Yulanben jing
Yulanben jing. (T. ’Phags pa yongs su skyobs pa’i snod ces bya ba’i mdo; J. Urabongyō; K. Uranbun kyŏng 盂蘭盆經). “Book of the Yulan Vessel”. An influential Chinese Buddhist text, often known in English as the Ullambana Sūtra or simply the Yulanben Sūtra. Along with the Bao'en fengben jing (“Scripture for Offering Bowls to Repay Kindness”), the Yulanben jing details the practice of the ghost festival (Yulanben) and its origin myth.[1]
"The text describes Maudgalyāyana's efforts to save his mother from the tortures of her rebirth as a ghost (preta). Maudgalyāyana (C. Mulian) is able to use his supranormal powers to visit his mother in the realm of ghosts, but the food that he offers her immediately bursts into flames. The Buddha explains that it is impossible for the living to make offerings directly to the dead; instead, one should make offerings to the sangha in a bowl, and the power of their meditative practices will be able to save one’s ancestors and loved ones from rebirths in the unfortunate realms (durgati).[2]
Text
The text is available in Chinese and Tibetan translation. No Sanskrit text is extant.
According to the Princeton Dictionary, little is known about the provenance of either the Yulanben jing or the Bao'en fengben jing.[1] "Both are now generally presumed to be indigenous Chinese works, although some scholars continue to maintain that they are of Indian or Central Asian origin. They are thought to have been composed sometime between the fourth and fifth centuries and were included in the Chinese Buddhist canon as early as the sixth century."[1]
A Tibetan translation is included in only three editions of the Tibetan Kangyur. This translation was rendered from a Chinese recension in the early ninth century in Dunhuang, by the Tibetan translator Go Chodrub.[1]
Translations
English language translations:[3]
Translated by - Stephen F. Teiser
- "The Yulanpen Sutra"
- The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. pp. 49–54.
Translated by - Yifa 釋依法; Peter M. Romaskiewicz
- "Yulan Bowl Sutra"
- In: The Yulan Bowl Sutra and Collection of Filial Piety SutrasTaiwan: Buddha's Light Publishing, 2008. Woodenfish Translation Series.
Translated by - Bandō Shōjun
- "The Ullambana Sutra"
- In: Apocryphal Scriptures. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2005. (BDK English Tripiṭaka 25-I, 25-V, 25-VI, 29-I, 104-VI)
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Yulanben jing.
- ↑ Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. Maudgalyāyana.
- ↑
盂蘭盆經, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University
