《菩薩所行方便境界遊戲神通說》佛身光喻索隱

The Buddha's Physical Splendour - Probing into Some Aspects of the Relevant Similies in the Bodhisattvagocaropayavisayavi-kurvitanirdesa

高明道(Friedrich F. Grohmann)

《中華佛學學報》 7期 (1994/07) Pp. 369-515

https://doi.org/10.6986/CHBJ.199407.0369

摘要

「佛光」一詞在今日臺灣流行甚廣，但其意義或涵義的歷史演變尠爲人研究。爲彌補此一缺憾，本文擬就《菩薩所行方便境界遊戲神通說》別序所載佛光喻略加探討。先將該經值接翻自印度原典的漢、蕃譯本上相關的長行、偈頌部分斠訂、對照排列，方便比較。接著分析其中關鍵詞，並舉例說明，透過此番分析所獲得的知識對理解他經上類似的文字有幫助。進而探索諸喻中的摩尼寶喻，指出《阿含》上該譬喻一般以「清楚地看到」爲重點，但偶爾已遷移，指「佛陀清楚可見」。最後提出，《般舟三昧經》應是《菩薩所行方便境界遊戲神通說》佛身光喻的資料來源，不過前者談修持法門，而後者讚歎世尊種種殊勝功德，旨趣非一。

關鍵字

佛光 ； 琉璃 ； 《菩薩行方便境界神通變化經》 ； 《大薩遮尼乾子所說經》 ； 《般舟三昧經》

並列摘要

Despite its wide currency in modern Taiwan, the term 佛光 as well as the concepts connected therewith in the Buddhist tradition have hardly been subjected to academic endeavour. In order to begin to remedy this situation the present paper draws attention to the depiction of the Buddha's effulgence in the nidaana of the Bodhisattvagocaropayavisayavikurvitanirdesa. The relevant prose and verse portions of the three versions translated directly from Indian originals are presented as a critically edited synopsis. On this basis, the Tibetan and Chinese renderings of the key term ＂to obscure＂ are analyzed philologically, and it is demonstrated how the knowledge derived from this analysis helps to gain a correct understanding of similar passages in other sutras. This leads to the discussion of one of the similies used to describe the Buddha's spendour-the vaidurya jewel. It is shown that the Agamas／ Nikayas generally employed this simile to express bility of the Buddha instead. It is, of course, in this sense that the Bodhisattvagocaropayavisayavikurvitanirdesa makes use of it. The direct source of this text, however, and this refers to all similes, not just vaiduurya, is not the Agama Literature, but with high probability the Pratyutpannabuddha- sammukhavasthita-samadhi-sutra. Yet the author(s) of the Bodhisattvagocaropayaviṣayavikurvitanirdesa did not slavishly copy their source as the meaning of ＂clear visibility＂ is distinctly different - in the Pratyutpanna-buddhasammukhavasthita- samadhi-sutra it refers to a meditative practice, in the Bodhisattvagocaropayavisayavikurvitanirdesa it is adduced to underline the Buddha's grandeur.