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Bodhisattva in the Perfection of Wisdom Buddhist Texts
When we talk about the Prajnaparamita, we sometimes get deep into it. To begin, I have always been interested in the fact that before Sakyamuni became the Buddha and gained his enlightenment, he went to other teachers. We don’t often think about what his teachers have taught him. For example, Alara Kalama taught him a meditation where he could experience infinite space and be conscious of infinite space. After being taught about how to meditate in this way and having experienced infinite space, the Buddha thought it was interesting but it wasn’t good enough. He still hasn’t had the release and hasn’t reached moksha. So, he continued to study with other teachers. Uddaka taught him to go deeper into his mind and reach a mental state which is neither perception nor the lack of perception. A very deep and special state. But, once again, it wasn’t sufficient. Why wasn’t it sufficient? What was lacking? Why did he keep pursuing another path? What was the path he pursued? And, what was the difference between what he finally reached and what his great teachers had taught him? I looked into the Eight Thousand-Line Perfection of Wisdom Sutra having these questions in mind. When we look into this sutra, it is interesting to see that when the Buddha had gathered his audience, all of them were arhats. There was not a bodhisattva in sight. Where were all these bodhisattvas then? What we later on defined as a bodhisattva is what the Prajnaparamita Sutras taught for the first time. The Prajnaparamita created the bodhisattvas. In other words, at the time when he started teaching, this was the first Prajnaparamita Sutra. When the Buddha first taught it, there were no bodhisattvas of the type that we later see. Later in the sutra the bodhisattvas appeared. It was a sequential thing. In the beginning, it tells us that everybody was an arhat.
星雲大師不二思想研究——以《心經》詮釋為中心
《心經》篇幅雖短，卻是《大般若經》的中心和宗要，是對整個佛教般若思想的集中表達，在般若體系中占據著重要地位。星雲大師在虔誠信仰佛教的外婆影響下，四、五歲時就會能夠背誦《心經》，足見大師與《心經》之間因緣深厚。星雲大師出家之後，在佛法修行實踐中對《心經》尤其重視，不僅自己堅持時時誦念體解，同時一直鼓勵信徒們在日常生活中「每天至少誦一卷《心經》」。不僅如此，大師還在半個多世紀的弘法過程中，多次向信眾宣講《心經》。據不完全統計，從1955年至2015年的六十年時間裡，星雲大師以公開宣講或者私下講解的方式，為信眾講解《心經》的次數多達十八次。有關統計情況請見文末附表。
《大般若經》中的菩薩思想
我們談到般若經典時，常常會做深入的鑽研。首先，我一直都對一件事很感興趣。佛陀在成道之前，曾經拜其他人為師，但鮮少有人想過，他的老師們都教了他什麼？例如，阿羅邏迦藍摩教導他一種能體驗和意識到無限空間的禪定。佛陀學會了這種禪定功夫之後，感覺很有趣，但也知道這並不究竟，因為他還是無法脫離輪迴之苦。於是他便向外找尋其他的名師。鬱陀羅伽教導他進入更深層的意識，達到一種非想也非非想的層次，這一種很深的意識層次，但仍然不夠究竟。原因是什麼呢？到底還缺乏什麼？為什麼佛陀轉向另外一種道的追求？這個道又是什麼呢？他所追尋的這種最終極究竟的道，跟這些老師們所教導他的，又有什麼不同？
