ལས་བརྒྱ་པ།
The Hundred Deeds
Karmaśataka
ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ།
las brgya tham pa
The Hundred Deeds
Karmaśataka

Toh 340
Degé Kangyur, vol. 73 (mdo sde, ha), folios 1.b–309.a, and vol. 74 (mdo sde, a), folios 1.b–128.b.
Translated by Dr. Lozang Jamspal (International Buddhist College, Thailand) and Kaia Tara Fischer under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2020
Current version v 1.3.17 (2021)
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Summary
The sūtra The Hundred Deeds, whose title could also be translated as The Hundred Karmas, is a collection of stories known as avadāna—a narrative genre widely represented in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature and its derivatives—comprising more than 120 individual texts. It includes narratives of Buddha Śākyamuni’s notable deeds and foundational teachings, the stories of other well-known Buddhist figures, and a variety of other tales featuring people from all walks of ancient Indian life and beings from all six realms of existence. The texts sometimes include stretches of verse. In the majority of the stories the Buddha’s purpose in recounting the past lives of one or more individuals is to make definitive statements about the karmic ripening of actions across multiple lifetimes, and the sūtra is perhaps the best known of the many works in the Kangyur on this theme.
Acknowledgements
Translated by Dr. Lozang Jamspal (International Buddhist College, Thailand) and Kaia Fischer of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York (TCTGNY). Introduction by Nathan Mitchell, with additional material by the 84000 editorial team.
Warm thanks to Dr. Tom Tillemans, Dr. John Canti, Dr. James Gentry, Adam Krug, Ven. Konchog Norbu, Janna White, and all the readers and editors at 84000, for their wisdom; to Huang Jing Rui, Amy Ang, and the entire administration and staff at 84000, for their compassion; to readers Dr. Irene Cannon-Geary, Dr. Natalie M. Griffin, Tom Griffin, Norman Guberman, Margot Jarrett, Dr. David Kittay, Dr. Susan Landesman, Megan Mook, and Dr. Toy-Fung Tung, as well as to every member of TCTGNY, for their diligence and sincerity; to Caithlin De Marrais, Tinka Harvard, Laren McClung, and Erin Sperry, for their adept revisions to passages of verse; to Dr. Paul Hackett, for his linguistic and technical expertise; to Dr. Tenzin Robert Thurman and the late Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn, for their insight; to Dr. Lauran Hartley, for her capable assistance in researching the introduction; to Dr. Donald J. LaRocca, for his thoughtful clarification of terms pertaining to arms and armor; and to Jennifer E. Fischer, for her generosity in formatting the translation.
Special thanks to Ven. Wei Wu and all of the students, faculty, and staff of the International Buddhist College, Thailand, for their warm welcome of the senior translator Dr. Jamspal, and to Cynthia H. Wong, for her kindheartedness toward the junior translator Kaia Fischer.
Through the devoted attention of all may the Buddhadharma smile upon us for countless ages, safeguarded by knowledge of the classical Tibetan language.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Work on this translation was rendered possible by the generous donations of a number of sponsors: Zhou Tian Yu, Chen Yi Qin, Irene Tillman, Archie Kao and Zhou Xun; 恒基伟业投资发展集团有限公司,李英、李杰、李明、李一全家; Thirty, Twenty and family; and Ye Kong, Helen Han, Karen Kong and family. Their help is most gratefully acknowledged.
Abbreviations
C | Choné (co ne) Kangyur |
---|---|
D | Degé (sde dge) Kangyur |
H | Lhasa Zhöl (lha sa zhol) Kangyur |
J | Lithang (li thang) Kangyur |
K | Kangxi Peking (pe) Kangyur |
KY | Yongle (g.yung lo) Kangyur |
N | Narthang (snar thang) Kangyur |
S | Stok Palace Manuscript (stog pho brang bris ma) Kangyur |
U | Urga (khu) |
Notes
Bibliography
Source Texts
las brgya tham pa (Karmaśataka). Toh 340, Degé Kangyur vol. 73 (mdo sde, ha), folios 1.b–309.a, and vol. 74 (mdo sde, a), folios 1.b–128.b.
las brgya tham pa. 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. 73, pp. 3–837, and vol. 74, pp. 3–398.
las brgya tham pa (Karmaśataka). Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 80 (mdo sde, dza), folios 2–825, and vol. 81 (mdo sde, a), folios 2–474.
