བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit
Sarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhi
འཕགས་པ་བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
’phags pa bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit”
Āryasarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra

Toh 134
Degé Kangyur, vol. 56 (mdo sde, na), folios 70.b–121.b.
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2016
Current version v 1.35.5 (2019)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.1.16
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all 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.
Summary
The Absorption That Encapsulates All Merit tells the story of Vimalatejā, a strongman renowned for his physical prowess, who visits the Buddha in order to compare abilities and prove that he is the mightier of the two. He receives an unexpected, humbling riposte in the form of a teaching by the Buddha on the inconceivable magnitude of the powers of awakened beings, going well beyond mere physical strength. The discussions that then unfold—largely between the Buddha, Vimalatejā, and the bodhisattva Nārāyaṇa—touch on topics including the importance of creating merit, the centrality of learning and insight, and the question of whether renunciation entails monasticism. Above all, however, Vimalatejā is led to see that the entirety of the Great Vehicle path hinges on the practice that forms the name of the sūtra, which is nothing other than the mind of awakening (bodhicitta).
Acknowledgments
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the guidance of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Zachary Beer produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Andreas Doctor compared the translation with the original Tibetan and edited the text. The translators are grateful to Khenpo Trokpa Tulku from Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery for his assistance in resolving several difficult passages.
This translation was sponsored by Shakya Dewa, and has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Colophon
Translated, edited, and finalized by the Indian preceptors Prajñāvarman and Śīlendrabodhi, the chief editor and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé, and others.
Notes
Bibliography
’phags pa bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryasarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 134, Degé Kangyur, vol. 56 (mdo sde, na), folios 70b–121b.
’phags pa bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i 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 Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 56, p. 196–317.
’phags pa bsod nams thams cad bsdus pa’i ting nge ’dzin ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryasarvapuṇyasamuccayasamādhināmamahāyānasūtra). sTog 107, Stok Palace (stog pho brang bris ma) Kangyur, vol. 63 (mdo sde, na), folios 80b–161b.
Pekar Zangpo (pad dkar bzang po). mdo sde spyi’i rnam bzhag. Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang [Minorities Publishing House], 2006.
Dharmachakra Translation Committee (tr.). The Illusory Absorption (Toh 130). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2016.
Edgerton, Franklin. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953.
Glossary
Abodes of Brahmā
- tshangs pa’i gnas
- ཚངས་པའི་གནས།
- brahmavihāra
Love, compassion, joy, equanimity.
Āmrapālī
- a mras bsrungs pa
- ཨ་མྲས་བསྲུངས་པ།
- Āmrapālī
A famous and beautiful patron of the Buddha’s, courtesan in the city of Vaiśālī.
Āmrapālī’s great grove
- a mras bsrungs pa’i tshal chen po
- ཨ་མྲས་བསྲུངས་པའི་ཚལ་ཆེན་པོ།
- Āmrapālīvana
The grove donated to the Buddha by the courtesan Āmrapālī.
Ānanda
- kun dga’ bo
- ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།
- Ānanda
One of the Buddha’s primary followers, compiler of the sūtras.
Anantamati
- blo gros mtha’ yas
- བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས།
- Anantamati
Beryl
- bai dU rya
- བཻ་དཱུ་རྱ།
- vaiḍūrya
Bodhisattva collection
- byang chub sems dpa’i sde snod
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡེ་སྣོད།
- bodhisattvapiṭaka
The sūtras and teachings of the bodhisattva vehicle in general (not to be confused with the sūtra of the same name, Toh 56, in the Ratnakūṭa).
Brahmā
- tshangs pa
- ཚངས་པ།
- Brahmā
Cakravāla
- khor yug
- ཁོར་ཡུག
- Cakravāla
Means “Periphery.” Name of mountain range that surrounds the world according to Buddhist cosmology.
Caryamati
- spyod pa’i blo gros
- སྤྱོད་པའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- Caryamati
Constant Stable Diligence
- rtag tu brtson ’grus brtan
- རྟག་ཏུ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་བརྟན།
- —
Delighting in Emanations
- ’phrul dga’
- འཕྲུལ་དགའ།
- Nirmāṇarata
The fifth (second highest) of the six levels of gods of the Desire Realm.
