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Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra 楞伽経

The Sūtra of the Entry into Laṅkā — the Buddha's word on consciousness-only

Presentation

The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (Sanskrit: लङ्कावतारसूत्र, "Sūtra of the Descent into Laṅkā") is one of the most important texts of Mahāyāna Buddhism, particularly for the Yogācāra school and for the Chan / Zen tradition.

According to tradition, Bodhidharma — the first patriarch of Chan — transmitted this sūtra to his successor Huike, stating that it contained the essence of the direct transmission: "I transmit the Laṅkāvatāra as the seal of the mind." For several generations, Chan was known as "the Laṅkāvatāra school."

Origin and Structure

Likely composed in the 4th century CE, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra presents itself as a teaching given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on the island of Laṅkā (present-day Sri Lanka), where he goes at the invitation of King Rāvaṇa. There are three Chinese translations, the most important being that of Guṇabhadra (443 CE), in four fascicles.

The sūtra addresses many themes, but its central teaching is vijñaptimātratā (唯識, "consciousness-only") — the idea that all phenomena are manifestations of the mind and have no independent reality.

The Doctrine of Consciousness-Only

The Laṅkāvatāra expounds the theory of the eight consciousnesses (八識):

  • The five sensory consciousnesses — sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch
  • The sixth consciousness (manovijñāna) — discursive thought
  • The seventh consciousness (manas) — attachment to the self, source of discrimination
  • The eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) — the reservoir of all karmic seeds

The ālaya-vijñāna is both individual and universal: it contains all potentialities, all impressions left by past actions. Awakening consists of turning this consciousness around, purifying it, until one realizes the essential nature of the mind — the buddha-dhātu (Buddha-nature).

For Chan / Zen

The Laṅkāvatāra had a profound influence on the development of Chan:

  • Direct Transmission — the sūtra insists on heart-to-heart transmission, beyond words and texts
  • Buddha-Nature — all beings possess the nature of awakening; it is simply a matter of realizing it
  • Non-Duality — the distinction between subject and object is an illusion produced by the discriminative mind
  • Rejection of Extremes — neither being nor non-being, neither identity nor difference

"External objects do not exist; it is the mind itself that appears in the form of objects. The distinction of self and non-self is a construction of imagination."
— Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra

Bibliographie

  • D. T. Suzuki, The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (traduction anglaise, 1932)
  • Red Pine, The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (traduction anglaise, 2012)
  • Éditions du Seuil, Le Sūtra de l'Entrée à Laṅkā (trad. partielle française)
  • Yokoyama Kōichi & al., Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, CBETA (Taishō T16n0671)

Présentation Mokusan — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — Sources : CBETA, D. T. Suzuki.