Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra
Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra, The
[十住毘婆沙論] (Chin Shih-chu-p’i-p’o-sha-lun; Jpn Juju-bibasha-ron )
A commentary on the "Ten Stages" chapter of the Flower Garland Sutra. This chapter by itself is also known as Ten Stages Sutra. Kumarajiva translated the commentary, which is attributed to Nagarjuna, into Chinese around 405. Only the Chinese version is extant. "Ten stages" refers to the ten stages that lead to Enlightenment. The Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra, or more precisely Kumarajiva's Chinese version, consists of thirty-five chapters devoted to only the first two of the ten stages. The ninth chapter of this commentary, titled "Easy Practice," discusses two ways of Buddhist practice the difficult to practice way and the easy to practice way. The Pure land school employed these categories and interpreted the easy to practice way as the practice of calling upon the name of Amida Buddha. The "Easy Practice" chapter is therefore valued highly by the Pure land school.
