རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་མདོ།

The Sūtra on Dependent Arising

Pratītya­samutpāda­sūtra

འཕགས་པ་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

ʼphags pa rten cing ʼbrel bar ʼbyung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen poʼi mdo

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising

Ārya­pratītya­samutpāda­nāma­mahā­yāna­sūtra

Toh 212

Degé Kangyur vol. 62 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 125.a–125.b.

Translated by the Buddhavacana Translation Group
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

v 1.2 2016

84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative that aims to translate all of the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.

This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.

s.

Summary

s.1While the Buddha is residing in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods with a retinue of deities, great hearers, and bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara asks the Buddha how beings can gain merit from building a stūpa. The Buddha responds by stating the Buddhist creed on dependent arising:

All phenomena that arise from causes,

The Tathāgata has taught their cause,

And that which is their cessation,

Thus has proclaimed the Great Renunciant.

The Buddha then explains that this dependent arising is the dharmakāya, and that whoever sees dependent arising sees the Buddha. He concludes the sūtra by saying that one should place these verses inside stūpas to attain the merit of Brahmā.

ac.

Acknowledgements

ac.1Translation by the Buddhavacana Translation Group, Vienna, under the supervision of Khenpo Konchok Tamphel. This sūtra was translated into English by Rolf Scheuermann and Casey Kemp with the aid of Tom Tillemans.

This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

i.

Introduction

i.1The topic of this sūtra, as is evident from its title, is the Buddhist doctrine of the dependent arising of conditioned phenomena. This concept is considered by many Buddhists to be the essence of the teaching, the Dharma. Dependent arising is often presented as a series of twelve links (nidāna) of causes and effects that begins with ignorance and ends with death. This schema is found in many canonical texts, and is the principal topic of the two works that precede the present sūtra in the Degé Kangyur, the Śālistambha­sūtra ( Rice Seedling Sūtra , Toh 210), and the Pratītya­samutpādādi­vibhaṅga­nirdeśa­sūtra (Sūtra Teaching Dependent Arising with Its Beginning and Divisions, Toh 211).1

i.2The teaching on dependent arising is epitomized by the famous “creed” (dhāraṇī) in verse-form, stating that the Buddha teaches the causes for the arising of phenomena as well as that which is their cessation. This verse formula is perhaps best known from a narrative in the Vinaya recounting Śāriputra’s life. The story tells of Upatiṣya (as Śāriputra was called before he met the Buddha) first hearing about the Buddha from Aśvajit, one of the Buddha’s five erstwhile companions and earliest disciples. When Upatiṣya asks Aśvajit to summarize the very essence of the Buddha’s teaching, Aśvajit answers him by reciting this verse. As soon as he hears it, Upatiṣya immediately attains a preliminary state of realization.2

i.3In the sūtra translated here, however, these same lines are taught to Avalokiteśvara by the Buddha himself.3 The Buddha then instructs his followers to insert them into stūpas in order to generate the merit of Brahmā, an extraordinary type of merit.4 The practice of inserting these verses, as well as impressing or inscribing them on religious images, appears to have become popular during the second half of the first millennium,5 and was observed by Xuanzang in the seventh century.6 The creed can be found inscribed on, or inserted within, miniature caityas or stūpas at holy sites throughout the Buddhist world such as Sarnath, Bodh Gaya, and Rājagṛha, as far east as Kedah and Java, and as far west as Afghanistan.7 This practice was continued by the Tibetans into the second millennium and to this day it is considered by Buddhists to be a meritorious act.8

i.4Xuanzang mentions that these objects were considered relics of the Dharma (dharmaśarīra). Buddhist scripture came to be identified as a type of relic of the Buddha from the time of early Mahāyāna discourse, according to which worshipping the words of the Buddha was considered to be equivalent, if not superior, to worshipping the Buddha himself.9 Canonical sources, such as the Śāli­stamba­sūtra (Toh 210), have furthermore equated dependent arising with the Dharma itself.10 Thus, inserting or inscribing the verse of dependent arising empowers an object just as a fragment of the Buddha’s remains would.11 Included in the Tibetan text of this sūtra is the Sanskrit transliteration of the verse, implying that they were used like a mantra or dhāraṇī;12 the Sanskrit syllables are considered potent in their own right as a manifestation of the Dharma and thus of the Buddha himself.

i.5The sūtra is found in three places within the Kangyur, as well as in an abridged version in two locations.13 To date we do not know of any extant Sanskrit original version,14 and although there appear to be a few minor spelling mistakes and inconsistencies found in some versions, there are no significant variations among the available Tibetan texts.

tr.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on

Dependent Arising

1.1 [F.125.a] Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas!


