Author Description

The Mahayana Sutra of Previous Lives and Contemplation of the Mind-ground (Dasheng bensheng xindi guan jing) was the last Buddhist text to be translated into Chinese with the full support of the Tang imperial house. Translated by the Kashmiri monk Prajña in 810-811, the translation is also available for the fact that the Japanese monk Ry¬ōsen served as the scribe who wrote down the initial draft translation, the only instance in which a Japanese monk is known to have played such a prominent role in the translation of a Chinese Buddhist text. The scripture is best known in China and Japan for its exposition of the four debts of gratitude and to a lesser extent its instructions concerning an abridged version of a visualization practice characteristic of the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha. It also merits attention for its chapters on renunciant bodhisattvas and their practices, which are likely to be the most faithful to Prajña’s Sanskrit base text and provide further insights into the current eremeticism that is known to have constituted an important aspect of the early Mahayana.