Maya Sutra
Maya Sutra
摩耶経 (Skt; Chin Mo-ya-ching; Jpn Maya-kyo )
Also known as the Mahamaya Sutra. A sutra about Maya mother of Shakyamuni, translated into Chinese by T'an-ching during the Ch'i dynasty (479-502). The text from which this translation was made is not extant. The first half of the sutra relates how Shakyamuni used his supernatural powers to ascend to the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods. There he expounded his teachings for three months to his mother Maya had died seven days after giving him birth and was reborn in that heaven. The latter half describes Shakyamuni's entry into nirvana after his travels for preaching through many kingdoms, and how, knowing of her son's death, Maya descended from the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods. Wishing to view the body for the last time, she approached the coffin. At that moment it opened, a thousand luminous Buddhas, emanations of Shakyamuni, appeared, and mother and son were reunited. The sutra subsequently tells of those who will propagate Buddhism during the fifteen hundred years following Shakyamuni Buddha's death and predicts the time of their advent and their deeds. Among those predictions are the advent of Ashvaghosha and his propagation of Buddhism six hundred years after the Buddha's death, and of Nagarjuna and his teaching activities seven hundred years after the Buddha's death.
