Bodhisattva's Samadhi Sutra

Author: Shi Nianlin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-08-01
Features: This is a popular book that spreads Buddhist doctrines in the form of fables, often referred to as the "Aesop's Fables of Buddhist Scriptures." The Bai Yu Jing (Full Title: Bai Ju Bi Yu Jing), was written by the ancient Indian monk Gassana and translated by Qian Niandi, the Three Bibles Monk of the Southern Dynasties of Xiao Qi. The Bai Yu Jing is called "Bai Yu" (meaning "hundred parables") because it contains one hundred parable stories, but the actual parable stories in the original scripture are ninety-eight. The reason it is called "hundred" has two explanations: one is for the sake of whole numbers, and the other is that it includes the preface and postscript, totaling one hundred entries. The Bai Yu Jing has over 20,000 characters in total, with a simple structural form. Each entry follows a two-step structure: the first step is to tell a story, serving as an introduction, and the second step is to use the story as a metaphor to explain a Buddhist doctrine. It was translated from Sanskrit to Chinese over 1,500 years ago. As soon as this scripture was circulated, it was well-received by readers.