Rhetorics of Solidarity in Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature: Or, “You’re So Vain, I Bet You Think This Sūtra Is about You”

Abstract

In approaching Mahāyāna sūtras primarily as documents meant to convey and legitimize theological innovations, scholars have paid less attention to their literary forms and social effects. This article advocates for increased attention to these latter features and argues for one distinctive feature of some sūtras as a case study. The article demonstrates how the literary devices of jātaka (prior birth story) and vyākaraṇa (prophecy of future buddhahood) operate within three influential Mahāyāna sūtras to reconsecrate culture heroes of “mainstream” Śrāvakayāna Buddhism as heroes of the Mahāyāna. It further argues that an important, overlooked feature of these texts is to “break the fourth wall,” suggesting that readers/auditors are also characters in the stories they tell, (re)consecrating them, too, as members of an ancient and honorable company of Mahāyāna stalwarts. This interpretation is made further plausible by observing that this narrative strategy is replicated in a variety of Mahāyāna contexts in, for example, Tibet and Japan, and is arguably a central feature within the Mahāyāna imaginary.