Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra: Difference between revisions

The '''''Liṅga-avatāraLaṅkāvatāra Sūtra''''' ([[Sanskrit]]: लिङ्गअवतारसूत्रलिंकावतारसूत्र, "Discourse of the Descent into LiṅgaLaṅkā", {{lang-bo|ལང་ཀར་བཤེགས་པའི་མདོ་}}, [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 入楞伽經) is a prominent [[Mahayana sutras|Mahayana Buddhist sūtra]]. It is also titled '''''Liṅga-avatāraratnasūtramLaṅkāvatāraratnasūtram''''' (''The Jewel Sutra of the Entry into LingaLaṅkā,'' [[Guṇabhadra|Gunabhadra's]] Chinese title: 楞伽阿跋多羅寶經 léngqié ābáduōluó bǎojīng) and '''''Saddharmaliṅga-avatārasūtraSaddharmalaṅkāvatārasūtra''''' (''The Sutra on the Descent of the True Dharma into LingaLaṅkā'').<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Laṅkāvatārasūtra - Buddha-Nature |url=https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Texts/La%E1%B9%85k%C4%81vat%C4%81ras%C5%ABtra |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=buddhanature.tsadra.org}}</ref> A subtitle to the sutra found in some sources is "''the heart of the words of all the Buddhas''" (一切佛語心 yiqiefo yuxin, Sanskrit: ''sarvabuddhapravacanahṛdaya'').<ref name=":16" />

The ''LaṅkāLaṅkāvatāra'' recounts a teaching primarily between [[Gautama Buddha]] and a [[bodhisattva]] named Mahāmati ("Great Wisdom"). The sūtra is set in mythical [[Lanka|Laṅkā]], ruled by [[Ravana|Rāvaṇa]], the king of the [[rakshasa|rākṣasas]]. The ''Laṅkāvatāra'' discusses numerous [[Mahayana]] topics, such as [[Yogachara|Yogācāra]] philosophy of mind-only (''cittamātra'') and the [[Trisvabhāva|three natures]], the [[Eight Consciousnesses|''ālayavijñāna'']] (store-house consciousness), the inner "disposition" (''gotra''), the [[buddha-nature]], the [[luminous mind]] (''prabhāsvaracitta''), [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]] (''śūnyatā'') and [[Buddhist vegetarianism|vegetarianism]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Nguyen |first=Dac Sy |date=2012 |title=Buddha-nature (as Depicted in the Lankavatara-sutra), Introduction |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/essay/buddha-nature-lankavatara-sutra/d/doc1145025.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=www.wisdomlib.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The ''Liṅga-avatāraLaṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' was often quoted and paraphrased by Indian philosophers like [[Chandrakirti]] and [[Shantideva]], and it also figured prominently in the development of [[East Asian Buddhism]].<ref>Ruegg, David Seyfort, ''<nowiki>''The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India,''</nowiki>'' Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1981, p. 7.</ref><ref>Christian Lindtner. ‘The Laṅkāvatārasūtra in Early Madhyamaka Literature’. In J. Bronkhorst, K. Mimaki, and T.J.F. Tillemans eds. Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques (Études bouddhique offertes à Jacques May à lʼoccasion de son soixante-cinquième anniversaire) 46 no. 1 (1992): 244-279.</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>Gishin Tokiwa. ''Lankavatara Sutram. A Jewel Scripture of Mahayana Thought and Practice. A study of the Four-Fascicle Lankavatara Ratna Sutram'', p. lxxi-lxxii. [[Hanazono University]], Kyoto. Printed by the Meibunsha Printing Co. Lts., Kyoto, Japan, 2003.</ref> It is notably an important sūtra in [[Zen Buddhism]], as it discusses the key issue of "[[Subitism|sudden enlightenment]]".<ref>Sy, Nguyen Dac. "Thought of Buddha Nature as Depicted in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra." PhD diss., University of Delhi, 2012. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/28355.</ref> The text survives in one Sanskrit manuscript from Nepal as well as in Tibetan and Han Chinese translation.<ref name=":0" />

[[file:UG-LK Photowalk - 2018-03-24 - Maskeliya Reservoir (3).jpg|thumb|350px|Mount Malaya (also known as [[Adam's Peak|Sri Pada]]), [[Sri Lanka|Sri lanka]], the main setting of the sutra.]]