Laureano Ramírez

The Vimalakirti Sutra

Original title:

Sutra de Vimalakirti. Presentación, traducción y notas de Laureano Ramírez Bellerín a partir de la versión china de Kumarajiva

About the book:

The Vimalakirti Sutra

This is one of the jewels of Mahayana Buddhism, and is enormously popular in China, Tibet, Korea and Japan. Very likely this is due to its accessible format, its treatment in the form of dramatic presentation:  an argument between various characters, more tangible and real for many readers than the abstract schemes and speculationS of conventional Mahayana scriptures.  This in no wise detracts from its doctrinal profundity, since the principal elements of this tradition appear here condensed in masterly fashion, especially the madhyamaka doctrine of the middle way. The latter has its roots in the marvelous emptiness of all elements of existence – the way in which all elements of existence constitute the void – as formulated in India by Nagarjuna.  His skilful use of dialectic enables him to impugn one by one the precepts of of Hinayana which served as dogma for the first followers of the Buddha, and his art of persuasion (or upaya) enables him to mould before one's very eyes an alternative way to the search for individual perfection: the altruistic way of the bodhisattvas who renounce their own salvation to liberate all beings.  It is not surprising that schools such as the Chan (Zen) refer frequently to this sutra to illustrate one or other of its precepts, or that well-known artists over the ages have used it as a source of inspiration.

Nobody could be more ideally suited to interpret these scriptures than Kumarjiva, the great figure who introduced the concept of the void into China, and who furthermore was assisted by some of the principal theorists in questions of Buddhism of the times, theorists such as Seng Zhao, Dao Sheng and Hui Yan. His version and commentaries were the basis for the Spanish edition published by Kairos. 

About the author:

Laureno Ramírez Bellerin lectures at Barcelona's  Universidad Autonoma, where among other things he teaches doctorate courses on the spread of Buddhism to China and the translation of its scriptures. He has also translated the Platform Sutra (Tan Jing) by Hui Neng for Kairos.