Forty-nine selected sūtras on a range of themes, compiled as a separate collection also found in the Chinese Tripiṭaka (Toh 45-93).
| Texts: 49 | Published: 4 | In Progress: 28 | Not Begun: 17 |
Teaching the Unfathomable Secrets of the Tathāgatas is a fascinating third turning mahayāna sūtra extracted from the larger Ratnakūṭa sūtra that explores a diversity of topics across 24 chapters and an epilogue.
Both the Buddha and Vajrapāṇi teach, discussing the secrets of the body, speech, and mind of the bodhisattvas and the buddhas, nonduality, the relationship of the nature of mind to the qualities of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and other subjects. It follows a consistently nondual perspective — identifying that while an awakened being may seem to be engaged in a conceptual or dualistic action, they never leave the scope of nonconceptual wisdom. It reveals the extraordinary freedom that awakened beings have in their acting in the world.
While the Buddha is in the Jeta Grove, he asks Mañjuśrī to teach on the nature of reality. Mañjuśrī’s account upsets some of the monks present in the gathering, who subsequently leave. Nevertheless, by means of an emanation, Mañjuśrī skillfully teaches the distraught monks, who return to the Jeta Grove to express their gratitude. The monks explain that their obstacle has been a conceited sense of attainment, of which they are now free. At the request of the god Ratnavara, Mañjuśrī then teaches on nonduality and the nature of the bodhisattva. Next, the Buddha prophesies the future awakening of Ratnavara and other bodhisattvas present in the gathering. However, the prophecies cause Pāpīyān, king of the māras, to appear with his army. In a dramatic course of events, Mañjuśrī uses his transformative power on both Pāpīyān and the Buddha’s pious attendant, Śāradvatīputra, forcing both of them to appear in the form of the Buddha himself. He then makes Pāpīyān and Śāradvatīputra teach the profound Dharma with the perfect mastery of buddhahood. Numerous bodhisattvas appear from the four directions, pledging to practice and uphold the sūtra’s teaching. The Buddha grants his blessing for the continuous transmission of the sūtra among bodhisattvas in the future.
An important sūtra from the Ratnakuta (“Heap of Jewels”) collection that sets out in detail the stages and practices of the path of the Bodhisattva vehicle. It contains extensive explanations on key Mahāyāna practices, including the Four Immeasurable Thoughts, Six Perfections, and more.
In The Questions of Bhadrapāla the Merchant, the Buddha’s principal interlocutor is a wealthy merchant who asks him to explain what consciousness is, and what happens to it when one dies and is reborn. In his characterization of consciousness, the Buddha relies heavily on the use of analogies drawn from nature. The sūtra also reflects common cultural beliefs of ancient India, such as spirit possession. In addition, it presents graphic and vividly contrasting descriptions of rebirth in the realms of the gods for those who have lived meritorious lives and in the realms of hell for those who lack merit.
In The Question of Maitreya, the bodhisattva Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities a bodhisattva needs to attain enlightenment quickly. The Buddha outlines several sets of qualities, foremost among them the altruistic intention of perfect bodhicitta. The Buddha then recounts to Ānanda how, in a former life, Maitreya revered a previous Buddha and, wishing to become just like him, at once realized that all phenomena are unproduced. Ānanda asks why Maitreya did not become a buddha sooner, and in answer the Buddha compares Maitreya’s bodhisattva career with his own, listing further sets of qualities that differentiate them and recounting examples of the hardships he himself faced in previous lives. Maitreya, on the other hand, has followed the easy bodhisattva vehicle using its skillful means, such as the seven branch practice and the training in the six perfections; the aspirations he thus made are set out in the famous “Prayer of Maitreya” for which this sūtra is perhaps best known. The Buddha declares that Maitreya will become enlightened when sentient beings have fewer negative emotions, in contrast to the ignorant and turbulent beings he himself vowed to help.
In The Question of Maitreya on the Eight Qualities, Maitreya asks the Buddha what qualities bodhisattvas need in order to be sure of completing the path to buddhahood. In response, the Buddha briefly lists eight qualities. Starting with the excellent intention to become enlightened, they include loving kindness, as well as realization of the perfection of wisdom, which the Buddha explains in terms of reflection on the twelve links of dependent origination.
This is a compilation of forty-nine heterogeneous sūtras, present in both the Kangyur and the Chinese Tripiṭaka.
