..续本文上一页nowledge. They will be born in that Buddha country, have been born, or are being born

　　[1. It should be remarked that the Tathâgatas here assigned to the ten quarters differ entirely from those assigned to them in the Lalita-vistara, Book XX. Not even Amitâbha is mentioned there.

　　2. Pratîyatha. The texts give again and again pattîyatha, evidently the Pâli form, instead of pratîyata. I have left tha, the Pâli termination of the 2 p. pl. in the imperative, instead of ta, because that form was clearly intended, while pa for pra may be an accident. Yet I have little doubt that patîyatha was in the original text. That it is meant for the imperative, we see from sraddadhâdhvam, &c., further on. Other traces of the influence of Pâli or Prâkrit on the Sanskrit of our Sûtra appear in arhantaih, the various reading for arhadbhih, which I preferred; sambahula for bahula; dhriyate yâpayati; purobhaktena; anyatra; sailkhyâm gakkhanti; avaramâtraka; vethana instead of veshtana, in nirvethana; dharmaparyâya (Corp. Inscript. plate xv). &c.]

　　{p. 102}

　　now. Therefore, then, O Sâriputra, mental prayer is to be made for that Buddha country by faithful sons and daughters of a family.

　　 § 18. ”And as I at present magnify here the inconceivable excellences of those blessed Buddhas, thus, O Sâriputra, do those blessed Buddhas magnify my own inconceivable excellences.

　　 ”A very difficult work has been done by Sâkyamuni, the sovereign of the Sâkyas. Having obtained the transcendent true knowledge in this world Sahâ, he taught the Law which all the world is reluctant to accept, during this corruption of the present kalpa, during this corruption of mankind, during this corruption of belief, during this corruption of life, during this corruption of passions.

　　 § 19. ”This is even for me, O Sâriputra, an extremely difficult work that, having obtained the transcendent true knowledge in this world Sahâ, I taught the Law which all the world is reluctant to accept, during this corruption of mankind, of belief, of passion, of life, and of this present kalpa.”

　　 § 20. Thus spoke Bhagavat joyful in his mind. And the honourable Sâriputra, and the Bhikshus and Bodhisattvas, and the whole world with the gods, men, evil spirits and genii, applauded the speech of Bhagavat.

　　This is the Mahâyânasûtra[1]

　　called Sukhâvatî-vyûha.

　　[1. The Sukhâvatî even in its shortest text, is called a Mahâyâna-sûtra, nor is there any reason why a Mahâyâna-sûtra should not be short. The meaning of Mahâyâna-sûtra is simply a Sûtra belonging to the Mahâyâna school, the school of the Great Boat. It was Burnouf who, in his Introduction to the History of Buddhism, tried very hard to establish a distinction between the Vaipulya or developed Sûtras, and what he calls the simple Sûtras. Now, the Vaipulya Sûtras may all belong to the Mahâyâna school, but that would not prove that all the Sûtras of the Mahâyâna school are Vaipulya or developed Sûtras. The name of simple Sûtra, in opposition to the Vaipulya or developed Sûtras, is not recognised by the Buddhists themselves; at least, I know no name for simple Sûtras. No doubt there is a great difference between a Vaipulya Sûtra, such as the Lotus of the Good Law, translated by Burnouf, and the Sûtras which Burnouf translated, for instance, from the Divyâvadâna. But what Burnouf considers as the distinguishing mark of a Vaipulya Sûtra, viz. the occurrence of Bodhisattvas, as followers or the Buddha sâkyamuni, would no longer seem to be tenable[*], unless we classed our short Sukhâvatî-vyûha as a Vaipulya or developed Sûtra. For this there is no authority. Our Sûtra is a Mahâyâna Sûtra, but never called a Vaipulya Sûtra, and yet in this Sûtra the Bodhisattvas constitute a very considerable portion among the followers or Buddha. But more than that, Amitâbha, the Buddha of Sukhâvatî another personage whom Burnouf looks upon as peculiar to the Vaipulya Sûtras, who is, in fact, one of the Dhyâni-buddhas, though not called by that name in our Sûtra, forms the chief object or its teaching, and is represented as known to Buddha Sâkyamuni, nay, as having become a Buddha long before the Buddha Sâkyamuni[+]. The larger text of the Sukhâvatî-vyûha would certainly, according to Burnouf”s definition, seem to fall into the category of the Vaipulya Sûtras. But it is not so called in the MSS. which I have seen, and Burnouf himself gives an analysis of that Sûtra (Introduction, p. 99) as a specimen of a Mahâyâna, but not of a Vaipulya Sûtra.

　　*. ”La présence des Bodhisattvas ou leur absence intéresse donc le fonds même des livres où on la remarque, et il est bien évident que ce seul point trace une ligne de démarcation profonde entre les Sûtras ordinaires et les Sûtras développés.”--Burnouf, Introduction, p. 112.

　　+. ”L”idée d”un ou de plusieurs Buddhas surhumains, celle de Bodhisattvas créés par eux, sont des conceptions aussi étrangères à ces livres (les Sûtras simples) que celle d”un Âdibuddha ou d”un Dieu.”--Burnouf, Introduction, p. 120.]

《称赞净土佛摄受经 The Smaller SUKHÂVATÎ-VYÛHA translated by F· Max Muller》全文阅读结束。