[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Āgama sūtras of the mainstream schools](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama) › [Sūtras of the Numerical Discourses transmitted singly](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara) › [Agraprajñaptisūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra) › [མཆོག་ཏུ་གདགས་པའི་མདོ](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo) › The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” # The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” Translation of [མཆག་ཏ་གདགས་པའ་མད (མཆོག་ཏུ་གདགས་པའི་མདོ)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo) - **Language:** English - **Translator:** [Giuliano Proença](https://indike.org/pramana/person/giuliano-proenca) - **Extent:** 37 passages, 1,881 words - **Text:** partly digitised - **Source:** 84000 · Translated by the Pema Yeshé Dé Translation Teamunder the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a… ## Contents - [intro 84000's introduction](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro) — 9 parts - [1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.1) - [2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.2) - [notes Notes](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes) — 26 parts ## Text ### 84000's introduction ### [intro.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.1) In The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme”, the Buddha, while spending the rainy season at the Bamboo Grove in Rājagṛha, teaches his saṅgha of śrāvakas that the Buddha is supreme among all beings, the Dharma of being free of attachment is supreme among all dharmas, and the Saṅgha is supreme among all communities and groups. Those who have faith in these three will be reborn as supreme among gods or humans. ### [intro.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.2) The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” is a short discourse set in the Bamboo Grove at Rājagṛha, in which the Buddha teaches that the Three Jewels are supreme: the Buddha is supreme among all beings, the Dharma of being free of attachment is supreme among all dharmas, and the Saṅgha is supreme among all communities and groups. In this way, the sūtra presents a declaration of faith in the Three Jewels. The Buddha also states that the reward of being well disposed toward the Three Jewels is rebirth as a supreme god or human. ### [intro.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.3) Little is known about the history of The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” as an independent text in India, but the existence of similar texts in the Pali and Chinese canons testifies to its antiquity.¹ The closest Pali parallel is the Aggappasādasutta (Iti 90), while the Aggappasādasutta (AN 4.34) and the Cundīsutta (AN 5.32) are also closely related.² In the Aggappasādasutta (Iti 90), the Three Jewels are taught to be supreme, using similar language, and they are said therein to be the objects of the supreme kinds of confidence, faith, or favorable disposition. ### [intro.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.4) The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” may have had a significant status in early Buddhist Central Asia, since we find Sanskrit fragments of the sūtra and its commentaries in a variety of manuscripts unearthed in present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. In addition to an unpublished fragment in the Hoernle Collection,³ a fragment in the Pelliot Collection was published by Bernard Pauly.⁴. The Turfan Collection also holds two fragments from commentaries on the sūtra: a Sanskrit fragment partially edited by Ernst Waldschmidt that includes the colophon,⁵ and an Old Turkish and Sanskrit bilingual fragment containing the beginning of a commentary on the sūtra.⁶ ### [intro.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.5) A version of this teaching is also found in the Avadānaśataka, a Sanskrit anthology of avadānas, where this teaching appears almost in its entirety in two different passages (stories 9 and 57). The Tibetan translation of the Avadānaśataka is included in the Kangyur (Toh 343) ⁷ and the wording in these passages is almost identical to the present sūtra. Moreover, an abridged form of this teaching is also contained in the Divyāvadāna ⁸ as well as in the Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra (Toh 563, –).⁹ ### [intro.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.6) Several versions of The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” are extant in the Chinese Tripitaka: the closest version is found as part of the Ekottarikāgama (Zeng yi a han jing 增壹阿含經, Taishō 125).¹⁰ The Chinese translation of the Ekottarikāgama was, for the most part, completed by Zhu Fonian (竺佛念) in 384 ce.¹¹ However, the discourse in this text has a different setting, and unlike Toh 305, it is presented by means of similes and in verse. The other versions of this teaching in the Chinese canon are three sūtras (nos. 902–904) in the Saṃyuktāgama (Za a han jing 雜阿含經, Taishō 99), which likewise teach that the Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha are supreme. The Saṃyuktāgama was translated into Chinese between 435 and 443 ce by Guṇabhadra (394–468) and Baoyun 寶雲 (376–449) in Jiankang (today’s Nanjing).