Tagged: Saṃyukta-āgama
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Anālayo - Right View and the Scheme of the Four Truths in Early Buddhism - The Saṃyukta-āgama Parallel to the Sammāditthi-sutta and the Simile of the Four Skills of a Physician (2011)
1This article explores the attainment of right view at stream-entry by analyzing the *Saṃyukta-āgama* parallel to the *Sammāditthi-sutta*. This discourse demonstrates that right view involves understanding various phenomena, such as the links of dependent arising, through the structural pattern of the four truths - identifying an item, its cause, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. The author then introduces another *Saṃyukta-āgama* discourse that explicitly compares the four truths to a four-part medical diagnosis - disease (dukkha), pathogen (craving), health (cessation), and cure (the path). The author argues that this parallel, likely adopted from a known medical practice, was used to frame the Buddha's teachings as pragmatic, therapeutic, and psychological, distinguishing them from abstract philosophical speculation. The slight difference in the sequence of the third and fourth items between the medical and Buddhist schemes suggests that medicine was the source of the analogy.
Anālayo - Teaching the Abhidharma in the Heaven of the Thirty-three, The Buddha and his Mother (2012)
2This paper analyzes the story of the Buddha's rainy season retreat in the Heaven of the Thirty-three to teach his mother, using a translation from the Samyukta-āgama as its basis. The author argues that the tale serves several functions, primarily as an act of "inclusivism" that elevates the Buddha's status above traditional Indian deities like Śakra, who are depicted as subservient. By comparing various textual versions and early aniconic art, the paper suggests that the famous motif of the three stairs for the Buddha's descent likely originated as an artistic necessity in aniconic depictions and was later absorbed into textual narratives, indicating that versions without it, such as the Samyukta-āgama account, may be earlier. The narrative also highlights the theme of filial piety, a significant concept in Indian Buddhism. Finally, the paper contends that the Theravāda tradition's unique claim that the Buddha taught the Abhidharma in heaven, rather than the general Dharma as other schools maintain, was a later innovation to provide celestial authentication and superior status for the Abhidharma canon.
Anālayo - The Chinese Parallels to the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta (1) (2012)
3This paper analyzes Chinese parallels to the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta, focusing on Mūlasarvāstivāda and Sarvāstivāda versions, and reveals significant variations from the Pāli canon and among the parallels themselves. Some versions, such as the Saṃyukta-āgama discourse and the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, omit the teaching on the two extremes and the explanation of the Four Noble Truths, focusing exclusively on the "three turnings" applied to each truth. Other versions present the teachings as separate components; for instance, the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya includes the two extremes and the three turnings, but places the detailed explanation of the truths only after Kauṇḍinya's initial awakening. The author argues against the theory that the Four Noble Truths are a late addition, proposing instead that the shorter texts are intentional extracts from a longer, multi-part discourse, and that the Mūlasarvāstivāda and Sarvāstivāda traditions considered the teaching on the "three turnings" to be the central element that set the wheel of Dharma in motion.