[Buddha-l] Lankavatara and Shingon Sutras

[Jeff Wilson]

Dear Kate,

My copy of Kogen Mizuno's "Buddhist Sutras: Origin, Development,
Transmission" has this to say about the Lankavatara Sutra (p. 194):

"Lankavatara-Sutra: generic abbreviation: Leng-chia-ching; (1) Leng-chia
a-pa-to-lo pao-ching, 4 fascicles, translated 443 by Gunabhadra; (2) Ju
leng-chia-ching, 10 fascicles, translated 513 by Bodhiruchi; (3) Ta-ch'eng
ju-leng-chia-ching, 7 fascicles, translated 700-704 by Shikshananda"

D.T. Suzuki also mentions that there is a Tibetan translation. His rendering
is I believe the only complete English translation; it is notoriously full
of errors. Because we see a wide variety of fascicle counts, it is clear
that there were multiple Sanskrit versions, some of significantly different
length.

On Shingon, you will want to consult these two sources:

Yamasaki, Taiko. "Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism." Fresno, CA: Shingon
Buddhist International Institute, 1988.

Geibel, Rolf W. and Dale A. Todaro, eds. "Shingon Texts." Berkeley, CA:
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2004.

In asking about what Sutras are used by Japanese Shingon, and whether they
differ from those used by Chinese Chen-yen, it is important to keep a few
things in mind. First, Chen-yen no longer exists as a viable school of
Buddhism, though Chen-yen practices have survived to the present day within
Chinese Buddhism (augmented, in many cases now, by Tibetan/Mongolian-derived
esoteric practices) and Chen-yen scriptures are of course contained within
the Chinese Tripitaka. Second, Shingon is not a unified school but rather a
descriptive term for several major competing schools with many
sub-variations (as many as 36, according to one authority). So it isn't
really a matter of whether Shingon preserves the same texts as Chen-yen, but
rather of which varieties of Shingon preserve which versions of Chen-yen
texts.

Hope this helps!

Sincerely,
Jeff Wilson
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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