¹² ### [intro.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.7) The translators of The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” into Tibetan remain unidentified and the sūtra is not listed in any catalogs of the Tibetan imperial period. However, the striking similarity between the Tibetan of the sūtra and the version that appears in the Tibetan translation of the Avadānaśataka (Toh 343) suggests that these translations were unlikely to have been made independently of one another. The colophon of the Tibetan translation of the Avadānaśataka (Toh 343) states that it was translated by the scholars Jinamitra and Devacandra who were active in Tibet in the early ninth century. By extension therefore, the Tibetan translation of the The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme” can perhaps also tentatively be dated to the early ninth century. ### [intro.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.8) The sūtra is only found as an independent text in the Sūtra section of Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line, the Lhasa and Narthang Kangyurs, and in the Tholing Collection from Western Tibet. The Tibetan title of the text is the same in all Kangyurs included in the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma), mchog tu gdags pa’i mdo, while the Tholing Collection has ’phags pa mchog tu gdags pa’i mdo.¹³ Versions such as the Yongle, Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, and Choné, do not present the name of the text at the beginning. The Sanskrit title of the sūtra is missing in all versions. Nevertheless, the colophon of the abovementioned fragmentary Sanskrit commentary clearly refers to the sūtra using the title Agra­prajñapti­sūtra.¹⁴ ### [intro.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.intro.9) This English translation is based on the Degé Kangyur print of Toh 305, in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and Pauly’s edition of the Sanskrit fragment. We also compared the Tibetan text line by line with the corresponding passages in the Avadānaśataka in both Sanskrit¹⁵ and Tibetan. The translators also consulted Léon Feer’s early French translation of the Avadānaśataka ¹⁶ and Naomi Appleton’s more recent partial English translation of the same.¹⁷ ### [1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.1) Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas. Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavān, together with a saṅgha of śrāvakas, was staying at Kalandakanivāsa in the Bamboo Grove at Rājagṛha, observing the pledge to stay in retreat during the rains. Then the Bhagavān spoke to the monks:¹⁸ “Monks, there are three declarations of what is supreme.¹⁹ What are the three? They are the declaration of the Buddha as supreme, the declaration of the Dharma as supreme, and the declaration of the Saṅgha as supreme. “In this regard,²⁰ what is the declaration of the Buddha as supreme? It is taught that among all beings—those without legs, with two legs, with four legs,²¹ or with many legs; those with form or without form; those with perception, without perception, or neither with perception ### [2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.2) nor without perception²²—the tathāgata, the arhat, the completely perfect Buddha²³ is supreme. Those who are well disposed toward the Buddha are well disposed toward what is supreme. Those who are well disposed toward what is supreme should understand that the ripening thereof will always be as a supreme god among gods, or a supreme human among humans. This is called the declaration of the Buddha as supreme.²⁴ “What is the declaration of the Dharma as supreme? It is taught that among all dharmas, conditioned or unconditioned, the Dharma of being free from attachment is supreme.²⁵ Those who are well disposed toward the Dharma are well disposed toward the supreme. Those who are well disposed toward what is supreme should understand that the ripening thereof will always be as a supreme god among gods, or a supreme human among humans. This is called the declaration of the Dharma as supreme. “What is the declaration of the Saṅgha as supreme? It is taught that among all assemblies, gatherings, crowds, and retinues, the Saṅgha of śrāvakas of the tathāgata, the arhat, the completely perfect Buddha²⁶ is supreme. Those who are well disposed toward the Saṅgha are well disposed toward the supreme. Those who are well disposed toward what is supreme should understand that the ripening thereof will always be as a supreme god among gods, or a supreme human among humans. This is called the declaration of the Saṅgha as supreme.” After the Bhagavān had spoken thus, the monks rejoiced and praised his words. ### Notes ### [notes.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.1) 1. The Pali canon emerged in written form around the first century bce. The oldest Chinese parallel for this text is included in the Ekottarikāgama (Taishō 125). It was translated into Chinese in 384 ce. ### [notes.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.2) 2. For online links to all three Pali texts along with English translations, see the Bibliography. ### [notes.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.3) 3. British Library, Hoernle 149.140. ### [notes.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.4) 4. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Pelliot Sanskrit: petit fragment 83. Pauly (1960, pp. 519–24) provides a transcription of the fragment and reproduces a passage from Speyer’s edition of the Avadānaśataka, which is supplemented with notes detailing variant readings of the fragment. ### [notes.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.5) 5. Oriental Department of the State Library at Berlin, SHT 24f. See Waldschmidt (1965), pp. 16–17, n. 24. ### [notes.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.6) 6. Türkische Turfan-Text VIII H. See von Gabain (1954), pp. 54–56. ### [notes.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.7) 7. In the ninth story, there is no setting or conclusion given for The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme,” although it is referred to as a sūtra: bhagavān idaṃ sūtraṃ bhāṣate sma. In that version, the Buddha preaches the sūtra to brahmins and householders. See Speyer (1902–6), pp. 49–50. In the fifty-seventh story, only the setting is omitted, and the Buddha preaches it to monks, as found here in The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme.” See Speyer (1902–6), pp. 329–30. ### [notes.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.8) 8. For a Sanskrit edition, see Vaidya (1959), p. 95, and for an English translation, see Rotman (2008), p. 268. ### [notes.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.9) 9. The version that appears in the Great Upholder of the Secret Mantra, one of the Pañcarakṣā, suggests the teaching was considered to have a protective function. This would be in line with the Pañcarakṣā being seen as protective texts (Hartmann and Maue 1996, p. 149, n. 9). ### [notes.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.10) 10. Ekottarikāgama 21.1 (di yi de 第一徳). An English translation of this text from Chinese by Thích Huyên-Vi, Sara Boin-Webb, and Bhikkhu Pāsādika is available at SuttaCentral with the title Highest Faith . ### [notes.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.11) 11. See Bhikkhu Anālayo (2016), p. 1. ### [notes.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.12) 12. See Bingenheimer (2011), p. 1. ### [notes.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.13) 13. For further information, see Resources for Kanjur and Tenjur Studies at Universität Wein (last accessed 30 May 2023). ### [notes.14](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.14) 14. Although the colophon is fragmentary, it begins as follows: agra­prajñapti­sūtrasyopadeśaḥ…, “instructions on The Sūtra “Declaring What Is Supreme”…” See Waldschmidt (1965), p. 16. ### [notes.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.15) 15. Speyer (1902–6) edited the Sanskrit text of the Avadānaśataka based on four different Nepalese manuscripts. Manuscript B in Nepalese script, dated to 1645, is the common source for the other three. Vaidya (1958) published another edition based on Speyer’s. ### [notes.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.16) 16. Feer’s translation (1891) predates Speyer’s edition and is based on a single Nepalese manuscript. ### [notes.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.17) 17. Naomi Appleton (2020) translates the first four sections of the Avadānaśataka. ### [notes.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.18) 18. The version that is found in the Avadānaśataka (Avś), and in its Tibetan translation (Toh 343) begins with this sentence. ### [notes.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.19) 19. Reading with KY, K, C, U and H: dge slong dag ’di gsum ni mchog tu gdags pa yin te, and Avś tisra imā bhikṣavo ’graprajñaptayaḥ. D here has the corrupt reading na in place of ni. ### [notes.20](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.20) 20. The phrase “in this regard” (Tib. de la) is absent in Avś and in Toh 343. ### [notes.21](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.21) 21. The words “with four legs” are absent in Avś, though present in Frgm and in Toh 343. ### [notes.22](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.22) 22. This refers to the category of beings abiding in the fourth and highest level of the formless realm. These are either the gods that abide there or persons who have reached this state through meditative equipoise. This state is also referred to as the “peak of existence” (Skt. bhavāgra; Tib. srid rtse) and is situated at the apex of saṃsāra. The beings there do not experience perceptions and yet cannot be said to be without perceptions. ### [notes.23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.23) 23. The phrase “the arhat, the completely perfect Buddha” is absent in Frgm. ### [notes.24](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.24) 24. Frgm reads instead iyaṃ prathamā agraprajñaptiḥ, “This is the first declaration as supreme.” ### [notes.25](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.25) 25. Alternatively, this may be rendered “dispassion (i.e., being free of attachment) is the supreme Dharma.” ### [notes.26](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000.notes.26) 26. The phrase “the arhat, the completely perfect Buddha” is absent in Avś and its Tibetan translation (Toh 343). --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.ekottara.agraprajnaptisutra*bo~en-84000) · Pramāṇa