四十二章經 1

English (machine translation) 1

Language: English

1.1

Translated jointly by the śramaṇas Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna of the Western Regions during the Later Han.

Anciently, Emperor Xiaoming of the Han dreamed at night that he saw a divine person whose body was golden in color and whose neck emitted the light of the sun, flying before the palace hall. In his heart he rejoiced, being greatly pleased by it. The next day he asked his ministers: "What spirit was this?"

1.3

A scholar of wide learning, Fu Yi, said: "Your servant has heard that in India there is one who attained the Way, named the Buddha. Lightly ascending, he can fly; it is almost certainly his spirit."

1.4

Thereupon the Emperor was enlightened and immediately dispatched twelve envoys, including Zhang Qian, the Palace Commander of the Feathered Forest Qin Jing, and the Erudite's disciple Wang Zun, to the Kingdom of the Great Yuezhi to copy and obtain the Sūtra in Forty-two Sections of the Buddha. In the fourteenth stone casket, [a stupa] was erected and a monastery established. Thereupon the teachings of the Way spread widely, and Buddhist monasteries were built and maintained in every place. Distant peoples submitted and transformed, desiring to become subjects and servants beyond counting; the realm was pure and tranquil, and sentient beings have received grace and relied [upon it] without end down to the present day.

1.5

The Buddha said: "One who takes leave of relatives and leaves the household to practice the Way is called a śramaṇa. Constantly observing the two hundred and fifty precepts, practicing the four noble truths, advancing his resolve in purity, he becomes an arhat. An arhat can fly and manifest transformations, prolong his lifespan, and shake heaven and earth. Next is the anāgāmin: at the end of his lifespan, his spirit ascends to the nineteenth heaven, and there he attains arhatship. Next is the sakṛdāgāmin: ascending once and returning once, he then attains arhatship. Next is the srotāpanna: dying seven times and being born seven times, he then attains arhatship. One who has severed craving and desire is like one whose four limbs are severed, no longer capable of being used."

1.6

The Buddha said: "Shaving off beard and hair, becoming a śramaṇa, receiving the teachings of the Way, renouncing worldly wealth, begging for alms to take only what suffices, eating one meal at midday, resting for one night beneath a tree, taking care not to do so a second time! What causes a person to be foolish and degraded is craving and desire."

1.7

The Buddha said: "Sentient beings regard ten things as good, and likewise regard ten things as evil: three of the body, four of the mouth, and three of the mind. The three of the body are killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. The four of the mouth are duplicity, abusive speech, false speech, and frivolous speech. The three of the mind are jealousy, wrath, and folly, not having faith in the Three Honored Ones, and taking the perverse to be the real. If an upāsaka practices the five precepts without remiss or retreat, reaching up to the ten things, he will surely attain the Way."

1.8

The Buddha said: "When people have many faults but do not repent them themselves, instantly halting their minds, their guilt comes and returns to their person, like water returning to the sea, naturally becoming deep and vast. If one has done evil and knows it is wrong, reforming faults and acquiring goodness, the guilt will day by day be extinguished, and eventually one will attain the Way."

1.9

The Buddha said: "When someone is foolish and considers me unvirtuous, I protect and deliver them with the four immeasurable minds of loving-kindness. If they approach me repeatedly with evil, I go toward them repeatedly with goodness. The energy of blessed virtue will constantly be here, while the harmful energy and severe calamities will, on the contrary, rest with them."

1.10

A person heard that the Buddha's Way observes great benevolence and compassion, approaching with evil and going forth with goodness, and therefore came to revile him. The Buddha remained silent and did not reply, pitying that his delusion, blindness, madness, and folly had caused this. When the reviling ceased, [the Buddha] asked, saying: "If you treat someone with courtesy and that person does not accept it, to whom does that courtesy actually belong?" [The person] replied: "I take it back." [The Buddha said:] "Now you revile me, and I also do not accept it; you yourself take it back, and misfortune will fall upon your own person! Just as an echo answers a sound, and a shadow follows a form, in the end there is no escaping it. Be careful about committing evil."

1.11

The Buddha said: "An evil person harming a worthy one is like looking up at the sky and spitting; the spit does not defile the sky, but returns to defile one's own person. It is like scattering dust against the wind; the dust does not defile the other, but returns to cover one's own person. A worthy one cannot be destroyed, and misfortune will surely destroy oneself."

