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The City Beggar Woman

Translation of འཕགས་པ་གྲང་ཁྱར་གྱས་འཚ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད (འཕགས་པ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་འཚོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ)

Language
English
Translators
Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen, Chodrungma Kunga Chodron, George FitzHerbert
Extent
28 passages, 2,541 words
Text
complete digital text
Source
84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.6 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

This short Mahāyāna sūtra tells of a beggar woman from the city of Śrāvastī whose modest offering of a lamp at Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, is contrasted with the lavish offering of lamps being made at the same time by Prasenajit, who was the king of Kośala and a major benefactor of the Buddha Śākyamuni and his community. While King Prasenajit’s extravagant donations fill a thousand large lamps with oil and burn so bright that a wide area around the monastery is illuminated, the beggar woman has only a tiny amount of oil with which to make her modest offering. As she lights the lamp, she does so with the sincere prayer that she too may one day achieve enlightenment and become a teacher of the Dharma, just like the Buddha. Her small lamp burns bright through the night and cannot be extinguished, no matter what Maudgalyāyana does as he tries to douse it. When the beggar woman returns the next day and sees her lamp still burning, she is filled with joy, whereupon the Buddha gives one of his magnificent smiles that lights up the cosmos. Asked by Ānanda to divulge the reason for his smile, the Buddha prophesies the almswoman’s fortuitous future rebirths and her eventual awakening as a buddha. He then reprises the whole tale in a series of verses.

intro.2

The City Beggar Woman is a short Mahāyāna sūtra that tells of a poor woman in Śrāvastī who lights an oil lamp in veneration of the Buddha Śākyamuni, makes a vow to become a buddha in the future, and then receives a prophecy of her future buddhahood from the Buddha. As Peter Skilling notes in the introduction to his translation of this sūtra, there are at least two other iterations of this story found elsewhere in the Tibetan Kangyur.¹ One is in The Chapter on Medicines in the Vinayavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya,² and the other is chapter 37 of The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish .³ The version in the Tibetan Vinaya also has a close parallel preserved in Sanskrit in the Divyāvadāna.⁴ Skilling also notes that the story was among those selected for illustration in Ming dynasty woodcuts of events from the Buddha’s life and in other Chinese artworks.⁵

intro.3

The different versions of the story all tell of a pauper woman who is “dependent on the city for her livelihood” (Skt. nagarāvalambikā).⁶ In all versions, this woman lights an oil lamp at Prince Jeta’s Grove that cannot be extinguished due to her great determination of mind in vowing to become a buddha. While sharing this basic plot and some other narrative details, such as a disciple trying to douse the lamp with the edge of his robe, the different versions diverge in various ways. For instance, in the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions, it is Ānanda who tries to extinguish the lamp, while in this sūtra, and the version found in The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, it is Maudgalyāyana.

intro.4

The framing of the story is also diverse across the different iterations. While the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions present it as the last of several episodes in a series, in The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish it is followed by a past life story.⁷ The patterns of convergence and divergence between the different iterations, in these and other ways,⁸ are therefore somewhat complicated.

intro.5

Here the story is presented as a standalone Mahāyāna sūtra in which (like the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions) the beggar woman’s humble but sincere offering is contrasted with the extravagant and ostentatious offerings of King Prasenajit.

intro.6

The standalone sūtra does not appear to have been translated into Chinese, and no extant Sanskrit for it has been identified. It was translated into Tibetan during the height of the Tibetan imperial patronage of Buddhism (snga dar) in the late eighth or early ninth century and is listed in both the Denkarma and Phangthangma imperial catalogs.⁹ Its colophon states that it was translated by Jñānagarbha¹⁰ and Lui Wangpo, and edited by Vidyākarasiṃha and Devacandra, all of whom were active in Tibet in the early ninth century. It is one of four texts in the Kangyur credited to this particular translation and editorial team, the other three all being dhāraṇī texts (Toh 545/892, Toh 546/893, and Toh 718/1037).¹¹

intro.7

This English translation was made from the Tibetan as found in the Degé Kangyur, with reference to the variant readings recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), and the Stok Palace Kangyur. Peter Skilling’s English translation was also consulted.

1

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. While staying in Śrāvastī, in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park, the Blessed One was served, honored, venerated, and revered

2

by gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas; by Śakra, Brahmā, and the world protectors; by kings and ministers; and by bodhisattvas, monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Yet he remained like a lotus unsullied by water.¹²

At that time, in order to venerate the Thus-Gone One, on the full moon day of the last month of autumn, King Prasenajit had a thousand large copper cauldrons filled with grain oil and set them out so that the entire area for four leagues around was illuminated by their flames.

