Innumerable Meanings Sutra

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The Innumerable Meanings Sutra[1][2] also known as the Sutra of Infinite Meanings (Sanskrit: अनन्त निर्देश सूत्र, Ananta Nirdeśa Sūtra; Chinese: 無量義經; pinyin: Wúliángyì Jīng; Japanese: Muryōgi Kyō; Korean: Muryangeui Gyeong) is a Mahayana buddhist text. According to tradition, it was translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Dharmajātayaśas, an Indian monk, in 481,[3][4] however Buswell, Dolce and Muller describe it as an apocryphal Chinese text.[5][6][7] It is part of the Threefold Lotus Sutra, along with the Lotus Sutra and the Samantabhadra Meditation Sutra. As such, many Mahayana Buddhists consider it the prologue to the Lotus Sutra, and Chapter one of the Lotus Sutra states that the Buddha taught the Infinite Meanings just before expounding the Lotus Sutra.[8][9][10]

  1. ^ Katō, Bunnō; Tamura, Yoshirō; Miyasaka, Kōjirō (1993). The Threefold Lotus Sutra: The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law, The Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue. Tōkyō: Kōsei Publishing Company. ISBN 4-333-00208-7. Archived from the original
  2. ^ Kubo, Tsugunari (2013). The Infinite Meanings Sutra, in: Tsugunari Kubo; Terry Abbott; Masao Ichishima; David Wellington Chappell, Tiantai Lotus Texts (PDF). Berkeley , California: Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai America. pp. 1–44. ISBN 978-1-886439-45-0.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ *Suguro, Shinjo; Montgomery, Daniel B. (1998), Introduction to the Lotus Sutra, Jain Publishing Company, p. 5, ISBN 0875730787
  4. ^ The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog(Taishō Tripiṭaka 276)
  5. ^ Dolce,L. (1998). Buddhist Hermeneutics inn Medieval Japan. In A. Van der Kooij, Karel Van Der Toorn (eds.); Canonization and Decanonization, Leiden: Brill, p.235
  6. ^ Charles Muller (1998). East Asian Apocryphal Scriptures: Their Origin and Role in the Development of Sinitic Buddhism, Bulletin of Toyo Gakuen University, vol. 6, p. 69
  7. ^ Buswell, Robert Jr; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2013). "Wuliang yi jing", in Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 1001–1002. ISBN 9780691157863.
  8. ^ Shinjo Suguro, Nichiren Buddhist International Center, trans. (1998): Introduction to the Lotus Sutra, Fremont, Calif.: Jain Publishing Company. ISBN 0875730787, p. 6
  9. ^ Apple, James B. (2012). The Structure and Content of the Avaivartikacakra Sutra and Its Relation to the Lotus Sutra, 東洋哲学研究所紀要 28, 162
  10. ^ Cole, Alan (2005). Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature. University of California Press, p.59