1.2Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods, seated on the throne of Indra. With him were great hearers such as the venerable Aśvajit; bodhisattva mahāsattvas such as noble Maitreya, noble Avalokiteśvara, and Vajrapāṇi, who were adorned with immeasurable precious qualities; as well as various gods such as the great Brahmā, who is the lord of the Sahā world, Nārāyaṇa, the great Īśvara, Śakra, who is the chief of the gods, and Pañcaśikha, who is the king of the gandharvas.

1.3On that occasion, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Avalokiteśvara rose from his seat and, having draped his upper robe over one shoulder, knelt down with his right knee on the peak of Mount Meru. His palms together, he then bowed toward the Blessed One and addressed to him these words:

1.4“Blessed One, these gods all really wish to build a stūpa. Now that they are present in this entourage, please teach them the Dharma in such a way so that their merit of Brahmā [F.125.b] will increase, and the merit of the monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen will increase much more than that of all types of beings in the world of gods, māras, and Brahmā, including renunciants and brahmins.”


1.5At this, the Blessed One spoke the verses of dependent arising:

ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hy avadat

teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃvādī mahā­śramaṇaḥ 15

“All phenomena that arise from causes,

The Tathāgata has taught their cause,

And that which is their cessation;

Thus has proclaimed the Great Renunciant.

1.6“Avalokiteśvara, it is like this. This dependent arising is the dharmakāya of all the tathāgatas. A person who sees dependent arising sees the Tathāgata. Avalokiteśvara, if a faithful son or daughter of a noble family builds, in a remote place, a stūpa the size of a gooseberry fruit, with a central pillar the size of a needle and a parasol the size of a flower of the bakula tree, and inserts this verse of dependent arising which is the dharmadhātu, he or she will generate the merit of Brahmā. When such persons pass on from here and die, they will be reborn in the world of Brahmā. When they pass on from there and die, they will be reborn with fortunes equaling those of the gods of the Pure Abodes.”16


1.7After the Blessed One had thus spoken, the hearers, bodhisattvas, the whole assembly, and the universe of gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised his words.

c.

Colophon

c.1This concludes the Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra on Dependent Arising.

Translated and edited by the Indian scholar Surendrabodhi and the principal editor and translator Venerable Yeshe Dé.17

n.