1.12

The Buddha said: "When a person practices the Way, they must practice universal love; among broad compassion and bestowal of virtue, there is no bestowal greater [than giving]. Maintaining resolve and upholding the Way, their merit is exceedingly great; seeing someone practice giving the Way and assisting them with joy, one also attains the reward of merit."

1.13

Someone inquired, saying: "Would that [person's] merit not be diminished?"

1.14

The Buddha said: "It is just like a blazing torch: several hundreds or thousands of people each come with a torch to take its fire and go to cook food and dispel darkness; that [original] fire remains as before, and merit is also like this."

1.15

The Buddha said: "Feeding a hundred ordinary people is not as good as feeding one good person. Feeding a thousand good people is not as good as feeding one person who observes the five precepts. Feeding ten thousand people who observe the five precepts is not as good as feeding one srotāpanna. Feeding one million srotāpannas is not as good as feeding one sakṛdāgāmin. Feeding ten million sakṛdāgāmins is not as good as feeding one anāgāmin. Feeding one hundred million anāgāmins is not as good as feeding one arhat. Feeding one billion arhats is not as good as feeding one pratyekabuddha. Feeding ten billion pratyekabuddhas is not as good as saving one's two parents of this lifetime with the teachings of the Three Honored Ones. Teaching one's parents a hundred billion times is not as good as feeding one Buddha—studying and vowing to seek buddhahood in order to deliver sentient beings. The merit of feeding a good person is most deep and weighty. For ordinary people, serving heaven, earth, ghosts, and spirits is not as good as being filial to one's parents; the two parents are the most divine."

1.16

The Buddha said: "In the world there are five difficulties: being poor and practicing generosity is difficult; being noble and wealthy and studying the Way is difficult; controlling one's lifespan so as not to die is difficult; getting to see the Buddhist sūtras is difficult; being born and encountering a Buddha's era is difficult."

1.17

A śramaṇa asked the Buddha: "By what conditions does one attain the Way? How does one know past lives?"

1.18

The Buddha said: "The Way has no form; knowing it [intellectually] is of no benefit. What is essential is that one must maintain resolve and practice. Just like polishing a mirror, when the grime is removed, the brightness remains and one immediately sees one's own form. By severing desire and maintaining emptiness, one immediately sees the truth of the Way and knows past lives."

1.19

The Buddha said: "What is goodness? Only practicing the Way is good. What is greatest? Resolve harmonizing with the Way is great. What has the most power? Patience is the strongest: one who is patient bears no resentment and is sure to be honored by people. What is the brightest? When the mind's defilements are removed and evil conduct is extinguished, internally pure and flawless; from before there were heaven and earth down to the present day, of whatever exists in the ten directions, even the unseen sprouts, having nothing one does not know, nothing one does not see, and nothing one does not hear, attaining all-knowledge—this can indeed be called bright."

1.20

The Buddha said: "A person harboring craving and desire does not see the Way. It is like turbid water into which the five colors are cast, stirred vigorously; when all people gather over the water, none can see their reflection. Craving and desire intermingle and cause turbidity within the mind; therefore, one does not see the Way. When the water is clarified and filth removed, pure and free of defilement, one immediately sees one's own form. When a fierce fire is applied beneath a cauldron, the water inside leaps up, and a cloth is draped over it, even if sentient beings look down into it, none can see their reflection. When the three poisons fundamentally bubble and boil inside the mind, and the five hindrances cover it from without, in the end one does not see the Way. Only when the mind's defilements are completely exhausted will one know whence the spirit comes, whither birth and death tend, and where the Buddha-lands, the Way, and its virtues reside."

1.21

The Buddha said: "One who practices the Way is like one holding a torch and entering a dark room: the darkness is immediately extinguished while the light remains. Studying the Way and seeing the truths, folly is entirely destroyed, and there is nothing one does not see."

1.22

The Buddha said: "What do I contemplate? I contemplate the Way. What do I practice? I practice the Way. What do I speak of? I speak of the Way. I contemplate the true Way, not neglecting it for an instant."

1.23

The Buddha said: "Looking at heaven and earth, contemplate impermanence; looking at mountains and rivers, contemplate impermanence; looking at the flourishing fullness of the forms of the myriad things, contemplate impermanence. Holding the mind in this way, one attains the Way quickly."

1.24

The Buddha said: "Practicing for a single day, constantly contemplating the Way and practicing the Way, one will ultimately attain the faculty of faith; its merit is limitless."