The Heap of Jewels—like the other distinct collection preceding it in the Kangyur, the Ornament of the Buddhas (Buddhāvataṃsaka)—is often described as a sūtra, its full Sanskrit title being Mahāratnakūṭasūtra (“the Sūtra of the Great Heap of Jewels”), and in Tibetan ’phags pa dkon mchog brtsegs pa chen po’i chos kyi rnam grangs le’u stong phrag brgya pa (“the Noble Dharma Discourse of the Great Heap of Precious Jewels with a Hundred Thousand Chapters”). Unlike the Ornament of the Buddhas, however, its component texts or chapters are explicitly presented as independent works. Many of them are individually cited in the treatises of the great Indian masters and are known to have circulated as sūtras in their own right; only five are still extant in Sanskrit.
Although the name Ratnakūṭa (“heap of jewels” or, more exactly, “piled-up jewels”) seems quite appropriate for such a compilation of precious scriptural works, it is in fact the name by which just one of the texts in the collection, the Kāśyapaparivarta (Toh 87) was originally known, and seems to have been applied to the whole collection only later. Citations from a Ratnakūṭasūtra in works by Asaṅga, Śāntideva, and other authors all refer to the Kāśyapaparivarta, which is sometimes therefore designated the “old” Ratnakūṭa.
The history of the Heap of Jewels remains unclear. Tibetan historical tradition, as mentioned briefly in the Degé Kangyur catalogue and recounted more fully by Tāranātha, tells us that the originally much larger collection (with a thousand chapters, or even the hundred thousand of the full title) was reduced to its current forty-nine texts by an arson attack on the library at Nālandā. The date of this event, said to have been responsible for the decimation of many other scriptures, too (including the Buddhāvataṃsaka), is placed some time before the lives of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, along with accounts of other calamitous episodes during a period of political turbulence and unstable patronage for Buddhist institutions in India.
According to modern historical methods, while the Heap of Jewel's component texts can be traced back in some cases to dates early in the appearance of Mahāyāna texts, evidence that the collection as a whole existed in India (i.e. before it appeared in China) is present but sparse. The earliest mention of it is in the Daśabhūmikavibhāṣa, attributed to Nāgārjuna and translated into Chinese by Kumārajīva in the early 5th century. The 6th century Gandhāran translator Jñānagupta seems to have spoken of it, and the famous Chinese traveler Xuanzang was asked to translate it in 664, although he only made a start. It was Bodhiruci who collected and translated it into Chinese in the first decade of the 8th century, using 23 texts already circulating in Chinese and adding 26 new translations of his own; it is reasonable to assume that he was using an Indian (or perhaps central Asian) prototype. The Tibetan collection follows the Chinese closely in structure and composition, but most of the texts were evidently translated directly from Sanskrit originals (with a few exceptions, namely Toh 51, 57, 58, and 84, which are known to have been translated from the Chinese). The Tibetan translation is mentioned with a full list of its present component texts in the early 9th century Denkarma catalogue, though surprisingly the other early inventory, the Pangthangma (which is thought to be of a slightly later date) lists only nine works under that heading (the other forty being listed in more general size-ranked categories), and the Mahāvyutpatti names some of the Ratnakūṭa sūtras without any mention of the collection’s name.
The sūtras in the collection cover a wide range of subjects and have diverse origins. Two (Toh 57 and 58) are Śrāvakayāna works from the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya; one (Toh 90) is a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra; and two (Toh 49 and 50) are Pure Land works. The majority are Mahāyāna sūtras dealing with classic themes such as emptiness, compassion, wisdom, the bodhisattva's vows and path. The very variety of its works suggests that it may have been deliberately compiled as an anthology representing many topics.
For further details, see: Pedersen, K. Priscilla, “Notes on the Ratnakūṭa collection,” JIABS vol. 3 no. 2, 60-67 (1980). Nattier, Jan, A Few Good Men: the Bodhisattva Path According to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā), University of Hawaii Press (2003). Tāranātha, dam pa’i chos rin po che ’phags pa’i yul du ji ltar dar ba’i tshul gsal bar ston pa dgos ’dod kun ’byung (rgya gar chos ’byung, from Degé xylographs), Tezu, A.P., India: Tibetan Nyingma Monastery (1974), ff. 47a-48b. Translation in Chimpa, L. et al. (trans.), Tāranātha's History of Buddhism in India, Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press (1981), pp. 140-143.