Pūrvapraṇidhāna
pūrvapraṇidhāna (T. sngon gyi smon lam; C. benyuan 本願). Translated as “prior vow”, "aspirations in former lives", etc.[1][2]
In the Mahayana, this term is used specifically to refer to the vow of a bodhisattva to attain buddhahood, often specifying the place, the time, and the retinue that will be associated with that event.[1]
The most famous of the pūrvapraṇidhāna are the forty-eight vows made by the monk Dharmākara in the presence of buddha Lokeśvararāja, which ultimately led to his becoming the buddha Amitābha and establishing the pure land of Sukhavati.[1] These vows are recorded in the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra.
The Chinese translation of this term (benyuan 本願) literally means “original vow,” and this English rendering is commonly seen in Western translations of texts of Pure Land Buddhism.[1]
See also: praṇidhāna
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. pūrvapraṇidhāna
- ↑
རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
