Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra


The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist sūtra. This sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between Gautama Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati, "Great Wisdom". The sūtra is set in Laṅkā, the island fortress capital of Rāvaṇa, the king of the rākṣasa demons. The title of this text roughly translates as "Scripture of the Descent into Laṅkā".
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra figured prominently in the development of Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese Buddhism. It is notably an important sūtra in Chan Buddhism and Japanese Zen.

Sūtra doctrine

The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra draws upon the concepts and doctrines of Yogācāra and Buddha-nature. The most important doctrine issuing from the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is that of the primacy of consciousness and the teaching of consciousness as the only reality. In the sūtra, the Buddha asserts that all the objects of the world, and the names and forms of experience, are merely manifestations of the mind:
Because the world is seen as being "mind-only" or "consciousness-only", all phenomena are void, empty of self and illusory:
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra describes the various tiers of consciousness in the individual, culminating in the tathāgatagarbha "buddha-womb" or "storehouse consciousness", which is the base of the individual's deepest awareness and his tie to the cosmic.
However, the Buddha makes clear that the Buddha-nature is not a self and is empty of self-nature. He states that it is merely a useful means of teaching the dharma to others:
The tathāgatagarbha or "Buddha-nature" doctrine has been interpreted as an expression of the doctrines of pratītyasamutpāda "dependent origination" and emptiness. While seemingly monistic in nature, describing the tathagatagarbha as eternal and immutable, this doctrine is ultimately based on emptiness. According to Japanese scholar Yamaguchi Susumu, the most important point in the tathagatagarbha literature is that "the pratitysamutpada is the tathagatagarbha." Likewise, Ichijo Ogawa argues that tathāgatagarbha is basically equivalent to emptiness and the nature of the mind which allows it to understand emptiness. This interpretation is based on a passage from the Ratnagotravibhāga, which states that "all sentient beings are possessed of the tathāgatagarbha".

History and editions

According to Asanga Tillekharatna, "it is generally believed that the sutra was compiled during 350-400 CE," although "many who have studied the sutra are of opinion that the introductory chapter and the last two chapters were added to the book at a later period." But Christian Lindtner shows that some early recension of Lankavatara sutra was known to and influenced the writings of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva basing his conclusion on several close or literal allusions to the sutra in early madhyamaka texts. Four translations of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra were made from Sanskrit into the Chinese language between roughly 420 CE and 704, the earliest being attributed to Dharmarakṣa in the 5th Century. Of these, only three are now extant.
The first extant Chinese translation is Taishō Tripiṭaka 670. This is the earliest edition which was translated by Guṇabhadra in 443 CE, and divided into four fascicles. This edition by Guṇabhadra is said to be the one handed down from the founder of Chan Buddhism, Bodhidharma, to the Second Patriarch, Dazu Huike, saying:
The second extant Chinese translation is Taishō Tripiṭaka 671. This second edition was translated by Bodhiruci in 513 CE, and divided into ten fascicles. This edition is criticized in the imperial preface to the later translation, which says that it contains extra words and sentences mixed in that detract from the original meaning.
The third extant Chinese translation is Taishō Tripiṭaka 672. This third edition was translated by Śikṣānanda in 700-704 CE, and divided into seven fascicles. This final translation was made at the behest of Empress Wu Zetian, after Śikṣānanda had completed his 80-fascicle translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra|. This translation is said to have employed five separate Sanskrit editions for accuracy. Before the final edits to this version had been made, Śikṣānanda returned to India, and another Indian monk came to China who had studied the Buddhist sutras for 25 years in India, and who knew the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. He was then given the task of revising the translation made by Śikṣānanda.
In addition to these Chinese translations, an extant Sanskrit edition of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is available as well as two Tibetan editions. One Tibetan translation is derived from the Sanskrit original, and the other is likely a translation of Guṇabhadra's Chinese into Tibetan. The Sanskrit version was preserved as a manuscript in Nepal and used as a basis for Nanjo Bunyu's critical edition in 1923.
The earliest translations of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra are significantly shorter than later ones, which D.T. Suzuki interprets as suggesting that additions were made to the text over time. The first and last chapters are missing from the earliest translation, and the prose of the first chapter in later translations does not agree with the verse-form provided alongside it. Suzuki also suggests that the chapter on meat eating, where the Theravada 'thrice clean' practice is criticized, may be a later edition based on its different tone and content from the rest of the text. Based on the text's lack of organization, varying and sometimes irrelevant chapter headings, and expansion over time, Suzuki suggests that it may have originated as a collection of individual passages summarizing essential Mahayana doctrines, which were later shaped into a narrative.

English translations