1.25

The Buddha said: "Thoroughly contemplate within yourself the four great elements: names only possess nominal existence and are altogether nonexistent; the self is a lodged life, and life is also not long; its affairs are merely like an illusion."

1.26

The Buddha said: "When people follow passion and desire in pursuit of fleeting fame, it is like burning incense: everyone smells its fragrance, but the burning incense consumes and burns itself. The foolish covet the reputation of worldly customs and do not preserve the truth of the Way; fleeting fame brings the calamity of endangering oneself, and its regret comes afterward."

1.27

The Buddha said: "Wealth and sex to a person are like a small child coveting honey on the blade of a knife: the sweetness is not enough for the pleasure of a single meal, yet there is the danger of cutting the tongue."

1.28

The Buddha said: "The calamity of a person being bound to wife, children, and precious houses is worse than prisons, fetters, and chains. In prison there are pardons and releases, but although the passion and desire for wife and children have the calamity of a tiger's mouth, one still willingly casts oneself into them; such guilt is without pardon."

1.29

The Buddha said: "Among craving and desire, none is greater than sex. As a desire, sex has nothing greater outside it. Fortunately, there is only one such [desire]; if there were a second, none among the people under all of heaven could practice the Way."

1.30

The Buddha said: "Craving and desire to a person are like holding a torch and walking against the wind. If a foolish person does not release the torch, there will surely be the calamity of burning their hand. When the poisons of covetous lust, wrathful anger, and foolish delusion reside within a person's body, if one does not early on use the Way to eliminate these misfortunes, there will surely be danger and disaster, just as the foolish and covetous person who holds the torch burns their own hand."

1.31

A heavenly spirit offered jade-like women to the Buddha, wishing thereby to test the Buddha's mind and observe the Buddha's Way. The Buddha said: "Skin bags of myriad foul things, why have you come? Though you may please the worldly, it is difficult to move one of the six supernormal powers. Begone! I have no use for you." The heavenly spirit respected the Buddha all the more and consequently inquired about the meaning of the Way; the Buddha explained it for him, and he immediately attained srotāpanna."

1.32

The Buddha said: "One who practices the Way is like a log in the water, moving along with the current: if it does not touch the left bank, nor touch the right bank; is not taken by people, is not blocked by ghosts and spirits, is not detained by whirlpools, and also does not rot, I guarantee that it will enter the sea. When a person practices the Way, if they are not deluded by passion and desire, not deceived by various heterodoxies, and advance vigorously without doubt, I guarantee that they will attain the Way."

1.33

The Buddha addressed the śramaṇas: "Be careful not to trust your mind; the mind is ultimately not to be trusted. Be careful not to encounter sex; if you encounter sex, misfortune arises. Only when you have attained the way of the arhat may you trust your mind."

1.34

The Buddha addressed the śramaṇas: "Be careful not to look at women; if you see them, do not look. Be careful not to speak with them; if you speak with them, admonish your mind to correct conduct, saying: 'I am a śramaṇa living in a defiled world; I should be like a lotus flower, unsoiled by mud. Regard the elderly as mother, the elder as elder sister, the younger as younger sister, and the child as daughter, treating them with courtesy.' If the mind is unsettled, you should contemplate carefully, looking at yourself internally from head to foot: what is there in that body? It contains only foul excretions and various impure elements; thereby release your mind."

1.35

The Buddha said: "When a person practices the Way to eliminate passion and desire, they should be like grass seeing fire: when the fire comes, it already recedes. When a person of the Way sees craving and desire, they must surely keep away from them."

1.36

The Buddha said: "There was a man afflicted with lust whose passions did not cease; he squatted over the edge of an axe to cut off his own genitals. The Buddha said to him: 'Severing your genitals is not as good as severing your mind. The mind is the officer-in-charge; if you halt the officer-in-charge, his followers will all cease. If the perverse mind does not cease, what benefit is there in severing the genitals? You would die in an instant.'" The Buddha said: "The inverted views of the worldly are like this foolish man."

1.37

There was a lustful young woman who made a vow with a man; when the appointed time came, he did not arrive, and she repented within herself, saying: 'Desire, I know your origin: you arise in the mind from thinking. If I do not think of you, then you will not arise.' The Buddha, walking along the path, heard this and said to the śramaṇas: 'Remember this! This is a verse of Kāśyapa Buddha that has circulated among the worldly.'"

1.38

The Buddha said: "From craving and desire, people produce sorrow; from sorrow, they produce fear. If there is no craving, there is no sorrow; if there is no sorrow, there is no fear."

