Han Jaehee
University of Oslo
This paper aims to explore how the practice of the bodhisattva is explained through a metaphor in early Mahāyāna literature, the Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra, about having a meal (bhojana) that includes six flavours. In this sutra, the meal of six flavours is used as a metaphor for the teachings of the Buddha, and each flavour represents the attributes of the state of existence and extinction (nirvāṇa): impermanence (anitya) for salty (lavaṇa); suffering (duḥkha) for sour (āmbla); non-selfhood (anātmaka) for pungent (kaṭuka); permanence (nitya) for bitter (tikta); happiness (sukha) for sweet (madhura); and selfhood (sātmaka) for astringent (kaṣāya). According to the sutra, his disciplines should enjoy this delectable food of truth, which is well cooked on the fuel of depravities (kleśa) and with the flame of illusion (māyā).
In order to understand this metaphor, we need to look at two other texts, the Charaka Saṃhitā and the Bodhisattvacaryānirdeśa. The Charaka Saṃhitā is one of the most ancient, far-reaching and authoritative works of Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of Hinduism. In this text, we can find the oldest list of the same six flavours and their respective meaning and effect. The Bodhisattvacaryānirdeśa is one of the early pieces of Mahāyāna literature translated into Chinese by Fǎxián (法賢), the same translator of the Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra, and the final part includes the episode of food having one hundred tastes. In this small text, the leading character, a three-year-old boy Ratnadatta, has an argument with Mahāmaudgalyāyana using negative dialectics. In the argument, he contends that there is no difference between existence (saṃsāra) and extinction, and thereby illuminates that the practice of the bodhisattva is nothing but ‘seeing as it is without any false discrimination.’ Through the analysis of these two texts, I will describe the practice of the bodhisattva in terms of the early Mahāyāna viewpoint.
(Presented in the 2016 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: Sweet Culture and the Joy of Life, 17-18 August 2016, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies and Indian Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University)