The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (Sanskrit; , ; Vietnamese: Kinh Đại Bát Niết Bàn) or Nirvana Sutra for short, is an influential Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture of the Buddha-nature class. The original title of the sutra was Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra (Great Scripture of the Great Perfect Nirvāṇa) and the earliest version of the text was associated with the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda school.Hiromi Habata, Die zentralasialischen Sanskrit-Pragmente des Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra: Kritische Ausgabe des Sanskrittextes und seiner tibetischen Übertragung im Vergleich mit den chinesischen Übersetzungen, Indica et Tibetica 51 (Marburg : lndica et Tibetica, 2007), pp. xliii–li.Baums, Stefan. Review of Habata, Die zentralasiatischen Sanskrit‐Fragmente des Mahāparinirvāṇa‐mahāsūtra. Indo‐Iranian Journal 58: 71–78. The sutra was particularly important for the development of East Asian Buddhism and was even the basis for a Chinese Buddhist school, the Nirvana School.
The Nirvana sutra uses the backdrop of the Buddha's final nirvana to discuss the nature of the Buddha, who is described in this sutra as undying and eternal, without beginning or end. The text also discusses the associated doctrine of buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) which is said to be a "hidden treasury" within all living beings that is eternal (nitya), blissful, Self (atman), and pure (shudda). Due to this buddha nature, all beings have the capacity to reach Buddhahood. Some scholars like Michael Radich and Shimoda Masahiro think that the Nirvana sutra might be the earliest source for the idea of buddha-nature.
The Nirvana sutra also discusses the teachings of not-self and emptiness, and how they are incomplete unless they are complemented by the teaching of "non-emptiness" and the true self, which is buddha-nature. Furthermore, the Nirvana sutra discusses the idea of the icchantikas, a class of sentient beings who "have little or no chance of liberation." The icchantika idea is discussed in various ways throughout the different versions of the sutra, and the issue is complex, though as Blum writes the Nirvana sutra seems "ambivalent on whether or not icchantikas can attain buddhahood".
The Nirvana sutra's precise date of origin is uncertain, but its early form may have developed in or by the second century CE. The original Sanskrit text is not extant except for a small number of fragments, but it survives in Chinese and Tibetan translation.Jones, C. V. (2020) The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman, pp. 29-30. University of Hawaiʻi Press. The Nirvana sutra was translated into Chinese various times. The most important editions are the 416 CE "six fascicle text" and the 421 CE translation of Dharmakṣema, which is about four times longer than the earlier one.Jones, C. V. (2020) The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman, p. 30. University of Hawaiʻi Press. This sutra should not be confused with the early Buddhist Mahāparinibbāna Sutta which is not a Mahayana sutra.
History
Origins
The history of the text is extremely complex, but the consensus view is that the core portion of this sutra was compiled in South India (dakṣiṇāpatha), possibly in Andhra or some part of the Deccan.Chen 1993 p103-5
The language used in the sūtra and related texts seems to indicate a region in southern India during the time of the Śātavāhana dynasty, likely the 2nd century CE. The Śātavāhana rulers gave rich patronage to Buddhism, and were involved with the development of the cave temples at Karla and Ajaṇṭā, and also with the Great Amarāvati Stupa. During this time, the Śātavāhana dynasty also maintained extensive links with the Kuṣāṇa Empire. Hodge argues that it is likely that the text was composed "in a Mahāsāṃghika environment" like Karli or Amaravatī-Dhanyakaṭaka. Hiromi Habata likewise associated the sutra with the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda school.
According to Stephen Hodge, internal textual evidence in the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, Mahābheri Sūtra, and the Nirvāṇa indicates that these texts initially circulated in South India, but then gradually began to be propagated in the northwest (especially in Kashmir). Hodge notes that the Nirvana sutra contains prophesies of its own emergence during a period of Dharma decline (which can be calculated to be in around 220 CE) along with prophesies that the text will be taken to Kashmir (罽賓).Hodge, Stephen. “On the Eschatology of the Mahâparinirvâṇa-sûtra and Related Matters.” Lecture held at University of London, SOAS, Spring 2006. Hodge also discusses an important person named Sarvasattvapriyadarśana who appears in a group of texts related to the Nirvana sutra like the Aṅgulimāla and the Lotus sutra (he is also called Sarvalokapriyadarśana in the Mahāmegha and Mahābherīhāraka). This figure is connected with the teaching of the eternity of the Buddha and is said to have been born during the a Śātavāhana king (a prophesy placed in the mouth of the Buddha himself in some sources). According to Hodge, Sarvasattvapriyadarśana may have been a historical figure connected to the Nirvana sutra lineage (even its founder) in south India. After the situation in the south became unfavorable for this tradition, it was taken to Kashmir, where later parts of the text were written, reflecting the decline narrative of some parts of the text.
Shimoda Masahiro proposes that the earliest part of the Nirvana sutra is related to the views and practices of itinerant dharma preachers called dharmakathikas or dharmabhāṇakas (說法者 or 法師). These figures frequently went on pilgrimage to stūpa sites in the company of laypeople who were allowed to protect them with swords and staves. They may have also believed in the eternal nature of the Buddha and his vajra body. According to Shimoda, the authors of the Nirvana sutra, as advocates of stupa worship, would have known how the term buddhadhātu originally referred to śarīra or physical relics of the Buddha. According to Shimoda's theory, these figures used the teachings of the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra to reshape the worship of the śarīra into worship of the inner Buddha as a principle of salvation: the Buddha-nature. Sasaki states that a key premise of Shimoda's work is that the origins of Mahayana and the Mahāparinirvāṇa are entwined.
