Jīvaka is a legendary physician frequently mentioned in Buddhist sources. Buddhist traditions from around Asia present him as a model healer and lay patron of the monastic order. The extant biographies can be divided into three relatively distinct streams of transmission (Pāli, Sanskrit-Tibetan, and Chinese), and regionally specific legends about Jīvaka have grown around this core narrative. While the other versions of the legend have been translated into English, the Chinese biography of Jīvaka has yet to be. Jīvaka’s legend is found in Chinese in several different versions dating from the fourth to fifth centuries. The translation below is of the longer recension of the Chinese Jīvaka biography, called the Āmrapāli and Jīvaka Avadāna Sutra (Foshuo nainü Zhiyu yinyuan jing 佛說㮈女祇域因緣經), found in text number 553 of the Taishō Tripiṭaka. The translation was completed by William Giddings, while this introduction was authored by Pierce Salguero.
Tag: goddess
Gifts of the Goddess: Offerings of Dhāraṇī (Memory Enhancement), Mantras, and Tantric Invocation Rituals by Sarasvatī and Śrī in the Sutra of Golden Light
The present study proposes that the goddesses Sarasvatī and Śrī appear in the Sutra of Golden Light (Suvarṇaprabhāsottama sūtra, 金光 明經, ca. early fifth century CE) as exemplars of the relationship of female deities to bodhisattvahood, dhāraṇī bestowal, and developments in deity invocation via mantra-based rituals. The goddesses demonstrate agency as Mahāyāna practitioners (i.e., bodhisattvas) who work on behalf of…