Māyājāla-sūtra as an important new canonical source-text

Abstract

The Māyājāla-sūtra is a unique, unparalleled, previously unknown early (but may be not so “early” in the end) Buddhist canonical sūtra, the Sanskrit original of which was discovered in the recently recovered Dīrghāgama and which in many ways deviates from and contradicts the standard canonical textual patterns and, arguably, doctrinal teachings. The main ways in which it contradicts the established patterns and views are that (1) it gives preference to the training in higher wisdom (adhiprajñā-śikṣā) over two other classical canonical trainings, (2) it argues that the objects don’t have a fixed/stable nature, (3) it says that there are not any truth and reality in sense-objects (including dharmas) and (4) it uses a lot of metaphors of illusion (usually found only in Mahāyāna prajñāpāramitā and later sūtras) to illustrate fluctuating, ephemeral nature of sense-objects.

In my paper, I am going to show that №2 is used in the Sautrāntika/Dārṣṭāntika teaching on the non-existence of external objects (viṣaya), —  probably, based exactly on this sūtra, — then, that the feature №3 is suggestive of the Madhyamaka and Yogācāra ideas of śūnyatā and niḥsvabhāva, and next, that this very sūtra is often brought up by Dārṣṭāntikas/Sautrāntikas to prove that it is possible to cognize a non-existent object (illusion, feature №4), which is used to disprove the main doctrinal claim of the Sarvāstivāda school “sarvāstivāda” or “sarvāstitva” (existence of dharmas in “all” three times).