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Mañjuśrī’s Teaching

Translation of འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱས་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད (འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱིས་བསྟན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ)

Language
English
Translators
Celso Wilkinson, Laura Goetz, L. S. Summer
Extent
25 passages, 1,381 words
Text
complete digital text
Source
84000 · Translated by the Kīrtimukha 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

Text

84000's introduction

intro.1

The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī approaches the Buddha, who is teaching the Dharma in Śrāvastī, and offers him the shade of a jeweled parasol. The god Susīma, who is in the audience, asks Mañjuśrī whether he is satisfied with his offering, to which Mañjuśrī replies that those who seek enlightenment should never be content with making offerings to the Buddha. Susīma then asks what purpose one should keep in mind when making offerings to the Buddha. In response, Mañjuśrī lists a set of four purposes.

intro.2

Mañjuśrī’s Teaching takes place in Śrāvastī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, where the Buddha is giving a teaching to congregations of monks and bodhisattvas. Mañjuśrī emerges from the audience with a parasol and holds it over the Buddha’s head as an offering. The god Susīma, who is in the audience, asks Mañjuśrī whether he is satisfied with his offering. Mañjuśrī replies that those who seek enlightenment should never be content with making offerings to the Buddha. Susīma then asks which purpose one should keep in mind when making offerings to the Buddha. In response, Mañjuśrī lists a set of four purposes: (1) the mind of awakening, (2) liberating all sentient beings, (3) preserving unbroken the lineage of the Three Jewels, and (4) purifying the buddha realms.

intro.3

This list of the four purposes seems to be uncommon in the Buddhist tradition. Although there are a few other sets of fourfold purposes found in the Kangyur and Tengyur in various contexts, there is only one other occurrence of this list, which is found in the Catuṣka­nirhāra­sūtra.¹ This sūtra is interesting as it begins with a passage closely resembling Mañjuśrī’s Teaching; its setting and opening are the same and are followed by the same dialogue between Mañjuśrī and the god, although here the god’s name is Śrībhadra (dpal bzang) rather than Susīma. In the Catuṣka­nirhāra­sūtra the four purposes are phrased in somewhat different terms but have essentially the same meaning.² The sūtra is considerably longer, too, since after receiving Mañjuśrī’s reply regarding the four purposes Śrībhadra proceeds to ask a series of questions, all regarding things that are taught in sets of four.

intro.4

There was no known Sanskrit witness of Mañjuśrī’s Teaching until recently, when a manuscript containing twenty texts, all of them sūtras, was found in the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Bhikṣuṇī Vinītā published a critical edition and English translation of this collection in the series Sanskrit Texts from the Autonomous Region (2010). Unfortunately, due to the inaccessibility of the manuscript collection and because it is missing a final colophon, its origin and date are currently unknown.³ Citations of the Sanskrit are given using Vinītā’s emendations of the handwritten manuscript. There seems to be a thematic connection among the twenty sūtras. Vinītā gives the example of moral discipline (śīla) as a recurrent theme in the manuscript,⁴ and we also can note the prevalence of themes of karmic cause and effect and the hierarchy of merit. Interestingly, this sūtra is quoted among others, including several sūtras from the Potala manuscript, by Kawa Paltsek (ska ba dpal brtsegs, eighth century ce) in a text contained in the Tengyur called the gsung rab rin po che’i gtam rgyud dang shAkya’i rabs rgyud.⁵ Here we can identify the same recurrent themes among the quotations.

intro.5

There is no Chinese translation of this sūtra,⁶ but there is a Chinese translation of the Catuṣka­nirhāra­sūtra, which, as mentioned above, has an opening passage that closely parallels that of Mañjuśrī’s Teaching. This Chinese version of the Catuṣkanirhāra was translated by Śikṣānanda between 695–700 ce.⁷

intro.6

According to the Tibetan translators’ colophon, Mañjuśrī’s Teaching was translated into Tibetan by the Indian preceptor Surendrabodhi and the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé, who were active during the late eighth–early ninth centuries ce. The Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs, which are dated to the early ninth century, both list Mañjuśrī’s Teaching among their inventories of sūtras.⁸

intro.7

We have based our translation on the Degé edition of the Tibetan Kangyur in consultation with the Sanskrit and other Kangyur editions, and compared this scripture to the parallel section found in both the Tibetan and Chinese versions of the Catuṣka­nirhāra­sūtra. These various Tibetan witnesses, along with the Sanskrit, are generally consistent. Any instance in which we have diverged from the Degé has been noted, and significant differences found in the various versions of the sūtra are recorded in the notes.