Dharmamati
- chos kyi blo gros
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས།
- Dharmamati
Dīpaṃkara
- mar me mdzad
- མར་མེ་མཛད།
- Dīpaṃkara
Eight unfree states
- mi khom pa brgyad
- མི་ཁོམ་པ་བརྒྱད།
- aṣṭakṣaṇa
Lives led in circumstances that do not provide the freedom to practice the Buddhist path, i.e., the realms of (1) the hells, (2) pretas, (3) animals, and (4) long-lived gods; (in the human realm) among (5) barbarians, (6) extremists, and (7) in places where the Buddhist teachings do not exist; and (8) without adequate faculties to understand the teachings where they do exist.
Ever Ecstatic
- rtag tu myos
- རྟག་ཏུ་མྱོས།
- saḍāmāda
Name of a class of gods on the slopes of Sumeru.
Four Great Kings
- rgyal po chen po bzhi
- རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞི།
- Caturmahārāja
Free of Demons
- bdud bral
- བདུད་བྲལ།
- —
Garland Bearer
- lag na phreng thogs
- ལག་ན་ཕྲེང་ཐོགས།
- mālādhāra
Name of a class of gods, a group of yakṣa associated with the Four Great Kings.
Gautama
- go’u ta ma
- གོའུ་ཏ་མ།
- Gautama
Gopā
- sa ’tsho ma
- ས་འཚོ་མ།
- Gopā
The maiden whom the Buddha married while he was still a bodhisattva.
Great Supreme Sage
- drang srong chen po mchog
- དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག
- —
Heaven Entirely Free of Strife
- rab ’thab bral
- རབ་འཐབ་བྲལ།
- Suyāma
Heaven Free of Strife
- ’thab bral
- འཐབ་བྲལ།
- Yāma
The third (fourth highest) of the six levels of gods of the Desire Realm.
Heaven of the Thirty-three
- sum cu rtsa gsum pa
- སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་པ།
- Trayatriṃśa
The second (fifth highest) of the six levels of gods of the Desire Realm.
Immaculately Renowned King
- dri ma med par grags pa’i rgyal po
- དྲི་མ་མེད་པར་གྲགས་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- —
Incantation
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
Īṣādhāra
- gshol mda’ ’dzin
- གཤོལ་མདའ་འཛིན།
- īṣādhāra
Name of a class of gods, as well as one of the ranges of mountains around Sumeru.
Joyous Heaven
- dga’ ldan
- དགའ་ལྡན།
- Tuṣita
The fourth (third highest) of the six levels of gods of the Desire Realm.
King of Many Arrangements
- bkod pa mang po’i rgyal po
- བཀོད་པ་མང་པོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- —
Krakucchanda
- khor ba ’jig
- ཁོར་བ་འཇིག
- Krakucchanda
The first buddha of our eon; the fifth buddha of the “seven generations of buddhas” (sangs rgyas rab bdun); there are variants of the Sanskrit (Kakutsunda, Kukucchanda) and the Tibetan log pa da sel seems to refer to the same buddha.
Layman Kṛṣṇa
- dge bsnyen nag po’i mchog
- དགེ་བསྙེན་ནག་པོའི་མཆོག
- upāsaka kṛṣṇa
Mahācakravāla
- khor yug chen po
- ཁོར་ཡུག་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahācakravāla
Means “Great Periphery.” Name of mountain range that surrounds the world according to Buddhist cosmology.
Mahāmeru
- lhun po chen po
- ལྷུན་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahāmeru
Mahāmucilinda
- btang zung chen po
- བཏང་ཟུང་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahāmucilinda
Maitreya
- byams pa
- བྱམས་པ།
- Maitreya
A bodhisattva destined to be the buddha of the next epoch.
Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta
- jam dpal gzhon nur gyur pa
- ཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ།
- Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta
“Mañjuśrī the ever youthful,” a common epithet of Mañjuśrī.
Mastery Over Others’ Emanations
- gzhan ’phrul dbang byed
- གཞན་འཕྲུལ་དབང་བྱེད།
- Paranirmitavaśavartin
The highest of the six levels of gods of the Desire Realm.
Maudgalyāyana
- maud gal gyi bu
- མཽད་གལ་གྱི་བུ།
- Maudgalyāyana
One of the main śrāvaka disciples in the sūtras.
