The “Adbhuta-Dharma” Narratives in Translated Chinese Sarvāstivāda Texts

Abstract

The concept of “adbhuta-dharma” (Ch. weicengyou fa 未曾有法) has developed and changed throughout Buddhism’s history. Indeed, the subject and the content of adbhuta texts as well as the meaning of the term “adbhuta” (marvelous phenomenon) varies across the scriptures. Looking through the scriptures, it would seem that they originated as narrative elaborations on various aspects of the Three Jewels—the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha. Then gradually, “adbhuta-dharma” came to encapsulate those narrative elements in the scriptures related to the miraculous in the life of the Buddha as well as the careers of his disciples. As one of the twelve divisions of the Buddhist canon, the literary form of the adbhutas overlaps with other canonical genres, namely the nidānas, the avadānas, and the jātakas tales. This article will provide a careful analysis of adbhuta-dharma narratives in important Sarvāstivād in Sūtras, Vinayas, Abhidharmas, and other texts such as the Chuyao jing 出曜經 and the Buddhacarita (Ch. Fo suoxing zan 佛所行贊). These narratives are important because, while many monks and laypeople might have been left uninspired by the complexities of Buddhist thought and doctrine, miracle narratives were more accessible, playing an important role in popularizing Sarvāstivāda ideas and doctrines. These miracle stories reached audiences that other Sūtra narratives and exegetical works could not, helping in the dissemination of Buddhist thought and practice, as well as the later development and spread of Mahāyāna works in India and beyond.

1. Introduction

The term “adbhuta” (Ch. weicengyou 未曾有) appears in many Chinese-translated Buddhist scriptures. The expression, which I will call “adbhuta” hereafter for consistency, designates something rare and awe-inspiring. The most common dictionary definition for the term is “a marvelous or strange phenomenon”, especially those marvelous phenomena recounted in poetry and narrative literature.1 The term “adbhuta” also appears in various other composite forms in Chinese, such as “sheng fa 勝法” and “adbhuta-dharma”. It is sometimes prefixed with a verb, such as “exclaim” (tan 叹) in “tan weicengyou 叹未曾有” or “obtain” (de 得) in “de weicengyou 得未曾有”, “afuduodamo 阿浮多達摩” and “afudamo 阿浮達磨” etc. The latter two are more possibly the transliterations of “adbhuta-dharma”. Under most circumstances “afuduodamo” is referred to as one of the Twelve Sections comprising the Buddha’s words (Skt. Dvādaśāṅgabuddhavacana). In more than 30 instances “adbhuta-dharma” is transliterated as “afudamo”, referring to one of the Nine Sections of the Buddha’s sermons (Skt. Navāṅgabuddhavacana) as well as the Twelve Sections that comprise the Buddha’s words. The term “afudamo” appears in Buddhist texts in Chinese translation, such as the Dafangguang fo huayan jing shu 大方廣佛華嚴經疏 (T35) and Daban niepan jing shu大般涅槃經疏 (T38). Adbhuta also appears in many scriptures as “xiyoufa 稀有法”.

In this article, I will designate these awe-inspiring phenomena as either “miracles” or “supernormal events”. It is important to consider the Christian connotation of the word “miracle” because it is traditionally defined as an act of God, manifesting itself in the form of an extraordinary event beyond the nature and realm of ordinary human experience. According to this definition, a “miracle” manifested by a divine force in a religion such as Buddhism that posits no god per se is a notion that would indeed seem “strangely hybrid” (Kapstein 2001, p. 4). This article uses the word “supernormal” instead of “supernatural” precisely for this reason, given that nothing in the Buddhist view of causality is ever super—above—naturalism—nature. Although the word “miracle” may have a Christian connotation, today one often sees the word used to describe many wonderful things, such as “the miracle of childbirth” and “miracle medicine”.2 Therefore, this article follows John Kieschnick’s reading of the term “miracle”3 as an “object of wonder”, allowing the term to describe: “a wide variety of phenomena”, including omens and other extraordinary changes in the natural world, acts of the Buddha and his disciples, and supernormal powers acquired through meditation—all common throughout Buddhist literature” (Kieschnick 2004, s.v. miracle).4

The term “adbhuta” also refers to one of the twelve canonical literary genres of Buddhism: the miracle narratives. In Oskar von Hinüber’s study of the nine Buddhist canonical divisions (Skt. nava-aṇga-buddha-śāsana), he noted that the miracle narratives (adbhuta), the sutta, the geyya, and the veyyākaraṇa texts all used “pre-canonic language”, which would indicate that these were all relatively early canonical genres. He claimed that the ancient adbhuta texts were an early source for the biography of the Buddha, a theme that emerged after the passing of Śākyamuni Buddha and proliferated with the development of the tradition. Indeed, of the four textual genres listed above, miracle narratives were the closest in style and content to an early biographical rendition of the Buddha’s life (von Hinüber 1994, pp. 121–35). Étienne Lamotte also noted that although the literary biographical form in miracle narratives was not fully developed, in the content they still constituted biography (Lamotte 1980). This interpretation of miracle narratives as biography is central to our current understanding of these texts. The biographies found throughout the canon were closely related to miracle narratives given that they were often records of the manifest supernormal powers and events in the Śākya prince’s life. In summarizing miracle narratives in Pāli literature as well as in other Buddhist scriptures, Phyllis Granoff stated that the narrative purpose of these miracles was to aid in converting non-believers and that these stories used miracles partly as a metaphor. She noted that although Buddhist praxis did essentially promise the attainment of supernormal powers after much practice and cultivation, the Buddha himself did place restraints on the use of his powers, stating in various texts that he only manifested certain powers if they served as expedient means in teaching and converting others—that is to say, he would not manifest his powers if it served no proselytizing purpose (Granoff 1996, pp. 80, 88). In his doctoral thesis, David Fiordalis analyzed miracles and superhuman qualities in South Asian Buddhist literature, studying miraculous instances across the literature related to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and deities of the Buddhist pantheon. He noted that in these “miracle tales”, the Buddha was presented as an all-powerful human, and that “‘miracle tales’ are part of a common discourse in which miracles carry a significance consonant with the Buddha’s mission to lead beings to awaken and freedom from rebirth and suffering” (Fiordalis 2008, pp. 87, 97–98). In later articles, Fiordalis continued to develop the Buddhist formulation of the miraculous and the superhuman, paying particular attention to the concept of higher knowledge (Skt. Abhijñā, Ch. Shentong 神通) (Fiordalis 2011, p. 43; Fiordalis 2012, p. 100). Finally, this topic has also been discussed by Rupert Gethin in an article exploring the content and the origins of these miracle tales, noting the ambiguous place occupied by miracles in the scriptures—miracles that should be used to convince and illuminate and not to distract and obstruct (Gethin 2011, pp. 219, 224).

