The Research On The Parables Of The Sutra Of Perfect Enlightenment

Buddhism, as one of the three major world religions, has a broad and profound theoretical system. In order to better promote the teachings of Buddhism, many parables with vivid images are used in the Buddhist classics, so that the abstract meanings become concrete and simple, which makes it much easier for the followers of Buddhism to fully understand the theories and also helps to spread Buddhism faster and more widely. After the introduction of Buddhism to China, senior monks also paid special attention to such use of parables during the translation of Buddhist scriptures, which makes Chinese grasp the alien culture more easily, and promotes the development of Buddhism in China.The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment is one of the important Buddhist classics, which harmonizes both the Mahayana and Hinayana, so that many Buddhist monks of every dynasty took much count of the sutra. At the same time, there are forty-three parables in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment that have vivid images and are profound in meaning, beautiful in language, and rich in content, thus it is meaningful to make comprehensive study about the parables in the sutra. This paper will do a comprehensive analysis of the parables in the sutra, in order to make clear of the Buddhist theories they express as well as their enlightenment to the modem society. Besides, this paper will also analyze the features of the parables in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment through comparison the ones in the Lotus Sutra and Diamond Sutra.