འཕགས་པ་བསམ་གྱས་མ་ཁྱབ་པའ་རྒྱལ་པའ་མད་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro: 84000's introduction
The Sūtra of King of the Inconceivable intro
- Language
- English
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.