Notes

1 For the first, see Reat (1993) and Dharmasāgara Translation Group (forthcoming); for the second, see Bien (forthcoming). There is a famous commentary to the Pratītya­samutpādādi­vibhaṅga­nirdeśa­sūtra entitled the Pratītya­samutpāda­vyākhyā, attributed to Vasubhandu. For an overview of the content of this sūtra and its commentary, see Mejor (1997a, 1997b).
2 In the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya, the story is told in the Pravrajya­vastu, the first chapter of the Vinaya­vastu (Toh 1), Degé Kangyur vol. 1 (’dul ba, ka), folios 32b et seq.. For a translation, see Miller (forthcoming). In the Pāli Canon, the same story is told in the Vinayapiṭaka (Mahāvagga I.23.1-10). See also Oldenberg (1997, pp 39-41).
3It would nevertheless seem significant, in view of the story mentioned in the previous paragraph, that this sūtra makes specific mention of Aśvajit, his name (unusually) being the only individual one used to represent the group of hearer disciples in the assembly.
4 For a detailed study of the use of the concept of the merit of Brahmā in Buddhist inscriptions and textual sources, see Salomon and Schopen (1984). This article also includes a partial translation of the Pratītya­samutpāda­sūtra (see p 117).
5See Boucher (1991), p 1.
6See Boucher (1991), p 7.
7See Sykes (1856), pp 40 and 48; and Skilling (2003). Both articles outline some locations in which this “creed” has been discovered and the linguistic variations found among them.
8 Bentor mentions that prominent Tibetan Buddhist figures such as Jetsün Trakpa Gyaltsen (rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan), the fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho), and Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (’jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha ’yas) all list the verses on dependent arising (rten ’brel snying po) among the Five Great Dhāraṇīs (gzungs chen sde lnga) that are to be inserted into stūpas. See Bentor (1995), p 254.
9The identification of the Dharma with the Buddha himself is expressed in multiple early canonical sources, including the Saṃyutta Nikāya (III, 120), of the Pāli sūtra canon (Suttapiṭaka), in which the Buddha states, “He who sees the Dharma, Vikkali, sees me. He who sees me, sees the Dharma.” (yo kho vakkali dhammaṃ passati so maṃ passati, yo maṃ passati so dhammaṃ passati). Ibid., p 2.
10 dge slong dag sus rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba mthong ba des chos mthong ngo/ sus chos mthong ba des sangs rgyas mthong ngo, “Bhikṣus, whoever sees dependent arising sees the Dharma. Whoever sees the Dharma sees the Buddha.” (Dharmasāgara Translation Group, forthcoming). For available editions of the relevant passage, see Reat (1993), p 27.
11 This equivalence is made explicit in another sūtra preserved in Chinese, which may in fact be a slightly longer version of the same sūtra, titled Sūtra on the Merit of Building a Stūpa by the Buddha. Boucher (1991), pp 8-9, provides a full translation of this sūtra.
12 This is also attested, of course, by the inclusion of a copy of this work (as Toh 980) in the gzungs ’dus (Dhāraṇī) section of the Kangyur.
14There is a version in Sanskrit, available on the internet and originally published by P.L Vaidya (Mahāyāna-sūtra-saṁgraha, part I, Buddhist Sanskrit Texts 17, Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1961, p 119), which he reproduced from N. Aiyaswami Sastri (in Ārya Śālistamba Sūtra, Pratītya­samutpāda­vibhaṅgha Sūtra and Pratītya­samudtpāda­gāthā Sūtra, Śāntiniketan: Adyar Library, 1950, pp 25-27). However, Sastri states that he back-translated his Sanskrit version from the Tibetan.
15There are multiple variations of this creed found throughout the Buddhist world. See Sykes (1856) and Skilling (2003).
16This last sentence is omitted in the otherwise identical copies of the work found in the Tantra and Dhāraṇī sections of the Kangyur, Toh 520 and Toh 980, respectively.
17Mention of the translators is omitted from the colophon in the versions Toh 520 and Toh 980 (see previous note).
b.

Bibliography

ʼphags pa rten cing ʼbrel bar ʼbyung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen poʼi mdo. Toh 212, Degé Kangyur, vol. 62 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 125a–125b. Cf. also Toh 520, vol. 88 (rgyud ’bum, na), folios 41a–42a; and Toh 980, vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waṃ), folios 99a–99b.

ʼphags pa rten cing ʼbrel bar ʼbyung ba zhes bya ba theg pa chen poʼi mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripiṭaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006-2009, vol. 62, pp 342-344. Cf. also vol. 88, pp 183–185; and vol. 98, pp 324–326.

ʼphags pa rten cing ʼbrel bar ʼbyung ba’i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen poʼi mdo. Toh 521, Degé Kangyur, vol. 88 (rgyud ’bum, na), folio 42a. Cf. also Toh 981, vol. 101 (gzungs ’dus, waṃ), folios 99b–100a.

ʼphags pa rten cing ʼbrel bar ʼbyung ba’i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen poʼi mdo. Bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripiṭaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006-2009, vol. 88, p 187. Cf. also vol. 98, p 328.

Bentor, Yael. “On The Indian Origins of the Tibetan Practice of Depositing Relics and Dharanis in Stupas and Images.” In Journal of the American Oriental Society 115.2 (1995), pp 248-261.

Bien, Annie. The Sūtra Teaching Dependent Arising with Its Beginning and Divisions (Pratītya­samutpādādi­vibhaṅga­nirdeśa­sūtra, Toh 211). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha (forthcoming).

Boucher, Daniel. “The Pratītyasamutpādagāthā and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics.” In Journal of the International Association for Buddhist Studies 14.1 (1991), pp 1-27.

Dharmasāgara Translation Group. The Rice Seedling (Śāli­stambha­sūtra, Toh 210). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha (forthcoming).