Japanese scholars such as Akanuma Chizen 赤沼智善, Shiio Benkyō 椎尾辨匡, and Hayashiya Tomojirō 林屋友次郎 have all written extensively on miracle narratives. Maeda Egaku 前田惠學 distinguished three narrative forms in these tales of the marvelous (Maeda 1966, pp. 421–38). More on these three formal categories are below. In present-day mainland China, there is very little scholarship on “adbhuta”. Over 20 years ago, Venerable Yinshun 印順 provided a thorough analysis of the term “adbhuta” as it appeared in the literature, paying particular attention to terminology and the narrative emphasis on the various disciples to determine how the early Buddhist schools might have influenced the content of these miracle tales (Yinshun 1999, pp. 476–80). Guanming Zhu 朱冠明 drew out the different uses of the term “adbhuta” in the Chinese-translated scriptures, stating that the term was used as a noun, an adjective, and a laudatory term. Moreover, he stated that from the beginning of the Tang dynasty, “adbhuta” usually appeared in Chinese Buddhist texts as “de weicengyou” (Zhu 2015, pp. 16–25).

As Buddhist doctrines and practices were being translated to China, Sarvāstivādin texts and teachings came to exert an important influence on the development of the tradition. The main lines of the Sarvāstivāda teachings were etched into the philosophy, art, and literature of Chinese Buddhism as the tradition expanded in the East. The scholars mentioned above have primarily studied “adbhuta”—and its close conceptual kin, higher knowledge—through the lens of early Buddhist history as well as Buddhist language and literature. This article will pay particular attention to the stylistic and narrative uses of “adbhuta” in significant Sarvāstivādin texts. The focus will be directed at the narrative tropes and forms associated with “adbhuta”.

2. Defining Adbhuta and Its Narrative Tropes

2.1. Definition and Conceptual Development

Looking through the works of the early Buddhist schools the definitions and descriptions of “adbhuta” vary greatly. In his study of “adbhuta”, Maeda Egaku explored the literature related to these miracle narratives as a whole (Maeda 1966, pp. 423–38). He did not, however, consider the sectarian affiliations of these texts. Bearing this in mind, Yinshun studied the Āgamas, proposing that the original use of the term “adbhuta” in a Buddhist context that they were: “peculiar and never before [seen] dharmas (Ch. Qite weicengyou fa 奇特未曾有法)” (Yinshun 1999, p. 479).5 In seeking out a basic definition, Egaku settled with “adbhuta” designating something that is “rare and extraordinary”.

Egaku noted, moreover, that adbhuta in its various formulations could be split into a three-fold typology. The first type of adbhuta [I], as it appears in the Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra (Ch. Apidamo da piposha lun 阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論, T1545), Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra (Ch.Yujiashidilun 瑜伽師地論, T1579), Prakaraṇāryavācā-śāstra (Ch. Xianyangshengjiaolun 顯陽聖教論, T1602), Mahāyānābhidharma-samuccaya (Ch. Dacheng apidamo jilun 大乘阿毘達磨集論, T1605) and the Mahāyānābhidharma-samuccaya-vyākhyā (Ch. Dacheng api damo zaji lun 大乘阿毗達摩雜集論, T1606), emphasizing the exceptional qualities and virtues of the Buddha, his disciples, and his teachings.

The second type of adbhuta [II], as it appears in texts such as the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa (Ch. Dazhidu lun 大智度論, T1509), *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (Ch. Daban niepanjing 大般涅槃經, T0374), and the *Tattvasiddhi-śāstra (Ch. Chengshi lun 成實論, T1646), providing elaborations on the meaning of these “adbhuta”, paying particular attention to the fact that they are the products of the Buddha’s or his disciples’ practice and spiritual attainment. According to Egaku, the second type of adbhuta [II], is primarily concerned with the extraordinary phenomena themselves, describing miracles and the circumstances surrounding these events as they usually relate to the sequence of the “Three Jewels”, the Buddha’s life, his teaching and the formation of the religious community.

The third type of adbhuta [III] appears exclusively in Buddhaghoṣa’s list of the four adbhutas associated with Ānanda. In Buddhaghoṣa’s comments on adbhuta, he recounts that when Ānanda preached, because of his charisma and his dignified bearing, while he might preach the same thing over and over, the bhikṣuṇīs and the upāsakas remained engrossed in the teachings, continuing to listen with respect and fervent devotion.6 It is only in Fascicle 81 of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra that the term “adbhuta” is taken up similarly.7 This third type of adbhuta is distinct and does not appear anywhere else in the scriptures. Scholars have not yet thoroughly studied “adbhuta” through the prism of these three formal types. This article looks to further the study of miracle narratives by placing selected instances of “adbhuta” found in Sarvāstivāda texts within their respective formal categories to draw some conclusions about the development of this Buddhist literary tradition.

The Sarvāstivāda’s definition of “adbhuta” is provided in the Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra and the *Abhidharma-nyāyānusāra-śāstra (Ch. Apidamo shunzhengli lun 阿毘達磨順正理論, T1562). The Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra contains the following passage:

What is “adbhuta”? [A] The scriptures relate that the Three Jewels are adbhuta. Another master said: [B] The disciples extoll the World Honored One for his exceptional (adbhuta) virtue/power, such as when Śāriputra praised the World Honored One for his unsurpassed virtue or when worthies praised the World Honored One for his exceptional virtue.