Works Cited
Sanskrit Works
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Tibetan Works
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Glossary
Abodes of the Four Great Kings
- rgyal chen bzhi’i ris
- རྒྱལ་ཆེན་བཞིའི་རིས།
- Cāturmahārājakāyika
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, lowest among the six heavens of the desire realm. Dwelling place of the four great kings, traditionally located on a terrace of Sumeru, just below the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Absorption of neither discrimination nor non-discrimination
- ’du shes min ’du shes med min
- ’du shes min ’du shes med min gyi snyom ’jug
- འདུ་ཤེས་མིན་འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་མིན།
- འདུ་ཤེས་མིན་འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་མིན་གྱི་སྙོམ་འཇུག
- naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñā
Fourth of the four types of formless meditative absorptions (caturārūpyasamāpatti, gzugs med snyoms ’jug bzhi) (Rigzin 369).
Act whose fourth member is a motion
- gsol ba dang bzhi’i las
- གསོལ་བ་དང་བཞིའི་ལས།
- jñāpticaturthakarman
A formal act of the saṅgha that requires an initial motion followed by the statement of the proposed act, repeated three times. Such an act is required for several proceedings—among other occasions, to fully ordain someone, or to officially admonish an intransigent monk.
Act whose second member is a motion
- gsol ba dang gnyis kyi las
- གསོལ་བ་དང་གཉིས་ཀྱི་ལས།
- jñāptidvitīyakarman
A formal act of the saṅgha that requires an initial motion followed by the statement of the proposed act. Such an act is needed to grant the vows of full ordination to a nun, among other occasions.
Adumā
- a du ma
- ཨ་དུ་མ།
- adumā
- Udumā
The name of the town where Kaineya lived; traditionally spelled Udumā, the rendering in The Hundred Deeds may be derived from the Pāli/Prakṛt form Ātumā.
Afflictive emotion
- nyong mongs
- ཉོང་མོངས།
- kleśa
Also called “delusions,” “afflictions,” or “addictive emotions,” these are mental states that produce turmoil and confusion and thus disturb mental peace and happiness (Rigzin 133).
Aggregates
- phung po rnams
- ཕུང་པོ་རྣམས།
- skandha
In Buddhist philosophy, the five basic constituents upon which persons are conventionally designated. They are material forms, sensations, perceptions, formations, and consciousness.
Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka)
- mes sbyin
- མེས་སྦྱིན།
- Agnidatta
A certain brahmin who in the future will be from the country of Pāṭaliputra, a master of the Vedas, and father of Śiṣyaka.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta (of Vārāṇasī), one of the magistrates of King Brahmadatta (past), nor with Agnidatta of the royal palace Śobhāvatī.
Agnidatta (of Śobhāvatī)
- me sbyin
- མེ་སྦྱིན།
- Agnidatta
A certain brahmin of the royal palace Śobhāvatī during the time of Buddha Krakucchanda.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta of Vārāṇasī, nor with the Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka) prophesied to appear in the future, both of whose names are the slightly different Tib. mes sbyin.
Agnidatta (of Vārāṇasī)
- mes sbyin
- མེས་སྦྱིན།
- Agnidatta
One of King Brahmadatta’s magistrates, from Vārāṇasī. Father of Son of Fire and Tongue of Fire.
Not to be confused with Agnidatta (father of Śiṣyaka) prophesied to appear in the future, nor with Agnidatta of the royal palace Śobhāvatī.
Ajiravatī River
- khang ldan
- ཁང་ལྡན།
- Ajiravatī
The modern-day Rāptīnadī. L. Chandra gives Ajiravatī for the Tib. khyams ldan.
Ajita Keśakambala
- mi ’pham skra’i la ba can
- མི་འཕམ་སྐྲའི་ལ་བ་ཅན།
- Ajita Keśakambala
One of the six philosophical extremists who lived during the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Ājñātakauṇḍinya
- kun shes kaN+Di n+ya
- ཀུན་ཤེས་ཀཎྜི་ནྱ།
- Ājñātakauṇḍinya
Another name for Kauṇḍinya. One of the five monks present for the first teaching of the four noble truths; on account of his realization he became known as Venerable “All-Knowing Kauṇḍinya” or “Kauṇḍinya who understood” (Ājñātakauṇḍinya).
All-Knowing One
- thams cad mkhyen pa
- ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ།
- sarvajña
An epithet of the buddhas. Salutation to the All-Knowing One at the beginning of a Buddhist text typically indicates its designation in the Vinaya Piṭaka.
