Bodhisattva Jeweled Necklace

DESCRIPTION

Also known as the Jeweled Necklace Sutra. A sutra that focuses on bodhisattva practice and its stages. According to tradition, Chu Fo-nien translated it into Chinese between 376 and 378. Recent research suggests, however, that this sutra was produced in China sometime in the fifth or sixth century. It expounds the process by which a bodhisattva becomes a Buddha and sets forth fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice—ten stages of faith, ten stages of security, ten stages of practice, ten stages of devotion, ten stages of development, the stage of near-perfect enlightenment, and the stage of perfect enlightenment. This sutra also addresses the Mahayana, or bodhisattva, precepts. Because of its description of bodhisattva practice, bodhisattva stages, and bodhisattva precepts, this work greatly influenced Buddhism in China and Japan.