希法云何？謂諸經中說三寶等甚稀有事。有餘師說：諸弟子等讚歎世尊稀有功德。如舍利子讚歎世尊無上功德，尊者慶喜讚歎世尊甚稀有法。8

The first instance [A] in this definition falls in line with Egaku’s first type of adbhuta [I], stating that the Three Jewels constitute “adbhuta”. The second instance [B] falls into Egaku’s second category [II], stating that the disciples praised the Buddha’s exceptional virtue/power. These two definitions for “adbhuta” are not mutually exclusive. In this instance, the second statement simply emphasizes the Buddha, the first of the Three Jewels.9 In other words, the first instance [A] mentions “adbhuta” as a literary trope (adbhuta-dharma) while the latter instance [B] emphasizes that the Buddha is paramount among the other two Jewels (teaching and community).

In chapter 44 of the *Abhidharma-nyāyānusāra-śāstra, there is yet another definition for the concept:

The term “adbhuta” is defined as rare and supernormal dharmas. Based upon this, the adbhuta of the three vehicles may properly manifest. Another master stated that: “The discussion on the Three Jewels is seldom heard; therefore, it is called the rare dharma (Ch. xifa 希法).”

言希法者，謂於此中唯說希奇出世間法，由此能正顯三乘希有故。有餘師說：辯三寶言世所罕聞，故名希法。10

In this commentary on the Abhidharma, “adbhuta” is used as praise for the rarity of the Buddhist teachings, such as impermanence, non-conceptual concentration (Skt. asaṃjñā-samāpatti), etc.11 The *Tattvasiddhi-śāstra provides a very different discourse related to adbhuta. It uses the term in discussions related to miraculous occurrences in this world such as the changes that will take place at the end of the Buddhist era: great earthquakes, and other such phenomena—topics that are not necessarily related to the Three Jewels. This definition is closer to the one mentioned in the first paragraph: adbhuta is a “marvelous or strange phenomenon”.

2.2. “Adbhuta” Narrative Tropes

The primary aim of the miracle narrative (adbhuta-dharma) is to promote the Buddha’s status as a great being. It also designates the miracles accomplished by the Buddha’s disciples and by householders, describing miraculous scenes to further illustrate the wondrous character of these figures. Based on the content of the narratives, we can distinguish five different kinds of adbhuta: (a) the Buddha’s adbhuta; (b) the teaching’s adbhuta; (c) the community’s adbhuta; (d) adbhuta related to protecting the teaching; (e) adbhuta as wondrous phenomena. These different forms of adbhuta appear in various other canonical genres such as the jātakas, the avadānas, and the nidānas. Indeed, these genres likely emerged as literary styles around the same time. There are many instances of crossover between the genres, as in the case of the adbhuta-nidāna (Ch. weicengyou yinyuan 未曾有因緣) in texts such as the Foshuo weicengyou yinyuanjing 佛說未曾有因緣經. Indeed, these genres were distinct, though not mutually exclusive. Although the nidānas were believed to have originated during the time of the Buddha’s sermons and the formulation of monastic regulations, they were not limited to the subject of the Buddha. They also include stories about disciples, deities, householders, and other practitioners. In other words, given that the Buddha and his teachings are at the very core of the tradition, the most significant segments in nidāna literature relate to the Buddha’s birth, his decision to live as an ascetic, his six years of cultivation and practice, his discovery of the Buddhist path, his battle with Māra, his prophecies, and other important narrative elements in his life story (Yinshun 1999, p. 459). Indeed, those segments in the miracle narratives describing marvelous elements in the Buddha’s life did not differ much in form and content from the stories recounted in the nidānas. That being said, the “adbhuta-dharma” chapter in the Chinese Madhyamāgama does provide some details on the Buddha’s miraculous works that diverge from other scriptures. This sermon is given by Ānanda, who describes when the Buddha entered his mother’s womb, the Earth and the heavens shook as his divine light was cast throughout the world. The Buddha was born from his mother’s right side, unsoiled by amniotic fluid and blood for he could not be touched by “unclean things,” as both heaven and Earth shook in the wake of his arrival. Four celestial beings held him, after which he took his first seven steps. Water began to surge from the ground before his mother as flowers appeared in the sky, and so on. The chapter then continues describing the other great acts associated with the Buddha, as well as Ānanda and other senior monks. There was one scripture translated by the fifth-century monk Tanjing 曇景 called the Weicengyou yinyuanjing 未曾有因緣經 that compounded both adbhuta and nidāna in the scripture’s title. The first fascicle recounts how the Buddha had his son become a monk, and the final fascicle tells the stories of four disciples, King Prasenajit, his son Jeta, the king’s mistress, and his queen, as well as other exemplary tales serving as allegories for the ten kinds of good Buddhist behavior (Skt. daśa-kuśala) and other points of doctrine such as the six perfections.

The earliest avadāna texts were also believed to have originated in the sermons and the formulation of the monastic codes (Yinshun 1999, p. 460). Today, avadānas are usually presented as laudatory accounts of the deeds of the Buddha and his disciple, accessible versions of the Buddha’s teachings transmitted through storytelling and exemplary narratives. That being said, avadānas are not restricted to a single sub-category of the Buddhist canon because they, as with miracle narratives, appear throughout the scriptures. Japanese and Chinese scholars have traditionally considered avadāna texts to be closer in content to a parable than to fact-based history—and rightly so. Indeed, these parables were different from literary metaphors insofar as avadāna texts always had an expressly didactic purpose. For example, in the *Abhiniṣkramaṇa-sūtra (Ch. Fobenxing ji jing 佛本行集經, T0190) there is a parable relating how someone once kept wood and dung in the water to stop them from burning. A man living across the shore came asking for the wet wood and dung to make fire back home, a futile request given that the material was all soaked. This story was a parable relating how the cultivation practices of non-Buddhist renunciants (Skt. śrāmaṇa) and other ritual specialists (Skt. brāhmanas) were not amenable to true illumination—you can’t light a fire with wet dung.12

