J to tbe Empress Suiko alld had
FOREWORD
eomposc;d a c~entary on the sfIIra in the period A.D. 609·611. A later
cule even believed that Prince 'Shotoku was an incarllation of Q)leen
Srim1li.,During the Kamakura period in 1253 the paintc;r Gyason painted
rhC Shoko mandara, which depicts Shotoku's previous life. after-life, and
his retinue; it is a National Treasure preserved at the Horyiiji. Queen
Srimili is shown in the upper right-hand corner·; this portion, used for
the dust jacket in. the present edition, w&"s a frontispiece ·in the original
pl'inting.
The Buddhist Traditions series thus includes a scripture which truly
had an impact.
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Preface xiii
xv
Translators' Note
Jntroduction I
I. Sri-Malii as a T~xt i
titerarr Hisrorr I
Historical Setting of the Text I
The title: of the Scripture 4
The Text i" Asian Countries 5
Importance in India 5
Importance In China 9
Importanc~ in Japan 13
llTiporrancc in Tibet 16
·Th~ Structure of the Sri-Mala 17
Chapter Dh'isions 17
S)'nopsis of the Scripture 21
II. Classification of Persons·
The Gha·racters in the Sri-Mala
Persons on Stages
.Stages of the "Bodies Made of Mind"
The Last ·ThreeBo~hi~attva Stages
~tages of the· Lady Bodhisai:rva
Ill. Doctrine of Sri-:M515
\'ehicle and Nirval)a
One Vehicle
Nirviil):l and Enlightenment 39
Tach:ig;.tc;lgarbha 42
The·T:~th:i~at:lgarbh:l Theory :,lnti. Scriptur~s 42
Synonyms ·and Alternate References to the T~th;i~:lt:1g;1fbha 44
Universallty·ofTath5gatagarhha . 46
Voidness. Knowledge of the Tathagatagarhha 48
T:ltMgataga.rbha:and· Ala},a.\'ij.i'iana 52
rhe I.ion·s .Roar of.Qyccn .Srilll:i15 .57
xii CONTENTS
Prologue 59
Chapter One 60
Eliminacing All Doubts 60
I. Praises of the Infinite Merit of the Tathilgata 60
2. Ten Great Vows 64
Chapter Two 67
Deciding the Cause '67
3. Three All-inclusive Aspirations 67
4. Embrace of the lI!ustriolls Doctrine 68
[a. Teaching in the Scope of the Great Aspircltions] 69
[b. Teaching the Far-ranging Me:lOing] 72
[c. Teaching the Great Meaning] 74·
Chapter Three 78
Clarifying the Final Meaning 78
5. One Vehicle 78
[rt V,hicles of 1);1I"il'/(S ,III" Ibt Se/fli.II/igblerle"J 78
[rt Arhatl an,l Pra(Jtkahuddbas] 80
[,j Attended with Rcmaindl'r" ,lnd "Not Final Ml·aning"] 83
["Finetl Meaning" and "One: Vehide") 89
.6. The Boundless Noble Truths 9S
7. Th.c T:lt~ilgatagarhha 96.
8-9. The Dharmakaya and ·the: Meaning of Voidness 98
10.. The On~ Truth 100
I1-U·. The One Refuge :mJ Wa}'warJ Stage 100
13. Intrinsic P.lirit)' of the l\.1inJ 104
Chapter Four l07
Entering the One Vehicle Path 107
14. The True Son of the Tathagata 107
IS. The Lion's Roar of Qycen Srimill:t ·109
Epilogue 1 I I
Appendix I. The Chinese Section Titles of Sri-Mal~ anJ
Japanese.Oiagram Analyses. of Four Classical Comiri.entari~s II.S
n.
Appendix Works Cited in Chi-tsang's Commentary IZS
Glossary '13 I
Bibliograph}r 133
Index' ·139