At the same time, in the great city of Śrāvastī, there was a city beggar woman called Maker of Joy.¹³ She had bought a tiny amount of oil, as a result of which she had gone without food for four days and had grown weak.¹⁴ She took the oil to Prince Jeta’s Grove and, using it to light a lamp at the edge of the courtyard, she made this wish:

“Blessed One, with this root of virtue, may I too become a teacher in the future. May I teach the Dharma and gather a community, just as the thus-gone, worthy, perfect, and complete Buddha does now. If I am to become a buddha in the future, may this oil lamp continue to burn until I return.” Whereupon she lit the lamp, and returned to the city.

The light of that oil lamp illuminated all of Jambudvīpa and the following day the lamp was still burning. Then Venerable Mahā­maudgalyāyana tried to put it out with the edge of his robe, but he could not. Venerable Mahā­maudgalyāyana then tried to extinguish it with gales of wind, but still he could not put it out. Venerable Mahā­maudgalyāyana then went to the Brahmā realms and caused sheets of rain the size of chariot axles¹⁵ to fall upon this whole trichiliocosm. However, even though he directed the deluge right over the lamp, still he could not douse it.

Then the Blessed One said, “Let it be, Maudgalyāyana! This lamp has been lit with a mind set on awakening, and a mind set on awakening cannot be overcome by a śrāvaka.

3

How so? Because no śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha can ever overcome a mind set on omniscience.”

A while later, as the sun was rising, the woman returned from the city. When she saw that the lamp was still burning brightly, she was filled with tremendous joy.

At that moment, the Blessed One smiled.¹⁶ It is the nature of things that whenever a blessed buddha smiles, rays of light of many colors—blue, yellow, red, white, crimson, and the colors of crystal and silver—stream forth from the blessed buddha’s mouth. These illuminate and pervade worlds without end, reaching as far as the Brahmā realms where they outshine even the sun and the moon. They then return once again, and, after circling the blessed one thrice, descend into the uṣṇīṣa at the crown of that blessed one’s head. So, indeed, did such rays of light, having circled the Blessed One thrice, disappear into the uṣṇīṣa of the Blessed One’s head.

Venerable Ānanda then spoke the following verse to the Blessed One:

“Excellent victor, guide, and best of men,
You do not smile without reason,
So please, with compassion, for the benefit of the world,
Tell us what gives you cause to smile.”

The Blessed One replied, “Ānanda, this city beggar woman will not fall into a lower rebirth for twenty-eight eons. She will experience only the abundance of the human and god realms, and then will become a thus-gone, worthy, perfect, and complete buddha called All-Illuminating.”

Then the Blessed One spoke these verses:

“To venerate the holder of ten powers, Prasenajit lit a thousand fine lamps

4

In huge copper cauldrons, which illuminated everything for four leagues.
The city beggar woman lit a lamp with a tiny amount of oil
And, by the power of the mind set on awakening, it illuminated the whole world.

“Maudgalyāyana wanted to extinguish the lamp with his vast magical powers,
But even powerful gales could not extinguish it.
Sending down sheets of rain the size of chariot axles from the Brahmā realms,
Still he could not douse that lamp, which shone like the sun.

“After four days with no food, she came to the delightful Jeta Grove
And, with joyful heart, paid respects with folded hands to the feet of the Sugata.
The peerless one smiled, and Ānanda, thoroughly delighted, asked,
‘What kind of result does this smile foretell, infinitely radiant one?’

“In twenty-eight eons, this Maker of Joy will be a victor, a self-arisen one
Known as All-Illuminating, and she will illuminate four great chiliocosms.
In the future, she will make offerings to ten million sugatas;
She will become a universal monarch and venerate the victors.

“This exemplary tale about a future buddha will delight the faithful¹⁷
And the wise who hear it will also feel joy.
In this way, the qualities of innumerable victors with the ten powers are inconceivable.
So the matchless result of rejoicing in them will also be inconceivable.”

Thus spoke the Blessed One, and Venerable Ānanda, the city beggar woman, the bodhisattvas and monks, along with the gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas of the world, rejoiced and thoroughly praised what the Blessed One had said.

Colophon

Translated by the Indian preceptor Jñānagarbha and Lotsawa Bandé Lui Wangpo. Edited and finalized by the Indian preceptor Vidyākarasiṃha and senior editor Lotsawa Bandé Devacandra.