1.39

The Buddha said: "A person who practices the Way is like one fighting ten thousand men. Donning armor, grasping weapons, he goes out the gate intending to battle. But his resolve is cowardly and his courage weak, so he flees of his own accord; or he turns back halfway; or he fights and dies; or he wins a great victory, returning to his country to receive high rank. If a person can hold firmly to their mind, advance with sharp vigor, and remain undeluded by the wild and foolish talk of the vulgar world, then with desires extinguished and evils ended, they will certainly attain the Way."

1.40

There was a śramaṇa reciting a sūtra at night with great sorrow, his mind filled with regret and doubt, wishing to return home. The Buddha called the śramaṇa and asked him: "When you lived at home, what did you practice?"

1.41

He replied: "I was always playing the lute (vīṇā)." The Buddha said: "What happens if the strings are slack?" He said: "It does not sound." "What happens if the strings are tight?" He said: "The sound breaks." "What happens if the tightness is moderate?" "All the notes are universally harmonious." The Buddha told the śramaṇa: "Studying the Way is just like this. If you keep the mind regulated and balanced, the Way can be attained."

1.42

The Buddha said: "A person practicing the Way is like forged iron: as it is gradually refined and its dross discarded, the vessel made from it will surely be fine. In studying the Way, gradually go deeper, discard the dross of the mind, and vigorously advance toward the Way. If you act violently, the body will tire; if the body tires, the mind will become vexed; if the mind becomes vexed, your practice will regress; if your practice regresses, you will cultivate offenses."

1.43

The Buddha said: "For a person, practicing the Way is painful, and not practicing the Way is also painful. Consider that from birth to old age, from old age to illness, and from illness to death, one's suffering is measureless. The mind is vexed and offenses accumulate; birth and death do not cease. Such suffering is difficult to describe."

1.44

The Buddha said: "It is difficult to leave the three evil destinies and obtain human form; having obtained human form, it is difficult to leave womanhood and become a man; having become a man, it is difficult to have all six sense faculties intact; with the six sense faculties intact, it is difficult to be born in a central land; living in a central land, it is difficult to encounter and venerate the Buddha's Way; having venerated the Buddha's Way, it is difficult to encounter a ruler who possesses the Way, and difficult to be born in a bodhisattva family; having been born in a bodhisattva family, it is difficult to have faith in the Three Venerable Ones from the heart, and difficult to meet an age when a Buddha is in the world."

1.45

The Buddha asked the śramaṇas: "How long is the span of a person's life?" One replied: "It is a matter of a few days." The Buddha said: "You are not yet capable of practicing the Way."

1.46

He again asked a śramaṇa: "How long is the span of a person's life?" He replied: "It is the duration of a meal." The Buddha said: "You are not yet capable of practicing the Way."

1.47

He again asked a śramaṇa: "How long is the span of a person's life?" He replied: "It is between an inhalation and an exhalation." The Buddha said: "Excellent! You may be said to be one who practices the Way."

1.48

The Buddha said: "If my disciples leave and are thousands of li away from me, yet keep my precepts in mind, they will certainly attain the Way. If one is at my left side, but their mind dwells on what is deviant, they will never attain the Way. Reality lies in practice; what benefit is there in being close without practicing, even by a ten-thousandth part?"

1.49

The Buddha said: "A person practicing the Way is like someone eating honey: both the center and the edges are sweet. My sūtras are also like this: their meanings are all delightful, and those who practice them attain the Way."

1.50

The Buddha said: "A person who practices the Way and can uproot the roots of lust and desire is like one plucking suspended beads: plucking them one by one, there will eventually come an end. When evils are ended, the Way is attained."

1.51

The Buddha said: "When śramaṇas practice the Way, they should be like an ox carrying a burden through deep mud: utterly exhausted, it does not dare to look left or right, but hastens to get out of the mud so that it may rest. Śramaṇas should regard passions and desires as worse than that mud; by mindfully focusing straight on the Way, they can be free of all suffering."

1.52

The Buddha said: "I look upon the positions of princes and nobles as upon passing guests; I look upon the treasures of gold and jade as upon gravel and stones; I look upon the finest silks and fabrics as upon tattered rags."

1.53

Sūtra in Forty-two Sections

Translations (1)

The Sutra of Forty-two Sections — Heng-ching Shih 2005, English

Linked texts (1)

四十二章經 — Classical Chinese