Meru
- lhun po
- ལྷུན་པོ།
- Meru
Mucilinda
- btang bzung
- བཏང་བཟུང་།
- Mucilinda
Naked ascetics
- gcer bu pa
- གཅེར་བུ་པ།
- nirgrantha
Ascetic religious practitioners, usually referring to Jains.
Nārāyaṇa
- sred med kyi bu
- སྲེད་མེད་ཀྱི་བུ།
- Nārāyaṇa
In the ancient Indian tradition, the son of the first man; later seen as a powerful avatar of Viṣṇu, but also as the progenitor of Brahmā. In Buddhist texts, he figures in various ways including (as he does in most of this text) as a bodhisattva, while still one of the most powerful gods of the Realm of Form (as in 1.21).
Non-Buddhist
- mu stegs can
- མུ་སྟེགས་ཅན།
- tīrthika
A follower of a non-Buddhist philosophy or religion.
Palace of Victory
- khang bzangs rnam par rgyal byed
- ཁང་བཟངས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བྱེད།
- Vijayanta prāsāda
The palace or meeting-hall of the gods in the Heaven of the Thirty-three.
Retention
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
Roots of goodness
- dge ba’i rtsa ba
- དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ།
- kuśalamūla
Śāriputra
- shA ri’i bu
- ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ།
- Śāriputra
One of the Buddha’s primary śrāvaka followers, known as the compiler of the Abhidharma teachings.
Seat of awakening
- byang chub kyi snying po
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ།
- bodhimaṇḍa
Place at Bodh Gaya where the Buddha attained awakening.
Siṃhamati
- seng ge’i blo gros
- སེང་གེའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- Siṃhamati
Superknowledges
- mgon par shes pa
- མགོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།
- abhijñā
Supernormal cognitive powers possessed to different degrees by bodhisattvas and buddhas. The five superknowledges are clairvoyance, clairaudience, knowledge of others’ minds, miraculous abilities, and knowledge of past lives; a sixth, mentioned in some lists and possessed only by fully enlightened buddhas, is knowlege of the exhaustion of outflows.
Supreme Emanations
- rab ’phrul
- རབ་འཕྲུལ།
- Sunirmita
Teachings of the vinaya
- chos ’dul ba
- ཆོས་འདུལ་བ།
- dharmavinaya
The teachings on monastic discipline, contained in the four main sections of the vinaya canon.
Tight-fisted instructor
- slob dpon dpe mkhyud
- སློབ་དཔོན་དཔེ་མཁྱུད།
- ācāryamuṣṭi
Totally Immaculate
- kun nas dri ma med pa
- ཀུན་ནས་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ།
- —
The buddhafield of Immaculately Renowned King.
Uttaramati
- blo gros bla ma
- བློ་གྲོས་བླ་མ།
- Uttaramati
Utterly Purifying
- kun nas dri ma med pa
- ཀུན་ནས་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ།
- —
Name of buddhafield of Buddha King of Many Arrangements.
Vaiśālī
- yangs pa
- ཡངས་པ།
- Vaiśālī
Vardamānamati
- phel ba’i blo gros
- ཕེལ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- Vardamānamati
Vaśavartin
- lha’i rgyal po dbang byed
- ལྷའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དབང་བྱེད།
- Vaśavartin
The king of gods in the Heaven of Mastery Over Others’ Emanations.
Vimalatejā
- dri ma med pa’i gzi brjid
- དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་གཟི་བརྗིད།
- Vimalatejā
Vindhya Mountains
- ri ’bigs byed
- རི་འབིགས་བྱེད།
- Vindhyagiri
Several ranges of mountains in west and central India, traditionally held to be the boundary between North and South India.
Viśeṣamati
- khyad par blo gros
- ཁྱད་པར་བློ་གྲོས།
- Viśeṣamati
Wandering mendicants
- kun tu rgyu
- ཀུན་ཏུ་རྒྱུ།
- parivrājaka
Wandering religious practitioners or śramaṇa, usually referring to non-Buddhists.
Wealthy as the Great Sal Tree
- shing sA la chen po lta bur nor bzangs
- ཤིང་སཱ་ལ་ཆེན་པོ་ལྟ་བུར་ནོར་བཟངས།
- —
Wholly Joyous Heaven
- yongs su dga’ ldan
- ཡོངས་སུ་དགའ་ལྡན།
- Santuṣita