The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable
Translation of འཕགས་པ་བསམ་གྱས་མ་ཁྱབ་པའ་རྒྱལ་པའ་མད་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད (འཕགས་པ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ)
- Language
- English
- Translator
- Lowell Cook
- Extent
- 15 passages, 1,366 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Translated by the Subhashita Translation Groupunder 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 — 5 parts
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- notes Notes — 6 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
While the Buddha is staying in the kingdom of Magadha with an assembly of countless bodhisattvas, the bodhisattva King of the Inconceivable gives a teaching on the relativity of time between different buddhafields. Eleven buddhafields are enumerated, with an eon in the first being equivalent to a day in the following buddhafield, where an eon is, in turn, the equivalent of a day in the next, and so forth.
intro.2
The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable takes place in the kingdom of Magadha where the Buddha is dwelling amid an incalculable assembly of bodhisattvas. Among the bodhisattvas is the titular King of the Inconceivable, who offers a discourse on the relativity of time between buddhafields. He enumerates eleven buddhafields, with an eon in the first being equivalent to a day in the following buddhafield, where an eon is, in turn, the equivalent of a day in the next, and so forth. The sūtra thus presents a hierarchy of buddhafields that begins with our world and culminates with the paramount buddhafield, Padmaśrī. This language of incredibly vast scales of time has the effect of testing the limits of human conception, thereby demonstrating that the qualities of the buddhas and their buddhafields are beyond quantification or conceptualization. King of the Inconceivable concludes his discourse by emphasizing its rarity, stating that the names of the buddhas he enumerated can only be heard by bodhisattvas with certain unique qualities. Upon completion of the discourse, the gathering of bodhisattvas and the entire world praise the teaching, which is said to have been taught by both the Blessed One and King of the Inconceivable.
intro.3
The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable is nearly identical to “The Chapter on the Scale of Life,” the thirty-seventh chapter of the Ornaments of the Buddhas (Toh 44, Skt. Buddhāvataṃsaka), ¹ and Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields (Toh 104).² Of the three texts, The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable is more elaborate than “The Chapter on the Scale of Life” in that it includes an opening narrative (Skt. nidāna) and a conclusion. However, whereas “The Chapter on the Scale of Life” and Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields explicitly reference the names of the buddhafields and their buddhas, The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable gives only the names of the buddhas in most instances. Though there is no extant Sanskrit version of The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable, there is a Sanskrit witness of Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields (Toh 104) titled Anantabuddhakṣetraguṇodbhāvana, which aligns closely with Toh 268 in terms of vocabulary and structure.³
intro.4
The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable lacks a colophon identifying the translators, presenting a challenge to establishing a date for the translation. The sūtra is listed in both the Denkarma (Tib. ldan/lhan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (Tib. ’phang thang ma) catalogs, the two extant indexes of translations from the Imperial Period (629–841 ce).⁴ The translation can thus be dated roughly to the early ninth century, as the Denkarma catalog was first compiled in 812, with additional titles added until 830.
intro.5
The translation offered here is based on the version found in the Degé Kangyur. Additionally, the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace Kangyurs were also consulted, and “The Chapter on the Scale of Life” of the Ornaments of the Buddhas and Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields informed the translation. The Sūtra of the Inconceivable King has not been translated into any Western language or received any substantial scholarly attention. Where possible, the Sanskrit names of buddhas and buddhafields have been supplied by the Anantabuddhakṣetraguṇodbhāvana.
1
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling at the seat of awakening, a secluded hermitage in the land of Magadha, where he was seated upon a lion throne in the center of a lotus, inlaid with vajras and precious jewels. He was accompanied by a great bodhisattva assembly of as many bodhisattva great beings as there are atoms in the millions of billions of utterly indescribable buddhafields throughout the ten directions.
The bodhisattva great being King of the Inconceivable addressed those bodhisattva great beings: “O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in this Sahā world, the buddhafield of the blessed, thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Śākyamuni, is but a single day in the realm of Sukhāvatī, the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Amitāyus.
2
“O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in the realm of Sukhāvatī, the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Amitāyus, is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Vajrapramardin.
“O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Vajrapramardin is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Lotus Body Blooming from Dense Light Rays.
“O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Lotus Body Blooming from Dense Light Rays is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Dharmadhvaja.
“O children of the Victorious One, an eon in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Dharmadhvaja is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Siṃha.
“O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Siṃha is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Vairocana.
“O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Vairocana is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Flower Body Blooming from the Light of the Dharma.
3
“O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Flower Body Blooming from the Light of the Dharma is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha King of Wisdom Light.
“O children of the Victorious One, a single eon in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha King of Wisdom Light is but a single day in the buddhafield of the thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect Buddha Candrabuddhi.
“O children of the Victorious One, continuing with this system of calculating eons, after a distance equal to the total atoms in ten oceans of buddhafield realms, we arrive at the equivalent of a single day in the realm of Padmaśrī, the buddhafield where the blessed, thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect buddha, the victorious Bhadraśrī resides.
“O children of the Victorious One, the names of these thus-gone, worthy, and completely perfect buddhas will be heard by bodhisattva great beings who uphold the conduct of the bodhisattva great being Samantabhadra and who are under the care of a spiritual teacher. They will not, however, be heard by anyone else.”
After the Blessed One had spoken these words,⁵ the bodhisattva great being King of the Inconceivable, and the entire retinue of bodhisattva great beings and the whole world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas, all rejoiced
4
and praised the words of the Blessed One and the bodhisattva great being King of the Inconceivable.⁶
Notes
notes.1
1. See Subhashita Translation Group, trans., The Chapter on The Scale of Life , Toh 44-37 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022).
notes.2
2. See Subhashita Translation Group, trans., Expounding the Qualities of the Thus-Gone Ones’ Buddhafields , Toh 104 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022).
notes.3
3. This sūtra was edited and translated in Vinītā 2010.
notes.4
4. See Denkarma, folio 299.b, and Herrmann-Pfandt, p. 116.
notes.5
5. As indicated at the beginning of the sūtra, it was the bodhisattva King of the Inconceivable who delivered this discourse. Nonetheless, “the Blessed One” appears to refer to Śākyamuni here.
notes.6
6. Based on the Tibetan syntax, it does appear that King of the Inconceivable is praising his own words in this passage.