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The Mahāsūtra “The Crest Insignia” (2)

Translation of མད་ཆན་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དམ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ (མདོ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དམ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ)

Language
English
Translator
Adam T. Miller
Extent
33 passages, 2,197 words
Text
complete digital text
Source
84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.4 2024). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha,… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a…

Contents

Text

84000's introduction

intro.1

The Buddha instructs his monks on how to overcome their fears by recollecting the qualities of the Buddha through a set of epithets. This is likened to how Śakra rallies his celestial troops with the sight of his military crest insignia. The sūtra concludes with verses summarizing the teaching and also recommending the recollection of the Dharma and Saṅgha. This is the shorter of two Mahāsūtras with the same title and similar themes.

intro.2

The Mahāsūtra “The Crest Insignia” (2), which we will refer to hereafter by its Sanskrit title, Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2], is a short work in which the Buddha instructs his monks at Śrāvastī on how to alleviate fear by recollecting the Buddha (and, in the concluding verses, the Dharma and Saṅgha as well) and outlines the benefits and efficacy of doing so.

intro.3

The Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2] has the same Sanskrit title as the closely related Mahāsūtra that immediately precedes it in the Degé Kangyur (The Crest Insignia (1), Toh 292,¹ hereafter Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1]). In Tibetan, the titles of these two Mahāsūtras are differentiated by alternative translations of the word agra (as dam pa in the present text, Toh 293, and mchog in Toh 292), but we have translated the title in the same way in both texts based on the identical Sanskrit title Dhvajāgra. The term dhvajāgra itself refers to a symbol or insignia that was mounted at the end of a long pole, which was employed as a martial ensign on the battlefield in ancient India.²

intro.4

In the prose portion of the sūtra, the Buddha advises his monks, should they become afraid wherever they happen to be, to recollect him using a formula composed of a set of epithets that describe his qualities, traditionally said to be nine in number but with some differences between versions of the text.³ By recollecting him in this way, he assures them, all their fears will be allayed. He intercalates his teaching in this prose section with a story centered on Śakra and the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three that illustrates and encourages this practice. When the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three are faced with the fearsome prospect of battle against the asuras, Śakra tells them to recollect his crest insignia, or military ensign, and this, he says, will alleviate their fear. If the gods trust Śakra and are indeed relieved of their fear through engaging in the practice he advises, the Buddha continues, how much more so should the monks likewise trust the Buddha and know that the practice he advises will be efficacious, for he is superior to Śakra in all ways.

intro.5

The work concludes with a modified reiteration of the teaching in verse. The verse summary advises the recollection not solely of the Buddha but of the Dharma and the Saṅgha as well. Recollecting the Three Jewels, leading as it does to the four truths of the noble ones and hence knowledge of the path, and ultimately to nirvāṇa, is the supreme refuge.

intro.6

The inclusion of this work in the group of canonical texts known as the Mahāsūtras (literally “Great Sūtras”)⁴ reflects its status in early Buddhism as a “text recited for protection” (paritta in Pali or rakṣā in Sanskrit).⁵ An extensive study of this and the other Mahāsūtras has been published by Peter Skilling.⁶ The nine or ten texts that belong to this collection have a long and complex history, and the recensions that are preserved in Tibetan translation have many parallels in Buddhist literature as a whole.

intro.7

Versions of the present sūtra are extant in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan. A Pali work with the title Dhajagga­sutta is found in the Sakkasamyutta in the first part of the Samyutta Nikāya (11.3).⁷ A Sanskrit work with the title Dhvajāgra(mahā)sūtra is known through manuscript fragments found in Central Asia.⁸ There are two Chinese translations. One is a translation produced in the mid-fifth century ce by Guṇabhadra as part of the Samyuktāgama (Taishō 99, no. 981). Another is a translation by Dharmanandi (曇摩難提) made as part of the Ekottarāgama (Taishō 125, ch. 24.1) and edited by Gautama Saṅghadeva in 397–98 ce. The Tibetan translation was produced in the late eighth or early ninth century by Yeshé Dé, Jinamitra, and Prajñāvarman.⁹ Along with the other eight Mahāsūtras likewise produced by this translation team, it is listed in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs of translated texts.¹⁰

