Gunaprabha
Gunaprabha
[徳光] (n.d.) (Skt; Jpn Tokuko)
A monk and scholar of India. His story appears in The Record of the Western Regions —Hsüan-tsang's account of his travels through Central Asia and India in the seventh century in which he wrote about the religion, customs, folklore, etc., of the areas he visited. Gunaprabha was said to have first studied the Mahayana teachings but converted to the Hinayana after reading a Hinayana treatise, and wrote scores of treatises in which he criticized the Mahayana teachings. He was believed to have ascended to the Tushita Heaven to resolve his remaining doubts concerning the differences between the Hinayana and the Mahayana; there he met Bodhisattva Maitreya, but did not respect or learn from him because Maitreya was not an ordained monk.