1

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas!⁹

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in Śrāvastī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, together with a great congregation of 1,250 monks and five thousand bodhisattvas.

At that time, the Blessed One was teaching the Dharma surrounded and venerated by an audience of many hundreds of thousands. Youthful Mañjuśrī then hoisted a jeweled parasol measuring ten yojanas in circumference and held it directly over the Blessed One’s head.

Present in the retinue, along with his entourage, was a god from the house of Santuṣita called Susīma,¹⁰ whose progress toward unsurpassed and perfect awakening had become irreversible. He now rose from his seat, approached the place where Youthful Mañjuśrī was, and addressed him: “Mañjuśrī, aren’t you satisfied with your offering to the Blessed One?”

Mañjuśrī asked in return, “Divine being, tell me, is the great ocean ever satisfied by having water poured into it?”

“Mañjuśrī, no, it is not,” replied the god.

Mañjuśrī said, “Divine being, likewise, the wisdom of omniscience is as profound, immeasurable, and boundless¹¹ as the great ocean. Those bodhisattva mahāsattvas who wish to search for that wisdom should never¹² be content in their desire to make offerings to the Tathāgata.”

The god then asked, “Mañjuśrī, with what purpose in mind should offerings be made to the Tathāgata?”

2

Mañjuśrī replied, “Divine being, offerings should be made to the Tathāgata with four purposes in mind. What are those four? They are (1) the purpose of the mind of awakening,¹³ (2) the purpose of liberating all sentient beings, (3) the purpose that the lineage of the Three Jewels will continue uninterrupted, and (4) the purpose of purifying all buddha realms.¹⁴ Divine being, it is with these four purposes in mind that offerings should be made to the Tathāgata.”

When Mañjuśrī had spoken, the god Susīma, the monks, nuns,¹⁵ bodhisattvas, and the entire retinue, along with the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas, rejoiced and praised the words of Youthful Mañjuśrī.¹⁶

Colophon

This was translated, edited, and finalized by the Indian preceptor Surendrabodhi and the chief editor and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé.

Notes

notes.1

1. See Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Fourfold Accomplishment , Toh 252, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021.

notes.2

2. See and . The parallel passages are found in The Fourfold Accomplishment, 1.1–1.7. In the latter “four purposes” is translated as “four things that bodhisattvas should focus on.”

notes.3

3. Currently the manuscript is kept in the Potala. Vinītā’s critical edition is based on a copy of the manuscript that is kept in the China Tibetology Research Center. For further details on the state of this manuscript see Vinītā (2010), pp. xv–xvii.

notes.4

4. Vinītā (2010), pp. xxvii–xxix.

notes.5

5. Mañjuśrī’s Teaching is quoted on page 812 in the comparative edition.

notes.6

6. Due to the parallel opening, there are a few sources that have mistakenly identified Taishō 774, the Chinese translation of the Catuṣkanirhāra, as a translation of the Mañjuśrī­nirdeśa.

notes.7

7. Lewis R. Lancaster, “K 485,” The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue , accessed October 18, 2018.

notes.8

8. Denkarma, folio 300.a; Phangthangma (2003), p. 18. The Denkarma describes its length as fourteen and a half ślokas, while the Phangthangma describes it as seventeen and a half.

notes.9

9. Homage absent in Sanskrit.

notes.10

10. The Sanskrit gives his name as Sukhīna, which is not a recognizable name; however, the Tibetan mtshams bzangs (“Susīma”) appears in other sūtras as a god and disciple of the Buddha.

notes.11

11. Sanskrit adds “extraordinary” (asādhāraṇa).

notes.12

12. D, H, and Y: gzhar yang (“never”); C, K, N, and U: gzhan yang (“furthermore they should not be content in their desire to make offerings to the Tathāgata”).

notes.13

13. Toh 252: “the purpose of omniscience” (thams cad mkhyen pa nyid la dmigs pa).

notes.14

14. Toh 252: “the purpose of attaining the array of qualities of the buddhafield” (sangs rgyas kyi zhing gi yon tan bkod pa yongs su gzung ba la dmigs pa).

notes.15

15. The nuns (bhikṣuṇī) are absent in S, Go., and Sanskrit.

notes.16

16. Sanskrit adds bhagavato, “the Blessed One,” together with Mañjuśrī.