I was lately reading the Holy Text of the Saá¸á¸harma-PuášdarÄŤka (the Aphorisms of the White Lotus of the Wonderful or True Law) in a Samskášáš manuscript under a Boá¸hi-tree near Mášga-á¸Äva (SÄranÄášh), Benares. Here our Blessed Lord Buá¸á¸ha ShÄkya-Muni taught His Holy á¸harma just after the accomplishment of His Buá¸á¸hahood at Buá¸á¸hagayÄ. Whilst doing so, I was reminded of the time, eighteen years ago, when I had read the same text in Chinese at a great Monastery named Ohbakusang at Kyoto in Japan, a reading which determined me to undertake a visit to Tibet.
It was in March, 1891, that I gave up the Rectorship of the Monastery of Gohyakurakan in Tokyo, and left for Kyoto, where I remained living as a hermit for about three years, totally absorbed in the study of a large collection of Buá¸á¸hist books in the Chinese language. My object in doing so was to fulfil a long-felt desire to translate the texts into Japanese in an easy style from the difficult and unintelligible Chinese.
But I afterwards found that it was not a wise thing to rely upon the Chinese texts alone, without comparing them with Tibetan translations as well as with the original Samskášáš texts which are contained in MahÄyÄna Buá¸á¸hism. The Buá¸á¸hist Samskášáš texts were to be found in Tibet and NepÄl. Of course, many of them had been discovered by European Orientalists in NepÄl and a few in other parts of India and Japan. But those texts had not yet been found which included the most important manuscripts of which Buá¸á¸hist scholars were in great want. Then again, the Tibetan texts were famous for being[vi] more accurate translations than the Chinese. Now I do not say that the Tibetan translations are superior to the Chinese. As literal translations, I think that they are superior; but, for their general meaning, the Chinese are far better than the Tibetan.