大乗仏典はなぜ沢山あるのか？
Why are there so many Mahayana Buddhist scriptures?
2023-08-02 18:00:00
When I was a child, my parents were members of Soka Gakkai, so when we referred to scriptures, we meant the "Lotus Sutra," and that was all I knew. Moreover, even though I knew about the Lotus Sutra, my knowledge was limited to Nichiren's unique interpretation, which I heard during Soka Gakkai activities.
In the summer of my second year of high school <= grade 11>, I decided to completely stop participating in Soka Gakkai activities. As a result, my connection with Buddhism was temporarily severed.
As an adult, when I became interested in Buddhism again and started researching, I learned about a group of scriptures called Mahayana sutras.
Among them was the "Lotus Sutra," a name I was already familiar with.
In Soka Gakkai, the Lotus Sutra is extolled as if it were the only Buddhist scripture. However, I learned for the first time that the Lotus Sutra is merely one of the many Mahayana sutras.
This led me to the following questions:
"Why are there so many Mahayana sutras?"
"What is the reason Soka Gakkai reveres the Lotus Sutra?"
To resolve these questions, I needed to further investigate each of the Mahayana sutras, but at that time, simply reading books did not provide the full answer.
Then, about 20 years later, I attained enlightenment and became a Buddha. I then revisited the major Mahayana sutras and researched them once again.
As a result, I understood that each Mahayana sutra likely reflects the worldview of the Buddha who authored it.
In other words, these are Buddhist works with narrative elements, created by different Buddhas based on their respective worldviews, providing the foundational knowledge, methods of Buddhist practice, and important points for beings (sentient beings) to attain enlightenment and become Buddhas.
The reason these sutras give a different impression compared to Shakyamuni’s original Buddhist scriptures can be that Shakyamuni’s scriptures are written in spoken language based on oral traditions, whereas many Mahayana sutras are written as literary works using written language. (This difference is often referred to as the "écriture theory.")
Furthermore, it can be seen that Mahayana sutras were written with the consideration, and even the purpose, of enabling people to practice Buddhism even in the absence of a living Buddha in their time and country.
If that is the case, having a large number of sutras increases the likelihood of being useful to people, and the independent nature of each sutra's content can ensure their mutual independence, which can also be advantageous for propagation.
For example, the means of expressing human emotions can include novels, movies, TV dramas, theater, songs, poetry, and many others. Not only is it acceptable for there to be a variety, but such diversity can be a measure of the cultural richness of a given time or country. In this case as well, the content of each work remains independent.
In other words, just as people enjoy their preferred literary works to deepen their understanding of subtle emotions, the collection of Mahayana sutras carries the message that practitioners can choose the sutras they like and aim for enlightenment and become Buddhas through them.
It can be considered that this stance in the creation of sutras resulted in the many Mahayana sutras being authored in those days.
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