Like the other discourses, the jataka tales played an important role in the spread of Buddhism. The jātakas were collections of accounts related to the cultivation practices, the good deeds as well as the merit accrued by the Buddha’s past incarnations. The Sarvāstivāda jātakas also included many of the past lives of the Buddha’s disciples, such as the well-known tale of Devadatta’s past life (Ding 2004, pp. 70–71). In one section of the *Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra, a well-known Sarvāstivāda treatise translated by Xuanzang 玄奘, it recounts the feats of the Buddha during the lifetimes of his past incarnations. These tales were often filled with the miraculous deeds of the Buddha’s incarnations, and those miracle narratives that recounted the deeds from the Buddha’s past lives were quite close in style to the jātakas because of their emphasis on the past lives of the Buddha. Such accounts constituted a sort of “adbhuta-jātaka”. This fusion of styles came up in other instances, such as in the second fascicle of the *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra in the account of the Buddha’s miracles from his past lives. In one such instance, a merchant and his five hundred chariots rode passed one of the Buddha’s past incarnations. The merchant noted while riding by that the sound and chaos of his retinue had left this meditating individual completely undisturbed. The merchant went to ask the meditator whether he had seen or heard anything, to which the meditator answered that he neither saw nor heard the five hundred chariots because he had entered a deep meditative state where he was at once awake and alert to his own mental state, while the distractions of the outside world could not disturb him. The merchant was quite in awe of this figure’s meditative prowess and self-control.13 This describes an event when a believer, seeing the state of heightened awareness and concentration obtained through meditation by one of the Buddha’s past incarnations, praises these miraculous events as “adbhuta.” Finally, the jataka-like tale of the benevolent King Śibi found in the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa is another instance of a so-called adbhuta-jātaka, which is related to charity and compassion. In this story, a hungry falcon requests the king to provide him with a pigeon, though the good king would rather give his own flesh to the falcon than the flesh of another, even if it is only a lowly pigeon.14 This act of self-sacrifice was considered to be “adbhuta”.

Essentially, “adbhuta” are those instances in the scriptures that have a marvelous quality. They are those figures that inspire awe in others, as well as miraculous events and occurrences in the world. These instances are associated with five things: the Buddha, the teachings, the community, protecting the teachings, and, more generally, the manifestation of wondrous phenomena. The awe-inspiring quality of these adbhutas was amenable to other genres such as the nidāna, avadāna, and jātaka which contained narrative content related to the wondrous and the miraculous. In the scriptures, adbhuta was usually written as “tan weicengyou 嘆未曾有”, “de weicengyou 得未曾有”, and “guai weicengyou 怪未曾有”, or it was used as a laudatory term at the end of a sentence. Therefore, the miraculous in many of these stories were marked using “weicengyou” as a kind of formula (e.g., de weicengyou) and by laudatory exclamations of “weicengyou” at the end of a sentence.

2.3. Abhijñā and Adbhuta

There is a close relationship between “adbhuta” and “abhijñā” (Ch. shentong 神通) in the scriptures. In Pāli literature, “abhiññā” is described as “higher knowledge” and “supernormal powers” (Skt. ṛddhi). We have seen from the descriptions above that miracle narratives were laudatory accounts related to the Buddha, the teaching, and the community. Indeed, the various miracle narratives present the marvelous qualities of the Buddha, validating his teachings by recording the supernormal events that prove Buddhism’s relevance as a practice and as a tradition. Therefore, we could also speak of “abhijñā-adbhuta”, which are those stories tying in the powers related to higher knowledge and wondrous manifest phenomena with narrative aspects related to the Buddha, the teaching, and the community.

Regarding the “adbhutas” produced by higher knowledge, Maeda Egaku found that they were described in Pāli scriptures using two different formulas that appear in the Dīghanikāya: (1) acchariyāabbhutādhammā; and (2) acchariyaṁvatabho, abbhutaṁvatabho. He explains these two passages as follows: (1) Acchariyāabbhutādhammā are those dharmas that are rare and wondrous; (2) The latter formulation defines acchariya and abbhuta in the same terms, emphasizing the broader anomalous and miraculous meanings. The second formula is translated into English as follows:

Worthy one, how rare! Worthy one, how miraculous! acchariyaṁvatabho! abbhutaṁvatabho!

The first formula emphasizes supernormal phenomena and their expediency in different circumstances. This is the meaning of “adbhuta” found in many Buddhist texts, such as the four rare adbhuta-dharmas of the cakravartin king. The second formula is an exclamatory expression denoting awe and wonder—such fixed eulogistic formulas are a common occurrence in scriptures (e.g., Excellent! Shanzai 善哉; Thus, have I heard rushiwowen 如是我聞, etc.).

It has been shown above that the term “adbhuta” is related to the Buddha’s life and the sequence of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, saṃgha) as well as the various wondrous events and powers usually related to Śākyamuni’s manifest miracles. Essentially, “adbhuta” designates the various miraculous events in the Buddha’s life related to his birth, practice, and enlightenment. Moreover, Von Hinüber also argued that miracle narratives were an ancient form of the Buddha’s biography, proving that the miracle narrative genre is an early Buddhist literary style. Regarding the categorization of miracle narrative contents, I have relied on the tripartite categorization done by Egaku which provided a good overview of the use of the term “adbhuta” in the Buddhist scriptures. Regarding the place of these miracle narratives in the canon, the formal divisions of the teachings were used to differentiate different canonical styles (e.g., jātaka, avadāna, etc.) as well as to distinguish the scriptural categories (e.g., Sūtra, Abhidharma, Vinaya, etc.). Miracle narratives, however, were usually inserted piecemeal into texts, seldom constituting the primary literary genre. Indeed, rarely did a scripture have the word “adbhuta” in its title, unlike literary categories such as Sūtra, Śāstra, etc. (von Hinüber 1994, p. 121). Instead, miracle narratives were combined with other canonical genres related to the lives of the Buddha and his disciples, forming compounded literary styles such as what this article has called the adbhuta-jātakas, the adbhuta-avadānas, and the adbhuta-nidānas. Miracle narratives were usually part of a whole, rarely making up the entirety of a work.

Many of the different early Buddhist sects included elements of “adbhuta” in their works, though it was the Sarvāstivāda sect that used these miracle accounts with the greatest effect. Indeed, in Sarvāstivāda literature the Buddha’s biography and his miracles were an important means of proselytization and self-promotion. The pre-eminence of the Sarvāstivāda school in the development of Buddhist thought and practice as well as their emphasis on miraculous elements would later come to influence the Buddhist tradition in many ways, both in the Indian Mahāyāna movement and in the countries that received and translated these Sarvāstivāda texts such as China, Korea, and Japan.

