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ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་དད་པ་རབ་ཏུ་སྒོམ་པ།

Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle

Mahāyānaprasādaprabhāvana

འཕགས་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་དད་པ་རབ་ཏུ་སྒོམ་པ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

’phags pa theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo

The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle”

Āryamahāyānaprasādaprabhāvananāmamahāyānasūtra

Toh 144

Degé Kangyur, vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folios 6.b–34.a.

Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

First published 2020
Current version v 1.0.9 (2021)
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co.

Summary

s.1

In Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle, the Buddha Śākyamuni gives a discourse on the nature of trust (dad pa, prasāda) according to the Great Vehicle. The teaching is requested by a bodhisattva known as Great Skillful Trust, who requests the Buddha to answer four questions concerning the nature of trust in the Great Vehicle: (1) What are the characteristics of trust? (2) How is trust developed? (3) What are the different types of trust? (4) What are the benefits of having trust? Over the course of the sūtra, the Buddha answers all four questions, each in a separate chapter.

ac.

Acknowledgements

ac.1

Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the guidance of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. The translation was produced by Andreas Doctor, who also wrote the introduction. Thomas Doctor, Catherine Dalton, and Ryan Damron subsequently compared the draft translation with the original Tibetan and edited it.

ac.2

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

Introduction

i.1

Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle unfolds at Vulture Peak Mountain, where the Buddha, surrounded by a great number of bodhisattvas from the human and nonhuman realms and many monks and limitless other beings, gives a discourse on the nature of trust in the Great Vehicle. The teaching is requested by a bodhisattva known as Great Skillful Trust, who requests the Buddha to answer four questions concerning the nature of trust in the Great Vehicle:

The Translation

The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra

Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle

Prologue

[B1] [F.6.b]

p.1

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

p.2

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in Rājagṛha at Vulture Peak Mountain together with a great bodhisattva saṅgha of bodhisattva great beings [F.7.a] who had gathered there from various buddha realms. Every one of them had conquered the demons and all adversaries. They were far removed from the fluctuations of the habitual tendencies of all disturbing emotions and subsidiary disturbing emotions. They had attained the level of great mastery where one can demonstrate birth into existence at will. They had attained the power that springs from giving away their bodies and abodes throughout limitless eons. They had realized the limitless workings of the demons along with all obstacles. They knew the conduct that is the means for achieving all the aims of all beings. They had obtained the great power that comes from knowing all types of liberation. They were skilled in refuting all the claims of non-Buddhists. They were skilled in attracting large crowds by means of their great miraculous emanations. Through cultivating the immense perfections, they had attained all the features of great practitioners. Like the sky, their minds were unstained by worldly phenomena.

Chapter 1

The Characteristics of Trust

1.1

Noble son, the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle has eleven characteristics. These characteristics are: (1) clarity, (2) saturation, (3) qualities, (4) possession, (5) the basis, (6) transcendence, (7) the root, (8) protection, (9) the connection, (10) continuity, and (11) perfection.”

1. Clarity

1.2

Great Skillful Trust said, “Blessed One, how is clarity a characteristic of the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle?”

The Blessed One replied, “In this regard, noble son, the characteristic of clarity refers to the absence of four kinds of stains. If you wonder what the four types of stains are, they are the stains of hostility, insecurity, apprehension, and doubt.

2. Saturation

3. Qualities

4. Possession

5. The Basis

6. Transcendence

7. The Root

8. Protection

9. Connection

10. Continuity

11. Perfection

Chapter 2

Developing Trust

2.1

Then, the bodhisattva Great Skillful Trust asked the Blessed One, “Blessed One, how does one develop the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them accomplish the Great Vehicle?”

2.2

The Blessed One replied, “Noble son, there are eleven aspects to developing the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle. Such trust develops based on (1) causes, (2) a companion, (3) examination, (4) behavior, (5) familiarity, (6) absence of weariness, (7) fulfillment, (8) composure, (9) insatiability, (10) solitude, and (11) determining that the teacher is genuine.”

1. Causes

2.3

The bodhisattva Great Skillful Trust said, “Blessed One, how do causes develop the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle?”

2.4

The Blessed One replied, “Noble son, bodhisattvas possess, from the very beginning, a seed of the virtuous Dharma of the Great Vehicle. Through the force of that predisposition for the pure Dharma, they naturally long for the Great Vehicle’s teachings on compassion, [F.17.a] and so trust develops based on that initial longing. Because of their interest in the Great Vehicle’s teachings on the profound and the vast, the bodhisattvas naturally sustain their longing, and so their trust develops. In the same way, bodhisattvas are naturally able to sustain patience in conjunction with the Great Vehicle’s teachings on hardships. And so, in turn, their trust develops further.

2. A Companion

3. Examination

4. Behavior

5. Familiarity

6. Absence of Weariness

7. Fulfillment

8. Composure

9. Insatiability

10. Solitude

11. Determining That the Teacher Is Genuine

The Ten Limitless Features

Chapter 3

Classifications of Trust

3.1

Then the bodhisattva Great Skillful Trust said, “Blessed One, what are the different aspects of the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allow them to accomplish the Great Vehicle?”

3.2

The Blessed One replied, “Noble son, there are four aspects of the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle. If you wonder what they are, they are as follows: (1) the trust that comes from resting, (2) the trust that arises upon birth, (3) the trust that emerges at another time, and (4) the trust that appears naturally.

Chapter 4

The Benefits of Trust

4.1

At this point, the bodhisattva Great Skillful Trust said, “Blessed One, what are the benefits of possessing the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle?”

