Mahākāśyapa
Mahākāśyapa (P. Mahākassapa; T. 'od srung chen po འོད་སྲུང་ཆེན་པོ་; C. mohejiashe 摩訶迦葉), or Kāśyapa, was one of the ten principal disciples of Gautama Buddha, who was foremost in ascetic practice (dhutanga).
According to tradition, Mahākāśyapa assumed the leadership of the Sangha following the death of the Buddha, presiding over the First Buddhist Council. In the Pāli tradition, he is considered to be the Buddha's third chief disciple, surpassed only by the chief disciples Sariputta and Maha Moggallana.
Mahākāśyapa appears frequently in the Mahayana sutras, sometimes playing a significant role.[1] "In the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa, he is one of the śrāvaka disciples who is reluctant to visit Vimalakīrti. In the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, he is one of four arhats who understands the parable of the burning house and rejoices in the teaching of a single vehicle (ekayana); later in the sūtra, the Buddha prophesies his eventual attainment of buddhahood."[1]
Mahākāśyapa is also a central figure in the Chan traditions of East Asian Buddhism. In the Chinese Flower Sermon, Mahākāśyapa is presented as the only disciple who understands the Buddha's silent gesture of holding up a flower. He is thus considered the first patriarch of the Chan school.[1]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Mahākāśyapa
Further reading
Mahākāśyapa, Wikipedia- Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Mahākāśyapa
Nyanaponika Thera; Hecker, Hellmuth (2003), Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy (PDF), Wisdom Publications