Notes

notes.1

1. Skilling 2021, pp. 297–313.

notes.2

2. The Chapter on Medicines, 2021: –.

notes.3

3. A history of the The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish is included in the sixth-century Chinese work by Sengyu (445–518 ce) known as The Collected Records on the Making of the Tripiṭaka (Chu san zang ji ji). This collection of stories was translated from Chinese into Tibetan during the height of the Tibetan imperial patronage of Buddhism (Tib. snga dar), and, much later, into Mongolian. See Skilling 2021, p. 301.

notes.4

4. For a translation of this Sanskrit version, see Rotman 2008, pp. 282–305.

notes.5

5. Skilling 2021, p. 301.

notes.6

6. See “city beggar woman.”

notes.7

7. In The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish it is appended with a tale of the past in which the Buddha explains that, in a former birth, he was a princess who made lamp offerings to a monk who later became the Buddha Dīpaṃkara.

notes.8

8. For example, in this sūtra the Buddha predicts that the pauper woman will become a buddha named All-Illuminating in the future, and in The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish the future buddha’s name is somewhat similar. However, in the Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions, the Buddha says that the beggar woman will become a buddha named Śākyamuni in the future, possessing many of the same traits as the Buddha himself.

notes.9

9. Phangthangma, p. 16; Denkarma, F.299.b; Herrmann-Pfandt 2008, p.109.

notes.10

10. On the question of whether the translator Jñānagarbha can be equated with the Madhyamaka philosopher of the same name, see Skilling 2021, pp. 298–99.

notes.11

11. Spoken by Mañjuśrī Himself (Toh 545/892), 2023; Mañjuśrī’s Sworn Oath (Toh 546/893), 2023; and The Dhāraṇī for Developing Insight (Toh 718/1037), forthcoming.

notes.12

12. Tib. pad ma chus ma gos pa bzhin du bzhugs so. That is to say, he remained unaffected by being served and venerated by his many devotees, like a lotus flower remains unblemished by the muddy water in which it grows.

notes.13

13. Tib. dga’ byed ma zhes bya ba. Skilling suggests Nandikā as a possible equivalent for the name. The name dga’ byed ma is also attested as a translation of Nandinī in The Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī and The Tantra of Siddhaikavīra . In the Tibetan translation of The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, her name is given as bsnyen dga’ mo, a feminine form of a name for which the masculine is attested as “Upananda,” and in the Chinese version of that sūtra it is nantuo 难陀, which likewise suggests either “Nandinī” or “Nandikā.” In the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya and Divyāvadāna versions of the story her name is not given.

notes.14

14. Tib. des ’bru mar sran gre’u dang sbyar ba nyos nas zhag bzhi kha ’tshos te nyam chung bar gyur to. Skilling notes that sran gre’u is similar to sran khre’u, which is attested in Negi’s dictionary as a translation of māṣaka and can mean “a bean,” or “a very small amount.” Skilling also notes that kha ’tshos is attested as a translation of anāhāratāṃ pratipannaḥ, “she went without food.” This has been preferred over a possible reading of the Tibetan that she bought some “oil mixed with beans” (’bru mar sran gre’u dang sbyar ba nyos nas) and subsisting on that for four days became weak. In the Vinaya and the Divyāvadāna, she begs for a little oil. In The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish the narrative is a little more elaborate: she finds a coin and goes to an oil merchant who tells her that such a coin would only buy a useless amount of oil. However, when she tells him she plans to use the oil to make an offering to the Buddha, he is moved by pity and he gives her some more. She then goes directly to the monastery to light the lamp.

notes.15

15. Tib. shing rta’i srog shing tsam gyi char Lit. “rain the size of chariot axles,” is an expression found elsewhere in the Kangyur, for example in The Questions of Sāgaramati (Toh 152, ) and The Questions of Ratnajālin (Toh 163, ). Skilling translates it as “torrents of water as wide as chariot axles.”

notes.16

16. The description of many-colored lights emitting from buddhas’ mouths when they smile and streaming upward (to the heavens) and downward (to the hells) before returning and being reabsorbed into various parts of the body (relating to what kind of prophecy is being made) is found with various degrees of elaboration in many Kangyur texts. For one such elaborate expression see The Hundred Deeds (Karmaśataka, Toh 340), –. For a shorter expression of this theme, similar to that found here, see The Teaching by the Child Inconceivable Radiance (Acintya­prabhāsa­nirdeśa, Toh 103), .

notes.17

17. sangs rgyas rtogs pa brjod pa yi ni dad rnams rab dga’ byed. In light of the Stok Palace version, which reads sangs rgyas rtogs pa brjod pa’i ming ni dad rnams rab dga’ byed, “the name of [this] exemplary tale about a future buddha will delight the faithful,” we have opted to read yi as yis, as Skilling does. Otherwise, an alternative translation could be “She will delight those who have faith in exemplary tales about future buddhas.” This would preserve the subject of byed repeated from previous lines.