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འཕགས་པ་བླ་གྲས་རྒྱ་མཚས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད notes: Notes

The Questions of Sāgaramati notes

Language
English

Notes

notes.1

1. On these citations, see Skilling 2018, 441–42. Moreover, the jātaka tale told in this sūtra, in which the Buddha, in a former life as a lion, saves two baby monkeys from the clutches of a vulture by offering his own flesh and blood as ransom, was also included in the Mahā­prajñā­pāramitā­śāstra attributed to Nāgārjuna (Lamotte 2007, pp. 1902–6).

notes.2

2. See The Questions of the Nāga King Sāgara (2) (Toh 154), i.2.

notes.3

3. On the date of Taishō 397 see Lancaster, K 56; for Taishō 400, see Lancaster, K 1481. Taishō 397, the Mahāsaṃnipāta, is 大方等大集經 (Dafang deng daji jing); Taishō 400 is 佛說海意菩薩所問淨印法門經 (Haiyi pusa suowen jing famen jing).

notes.4

4. See Griffiths 2015 (p. 994) and Skilling 2018.

notes.5

5. The Denkarma catalogue is dated to c. 812 ce. In this catalogue, The Questions of Sāgaramati is included among the “Miscellaneous Sūtras” (mdo sde sna tshogs) less than ten sections (bam po) long. Denkarma, 297.a.3. See also Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p. 49, no. 86.

notes.6

6. In Tibet most commentators appear to have classified this sūtra under the rubric of Yogācāra-Mādhyamika (rnal ’byor spyod pa’i dbu ma), such as, for example, the sixteenth century scholar Pekar Sangpo (pad dkar bzang po) in his survey of the sūtras (Pekar Sangpo 2006, p. 228).

notes.7

7. Conze 1955, p. 136.

notes.8

8. See for example Ju Mipham 2004 and Tsongkhapa 2000. Numerous other such brief citations have appeared in translation.

notes.9

9. This section is very similar to a description of the Dharma teaching found in the Akṣaya­mati­nirdeśa (Toh 175, see Braarvig 2020, The Teaching of Akṣayamati, 1.6). Notably, however, in that version the miracle that follows is not one of water, but of golden light.

notes.10

10. theg pa read as shes pa following the Narthang and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 17, n. 6.

notes.11

11. bstan pa read as brtan pa following the Yongle, Lithang, Narthang, Kangxi, Choné, and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 21, no. 2.

notes.12

12. nges pa read as des pa following the Narthang, Urga, and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 21, n. 3.

notes.13

13. byang chub sems sogs read as byang chub sems dpa’ following the Yongle, Lithang, Narthang, Kangxi, Choné, and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 28, n. 10.

notes.14

14. bsam read as bas following the Lithang, Narthang, Choné, and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 30, n. 1.

notes.15

15. nang read as nad following the Kangxi, Narthang, and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 30, n. 2.

notes.16

16. bdag gis read as bdag gi following the Yongle, Kangxi, and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 33, n. 9.

notes.17

17. dib dib po read as rib rib po following the Narthang and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 55, n. 1.

notes.18

18. Translation tentative. Tib. ngo za ring gi tshig med pa.

notes.19

19. Translation tentative. Tib. sems dang yid dang rnam par shes pa des rig pa med par tshor ba yang so sor myong la / sangs rgyas kyi chos rnams yongs su ma dzogs kyi bar du tshor ba ’gog pa mngon sum du yang mi byed de /.

notes.20

20. yang dag min read as yang dag nyid following the Stok Palace manuscript, p. 39.b.

notes.21

21. spyangs pa read as sbyangs pa following the Yongle, Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, Choné, and Lhasa editions of the Kangyur. Pedurma, p. 65, n. 13.

notes.22

22. Whereas the single word dharma (Tib. chos) can be used in both Sanskrit and Tibetan to denote a range of meanings, we have to translate it variably here as “qualities” and “phenomena.”

notes.23

23. kyi chos kyi chos read as kyi chos following the Stok Palace manuscript, p. 68.a.

notes.24

24. The passage that follows makes use of a series of alphabetical correspondences and puns that are lost in translation, not only in translation from Tibetan to English, but also the original act of translation from Sanskrit to Tibetan.

notes.25

25. A dhāraṇī that is included in a number of Great Vehicle sūtras and is said to encapsulate and thus give access to the full scope of the Buddha’s teachings.

notes.26

26. The Sanskrit of the passage starting with this sentence and continuing down to the end of the next paragraph () survives as a quote (48.19–50.7) in Asaṅga’s Ratna­gotra­vibhāga-vyākhya (RGVV, Toh 4025), in which an important doctrinal point is made about how bodhisattvas take voluntary rebirth in the world (according to some commentaries in the “body of a mental nature,” manomayakāya, yid kyi rang bzhin gyi lus). The Sanskrit of the passage corresponding to this present paragraph is as follows: yad āha | paśya sāgara­mate dharmāṇām asaratām akārakatāṃ nirātmatāṃ niḥsattvatāṃ nirjīvatāṃ niḥpudgalatām asvāmikatām | tatra hi nāma yatheṣyante tathā viṭhapyante viṭhapitāś ca samānā na cetayanti na prakalpayanti | imāṃ sāgara­mate dharma­viṭhapanām adhi­mucya bodhi­sattvo na kasmiṃścid dharme pari­khedam utpādayati | tasyaiva jñāna­darśanaṃ śuci śuddhaṃ bhavati | nātra kaścid upakāro vāpakāro vā kriyata iti | evaṃ ca dharmāṇāṃ dharmatāṃ yathābhūtaṃ prajānāti | evaṃ ca mahā­karuṇā­saṃnāhaṃ na tyajati. In the RGVV this quote follows after the one mentioned below in . The Tibetan text in the Tengyur (translated by Sajjana and Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab) differs in several respects from the Tibetan rendering here in the sūtra itself (translated by Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, Buddhaprabhā, and Yeshé Dé).

notes.27

27. The Degé Kangyur Tibetan reads chos rnam par bsgrub pa ’di la, but the Tibetan of the quote in the RGVV reads gzhan du mi ’gyur ba’i chos ’di la.

notes.28

28. The quoted passage mentioned above in ends here, although as noted in below the following passage is also quoted in the same text (but in reverse order).

notes.29

29. The Sanskrit of the passage starting with this sentence and continuing down to the end of survives as a quote (47.6–48.13) in Asaṅga’s Ratna­gotra­vibhāga-mahā­yānottara­tantra­śāstra (Toh 4025). In that text this quote precedes the one mentioned above in .

notes.30

30. The quoted passage mentioned in ends here.

notes.31

31. This and the other dhāraṇīs in the English translation represent a transcription of the phonetic Sanskrit provided in the Degé version of the Tibetan translation. No attempt has been made to compare it to other versions of the dhāraṇī, nor has it been edited to conform with normative Sanskrit orthography and syntax.