Amṛtā
- bdud rtsi ma
- བདུད་རྩི་མ།
- Amṛtā
One of eight children, a daughter, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
Amṛtodana
- bdud rtsi zas
- བདུད་རྩི་ཟས།
- Amṛtodana
One of eight children, a son, of King Siṃhahanu of Kapilavastu.
Analysis of phenomena
- chos rnam par ’byed pa
- ཆོས་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ།
- dharmapravicaya
Ānanda
- kun dga’ bo
- ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།
- Ānanda
A monk of the Buddha’s order, brother of Devadatta, who for twenty-five years served as the Buddha’s personal attendant. Second in the apostolic succession that carried on the Buddha’s teachings after his parinirvāṇa.
Anāthapiṇḍada
- mgon med zas sbyin
- མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན།
- Anāthapiṇḍada
A wealthy householder of Śrāvastī renowned for his generosity, he spent a small fortune to purchase the garden of Prince Jeta, built a monastery there, and offered both to the Buddha.
Anguished spirit
- yi dags
- yi dwags
- ཡི་དགས།
- ཡི་དྭགས།
- preta
Also called a “hungry ghost,” an inhabitant of one of the three lower realms who suffers constantly from insatiable hunger and thirst, the karmic fruition of past miserliness. See “five destinies.”
Antavān River
- mtha’ ldan
- chu klung mtha’ dang ldan pa
- མཐའ་ལྡན།
- ཆུ་ཀླུང་མཐའ་དང་ལྡན་པ།
- Antavān
A river in the province of Mallā in the vicinity of Kuśinagarī.
Aparājita
- gzhan gyis mi thub pa
- གཞན་གྱིས་མི་ཐུབ་པ།
- Aparājita
A future buddha.
Appropriation
- len pa
- ལེན་པ།
- upādāna
Ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
Āraṇyaka
- dgon pa pa
- dgon pa ba
- དགོན་པ་པ།
- དགོན་པ་བ།
- Āraṇyaka
“Forest Dweller,” the name of the son of householders in Śrāvastī, he preferred seclusion, eventually attaining arhatship.
Arhat
- dgra bcom pa
- དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།
- arhat
Literally “foe-destroyer”—the foe in this case being the afflictive emotions—one who has attained arhatship.
Arhatship
- dgra bcom pa nyid
- དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད།
- arhattva
“The state of liberation [from saṃsāra via destruction of the afflictive emotions] or the fifth path of no more to learn, attained by arhats after perfecting training in the fourth path . . .” (Rigzin 60). In this text being “established . . . in the unsurpassed, supreme welfare of nirvāṇa”; also appears as a synonym for the attainment of arhatship.
Arthadarśin
- don gzigs pa
- don gzigs
- དོན་གཟིགས་པ།
- དོན་གཟིགས།
- Arthadarśin
Name of a former buddha; also the name of a future buddha prophesied in The Hundred Deeds.
Ascetic
- dge sbyong
- དགེ་སྦྱོང་།
- śramaṇa
A mendicant; sometimes employed as a title of the Buddha.
Ascetic practices
- sbyangs pa’i yon tan
- སྦྱངས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན།
- dhūtaguṇa
An optional set of thirteen practices that monastics can adopt in order to cultivate greater detachment. They consist of (1) wearing patched robes made from discarded cloth rather than from cloth donated by laypeople; (2) wearing only three robes; (3) going for alms; (4) not omitting any house while on the alms round, rather than begging only at those houses known to provide good food; (5) eating only what can be eaten in one sitting; (6) eating only food received in the alms bowl, rather than more elaborate meals presented to the saṅgha; (7) refusing more food after indicating one has eaten enough; (8) dwelling in the forest; (9) dwelling at the root of a tree; (10) dwelling in the open air, using only a tent made from one’s robes as shelter; (11) dwelling in a charnel ground; (12) satisfaction with whatever dwelling one has; and (13) sleeping in a sitting position without ever lying down.
Aśoka (the brahmin)
- mya ngan med
- མྱ་ངན་མེད།
- Aśoka
Young brahmin who was Buddha Kāśyapa’s best friend prior to his enlightenment. The Hundred Deeds is not clear on this point, but Edgerton notes that Aśoka is understood as the nephew and disciple of Buddha Kāśyapa (Edgerton 80.2).
Not to be confused with the future buddha Aśoka, nor with the historical King Aśoka who does not appear in this text.
Aspiration Well Sown
- smon lam legs par btab pa
- སྨོན་ལམ་ལེགས་པར་བཏབ་པ།
- —
A future buddha.
