The Vimalakirti Sutra / Edition 1

by Burton Watson

Overview

One of the most popular Asian classics for roughly two thousand years, the Vimalakirti Sutra stands out among the sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism for its conciseness, its vivid and humorous episodes, its dramatic narratives, and its eloquent exposition of the key doctrine of emptiness or nondualism. Unlike most sutras, its central figure is not a Buddha but a wealthy townsman, who, in his mastery of doctrine and religious practice, epitomizes the ideal lay believer. For this reason, the sutra has held particular significance for men and women of the laity in Buddhist countries of Asia, assuring them that they can reach levels of spiritual attainment fully comparable to those accessible to monks and nuns of the monastic order.

Esteemed translator Burton Watson has rendered a beautiful English translation from the popular Chinese version produced in 406 C.E. by the Central Asian scholar-monk Kumarajiva, which is widely acknowledged to be the most felicitous of the various Chinese translations of the sutra (the Sanskrit original of which was lost long ago) and is the form in which it has had the greatest influence in China, Japan, and other countries of East Asia. Watson's illuminating introduction discusses the background of the sutra, its place in the development of Buddhist thought, and the profundities of its principal doctrine: emptiness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231106566
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/21/1996
Series:	Translations from the Asian Classics
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Burton Watson is one of the world's best-known translators from the Chinese and Japanese. His translations include The Lotus Sutra, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, Ryôkan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, Saigyô: Poems of a Mountain Home, and The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, all published by Columbia.

Table of Contents

Translator's Note
Introduction
The Vimalakirti Sutra
1. Buddha Lands
2. Expedient Means
3. The Disciples
4. The Bodhisattvas
5. Inquiring About the Illness
6. Beyond Comprehension
7. Regarding Living Beings
8. The Buddha Way
9. Entering the Gate of Nondualism
10. Fragrance Accumulated
11. Actions of the Bodhisattvas
12. Seeing Akshobhya Buddha
13. The Offering of the Law
14. Entrustment
Glossary

Editorial Reviews

A new translation of any of the classics . . . from the hand of Burton Watson is an event to be welcomed with gratitude.

Journal for Asian Studies