2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Formation and Development of the VajracchedikA PrajJAparamitA Sutra
| Project/Area Number |
16520046
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Indian philosophy/Buddhist studies
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| Research Institution | Toyo University |
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Principal Investigator |
WATANABE Shogo Toyo University, Faculty of Literature, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (50277349)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2005
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| Keywords | Early Mahayana Buddhism / vajra / Concentration Compared to a Vajra / Diamond / Thunderbolt / Thunder / Dharmagupta / Gandhara |
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| Research Abstract |
This VairacchedikA PrajJApAramitA sutra is the representative sutra of early Mahayana Buddhism and is the first sutra named Vajra. Sanskrit Manuscripts fond from Gandhara that I handled here show the situation of the formation and development of it definitely.
In the Vedic religion, the word vajra originally referred to natural phenomena, that is, lightning or thunderbolts, and it was considered to be a weapon of the god Indra. Later, when it was incorporated into Buddhism, its destructive power took the concrete form of a pestle and was internalized as the destruction of worldly desires. "In Abhidharma Buddhism, the "destructive power of the vajra was likened to the power of samAdhi and called the "concentration compared to a vajra" (vajropamasamAdhi 金剛喩定), and it was defined as the concentration of an instant experienced immediately before the ultimate stage of deliverance. In other words, this concentration destroys the worldly desires that need to be severed in the stage of intellectual practice (darCana-mArga 見道) and spiritual practice (bhAvanA-mArga 修道), and it is the final concentration on the path leading to deliverance. In the theory of practice in the MahAyAna, this concentration is reconstructed as the practice of the bodhisattva (bodhisattvacaryA). When one analyzes its development on the basis of the PrajJApAramitA Sutras, in which it was systemized for the first time in the MahAyAna, it becomes clear that its structure is such that one bodhisattva confirmed the stage of bodhisattva (bodhisattva-nyAma) enter into the vajropamasamAdhi, the "intelligence of a single instant" (ekakSaNa-prajJA-) arises in his concentration, followed by the "intelligence of all-knowing" (sarvAkArajJAtA) through that intelligence.
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