3. From “Normal” to “Supernormal”: Adbhuta in Sarvāstivāda Scriptures

In the Sarvāstivādin scriptures and treatises, miraculous events related to the Three Jewels were considered to be “adbhuta”. Indeed, in early instances where the term “adbhuta” was used, they were associated with more than just the supernormal phenomena related to the Buddha. The *Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra as well as the *Abhidharma-nyāyānusāra-śāstra, for example, expounded on various instances of “adbhuta”, even claiming that “adbhuta” was the same as the “Three Jewels”. Instances of “adbhuta” in this treatise were associated not with the Buddha himself, but with the Buddha’s capacity through preaching to inspire wisdom and knowledge in the minds of his audience.15 The term “adbhuta” in this text was a laudatory term referring to the Buddha’s sermons and how his preaching was expedient, acting as a catalyst for gnosis and illumination in the minds of believers. Moreover, “adbhuta” in the Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra was used as a form of praising for the wondrous events taking place amid the audience, such as when a group of śrāvakas was moved to take refuge in the Three Jewels after hearing the Buddha preach—one of many such phenomena considered to be “adbhuta” in this scripture.16

Many Chinese translations of the Sarvāstivāda scriptures and treatises contain miracle scenes that can be categorized according to the first two types of “adbhuta” provided by Egaku and explained above. The following will analyze and apply the two categories to these Sarvāstivāda texts.

3.1. Adbhuta in the Translated Sarvāstivād of Āgamas

Of the four Āgamas translated to Chinese, the Madhyamāgama (Ch. Zhongahanjing 中阿含經, T0026) and the Saṃyuktāgama (Ch. Zaahanjing 雜阿含經, T0099) are the two scriptures associated with the Sarvāstivāda school. The “adbhuta-dharma” section of the Madhyamāgama describes the miracles produced by the āsuras, the eight adbhuta-dharmas of the householder Ugra and the seven miracles associated with the householder Hastaka. Akanuma Chizen compiled the instances of “adbhuta” in all versions of the Madhyamāgama, including the Chinese translation, noting that the sections on the āsuras (item 35), on the Buddha’s travels to Campā (Ch. Zhanbo 瞻波) (37) and the householder Ugra (38) contain instances where the term “adbhuta”, or its translated equivalent, was used in every version.17 There is another instance in the Saṃyuktāgama when Śāriputra’s oratory skill was described as “adbhuta” for it led to the awakening of all those that heard him.18 In another instance, the Buddha is praised in a gāthā for his expedient use of adbhuta to convert his son, Rāhula.19 In yet another instance, the Buddha used his supernormal powers in a city, manifesting various miracles such as returning sight and speech to the blind and the mute.20

Von Hinüber argued that the term “weicengyou” in the Chinese translation of the “adbhuta-dharma” chapter of the Madhyamāgama was used to designate the Buddha’s biography. Indeed, this chapter of the Madhyamāgama repeatedly uses the formula “I receive and keep (Ch. shouchi 受持) the World Honored One’s adbuta-dharma” when describing important narratives related to the Buddha’s life. The term “shouchi” implies that this statement is related to the Buddha’s teachings and his life. The narratives related to adbhuta-dharmas in the Madhyamāgama are supernormal in their contents, such as the description of the Buddha’s immaculate conception:

[The Buddha] knowingly entered his mother’s womb. At that time, he moved heaven and Earth, illuminating the world with a numinous light.

知入母胎，是時震動一切天地，以大妙光普照世間。21

When the Buddha was born, again heaven and Earth shook, there appeared a numinous light, and he was born unsoiled by birth fluid and blood. In another incident during the Buddha’s infancy, a monkey took the Buddha’s bowl and the bhikṣus worried that the monkey might break it. The Buddha, then a young prince, spoke and had the monkey return the bowl to him. Later in life, the prince left his sitting cloth to dry outdoors. The skies clouded over before the rain, though the downpour did not come until the young prince had retrieved his cloth. In another story, when the prince sat in meditation under a tree, the tree’s shadow covered him and remained still all day to provide him shade. In another instance, the prince sat in meditative contemplation as a funeral procession passed by. He remained completely unfazed by the clamorous noise of the procession (Hakuju [1932] 1944, p. 161).

The miracle stories described in the Madhyamāgama revolve around the Buddha’s early life, instances surrounding the lives of his disciples, as well as certain instances of other related anomalous natural phenomena. They mostly revolved around the exceptional resolution with which the Buddha and his disciples conducted their practice, his teaching moments with his disciples, the anomalous phenomena related to his daily habits such as eating and drinking, the miracles of, for example, his disciple Vakkula, as well as other wonders related to the teachings. Miracle events that took place later in the Buddha’s life such as the subjugation of Māra, the twin miracle at Sāvatthī, and other such wonders did not figure in the Madhyamāgama. The miraculous instances in this scripture fall into the adbhuta [I] category because they emphasize the exceptional qualities and virtues of the Buddha, his disciples, and his teachings.

The miracles in the *Saṃyuktāgama include wonders such as the “lion’s roar”—the Buddha’s power to persuade non-believers through charisma and oratory—and the therapeutic efficacy of his powers in instances related to the mute and the blind, as well as other such miracles. These instances of “adbhuta” are related to the Buddha, his preaching, as well as those miraculous events surrounding the preaching of his disciples. Most miracles in the Saṃyuktāgama revolve around the Buddha’s sermons as well as his disciples’ cultivation practices. Such uses of the term “adbhuta” fall in the adbhuta [I] category. There is also a discussion of the relation between adbhuta and abhijñā (higher knowledge) in the Saṃyuktāgama. Indeed. The scripture compounds the two terms (shentong weicengyou 神通未曾有) when describing the various supernormal powers of the bhikṣus. Such accounts of the Buddha or the disciples producing miracles constitute the second type of adbhuta [II] because it is used to describe the powers of the Buddha and his disciples.

