Toh 87The Discourse for Kāśyapa
Pāli / Sanskrit:Kāśyapaparivartasūtra
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Exposition of the Kāśyapa Sutra
Background
The Kāśyapa Sutra (Kāśyapaparivartasūtra) is an important scripture in the Mahayana tradition, preserved in the Kangyur — the canon of the Northern Transmission. The sutra recounts a Dharma discourse between Buddha Shakyamuni and Kāśyapa, an eminent venerable learned in the scriptures, yet still bearing profound doubts in his heart about the nature of the Buddha's Dharma.
Kāśyapa represents those practitioners who have a firm foundation of knowledge but have not yet truly penetrated the unborn, unceasing, selfless nature of phenomena. The setting of the sutra takes place after the Buddha has completed many Dharma discourses, and therefore the Kāśyapa Sutra is regarded as a further clarification of subtle points concerning buddha nature and ultimate liberation.
Main Content
The Kāśyapa Sutra focuses on the Buddha's instruction to Kāśyapa concerning the impermanent (anicca) and selfless (anatta) nature of all phenomena. In particular, the sutra clarifies the Mahayana view that even arhats (holy ones of the Hinayana) must continue to practice in order to reach the far shore of perfect buddhahood.
The Buddha teaches that the difference between an arhat and a buddha does not lie in the degree of liberation from suffering, but in the breadth and completeness of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā). An arhat has only been freed from the latent afflictions (anuśaya), but is still veiled by subtle obscurations of ignorant knowledge (avidyābhāraṇa). The sutra emphasizes that the Buddhist path is not a path of practice that ends within the endless cycle of birth and death, but an unceasing progress toward the infinite wisdom of buddhahood.
The sutra also explains the concept of "Tathāgatagarbha" — the buddha nature that all sentient beings inherently possess. This is an important point in the Mahayana of the Northern Transmission: every living being, even those considered "beyond saving," possesses the capacity to become a buddha if the conditions for practice are present.
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