Scholars like Shimoda as well as Michael Radich argue that the Nirvana sutra might be the earliest source for the tathāgatagarbha doctrine.
Dating Scholars believe that the compilation of the core portion (corresponding to the six fascicle Chinese translation and the shorter Tibetan translation) must have occurred at an early date, during or prior to the 2nd century CE, based internal evidence and on Chinese canonical catalogs.
Using textual evidence in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and related texts, Stephen Hodge estimates a compilation period between 100 CE and 220 CE for the core sutra.
The Indian version of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra underwent a number of stages in its composition. Masahiro Shimoda discerns several main stages:涅槃經 (2022-03-03), Digital Dictionary of Buddhism a short proto-Nirvāṇa Sūtra, which was, he argues, probably not distinctively Mahāyāna, but quasi-Mahāsāṃghika in origin and would date to 100 CE, if not even earlier; an expanded version of this core text was then developed and would have comprised chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the six fascicle text and shorter Tibetan versions, though it is believed that in their present state there is a degree of editorial addition in them from the later phases of development. Chapter 8 of the six fascicle text. Ch. 5, and Ch. 9 onwards of the six fascicle text.
In East Asia
The Nirvana sutra is an extremely influential work for East-Asian Buddhism. It was translated various times and two major Chinese translations are extant. The translation by Dharmakṣema (c. 385–433) is significantly longer and this has led some scholars to argue that the latter portions of this edition were composed in China.Chen This longer edition was also the most important and popular one in China, Japan and Korea, since it promoted the universality of Buddha nature and Buddhahood. The six fascicle version on the other hand was mostly ignored according to Blum.
Dharmakṣema's Nirvana sutra inspired numerous sutra commentaries and is cited widely by numerous East Asian Buddhist authors. The sutra was a key scriptural source for the idea that all sentient beings have buddha-nature, which was seen as an active force in the world. It was also influential due to its teachings promoting vegetarianism and its teachings on the eternal nature of the Buddha. All these doctrines became central teachings of Chinese Buddhism.
In the Southern Dynasties (420-589) period, there was a Chinese Buddhist school devoted to the Dharmakṣema Nirvana sutra, which was simply called the "Nirvana School" (nièpán-zong) and was also influenced by the works of Daosheng.Lai, Whalen. “Sinitic Speculations on Buddha-Nature: The Nirvāṇa School (420-589).” Philosophy East and West, vol. 32, no. 2, 1982, pp. 135–49. JSTOR, . Accessed 29 September 2023.William Edward Soothill, Lewis Hodous (1977). A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms: With Sanskrit and English Equivalents and a Sanskrit-Pali Index. p. 256. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. This school taught the universality of Buddha nature and the capacity for even icchantikas to attain Buddhahood. The school thrived in the Liang dynasty (502-557) and many of its teachings were incorporated into the Tiantai school. During the Liang, the school's teachings were supplemented by the teachings of the Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra by scholars like Pao-liang (d. 509).
The Nirvana sutra was also seen as a key sutra for both the Tiantai and the Huayan schools, the main doctrinal schools of Chinese Buddhism.Huai-Chin, Nan (1997), Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen, p. 91, York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, .Ming-Wood, L. (1981). The P'an-Chiao System of the Hua-Yen School in Chinese Buddhism. T'oung Pao, 67(1), 10-47. The key Tiantai exegete Zhiyi even saw the sutra as a final teaching of the Buddha and as being of equal status to the Lotus Sutra.
Due to its status in these doctrinal traditions, it also became important for numerous Japanese Buddhist schools like Zen, Nichiren and Shin Buddhism. The work is cited by key Japanese Buddhist figures like Dōgen, Nichiren and Shinran. The Nirvana Sutra is among the most important sources and influences on Shinran's magnum opus, Kyogyoshinsho. Shinran relies on crucial passages from the Nirvana Sutra for the more theoretical elaboration of the meaning of shinjin. Similarly, the Nirvana is a key source for Dōgen's view of buddha-nature.Takashi James Kodera, The Buddha-nature in Dogen's Shobogenzo. Japanese Journal o f Religious Studies 4/4 December 1977.
Teachings
The Nirvana sutra's setting is the final hours of the Buddha's life. Unlike the early Buddhist Mahaparanibbana sutta, Ananda, the Buddha's attendant, is mostly absent from the Nirvana sutra (instead, the main interlocutor is Mañjuśrī). The Nirvana sutra also ends with the Buddha lying down, but it does not depict his actual parinirvāṇa, nor does it depict the cremation, and other episodes after his death, like the division of relics and Mahakasyapa paying respect to his body etc.
According to Sallie B. King, the Nirvana sutra is somewhat unsystematic and this made it a fruitful sutra for later commentators who drew on it for various doctrinal and exegetical purposes. King notes that the most important innovation of the Nirvana is the linking of the term buddhadhātu (buddha-nature) with tathagatagarbha (tathagata womb/chamber). The buddha-dhātu (buddha-nature, buddha-element) is presented as a timeless, eternal (nitya) and pure "Self" (ātman). This notion of a buddhist theory of a true self (i.e. a Buddhist ātma-vada) is a radical one which caused much controversy and was interpreted in many different ways.