intro.8

According to Peter Skilling, the present work is “one of the most popular of Buddhist sūtras”¹¹ on account of its content—the recollection of the Buddha, or of all Three Jewels, being a common theme throughout Buddhist literature—and its ritual use. The work is quoted or otherwise referenced in a small handful of Buddhist commentarial works: Buddhaghoṣa’s Sāratthappakāsinī, for example, and Sthiramati’s Pañca­skandha­prakaraṇavai­bhāṣya (Toh 4066).¹² The well-known formula for recollecting the Buddha is found in a wide variety of canonical texts and ritual works, including a short standalone scripture in the Kangyur with the title Buddhānu­smṛti (Toh 279), of unknown origin but possibly derived in part from the two Dhvajāgra­sūtras and their parallels.

intro.9

The Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2] had not been translated into English until recently, when it appeared alongside Dhvajāgra­sūtra [1] and the Pali Dhajagga­sutta in Skilling 2024.

intro.10

This translation was made from the version of the Tibetan text in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the critical edition published by Skilling¹³ based on twelve Tibetan versions, including the Peking, Lithang, Degé, and Narthang xylographs, the Stok palace manuscript, and two “independent editions” from monasteries that “do not reproduce any other single Kanjur, and do not have any significant descendants.”¹⁴ While there are quite a few differences between the sources and parallel texts that Skilling compared in his comprehensive study of this work,¹⁵ none of them much affects the meaning of the translation presented here.

1

Homage to the Three Jewels.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was staying in Śrāvastī, in Jeta Grove, the park of Anāthapiṇḍada. The Blessed One addressed the monks, saying, “Monks, whether you stay in the wilderness, under a tree, or in an empty house, in the event that you experience fear, trepidation, or terror, you should recollect me thus through these epithets: ‘The Blessed One is a thus-gone one, a worthy one, a perfectly awakened one, a learned and virtuous one, a well-gone one, a knower of the world, an unsurpassed leader of those to be trained, a teacher of gods and humans, an awakened one, and a blessed one.’ ¹⁶

2

If at that time you recollect me through these epithets, then whatever fear, trepidation, or terror you are experiencing will subside.

“Monks, previously, when a battle between the gods and the asuras was about to break out, Śakra, the king of the gods, called out to the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, saying, ‘If friends, when you go into the battle between the gods and the asuras, you experience fear, trepidation, or terror, you should at that time recall my crest insignia Vaijayanta. If at that time you recollect my crest insignia Vaijayanta, whatever fear, trepidation, or terror you are experiencing will subside.’

“Monks, similarly, whether in the wilderness, under a tree, or in an empty house, in the event that you experience fear, trepidation, or terror, you should recollect me thus through these epithets: ‘The Blessed One is a thus-gone one, a worthy one, a perfectly awakened one, a learned and virtuous one, a well-gone one, a knower of the world, an unsurpassed leader of those to be trained, a teacher of gods and humans, an awakened one, and a blessed one.’ Monks, if at that time you recollect me through these epithets, whatever fear, trepidation, or terror you are experiencing will subside.

“Monks, Śakra, the lord of the gods, still has desire, hatred, and delusion, and he is not liberated from birth, old age, sickness, death,

3

sorrow, lamentation, suffering, unhappiness, and disturbance. He also experiences fear, trepidation, alarm, and cowardice. Several times has he experienced fear, trepidation, alarm, and cowardice. Monks, the gods in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three confidently regard the words of Śakra, the lord of the gods—who still possesses desire, hatred, and delusion, who is not liberated from birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering, unhappiness, and disturbance, and who experiences fear, trepidation, alarm, and cowardice—as something to be heard and obeyed. Considering that, given that I am a thus-gone one, a worthy one, a perfectly awakened one—one who is without desire, hatred, and delusion, one who is liberated from birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering, unhappiness, and disturbance, and one who does not experience fear, trepidation, alarm, or cowardice—these words of mine are worthy of being heeded, of what they say to be put into practice, and of being propagated accordingly.”

4

This is what the Blessed One said, and the Well-Gone One having spoken those words, the Teacher continued:¹⁷

“In the wilderness, under a tree,
Or in an empty house, monks,
You should recollect the Leader of the World, the Guide,
The Perfectly Awakened One.¹⁸

“If you do not recollect the Leader of the World, the Guide,
the Perfectly Awakened One,
You should recollect the Dharma,
The best of what is free from desire.

