The Relationship between Ten Stages and Ten Perfections in Mahayana Buddhism

Abstract

The meanings given in the Pali-English dictionary for the term bhūmi are earth; place; region; ground; plane; stage; level; state of consciousness. In Dhammasangani, bhūmi is synonymous with magga (path). In the philosophical term bhūmi means stages of spiritual progress. A Bodhisattva's entire career has been divided into several parts and stages. Among them both Perfections and Stages play a major role. There are four stages in Theravada as Sotapanna, Sakadāgāmi, Anāgāmi and Arahant. The stages were explained in various ways in Mahayana Buddhism. We can identify it as at least four different schemes of divisions. Mahavastu: durārohā, baddhamānā, puspa-manditā, pucirā, citta-vistāra, rupavati, durayā, janma-niddesa, yauvarāj and abhiseka. Shatasāhasrikā Prajñā pamita: Eventhough there mentioned about the ten bhūmis, they have not been assigned any names. Bodhisattva bhūmi sūtra: gotra, adhimukti carya, suddhāsayā, caryā pratipatti, niyatā, niyatā caryā, nisthāgamana. Dasabūmika sūtra: pramuditā, vimalā, prabhākrī, arcismatī, sudurjayā, abhimukti, dūarangamā, acalā, sādhumatī, dharma meghā. This paper intends to examine the relationship between the stages and perfections. The comparative method is applied by using primary sources. In this study, attention has been drawn on ten stages in Dasa Bhūmika sutra. The author of this sutra manages to place all the important concepts and categories of Buddhist Philosophy, but his system exhibits a certain unity of plan on account of the parallelism between dasa paramita and dasa bhūmi.