Philosophy in the Samadhirajasutra: Three Chapters from the Samadhirajasutra

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The Samadhirajasutra is one of the essential canonical texts of the Mahayana Buddhism. Dating from perhaps the second century A.D. it presents an early form of the doctrine of the void (sunyavada), one of the principal philosophical doctrines of the Mahayana. In this respect the Sutra is of fundamental philosophical importance; it is notably of major authority for the Madhyamaka school which is sunyavadapar excellence. The present work contains three philosophical chapters of the Sutra, viz. VIII, XIX and XXII, giving an approximate idea of the doctrinal standpoint of the Sutra. These three chapters have not been selected arbitrarily. Chapter VIII treats of the inexistence of dharmas; Chapter XIX of the identity of their essence; Chapter XXII treats of the nature of the bodies of the Buddha. These are all essential themes of the philosophy of the Great Vehicle and sunyavada. This is a reprint of the 1938 Warsaw edition comprising an Introduction, Sanskrit and Tibetan Texts and the English Translation by K. Regamey, which was almost wholly lost to the public in Warsaw’s destruction during the Second World War.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Konstanty Regamey

Konstanty Regamey (1907-1982) was born in Kiev of a Swiss family which had emigrated to Russia in the 19th Century. He fled from Russia to Poland in 1917 and subsequently to Switzerland in 1945. He had a double career, being both a musical composer and an orientalist. In the domain of orientalism his preferred field was "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit" which was the vehicle for the canonical literature of Mahayana Buddhism in India. Regamey's interest in this literature was not just linguistic, but also philosophical, as it evidenced by his translation of the Three Chapters from the Samadhirajasutra and the Bhadramayakaravyakarana.