“If you do not recollect the Dharma,
The best of what is free from desire,
You should recollect the Saṅgha,
That unsurpassable field of merit.

“If the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha
Are recollected in this way,
Then fear, trepidation, and terror
Will subside, monks.

Many are those, when frightened by terrors,
Who will go to seek refuge
In mountains and forests,
Or worship shrines in trees and groves.¹⁹

“But no such place can be a principal refuge.
They are not the supreme refuge.
Going to such places for refuge
Will not liberate such people from all suffering.

“But for those who have gone for refuge
In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha,
For them the truths of suffering, of the origin of suffering,
Of the complete cessation of suffering,

“And of the eightfold path of the noble ones
That leads to happiness and nirvāṇa—
These four truths of the noble ones
They will clearly see through their discernment.

“That is the principal refuge.
That is the supreme refuge.
If you rely on these for refuge,
You will be freed from all suffering.”

When the Blessed One had spoken these words, the monks were delighted and praised what the Blessed One had said.

Colophon

Translated, edited, and finalized by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Prajñāvarman, the senior editor-translator Bandé Yeshé Dé, and others.

Notes

notes.1

1. The Crest Insignia (1) (translated 2024).

notes.2

2. Peter Skilling discusses the title and the term dhvajāgra/dhajagga at length in his introduction to Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2] in Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 444–52. He observes that in a range of other canonical translations into Tibetan, the term was also translated as rgyal mtshan gyi rtse mo (“crest of the insignia”).

notes.3

3. The Pali versions do not include “tathāgata” among the epithets, and some commentators count “unsurpassed” as an epithet on its own. See ; also Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, p. 413 and 433–4; and the Buddhānusmṛtivṛtti (attributed to Asaṅga, Toh 3982), F.12.a.

notes.4

4. See the 84000 Knowledge Base article, “Mahāsūtras.”

notes.5

5. For more on the protective ritual use of the Mahāsūtras, see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 63–88.

notes.6

6. The following information is summarized from Skilling’s study of the Mahāsūtras. Readers interested in more detail should consult Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 441–67, as well as 84000’s Knowledge Base article “Mahāsūtras” on the subject.

notes.7

7. A number of English translations from the Pali of this widely-recited text were published before the late 1990s. See Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, p. 442 for references.

notes.8

8. There are Sanskrit manuscript fragments of Dhvajāgra­sūtra [2] in both in the Turfan Collection (Berlin) and the Hoernle Collection (London). For references, see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, p. 442.

notes.9

9. For more information on these translators, see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 111–42, especially pp. 115–30.

notes.10

10. Denkarma, folio 300.a.4. See also Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, pp. 131–32, no. 248.

notes.11

11. Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, p. 467.

notes.12

12. For bibliographic information and a few other references, see Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 442–43.

notes.13

13. Skilling 1994–97, vol. 1, pp. 290–309.

notes.14

14. Skilling 1994–97, vol. 1, pp. xxvi–xxxiii, at xxvi.

notes.15

15. See Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 460–67. For example, the verse portion of the work is not extant in the available Sanskrit source material, but it is in Pali.

notes.16

16. There are various slightly different ways of listing and enumerating the set of epithets presented here. In Pali versions of this work, the epithet “thus-gone one” (Pali, Skt. tathāgata, Tib. de bzhin gshegs pa) is missing, and anuttaraḥ (“unsurpassed”) is counted as its own separate epithet. For more on this, see Zhao 2018. See also Harrison 1992, pp. 215–38.

notes.17

17. Versions of the following nine verses are also found elsewhere in Buddhist canonical literature. The correspondences are presented as a table in Skilling 2024, p. 327. See also Skilling 1994–97, vol. 2, pp. 464ff.

notes.18

18. Verses 1 to 4 are also found as the first four verses in the verse section of the Pali Dhajagga­sutta.

notes.19

19. This fifth verse and the four that follow it, as Skilling has pointed out, are “well known in Buddhist literature” and “an early and authoritative group on the subject of refuge.” They are also found in the Udānavarga, in the Pali Dhammapada, and in the story of the Buddha’s “great miracle” (mahāprātihārya) in the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya.