This paper is an analysis on the accounts found in the Buddha’s biographical texts of the Bodhisattva’s investigation of the world. Those accounts narrate that the Bodhisattva residing in the Tuṣita heaven made the preliminary examination of the world to which he would be born into as the future Buddha. First, the accounts of the Mahāvihāra tradition of the Theravāda school are found in the Pāli commentaries, the main texts being the Jātaka-aṭṭhakathā (the Nidānakathā) and the Mahāpadānasuttanta-aṭṭhakathā. Through close examination, it is apparent thatthe role of these descriptions is to demonstrate the ideal of “the common career for all Buddhas”. This ideal appears frequently in Northern Buddhist texts, which is fixed with the ideology of the Seven Former Buddhas in the Mahāpadānasuttanta and its Sanskrit and Chinese version. Through this analysis it can be concluded that the Bodhisattva’s investigation of the world within the Buddha’s biographical texts presuppose the ideology of the Seven Former Buddhas. This matter can also be understood as being closely related to “the Future Buddha Maitreya who resides in the Tuṣita heaven”.

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This article shows the essential role of early folded paper manuscripts which contain illustrations for chanting in order to eventually understand Contemporary Thai Buddhist funeral culture in which some of the texts in those manuscripts are utilized. Buddhist manuscripts kept in Thai temples include not only those made of palm-leaf, but also those made of folded paper (Samut Khoi). Among the latter, the large illustrated ones are especially eye-catching. They were chiefly made between the 18th to the early 20th century to be used in ritual chanting at funeral-related ceremonies, as the illustrations show. Due to their visual appeal, those illustrated manuscripts have been mainly researched in the field of Art History. Subsequent research as to the location of the manuscripts has identified which texts were inscribed in each of the manuscripts. The research has revealed the fact that the texts are basically compiled from part of the Pāli Tipiṭaka and from part of the extra-canonical texts used for chanting, e.g., the Pārājika chapter of the Vinaya, Brahmajālasutta, the texts on Mātikā and Sahassaneyya from the Abhidhamma and Mahābuddhaguṇa which is classed as an extra-canonical text. However, the exact function of each of the texts in a manuscript and the reason that they are arranged in a particular order has been yet to be examined. To better understand this phenomenon, my research focuses on one of the folded paper manuscripts which we identified it as produced in 1743. The conclusion which can be drawn from this analysis is that the chanting texts were mainly compiled in order to encourage the laity to perform wholesome deeds thereby producing positive karmic results as the Buddha emphasizes the idea of non-self (anatta).

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It has been noticed that the Aṭṭhasālinī recorded an argument about the canonicity of the Kathāvatthu composed by Moggaliputta-Tissa. The vitaṇḍavādin there rejected it as being sāvakabhāsita (what was spoken by a diciple) and proposed either the Mahādhammahadaya or the Mahādhātukathā instead, while the Aṭṭhasālinī managed to interpret it to be buddhabhāsita (what was spoken by the Buddha). On the one hand, from this discussion one may think that the elders of the Theravāda (Mahāvihāra) fraternity commonly believed that the three piṭakas called buddhavacana (literally, “Word of the Buddha”) are supposed to consist of only the Buddha’s words. On the other hand, there is a scholar who has a query about equating the three piṭakas with the word of the Buddha, assuming that “a few passages” which remain in the Mahādhammahadaya and the Mahādhātukathā are the Buddha’s original teachings outside of the canon ([清水 2016a]). The Pāli cmmentaries certainly attempt to interpret some suttas discoursed by the disciples of the Buddha to be buddhabhāsita or jinabhāsita on account of the Buddha’s approval. However, since it is not applicable in most cases, such interpretation cannot be generalized. Furthermore, the Vinayapiṭaka classifies the dhamma into four categories: buddhabhāsita, sāvaka-bh°, isi-bh° (saints) and deva-bh° (deities), and its commentary applies the canonical texts to each category. The Theragāthā and the Therīgāthā are, according to the Pāli comentator, sāvakabhāsitas collected at the council(s). The Pāli commentaries reveal that the executors of the councils (saṅgītikāras) occasionally add their own words and passages to the canon. Thus it is evident from the Theravādin’s point of view that the Pāli canon does not consist exclusively of the Buddha’s words. It is also important that the Pāli commentaries recognized that the Buddha’s words exist outside of the canon. The fate after death of the kind Ajātasatthu is exposed by the Buddha in the commentary on the Sāmaññaphalasutta, and this is said to be “certainly told by the Exalted One” (bhagavatā vuttam eva). When the suttas relate the Buddha pleasing people with a dhammakathā, the commentaries, calling it Pāḷimuttakakathā (the sermon freed from the canon), sometimes reveal the content of the sermon. There is even a case when a non-canonical story is called buddhabhāsita by the commentator. In the Kathāvatthu, we can find unknown suttas accepted as having been “told by the Exalted One” both by the opponents and the Theravādins. As shown in the expression: “in buddhavacana consisting of three piṭakas listed at three councils” (tisso saṅgītiyo ārūḷhe tepiṭake buddhavacane), buddhavacana is a category term for the three piṭakas collected, approved and authorized at three councils, while buddhabhāsita exist inside and outside of the canon.

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Vessantara Jātaka is a well known Buddhist text which has widely spread to all over Asian countries. The story tells a birth story of the Buddha Śākyamuṇi as being Prince Vessantara, featuring his great generosity to the extent that he has offered his children. This paper looks at a Tibetan text in which narratives similar to Vessantara Jātaka are found. The Tibetan text is called the Maṇi bka’ ‘bum, which is a “revealed text” (gter ma), being claimed to be authored by Srong btsan sgam po (d. 650), an ancient Tibetan king as being a manifestation of the Boddhisttva Avalokiteśvara, a tutelary deity in Tibet. The text narrates successive birth stories of the king, and two stories similar to Vessantara Jātara consists of them. There are several features in the two stories in Tibetan, which differ to the story commonly known as the Vessantara Jātaka like in the Pāli literature. The names of characters are different from those in the Pāli. For example, the main character of both stories is named ‘Jig rten dbang phyug (Skt. Lokeśvara) who has two queens, instead of one in the Pāli literature. One is identified as Srong bstan sgam po’s Nepali queen, and the other is his Chinese wife. Philosophically, also the stories teach Mahāyāna thoughts such as the generation of the mind towards enlightenment (sems bskyed), and a faith in the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara and his quintessential mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ.

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