Mahaparinirvana Sutra
(The Great Parinirvana Sutra -Mahayana)
[Redacted from the Chinese of Dharmakshema by Huiyan, Huiguan, and Xie Lingyun and
Translated into English by Charles Patton unless otherwise noted--only those chapters shown in bold-face type are included here.]
1. Introduction
2. Cunda
3. Lamentations
4. Long Life Span (Translated from the Chinese of Kumarajiva by Kosho Yamamoto)
5. The Adamantine Body (Translated from the Chinese of Kumarajiva by Kosho Yamamoto)
6. The Merit of the Title
7. The Four Characteristics
8. The Four Dependables
9. Wrong and Right
10. The Four Truths
11. The Four Inverted Views
12. The Tathàgata”s Nature (Translated from the Chinese of Kumarajiva by Kosho Yamamoto)
13. The Written Characters
14. The Bird Parable
15. The Moon Parable
16. The Bodhisattva
17. The Questions of All the Great Assemblies
18. Manifestation of Illness (Translated from the Chinese of Kumarajiva by Kosho Yamamoto)
19. The Noble Practice
20. The Brahmin Practice
21. The Newborn Practice
22. Bodhisattva Light of Universal Illumination of the Highest Virtue King
23. Bodhisattva Lion”s Roar
24. Bodhisattva Kàsyapa
25. Kauõóinya
Chapter 1: Introduction
Thus have I heard. One time the Buddha was staying at the city of Kusinagara, the birthplace of the great worthy, on the shore of the Ajiravati River between a pair of Sala trees. At that time, the World Honored One was accompanied by a great bhiksu congregation numbering eighty nayutas of kotis [1] of people, encircling him front and back. On the fifteenth day of the second month, the time of his entry into Nirvana was eminent. Using the buddhas” spiritual power, he issued a great voice that universally filled the minds of beings. Conforming to each species of beings, the voice addressed all the sentient beings (sattvas), "Today the Tathagata, the Arhat, the Perfectly Enlightened One, feels compassion for sentient beings, protectively shelters the sentient beings, and regards sentient beings equally as he would his own son, Rahula. For the sake of those who have taken refuge, and for the householders, the greatly awakened World Honored One now wishes to enter Nirvana. If any sentient being has uncertainties, they can now submit the very last questions [to the Tathagata]."
At that time, the World Honored One in the early morning issued from his facial orifices a variety of lights. Their brilliance was of various colors. They were blue, yellow, red, white, rock crystal (sphatika), and agate. The light pervasively lit the trichiliocosm of Buddha worlds, reaching out into all ten directions as well. Within those worlds, the sentient beings of the six destinies who encountered this light had their evil defilements and afflictions completely nullified. The minds of the sentient beings who witnessed these events were greatly distressed (duhkha), and yet at once they were uplifted by the voice of compassion, which was called the Cry of Compassion. Its lament was that of a sympathetic parent, who cries, "O, the suffering! The distress!" They lifted their hands to their heads, beat their breasts, and gave a great cry. These beings, whether or not they had bodily form, were angry and apprehensive. They wept and sobbed.
At that time, the mountains and oceans of the Earth quaked and trembled. Then the sentient beings who shared this experience said to each other, "We now resolve to discipline ourselves, so that none are subject to great anxiety or affliction. Let us go now with haste to Kusinagara, the city of the great worthy”s birthplace. And when we arrive we will salute the Tathagata, pay our respects, and beseech him to forgo entry into parinirvana, to remain in the world for another kalpa or more."
They held each other”s hands and again exclaimed, "The …
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