Buddhologie

Scripture Revisited: The Rhinoceros Horn Sutra

Title: Khaggavisāna-sutta (Rhinoceros Horn Sutta)

Canon: Pali

Book: Khuddaka Nikaya, Sutta Nipata

Oldest Manuscript Age: The Gandhari scrolls date to c. 1-3 Centuries C.E., which is approximately 400 years older than the most ancient Buddhist manuscripts in Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, or Pali.

Significance:

This sutra is one of the earliest Buddhist texts. It advocates wandering asceticism in pursuit of enlightenment. In the sutra there is little to no place for the Buddhist laity. Asceticism is the only option. However, this view is definitely not consistent with values of later Pali texts, especially those espounded by 5th Century C.E. Sri Lankan monks who very clearly laid out nearly every facet of monastic and lay life in what is now compiled and known as the Pali Canon. If nothing else, the Rhinoceros Horn Sutra represents what the Buddhist sangha moved away from in later, more Classical years.

This sutra is also a fairly disorganized collection of ideas, thus giving rise to the theory that it was composed by various authors over an indeterminable amount of time. However, even if the sutra is compositionally disorganized and represents different values than that of later sangha, it is still the emobidment of classic Buddhist monasticism according to Western perception. Aren’t Buddhist monks supposed to be these solitary meditating masters? Aren’t Buddhist monks supposed to be homeless, full of wisdom, beggers, and clothed only in used garments sewn together with the poorest of threads? Again, aren’t Buddhist monks the antithesis of householders, claiming no family, no companions, and no connection with the only exception being their meditating brethren? It would seem that the image of the reflective, egoless monk is absolutely based on the monk envisioned in the Rhinoceros Horn sutra.

Ultimately, the Rhinoceros Horn is the monastic ideal, far distanced from the monastic reality of everyday life. Though Theravadin monks are adherants to a rigid Vinaya code, they do not usually meditate, wander solitarily, give up familial ties, or abstain from sexual misconduct. No, actually, the ideas in the Rhinoceros Horn sutra are more fit for Western converts who tend to want the ascetic ideal, not take it for granted.

Below is a list of important passages from the Rhinoceros Horn sutra:

37. Sympathising with friends (and) companions [one misses one’s goal, being shackled in mind. Seeing the danger in acquaintance (with friends,)] one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.
51. This for me is a calamity, and a tumour, and a misfortune, and a disease, and a barb, and a danger. Seeing this danger in [the strands of sensual pleasure], one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.
52. Cold and heat, hunter (and thirst), wind and the heat (of the sun), gadflies and snakes, having endured all these, one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.
53. As an elephant with massive shoulders, [spotted], noble, may leave the herds and live as it pleases in the forest, one should wander as a rhinoceros horn.
60. Leaving behind son and wife, and father and mother, and welath and grain, and relatives, and sensual pleasures to the full extent, one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.
62. Having torn one’s fetters asunder, like a fish breaking a net in the water, not returning, like a fire (not going back) to what is (already) burned, one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.
64. Having discarded the marks of a householder, like a coral tree whose leaves have fallen, having gone out (from the house) wearing the saffron robe, one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.

As you can see, the Rhinoceros Horn sutra really enforces the solitary, ascetic, wandering lifestyle and condemns seekers who are not genuinely on the path towards enlightenment.

You may find an online translation of the Rhinoceros Horn Sutra at Access to Insight. However, this translation is from K.R. Norman’s book _The Rhinoceros Horn and other Early Buddhist Poems_.

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