3.2. Adbhutain the Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya

Compared to other Vinaya texts, the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya (Ch. Shisong lü 十誦律, T1435) contains many sections related to the Buddha’s biography. Instances of adbhutain the Buddha’s life are recorded in the first nine fascicles of the Mūlasarvāstivāda-saṅghabheda-vastu (Ch. Genbenshuoyiqieyoubupinaiyeposengshi 根本說一切有部毘奈耶破僧事, T1450) as well as in the parallel edition of the *Mahāsammatarāja-sūtra (Ch. Zhongxumohedijing 眾許摩訶帝經, T0191).22

In the biographical tradition relating to the figure of Siddhartha Gautama, the miracles surrounding the birth of the prince constitute most of the described manifest wonders that happened in his life. The supernormal circumstances and events surrounding the prince’s birth, as well as the accompanying signs and prophecies, were narrative indicators that he was not an ordinary being.23 In this way, the Mahāsammatarāja-sūtra emphasized the birth story, developing the miracle narratives surrounding his birth. The miracles in these kinds of texts fall into the second category of adbhuta [II], wherein the source of these miracles is explained in terms of the Buddha’s powers. Indeed, when the diviner interpreted the queen’s auspicious dream of her conception, he told the king that the prince would become a “wheel-turning king” and that his birth would be heralded by great earthquakes as well as the appearance of numinous light. The narrative recounts how celestial beings came down to protect and pay homage to the Buddha.24 When he was born, his body had a golden hue, the Earth shook, and he emitted a light that reached all sentient beings.25 Celestial beings offered him protection and the god Śakra offered the Buddha sweet spring water for his bath. The past Kāśyapa Buddha praised the arrival of the prince, at which point water surged forth in a spring that had long been dry. Kāśyapa described this miracle as: “Food offered by the heavens and water coming forth by the will of the heavens 食從天取，水令天出”.26 Indeed the prince’s miraculous birth is an important part of Buddhological lore—it is one of the eight main aspects of the Buddha’s life.27 Chizen argued that this served as evidence that these birth story instances of “adbhuta” were relatively novel to the tradition, using the emphasis on birth narratives in these scriptures to help date them.28

We have seen that many instances of adbhuta in the Vinayas are related to the Buddha’s biography, especially instances associated with his early years such as the dream prediction of his birth, the assistance from the devas while still in the womb, the prince’s miraculous birth, and his upbringing in the palace. These narratives also provide detail about the manifestation of supernormal phenomena that occurred when he entered his mother’s womb and when he was born such as the appearance of water in spring or the food offerings provided by celestial beings. All these narratives relate to the Buddha’s supernormal attainments, emphasizing his status as a charismatic figure that stands above all other beings.

3.3. Adbhuta in the Sarvāstivāda Treatises

In the Abhidharma-(mahā-)vibhāṣā-śāstra (Ch. Apitanpiposhalun 阿毘曇毘婆沙論, T1546) there is a parable about the training of elephants during the reign of King Prasenajit. The text recounts that one painful method for teaching elephants to remain still was to balance a scorching iron ball on their heads. If an elephant could bear the pain without moving, it was rewarded. If it could not remain still, it was disciplined. The well-trained elephants remained steadfast, their resolve as “firm as a great mountain.” When the king saw this, he was amazed calling this feat of resolve an “adbhuta”—a miracle.29

This parable also appears in a later translation of this treatise completed by Xuanzang and his translation team.30 However, there is no extant Sanskrit version of this text, so we must base our analysis of this particular treatise on the fifth and seventh-century translations available to us. Interestingly, the fifth-century translation done by *Buddhavarman and Daotai 道泰 uses the characters “guai weicengyou” (amazed by this wondrous phenomenon) to describe the king’s reaction. Xuanzang, however, uses the compound “jieguai 嗟怪” instead, seemingly opting to not use the term “weicengyou”—even though he does use it many times throughout the text. Although both translations were likely based on the same text, there are other variations between the two translations. The fifth-century translation of the Piposhalun emphasized the fact that the elephant remained steadfast during the painful ordeal, inciting the king to exclaim that this was indeed a “weicengyou”. Xuanzang’s translation read the original text differently, noting that the king ordered the elephant trainer to domesticate a dangerous male elephant in a rut. The same training methods were described, though the object of the training was not the elephant but his lustful thoughts. The elephant trainer claimed that he could train the elephant, but he could not train his mind. In Xuanzang’s version, only the Buddha, according to the trainer, could subdue the elephant’s lustful thoughts.

Xuanzang’s translation also included the story of how the Buddha went to the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven to preach to his mother, at which point the lions on the large stone pillars roared, scaring away all heretics. Vines and precious flowers then came out of the lions’ mouths to adorn the pillars—phenomena that were described in the text as “adbhuta”.31 In this narrative, “adbhuta” was used as a laudatory exclamation—acchariyaṁvatabho, abbhutaṁvatabho—when witnessing these miraculous events.

Fascicle 177 of Xuanzang’s translation includes the story of the Buddha’s life as an ascetic and the narrative of his attainment of the highest wisdom which allowed him insight into the suffering of all sentient beings. The ascetic practices that he underwent during this period and the understanding that he gained from his cultivation practices were all praised as “adbhuta”. Fascicle 135 mentions how the Buddha preached to the demon King Māra. Once converted, Māra took the form of a Tathāgata, exhibiting the 32 major and the 80 minor marks of a Buddha. Māra’s countenance was compared to the sun and the moon. Māra also transformed into different disciples of the Buddha. When Upagupta saw this, he praised it as “Adbhuta!” These two instances fall into the two first categories as defined by Egaku: adbhuta [I] because the term is used to describe the Buddha’s virtue; adbhuta [II] because it is used to describe his supernormal prowess.

In the Sarvāstivāda treatises, the term “adbhuta” describes not only the Three Jewels but also the Buddha’s teaching, miraculous phenomena, and supernormal transformations. The treatises also develop on the causes and the motivations informing these instances of adbhuta, which is not the case in the Sūtras and the Vinayas. Additionally, the descriptions of these miracles were more plentiful in the treatises, and they highlighted the profound impact these miracles had on people, such as the instance when the roaring lions chased away all the heretics. Indeed, unlike other texts which were more descriptive, the treatises seem to emphasize miracles and their consequences.

3.4. Adbhuta in Dārṣṭāntika Works and Other Miracle Narratives

The Dārṣṭāntika was an early school active in India’s northwest identified as a branch of the Sarvāstivādins. They used metaphors, fables, stories of past lives, and other such means to illustrate the meaning of the teachings. In the Piposhalun, the Dārṣṭāntika (Ch. piyuzhe 譬喻者) were identified with the founder Kumāralāta. They were also called “Sautrāntika masters”. Bangwei Wang 王邦维 argued that monks from the second century BCE to the second century CE used more metaphors in the composition of their scriptures. In time, it was these monks that came to be known as Dārṣṭāntika, also known as the Sautrāntika (Wang 2014, pp. 75, 78–79).

