Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra

by Gelongma Karma Migme Chödrön | 2001 | 941,039 words

This page describes “bodhisattva in the abhidharma system” as written by Nagarjuna in his Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra (lit. “the treatise on the great virtue of wisdom”) in the 2nd century. This book, written in five volumes, represents an encyclopedia on Buddhism as well as a commentary on the Pancavimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita.

Part 4 - The Bodhisattva in the Abhidharma system

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- Sub-Contents: (+ / -)

1. Definition (who is called a Bodhisattva)

2. Actions producing the thirty-two marks (dvātriṃśallakṣaṇa)

How Śākyamuni realized the thirty-two marks in ninety-one kalpas

3. The six virtues (pāramitā)

Story of the gift of the flesh of king Śibi

Mahāsutasoma-jātaka (story of Sutasoma and Kalmāṣapāda)

4. Sojourn in the Tuṣita heaven.

5. The four ‘vilokanas’ and the entry into the womb

6. Birth and the thirty-two marks (lakṣaṇa)

7. Enlightenment and Buddhahood

Note: The Mppś refers to the Abhidharma doctrines here only to counter them in the following section. It draws all its information from the Vibhāṣā, T 1545, k. 176 and 177, p. 883–892. The present account will be taken up again later by Vasubandhu in the Kośa, IV, p. 220–223 and by Saṃghabhadra in the Chouen tcheng li louen, T 1562, k. 44, p. 590–591.

Last Updated: 28 September, 2019