Aśvakarṇa tree
- shing rta rna
- ཤིང་རྟ་རྣ།
- aśvakarṇa
A species of tree; Vatica robusta.
Āśvāsa
- dbugs chung
- dbugs
- དབུགས་ཆུང་།
- དབུགས།
- Āśvāsa
- Alpāśvāsa
“Breath.” The previous incarnation of the great king Dhṛtarāṣṭra as a nāga king who lived on Mount Meru, he eventually went for refuge and took the fundamental precepts.
Atharva Veda
- srid srung gi rig byed
- སྲིད་སྲུང་གི་རིག་བྱེད།
- Atharvaveda
Along with the Ṛg Veda, Yajur Veda, and Sāma Veda, one of the four Vedas, the most ancient Sanskrit religious literature of India.
Attainment of seeing
- mthong ba’i snyoms par ’jug pa
- མཐོང་བའི་སྙོམས་པར་འཇུག་པ།
- darśanasamāpatti
Entry point for the path of seeing, this is the direct perception of things as they are, ultimate reality, suchness.
Augur
- bye brag phyed pa
- བྱེ་བྲག་ཕྱེད་པ།
- —
An individual who is gifted in reading natural signs and omens.
Bāhlika
- ba lhi ka
- བ་ལྷི་ཀ
- Bāhlika
Appears in The Hundred Deeds as the name of a king and a people dwelling in the “barbaric outlying region” west of Jambudvīpa.
Band of Six
- drug sde
- དྲུག་སྡེ།
- Ṣaḍvargika
A certain band of monks of the Buddha’s order who appear throughout the vinaya literature as examples of those who break the monastic rules. In Pāli their names are given as Assaji, Punabbasu, Panduka, Lohitaka, Mettiya, and Bhummaja. The Hundred Deeds contains one story in which they trick the nun Sthūlanandā into thinking that they can help her attain magical powers.
Base of the universe
- gser gyi sa gzhi
- གསེར་གྱི་ས་གཞི།
- kāñcanamayī bhūmi
- kāñcanacakra
Sometimes called the “golden ground,” or “universal base,” “The mythological basis of our known world. It is made of gold and situated below Mount Sumeru” (Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary).
Beautiful to See
- blta na sdug
- བལྟ་ན་སྡུག
- Sudarśana
Peacock who overheard the Buddha teaching on Vulture Peak Mountain.
Becoming
- srid pa
- སྲིད་པ།
- bhava
Tenth of the twelve links of dependent origination.
Bhadra
- bzang po
- བཟང་པོ།
- Bhadra
The name of the charioteer Subhadra’s son who is ordained, attains arhatship, and leads his parents to attain stream entry and go forth.
Bhādra
- khrums stod
- grum stod
- khrum stod
- ཁྲུམས་སྟོད།
- གྲུམ་སྟོད།
- ཁྲུམ་སྟོད།
- Bhādra
Bhūta (the merchant and the dog)
- ’byung po
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- Bhūta
The name of a certain householder’s dog and the name given to the lost infant it carried home to its owner one night, which would one day be reunited with his birth mother.
Also the name of a certain brahmin who lived in Rājagṛha, and the name of a certain class of evil beings.
Bimbisāra
- bzo sbyangs gzugs can snying po
- gzugs can snying po
- བཟོ་སྦྱངས་གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོ།
- གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོ།
- Śreṇiya Bimbisāra
- Bimbisāra
King of Magadha, the Buddha established him in the truth in Gayā. Also rendered here as “Śreṇiya Bimbisāra.”
Birth
- skye ba
- སྐྱེ་བ།
- jāti
Eleventh of the twelve links of dependent origination.
Black (a brahmin)
- nag po
- ནག་པོ།
- Kāla
- Kṛṣṇa
A certain dark-complected brahmin youth who became a sage, then heard the Dharma from the Buddha, became ordained, and manifested arhatship.
Not to be confused with Black the yakṣa who also appears in his story, nor with Kāla the nāga king (whose name in Tib. is the same nag po).
Black Thread Hell
- thig nag
- ཐིག་ནག
- Kālasūtra
Second of the eight hot hells of Buddhist cosmology. The guardians of the Black Thread Hell mark the bodies of its inhabitants with a black thread before cutting and slicing them apart along those lines.
Blessed buddha
- sangs rgyas bcom ldan ’das
- སངས་རྒྱས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- buddhabhagavān
An epithet of the buddhas.
Blessed one
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavān
An epithet of the buddhas.