Mejor, Mareck. “On the Formulation of Pratītya­samutpāda: Some Observations from Vasubhandu’s Pratītya­samutpāda­vyākhyā.” In Agata Bareja-Starzyńska and Mareck Mejor (eds.). Aspects of Buddhism: Proceedings of the International Seminar on Buddhist Studies (June, 1994). Warsaw: Instytut Orientalistyczny, Uniwersytet Warszawski (1997a), pp 125-138.

______. “On Vasubhandu’s Pratītya­samutpāda­vyākhyā.” In Agata Bareja-Starzyńska and Mareck Mejor (eds.). Aspects of Buddhism: Proceedings of the International Seminar on Buddhist Studies (June, 1994). Warsaw: Instytut Orientalistyczny, Uniwersytet Warszawski (1997b), pp 139-148.

Miller, Robert. The Chapter on Joining the Renunciate Order (Vinayavastu Pravrajyāvastu, Toh 1). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha (forthcoming).

Oldenberg, Hermann (ed.). The Vinayapiṭakaṃ: One of the Principal Buddhist Holy Scriptures in the Pāli Language, Vol. I: The Mahāvagga. Oxford: Pali Text Society (1997).

Reat, N. Ross. The Śālistamba Sūtra. Delhi: Banarsidas (1993).

Sakaki, Ryōzaburō (ed.). Mahāvyutpatti, 2 vols. Kyoto: Daigaku Shingonshū (1916 [1925]).

Salomon, Richard and Gregory Schopen. “The Indravarnam (Avaca) Casket Inscription Reconsidered: Further Evidence for Canonical Passages in Buddhist Inscriptions.” In Journal of the International Association for Buddhist Studies 7.1 (1984), pp 107-123.

Skilling, Peter. “Traces of the Dharma: Preliminary reports on some ye dhammā and ye dharmā inscriptions from Mainland South-East Asia.” In Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 90-91 (2003-2004), pp 273-287.

Sykes, Lieutenant-Colonel. “On the Miniature Chaityas and Inscriptions of the Buddhist Religious Dogma, Found in the Ruins of the Temple of Sárnáth, near Benares.” In Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1856), vol. 16, pp 37-53.

g.

Glossary

g.1

Śakra

brgya byin

བརྒྱ་བྱིན།

Śakra

Alternate name for Indra, the king of the gods in Hindu mythology.

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g.2

Aśvajit

rta thul

རྟ་ཐུལ།

Aśvajit

One of the five ascetics who became the first disciples of the Buddha.

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g.3

Avalokiteśvara

spyan ras gzigs

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།

Avalokiteśvara

First appeared as a bodhisattva beside Amitābha in the Sukhāvati­vyūha. The name has been variously interpreted. “The lord of Avalokita,” Avalokita has been interpreted as “seeing,” although, as a past passive participle, it is literally “lord of what has been seen.” One of the principal sūtras in the Mahā­sāṃghika tradition was the Avalokita Sūtra, which has not been translated into Tibetan, in which the word is a synonym for enlightenment, as it is “that which has been seen” by the buddhas. In the early tantras he was one of the lords of the three families, as the embodiment of the compassion of the buddhas. The Potalaka Mountain in South India became important in Southern Indian Buddhism as his residence in this world, but Potalaka does not feature in the Kāraṇḍa­vyūha.

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g.4

Bakula tree

ba ku la

བ་ཀུ་ལ།

bakula

Indian tree with a very fine flower.

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g.5

Brahmā

tshangs pa

ཚངས་པ།

Brahmā

The personification of the universal force of Brahman, who became a higher deity than Indra, the supreme deity of the early Vedas.

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g.6

Central pillar

srog shing

སྲོག་ཤིང་།

yaṣṭi

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g.7

Dependent arising

rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba

རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ།

pratītya­samutpāda

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g.8

Dharmadhātu

chos kyi dbyings

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།

dharmadhātu

In combination with pratītya­samutpāda (in this text rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba chos kyi dbyings), the term dharmadhātu can refer to a type of Buddhist relic which is said to embody the essence of the Buddhist doctrine.

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g.9

Dharmakāya

chos sku

ཆོས་སྐུ།

dharmakāya

Dharmakāya or “body of dharma” refers to the Buddha’s realization of reality.

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g.10

Gandharva

dri za

དྲི་ཟ།

gandharva

Gandharvas, lit. “smell-eaters.” A class of deities known for being skilled musicians. Also the name of spirits in the bardo state.

