Korea Journal of Buddhist StudiesISSN:1598-0642(Print)불교학연구회

From the beginning of Mahāyāna Buddhism, it has been a question whether the Mahāyāna-sūtras are Gautama Buddha's real teachings or not. In Mahāyāna- sūtrālamkāra-śastra, Asaṅga presented eight reasons to prove Mahāyāna-sūtras as the Buddha’s real teachings. But any of those reasons can't be accepted by most of modern scholars. Since the Mahāyāna-sūtras are composed and edited lately long after the Buddha’s Nirvāṇa, they cannot be considered to be his direct teachings. In Tibet, ‘gTer Ma’ has been created and served as an authentic canon of Buddhist scriptures. Also the early Buddhist scriptures like Chinese Āgama or Pāli Nikāya are not exactly what the Gautama Buddha said. The efforts of searching the Buddha's real teaching is compared to unraveling the peels of an onion. In fact, we cannot find the Buddha's direct words even in early Tripiṭaka. So we should establish criteria for judging authenticity of Buddhist scriptures. First of all, the teachings of a Buddhist scripture can be referred to early Tripiṭaka. Secondly, the philosophies or thoughts of that scripture should coincide with Four Noble Truths. Then, the Mahāyāna-sūtras can be accepted as the Buddha’s real teachings. The sources of most Mahāyāna thoughts can be found in early Tripiṭaka. The ideal of Bodhisattva is extracted from the previous life of Gautama Buddha in Jātaka. The existence of extraterrestrial Buddha's land is a logical consequence of the theories of Trisāhasramahāsāhasralokadhātu and Impermanence. The theory of emptiness in Prajñāpāramitāsūtra is a philosophical transformation of the simile of a raft in early Tripiṭaka. Generally we use the analogy of peeling an onion as a vain effort. There is no substance or core in the center of an onion. However if we think in a positive way, each layer is the real substance. An onion is composed of substantial peels. Likewise, most Mahāyāna Sūtras are substantial peels of the Buddha's teachings.