The Gold Sūtra
Translation of འཕགས་པ་གསར་གྱ་མད་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད (འཕགས་པ་གསེར་གྱི་མདོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ)
- Language
- English
- Translator
- Chodrungma Kunga Chodro
- Extent
- 9 passages, 764 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Translated by the Sakya Pandita Translation Group under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating… · 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
- notes Notes — 3 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
In this very brief sūtra, Venerable Ānanda asks the Buddha about the nature of the mind of awakening, the aspiration to attain the awakening of a buddha for the benefit of all beings. The Buddha explains that the mind of awakening is like gold because it is pure. He also teaches the analogy that just as a smith shapes gold into various forms, yet the nature of the gold itself does not change, so too the mind of awakening manifests in various unique ways, yet the nature of the mind of awakening itself does not change.
intro.2
The Gold Sūtra presents a very brief but meaningful teaching on the mind of awakening, the aspiration to attain the unsurpassed and perfect awakening of a buddha for the benefit of all beings. It consists of the Buddha’s answer to a single question posed by Venerable Ānanda about how the mind of awakening should be viewed. The Buddha declares that the mind of awakening is like gold because it is pure, and he gives the analogy that just as a smith may shape gold into various forms, yet the nature of the gold itself does not change, so too the mind of awakening appears with various unique attributes, yet the nature of the mind of awakening itself does not change. The Buddha then proclaims a single four-line verse that succinctly articulates the nature of the mind of awakening and the way to practice it.
intro.3
Gold is used as an analogy to illustrate the noble and precious nature of awakening itself in a number of canonical texts. Notably, of the nine famous analogies set out in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra for the nature of awakening or “buddha-nature” (tathāgatagarbha) that is innate in sentient beings but concealed by different layers of adventitious obscurations, at least two—a piece of gold that has been discarded by mistake in a heap of filth, and an image cast in gold but still enclosed within its clay mold—explicitly mention gold.¹ The analogy of pure gold whose nature does not change, despite being worked by a smith into different forms, is also found in Vidyutprāpta’s Questions (Vidyutprāptaparipṛcchā, Toh 64), but there illustrates the single nature of the dharmadhātu rather than that of awakening.² However, gold as an analogy for the mind of awakening (bodhicitta), rather than for awakening itself, seems to be unique to the present text.
intro.4
As far as we can tell, no Sanskrit or Chinese version of The Gold Sūtra exists. As there is no colophon at the end of the sūtra, we have no information on when or by whom it was translated into Tibetan. The sūtra is not listed in either of the two inventories of translations completed during the early, imperial period, and it appears to be found only in Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line of transmission. There is a recent English translation of the sūtra, along with helpful notes, in Peter Skilling’s 2021 anthology, Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras.³
intro.5
The present translation is based on the version in the Degé (sde dge) Kangyur, with reference to the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur ma).
1
Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in the Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. At that time Venerable Ānanda asked the Blessed One, “Blessed One, how should the mind of awakening be viewed?”
The Blessed One replied, “Venerable Ānanda, the mind of awakening should be viewed as being in nature like gold. Just as gold is pure by nature, so the mind of awakening is pure by nature. Just as a smith shapes gold into a multiplicity of forms, yet the nature of the gold does not change, although the mind of awakening may appear to have a variety of unique attributes, ultimately these never waver from the mind of awakening. Therefore, its nature does not change.”
Then the Blessed One proclaimed the following verse:
“The mind of awakening is pure.
Strive for the benefit of self and other.
Meditate on the insubstantial essence.
Be intent on what causes the birth of wisdom.”
The Blessed One spoke thus, and Venerable Ānanda, the entire retinue, and the world together with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised what the Blessed One had said.
Notes
notes.1
1. Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (Toh 258), F.250.b–251.a and F.254.a–254.b. The analogies in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra are taken up and explained in detail in Maitreya-Asaṅga’s Ratnagotravibhāga (rgyud bla ma, Toh 4024–5).
notes.2
2. Vidyutprāpta’s Questions (Vidyutprāptaparipṛcchā, Toh 64), F.6.a.
notes.3
3. Skilling 2021, pp. 221–26.