The Brahmā’s Net (Brahmajāla) Sutra (梵网经)

The Brahmā’s Net Sutra (Sanskrit: Brahmajāla Sūtra; Chinese: 梵网经) is a vinaya (precepts) sutra for bodhisattvas. That is, it is a text that introduces a mode of ethical conduct and behavior that bodhisattvas may adopt as part of their practice. It is entirely distinct from the Brahmajāla Sutta of the Pali canon and the āgama sutras in its content.

Translated into Chinese by Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva in the early 5th century (Eastern Jin Dynasty), the Brahmā’s Net Sutra is actually a small part of a much larger text whose contents have been lost to time. Despite what little content remains, its two extant fascicles have played an influential role in the development of Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia.

The first fascicle begins with Śākyamuni Buddha and a retinue of bodhisattvas in Akaniṣṭha, the highest realm in the form realm (rūpadhātu 色界). The Buddha Vairocana begins by teaching the assembly that there are actually a thousand Śākyamuni Buddhas in a thousand worlds, all of whom are his manifestations. Vairocana Buddha, who is in fact the Buddha who represents the Dharma body (Dharmakāya 法身), continues to preach the Ten Grounds (daśabhūmi 十地) that bodhisattvas attain as they progress toward Buddhahood.

The second fasicle introduces the reader to one of the most influential sets of precepts in the East Asian Mahayana tradition. The Bodhisattva Precepts of the Brahmā’s Net Sutra consists of ten major precepts and forty-eight minor precepts. The major precepts include the first four of the widely known five precepts, and six others that, if broken, constitute a pārājika, or major offence.

The Brahmā’s Net Sutra and the precepts found therein became very popular among monastics in China, Korea, and Japan, and was sometimes circulated under other titles such as the "Bodhisattva Vinaya Sutra" and the "Bodhisattva Prātimokṣa." The monk and founder of the Tendai school Saichō even took the sutra as the basis for the practice of the vinaya in Japan.

The Brahmā’s Net Sutra can be read here.