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g.11

Gooseberry

skyu ru ra

སྐྱུ་རུ་ར།

āmalaka

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g.12

Great Renunciant

dge sbyong chen po

དགེ་སྦྱོང་ཆེན་པོ།

Mahāśramaṇa

Epithet of the Buddha.

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g.13

Layman

dge bsnyen

དགེ་བསྙེན།

upāsaka

laymen

Male lay devotees who have taken the five precepts.

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g.14

Laywoman

dge bsnyen ma

དགེ་བསྙེན་མ།

upāsika

laywomen

Female lay devotees who have taken the five precepts.

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g.15

Maitreya

byams pa

བྱམས་པ།

Maitreya

Bodhisattva of loving kindness; the next buddha to follow Śākyamuni.

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g.16

Merit of Brahmā

tshangs pa’i bsod nams

ཚངས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས།

brahmāpuṇya

Brahmic merit or pure merit refers to an extraordinary type of merit which leads to rebirth in the realm of Brahmā.

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g.17

Monk

dge slong

དགེ་སློང་།

bhikṣu

Fully ordained Buddhist monk.

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g.18

Mount Meru

ri rab

རི་རབ།

Meru · Sumeru

According to the ancient Indian cosmological system, Mount Meru is a mountain which forms the centre of the universe.

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g.19

Māra

bdud

བདུད།

māra

Demon who creates obstacles to practice and enlightenment.

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g.20

Nārāyaṇa

sred med kyi bu

སྲེད་མེད་ཀྱི་བུ།

Nārāyaṇa

An alternate name for Viṣṇu. The Sanskrit is variously interpreted, including as “dwelling in water,” but is most obviously “the path of human beings.”

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g.21

Nun

dge slong ma

དགེ་སློང་མ།

bhikṣuṇī

Fully ordained Buddhist nun.

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g.22

Pañcaśikha

zur phud lnga pa

ཟུར་ཕུད་ལྔ་པ།

Pañcaśikha

A gandharva known for playing the lute.

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g.23

Pure Abode

gnas gtsang ma

གནས་གཙང་མ།

Śuddhāvāsa

Name for the five highest levels of existence within the form realm.

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g.24

Sahā

mi mjed

མི་མཇེད།

Sahā

Indian Buddhist name usually referring to the trichiliocosm, the world system that is the universe of ordinary beings, but sometimes only to our own world with four continents around Mount Meru. It means “endurance,” as beings there have to endure suffering.

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g.25

Stūpa

mchod rten

མཆོད་རྟེན།

stūpa

Reliquary for the remains of the Buddha or holy beings that represents the body of the Buddha.

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g.26

Thirty-Three Gods

gsum cu rtsa gsum

གསུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ།

Trāyastriṃśāḥ

Name of a class of gods in the desire realm. There is also an associated heavenly realm, the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods, which is named after these.

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g.27

Throne of Indra

ar mo nig lta bu’i rdo leb

ཨར་མོ་ནིག་ལྟ་བུའི་རྡོ་ལེབ།

Pāṇḍu­kambala­śilātalam

A huge flat rock, Indra’s throne in the Realm of the Thirty-Three Gods; it is called Pāṇḍukambala, “like a blanket,” because it is made of a pale stone reminiscent of thick wollen cloth. Sakaki 7127 in the Mahāvyutpatti.

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g.28

Vajrapāṇi

phyag na rdo rje · lag na rdo rje

ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ། · ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།

Vajrapāṇi

First appeared in Buddhist literature as the yakṣa bodyguard of the Buddha, ready at times to shatter a person’s head into a hundred pieces with his vajra if he speaks inappropriately to the Buddha. His identity as a bodhisattva did not take place until the rise of the Mantrayāna in such sūtras as the Kāraṇḍavyūha. However, although listed (paradoxically along with Avalokiteśvara) as being in the assembly that hears the teaching of this sūtra, in the sūtra itself he is grouped with the worldly spirits that Avalokiteśvara frightens.

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g.29

Īśvara

dbang phyug

དབང་ཕྱུག

Īśvara

One of the most frequently used names for Śiva. A deity of the jungles, named Rudra in the Vedas, he rose to prominence in the Purāṇic literature at the beginning of the first millennium.

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0

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