4.2

The Blessed One replied, “Noble son, there are limitless benefits of having the bodhisattvas’ trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle. However, I shall indicate only a fraction of them here.

Conclusion

5.1

Then, the bodhisattva Great Skillful Trust said to the Blessed One, “Blessed One, it is wonderful that, for those novice bodhisattvas who are engaged in inspired conduct, you have taught the perfect characteristics of the trust in the Great Vehicle along with the perfect ways that trust is developed, the perfect classifications of trust, and now also the perfect benefits. Blessed One, if one contemplates and practices based on these teachings, then the perfect, exalted, and limitless qualities of other bodhisattvas will also become apparent.”

Colophon

c.1

It was clarified, written down, and finalized by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla, the translator-editor Bandé Yeshé Dé, and others.

Notes

n.1

For an English translation, see Asaṅga (2001), pp. 190–92.

n.2

On Butön’s claim, see below n.3. A search for plausible variants of the sūtra title in the Kangyur and Tengyur collections resulted in only a single quotation (using the modified title dad pa rab tu bsgom pa’i mdo): Dharmamitra quotes the work in his Abhisamayālaṃkārakārikāprajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstraṭīkā D 3796: vol. 87, folios 96.a7–96.b1.

n.3

The only mention of this sūtra in English that we are aware of is a brief discussion found in Skilling (2000), pp. 323–24. Here, Skilling also mentions that “Kazunobu Matsuda has written (in Japanese) about the sūtra with reference to the Abhidharmasamuccaya and Vyākhyāyukti in his ‘On the two unknown Sūtras adopted by the Yogācāra School, based on a passage found in the writings of Bu ston and Blo gros rgyal mtshan,’ in Zuihō Yamaguchi (ed.): Buddhism and Society in Tibet, Tokyo 1986, pp. 269–89.” Unfortunately, we have been unable to consult Matsuda’s article for our work on this translation.

n.4

Denkarma, 298.a.4. See also Herrmann-Pfandt (2008), pp. 75–76.

n.5

Phangthangma (2003), p. 11.

n.6

The phrase “trust in the Great Vehicle that allows them to accomplish the Great Vehicle,” which occurs repeatedly in this text, translates the Tibetan theg pa chen po’i phyir theg pa chen po la dad pa. This is a rather obscure expression that is difficult to understand conclusively without Sanskrit attestation. Therefore, our rendering of this phrase should be seen as somewhat tentative. The key term to understanding this phrase is the Tibetan term phyir, which typically means “because of,” “on account of,” or “for the sake of.” We have here understood this term to indicate that trust in the Great Vehicle is the factor that enables bodhisattvas to become successful in its practices. Significantly, in support of this interpretation, we also find a single occurrence in the Degé block print (folio 9.b.7) where the term phyir is replaced by slad du. This helps us narrow down the meaning as slad du has a narrower semantic range that normally is translated “for the sake of” or “on account of.” In this way we have arrived at our somewhat interpretive translation, which we nevertheless believe carries the intended meaning of this odd phrase.

n.7

We have edited the text here to exclude what appears to be an instance of dittography. We have omitted the second occurrence of the line bdag la phan pa gtso bor byed pas sangs rgyas la dad pa skyed.

n.8

A similar, though not identical, list of twenty-eight wrong views that bodhisattvas may fall into is found in the Abhidharmasamuccaya (Asaṅga 2001). See also the introduction.

Bibliography

’phags pa theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryamahāyānaprasādaprabhāvananāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 144, Degé Kangyur vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folios 6.b–34.a.

’phags pa theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa 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), 2006–2009, vol. 57, pp. 20–85.

’phags pa theg pa chen po la dad pa rab tu sgom pa ces bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. Stok no. 228, Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 74 (mdo sde, ’a), folios 58.b–98.a.

dkar chag ’phang thang ma. Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.

Asaṅga. Abhidharmasamuccaya: The Compendium of the Higher Teaching (Philosophy). Translated by Walpola Rahula and Sara Boin-Webb. Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 2001.

Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan [/ lhan] dkar gyi chos ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.

Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.

Skilling, Peter. “Vasubandhu and the Vyākhyāyukti Literature.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 23, no. 2 (2000): 297–350.

Glossary

g.1

Absence of characteristics

mtshan ma med pa

མཚན་མ་མེད་པ།

animitta

One of the three gateways to liberation along with emptiness and absence of wishes.

g.2

Absence of wishes

smon pa med pa

སྨོན་པ་མེད་པ།

apraṇihita

One of the three gateways to liberation along with emptiness and absence of characteristics.

g.3

Acting with Trust

dad pas rab du ’jug pa

དད་པས་རབ་དུ་འཇུག་པ།

A bodhisattva in the Buddha’s retinue.

g.28

Great Skillful Trust

dad pa thabs chen

དད་པ་ཐབས་ཆེན།

A bodhisattva in the Buddha’s retinue.

g.50

Patience

bzod pa

བཟོད་པ།

kṣānti

One of the six perfections.

g.53

Rājagṛha

rgyal po’i khab

རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ།

Rājagṛha

The ancient capital of Magadha; the site where many Great Vehicle sūtras take place.

g.68

Vulture Peak Mountain

bya rgod kyi phung po’i ri

བྱ་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ཕུང་པོའི་རི།

Gṛdhrakūṭaparvata

The mountain, near to the city of Rājagṛha, where many Great Vehicle teachings were delivered by the Buddha Śākyamuni.

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Cultivating Trust in the Great Vehicle

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