Mahaparinirvana Sutra

The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāna Sūtra presents itself as the final Mahāyāna teachings of the Buddha, delivered on the last day and night of his physical life upon earth. As such, it constitutes an lleged final and definitive summation of the Buddha’s Dharma from a Mahāyāna perspective.

The sūtra survives in its Sanskrit form only in some ten fragmentary pages. Fortunately, the sūtra was translated into Tibetan and Chinese. The shortest and earliest extant translated version is the translation into Chinese by Faxian and Buddhabhadra in six juan (418CE); the next in terms of scriptural development is the Tibetan version (c790CE) by Jinamitra, Jñānagarbha and Devacandra; and the lengthiest version of all is what is known as the “Northern version” in 40 juan by Dharmaksema (422CE). I shall quote from all three versions in this paper, using both Kosho Yamamoto’s English translation of the Dharmaksema, as well as the as-yet unpublished .

The Buddha denied the Self or Soul (the ātman) and any enduring essence (svabhāva). He utterly rejected and refuted all notions of a permanent Self or essence, both in the Pāli suttas and in the Mahāyāna scriptures. For the Buddha, man is composed solely of the five skandhas (constituent elements) of body, feeling, cognition, volition, and consciousnes.
This Mahayana scripture speaks affirmatively of the reality of the Self. .

Inhalt

Kapitel 1: Introductory Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was staying at Kusinagara in the land of the Mallas, close to the river Ajitavati, where the twin sal trees stood. At that time, the great bhiksus as many as 80 billion hundred thousand were with the World-Honoured One. They surrounded him front and back. On the 15th of the second month, as the Buddha was about to enter Nirvana, he, with his divine power, spoke in a great voice, which filled the whole world and reached the highest of the heavens. It said to all beings in a way each could understand: "Today, the Tathagata [i.e. Buddha] the Alms-deserving and All-Enlightened One, pities, protects and, with an undivided mind, sees beings as he does his [son] Rahula. So, he is the refuge and house of the world. The greatly Enlightened World-Honoured One is about to enter Nirvana. The beings who have doubts may now all ask questions of him." At that time, early in the morning, the World-Honoured One emitted from his mouth rays of light of various hues, namely: blue, yellow, red, white, crystal, and agate. The rays of light shone all over the 3,000 great-thousand Buddha lands. Also, the ten directions were alike shone upon. All the sins and worries of beings of the six realms, as they were illuminated, were expiated. People saw and heard this, and worry greatly beset them. They all sorrowfully cried and wept: "Oh, the kindest father! Oh, woe is the day! Oh, the sorrow!" They raised their hands, beat their heads and breasts, and cried aloud. Of them, some trembled, wept, and sobbed. At that time, the great earth, the mountains, and great seas all shook. Then, all of them said to one another: "Let us for the present suppress our feelings, let us not be greatly smitten by sorrow! Let us speed to Kusinagara, call at the land of the Mallas, touch the feet of the Tathagata, pay homage and beg: "O Tathagata! Please do not enter Parinirvana, but stay one more kalpa [aeon] or less than a kalpa." They pressed their palms together and said again: "The world is empty! Fortune has departed from us beings; evil things will increase in the world. O you! Hurry up, go quickly! Soon the Tathagata [i.e. Buddha] will surely enter Nirvana." They also said: "The world is empty, empty! From now on, no one protects us, and we have none to pay homage to. Poverty- stricken and alone! If we once part from the World-Honoured One, and if doubts arise, whom are we to ask?"

At that time, there were many of the Buddha's disciples there, such as Venerable Mahakatyayana, Vakkula, and Upananda. All such great bhiksus, when they saw the light, shook and were greatly stirred, so much so that they could not hold themselves well. Their minds became muddled, and chaos ruled. They cried aloud and displayed variegated grief. There were present, at that time, 8 million bhiksus. All were arhats [saints]. They were unmolested [unlimited] in mind and could act as they willed. They were segregated from all illusions, and all their sense-organs were subdued. Like great naga [serpent] kings, they were perfect in great virtue. They were accomplished in the wisdom of the All-Void and perfect in the attainments of their own [in inner attainments]. They were like the sandalwood forest with sandalwood all around, or like a lion king surrounded by lions. They were perfect in all such virtues. They were the true sons of the Buddha. Early in the morning, when the sun had just risen, they were up from their beds in the places where they lived and were about to use their toothbrushes, when they encountered the light that arose from the Buddha's person. And they said to one another: "Hurry up with bathing and gargling, and be clean." So did they say, and their hair stood on end all over their body, and their blood so ran that they looked like palasa flowers. Tears filled their eyes, which expressed great pain. To benefit and give peace to beings, to establish the Transcendent Truth of the All-Void of Mahayana, to reveal what the Tathagata had by expediency latently taught so that all his sermons would not come to an end, and to subjugate the minds of all beings, they sped to where the Buddha was. They fell down at the Buddha's feet, touched them with their heads, walked around him a 100 thousand times, folded their hands, paid homage, stepped back and sat on one side.

Kommentar

Das obige Mahaparinirvana entspricht dem Abschluss der Stufe 19 des universellen Pfades und umfasst noch nicht ganz das universelle Mahaparanirvana der Stufe 20, wie es dem esoterisch ausgelegten Lebenslauf des Buddha entspräche.

Obiges Sutra sagt zum Schluß :
Als dieser Dharma übertragen wurde erlangten 10,000 Bodhisattvas die wirkliche Vorstellung von einem Leben, 1000500 Bodhisattvas erlangten das zwei-Leben- Dharmadhatu, 1000500 Bodhisattvas erlangten das höchste Wissen, und 3,500 Bodhisattvas erwachten zur höchsten Wahrheit. Diese höchste Wahrheit ist auch das Paramartha-Sunyata, und auch der Suramgama - Samadhi. 45,000 Bodhisattvas erlangten den All-Leere Samadhi . Dieser All-Leere-Samadhi wird auch als der riesige und große Samadhi bezeichnet, und als Wissens-Eindruck Samadhi.

Literatur

• Affirmation of Eternal Self in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra
• Buddhistische Gesellschaft : Das Mahaparinirvana-Sutra als Online-PDF