On the basis of a large set of diverse stylistic markers, this paper argues that the Ekottarikāgama T 125 was translated by Zhu Fonian, and not by Saṃghadeva. The paper also considers implications of its findings for the broader corpus of texts ascribed to Zhu Fonian, and for methods in assessing ascriptions of Chinese Buddhist texts on the basis of internal evidence.

…the Realized, Worthy and Perfectly Awakened One has proclaimed these six distinctive ways by which one finds open space in the crush…

I begin with some general observations on the gender of the Buddha’s past lives as reported in jataka narratives, followed by a translation of the relevant section from the Ekottarikaagama. Then I compare this Ekottarika-agama version to three other versions of this tale preserved in Pali and Chinese, in particular in relation to the way they deal with the dictum that a woman cannot receive a prediction of future Buddhahood.

Zhu Fonian may have begun to produce new ‘scriptures’ without benefit of any Indian source-texts in an attempt to revive his own flagging fame.

How one Chinese Āgama translator came to write Chinese apocrypha.

These two collections include many suttas addressed to Buddhists dealing with the ethical and spiritual concerns of life within the world (as noted by Bhikkhu Bodhi), and thus involves the issues of merit (puñña). In this study I have illustrated the significant but often underestimated position of compassion with merit in early Buddhist doctrine.

One who has fully realized the truth of not-self thereby goes beyond the fear of death.

Surveying various suttas and agamas on the topic of death and translating a discourse that outlines the practice of the recollection of death, Bhikkhu Analyo brings out the importance of death in early Buddhism and contributes to modern research concerning how the thought of death affects human behavior.

… the fourth meditative absorption, this is just like that tree gradually blooming.

A translation of a discourse from the Ekottarika-āgama which parallels the Pāricchattaka Sutta.

… a somewhat ambivalent formulation that suggests a possible relation to the notion of rebirth in the Pure Abodes

… avoid assuming too easily that an abbreviation without a marker has occurred

… the Ekottarika Āgama preserved in Chinese translation is a text with rather complex features, combining some material that could be relatively early with other texts that clearly reflect later developments.

… besides numerous incontestably very late elements, it also contains many other extremely ancient elements

A translation and analysis of the Ekottara Āgama’s Mahāparinibbāna Sutta.

The translation of the twin Maitreya texts appears to have been produced as part of the Ekottarika-āgama’s translation.

… some groups of suttas in the Aṅguttara Nikāya with saṃyutta-like nature were probably moved from the Saṃyutta Nikāya to the Aṅguttara Nikāya within the Pali tradition. Evidence of a comparable movement into the Ekottarika Āgama is also available.

In the Ones and Twos, it is often the case that a single original sutta has been subdivided so that its component sections become a series of similarly structured derivative suttas superficially appropriate for inclusion in the Ones or Twos. Moreover, material for this process of subdividing has sometimes been provided by multiplying doctrinal sets with formulaic statements.

On how the AN/EA was originally composed and subsequently grew and developed (in response to the needs of the recitation groups).

… the Ekottarika Āgama could be affiliated to the Mahāsāṃghikas or the Mūlasarvāstivādins.

This site is deprecated, presumably superseded by SuttaCentral.

… revised versions of previously published articles. Each study builds around a partial or complete translation of an Ekottarika-āgama discourse, followed by an examination of aspects that I felt to be of further interest.

The integration of later elements into the Ekottarika-āgama, often related to Mahāyāna thought, distinctly distinguishes it from the other Chinese Āgamas as well as their counterparts, the Pali Nikāyas. When, where, how and why did this early Buddhist collection and its translation undergo such striking transformations?

I will consider the Zengyi ahan jing chiefly as the product of historical actors, three-dimensional human beings engaging their own world, rather than the putative witness to some ill-defined sectarian tradition

A lengthy monograph on the historical circumstances surrounding the production and dissemination of T.125 — a process that would have an enduring impact on Chinese Buddhism.

Note that certain “combining” diacritics were dropped in the PDF due to a publishing error. The corrected diacritics are listed here.

… the EĀ contains numerous salient features of Mahāsāṃghika doctrine, particularly the transcendence of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This study also argues that the seeming affinity between several legends in the EĀ and those in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya is likely to have resulted from Mahāsāṃghika influence on the Mūlasarvāstivādins.

How could suffering affect
The man whose mind is thus cultivated And which, like a rock,
Stands unmoving,
Detached from pleasant things

An example of a composite sutra from the EA, showing how this collection was made from a jumble of texts. It also contains a concrete example of the Mahayana growing out of Early Buddhism, in its use of the term “vajra”

… at an earlier time references to the four noble truths in this and other discourses may have been without the qualification ‘noble’

An example of the minor differences to be found between the Āgamas and their Pāli Parallels.