Dharmatrāta, the author of the Chuyaojing 出曜經 (T0212), was an early Indian Sarvāstivāda scholar. There is another variant of this text called the Fajupiyujing 法句譬喩經 (T0211). Hiraoka Satoshi 平岡聡 argued that the Chuyaojing most likely does not belong to a single early Buddhist school, though it shares a majority of its content with the Sarvāstivāda corpus (Hiraoka 2006–2007, pp. 842–48). One account in the Chuyaojing describes Ānanda praising the Buddha’s virtues in terms of “adbhuta”: “and the Venerable Ānanda praised the Buddha using adbhuta-dharma” 若尊者阿難以未曾有法歎如來德.32 The Chuyaojing emphasizes the different aspects of the Buddha’s merit and virtue, often using the term “adbhuta” when praising the Buddha. His merit and illumination were the products of his great cultivation practice and resolution. His practice led him to have unsurpassable merit, a virtue which was described in terms of “adbhuta”.33 Kings, householders, and believers alike in the Chuyaojing were also praised in terms of “adbhuta”. For example, when a country was faced with a tyrannical enemy, the king—a past incarnation of the Buddha—declared that he should bear the consequences and that he would sacrifice his own life to ensure the safety of his people. This daring proposal moved the enemy, who praised the king for his fearless selflessness. This story of the Buddha’s past life as a king constituted a sort of narrative trope wherein the great acts of the Buddha’s past lives were praising the supernormal qualities and extraordinary virtues of the Buddha himself.

In later biographical compositions relating to the Buddha’s life such as the Buddhacarita, again Siddhartha Gautama’s miraculous deeds are described.34 Aśvaghoṣa, the author of the Buddhacarita (Ch. Fo suoxing zan 佛所行讚, T0192), is considered a great Sarvāstivāda philosopher, dramatist, poet, and orator from India whose use of metaphor and poetry made the teachings more accessible (Yinshun 1989, p. 319). Aśvaghoṣa’s works had a profound influence on the development of kāvya poetic forms, his texts acting as models for Kālidāsa’s renowned Indian epic, the Rāmāyaṇa (Macdonell and Toshihiko 2014, p. 17). During Aśvaghoṣa’s time, miraculous elements related to the Siddhartha Gautama were progressively becoming the norm, though Aśvaghoṣa’s work on the Buddha’s biography still seemed to emphasize the human, rather than the supernormal, aspects of his life (Ji 1991, p. 203). In his work, the description of the Buddha’s miracles was used to distinguish the Buddha from regular beings, such as the story of when he subdued malevolent spirits, inspiring awe in those that witnessed or heard of this event. Māra tried by many means to lead the Buddha astray, tying and binding the Buddha or distracting him with fearsome voices, or shaking heaven and Earth in an attempt to disturb him. However, the Buddha always remained unfazed, never faltering in his conviction, mental resolution that celestials and sentient beings alike considered to be “adbhuta.”35 Chapter 15 of the Chinese language Buddhacarita described how a householder reverently stood on the side of the road as the Buddha walked past. The householder was awestruck by the Buddha’s dignified bearing, a manifest sign of the Buddha’s attainments:

[As a result of] the Buddha’s state of perfect tranquility, a light shone forth [from his person], adorned by his singular attainments so that all beings might follow him. On the road he encountered a Brahman called *Upaka (Ch. Youbojia 憂波迦) who adopted the life of the bhikṣu, standing reverently on the side of the road glad to witness this rare and wondrous event (adbhuta).

如來善寂靜，光明顯照曜，嚴儀獨遊步，猶若大眾隨。道逢一梵志，其名憂波迦，執持比丘儀，恭立於路傍。欣遇未曾有。36

This instance of “adbhuta” constituted praise of the Buddha’s exceptional character, placing it in the first adbhuta typology [I]. In the Buddha’s birth story as it appears in the Buddhacarita, the Earth shakes upon the Buddha’s arrival, a fragrance fills the air, lotus flowers are carried by the wind and heavenly garments descend from the sky. Flames appear everywhere in the world burning without wood or fuel, while clear and pure water surges forth from the wells. In the text, the women in the palace expressed their awe at these events in terms of “adbhuta”. There are instances in the Buddhist scriptures where such miraculous events take place when offerings are made to the vihāra (monastic dwelling) or the Three Jewels. In the Buddhacarita, one instance of the offering of a residence to the Buddhist community, for example, is described as a great and precious thing. The vihāra in this residence is constructed very quickly and the finished product is described in terms of being as majestic as a heavenly palace. Such a sight was indeed rare, and people praised this vihāra in terms of “adbhuta”.37 The above instances of supernormal phenomena happening in nature such as spring water gushing forth and fires burning without combustibles or the superhuman speed with which the vihara was completed fall into the second category of adbhuta [II].

In the works of the Dārṣṭāntika, the adbhuta genre was expanded and took on various new forms. These texts covered the Buddha’s conception, his birth, his defeat of Māra, his enlightenment, and his teachings to the disciples. Although the Dārṣṭāntika brought new content to these accounts, they did not develop as much on the “adbhuta” of the disciples. The Dārṣṭāntika corpus, including adbhuta, nidāna, jātaka, and avadāna texts, developed on the already existent cultural repertoire of miracle tales related to the Buddha’s life—an innovation that brought vibrancy to the Buddhist textual and artistic culture. Instances of adbhuta in the Sarvāstivāda Sūtras and Vinayas described the miracles of the Buddha and his disciples, though there was still, at the core of these accounts, the figure of Siddhartha is the wise man or the ascetic. In Dārṣṭāntika literature the Buddha’s miracles were emphasized as the Dārṣṭāntika authors elaborated on the Buddha’s various supernormal powers (Ch. Shentong 神通). Indeed, these were not the early biographies of the Buddha described by scholars such as Xingbo Feng. These were polished renditions of the Buddha’s biography, a shift in the tides, so to speak, of Buddhist literature from the foundational elements of the Buddha’s biography toward the addition of even more miraculous and sensationalist elements in his life. Akira Hirakawa stated the following regarding the Buddha’s biographies:

It is impossible to determine whether or not the Buddha’s biographies emerged in the writings of the early schools of Buddhism. It would seem, instead, that this biographical literature developed outside of the sectarian tradition, and that they may even have influenced the rise of the Mahāyāna.38

Many instances of “adbhuta” in Sarvāstivāda texts do not represent the Buddha and his disciples in superhuman terms, or at least they seem to shear away many of the miraculous details that do appear in other texts. However, looking through the Sarvāstivāda corpus, especially the works done by the Dārṣṭāntika, there are also many instances where the supernormal is emphasized, even expanded in terms of higher knowledge or miraculous powers. In these instances, we see that there was a close tie between the development of the concept of “adbhuta” and the conceptual development of the Buddha’s supernormal powers, such as higher knowledge.

