LaGkAvatAra sutra origin

[Petr Mares]

>  I think we are getting close to the place of origin of
>  Lankavatara Sutra. 

Dear Sir

Can you please make your reasoning more clear. I do not see any relation between the origin of laGkAvatAra and your citations. 

LaGkAvatAra certainly originated before 440 A.D. when its first translation was finished by GuNabhadra in DanYang commandery (near NanJing) after he moved there from the Jetavana monastery - QiHuanSi in capital of Liu Song dynasty into which he had been escorted  from GuanZhou by imperial emissary after he came by boat from South India in 435 A.D. LiDai SanBao Ji catalogue catalogue from 597 A.D. also speak about today lost translation of laGkAvatAra by TanWuChen in BeiLiang who has been killed already in 433 A.D.

So its origin can hardly have anythink to do with XuanZang or Tantra. Except that its main theme is cittamAtra and its basic standpoint is based on trisvabhAva, two nairAtmyA,  pa~nca-dharma ... It is also discussing and refuting the teaching of sAMkhya from the sAMkhya -kArikA in many places ...

In short its origin has to be in circumstances happening at least 3 or 4 centuries earlier than those you mention.


Petr Mares, Lengqie Research
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