4. Final Remarks

In this article, I have analyzed the conceptual frameworks as well as the narrative structures of miracle accounts, tracing the development of the term “adbhuta” within the Buddhist tradition, especially in Sarvāstivāda literature. In the Āgamas and the Vinayas, the term “adbhuta” usually took the Buddha and his miracles as a primary object. This is proposed to be more Buddhological—having to do with the Buddha. The use of the term was the original application of “adbhuta” as a concept. Beginning in these early scriptures until the time it was used in Sarvāstivāda texts such as the Buddhacarita and other such biographies of the Buddha, “adbhuta” was used to define the Buddha’s extraordinary qualities and capacities. Drawing from the sources I referred to in this article, I make the following concluding statement: Beginning with its original meaning in relation to the Three Jewels—Buddha, teaching, community—the concept of “adbhuta” developed and expanded into a term that also designated extraordinary events in the world among householders, among practitioners and, more generally, in the environment. The use of the term “adbhuta” expanded in later texts to take on many other meanings, although the Buddha’s own miracles always remained at the core of these accounts. When the term “adbhuta”, or “adbhuta-dharma”, was used in narratives, it was usually used as a form of praise for these miraculous events, and the miracle narratives themselves were combined with other genres such as the jātakas, the avadānas the nidānas, though “adbhuta” did still effectively constitute its own genre.

Of all the miracle narratives in the works of the early Buddhist schools, the representations of the Buddha in the Sarvāstivāda texts are the most prevalent. The Sarvāstivāda Madhyamāgama and the Saṃyuktāgama relate the accounts of the Buddha’s birth, his practice, his enlightenment, and his first sermons, limiting the use of the term “adbhuta” to those instances associated with the Three Jewels. These supernormal representations of the Buddha provided the foundations for a mythos that would continue to develop in time, coming to a fore in the Mahāyāna tradition when the Buddha took on an altogether more cosmic—almost divine—character. As more biographical material was composed, we see that his birth, his enlightenment, and his first sermons were gradually embellished with more awe-inspiring accounts as increasingly miraculous elements were added to the narrative tradition. That being said, the instances of “adbhuta” in the Sarvāstivāda texts do provide us with information on what those authors believed about the life of the Buddha and the advancement of his practice. The plethora of miraculous instances related to Siddhartha Gautama also reflected a gradual shift in the Buddhological understanding of contemporary believers—that is, the representation of the Buddha was changing from Siddhartha the wise human to Buddha the all-powerful charismatic figurehead.

Instances of “adbhuta” in the literature were not solely drawn from texts in the miracle narrative genre. Indeed, Sarvāstivāda thinkers such as Aśvaghoṣa and Dharmatrāta incorporated many different literary forms into their treatises, such as gāthās, jātakas, avadānas, etc. The main object in the textual instances of “adbhuta” in later Sarvāstivāda texts such as the Buddhacarita and the *Mahāsammatarāja-sūtra was usually the Buddha. Such texts expanded on central aspects of the Buddha’s life, keeping the basic timeline—conception, birth, disillusionment, departure, cultivation, enlightenment, teaching, death/Nirvana—while developing and adding to the miraculous elements in the narrative. They also directed attention at times to the miracles associated with the disciples. As the tradition developed, we see a gradual shift in emphasis from presenting the Buddha as a great worldly figure to representing him as a “superhuman,” seemingly operating outside the restrictions of our worldly existence and understanding. This new emphasis in Sarvāstivāda texts on the Buddha’s miraculous qualities would have played an important role in the popularization of Buddhist thought and doctrine. Indeed, such miracle narratives would have been more accessible to believers than exegetical treatises, or even the Sūtras themselves. Instances of “adbhuta” in the *Chuyaojing and the Buddhacarita further embellished the Buddha’s life, making him more exceptional and therefore more of an object of veneration for believers—a shift that may also be noted in later Mahāyāna literature where the apotheosis of the Buddha is even more distinct.

As time went on, these developments in the Buddha’s life continued, coming to a fore in the novel formulations of “shentong weicengyou”. These two terms—adbhuta and abhijñā—were used interchangeably in the literature, and many references to higher knowledge could also be referred to as “adbhuta”. The two terms were certainly close conceptual kin, so that the exclamation “adbhuta” in a text often came after the description of the manifestation of higher knowledge powers, usually to underline the fact that people were awestruck by the event and, having witnessed something absolutely out of the ordinary, were praising it as a “wondrous phenomenon” (adbhuta).

Having traced the development of these miraculous narratives—as well as their respective typologies—it is safe to say that the layering of miraculous elements in the Buddha’s hagiography took place gradually. That is not to say, however, that there is some original biography of the Buddha that is free from all these “superstitious” and wondrous accretions. Indeed, others have argued, and this article has also provided evidence, for the fact that these miraculous elements are present in the earliest textual instances recounting the Buddha’s life. As the tradition evolved, these instances of “adbhuta” must certainly have influenced the more cosmic scale of representation in later Mahāyāna literature, which would have drawn from the depictions described in this article of an almost “superhuman” Buddha in a world filled with miracles to create the kaleidoscopic dreamscape of the Flower-Garland Sūtra or the magical universes described in the Lotus Sūtra. The miracle narratives were an integral part of the oral, textual, and lived aspects of Buddhism, a tradition that has spread across the world and which continues, even in this age of reason, to promote the stories of Siddhartha Gautama and his wonder-working powers.