Over ten years in translation, a complete English rendering of the great Mahāyāna sūtra, The Secrets of the Realized Ones (Tathāgataguhya), was published by 84000 in 2023. In his introduction to the text, Dr. David Fiordalis, 84000 research editor and the text’s translator, said the sūtra can be called, without exaggeration, “a great work of Mahāyāna Buddhist literature.” But its artful prose, entertaining narrative, and compelling characters should not diminish its doctrinal importance as a series of teachings on the nature of the Buddha, given by the key protagonist Vajrapāṇi in descriptions of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind.
Now that it is fully available in English and freely accessible for a wide audience, our wish is that this profound text will benefit all beings by deepening our understanding of the Buddha’s nature and the Mahāyāna Buddhist teachings. Recently, we talked with David about The Secrets of the Realized Ones. Below, he shares his experience translating the text, highlights key passages, and offers suggestions on how to read the text and truly absorb its meaning.
84000: Congratulations on completing this translation—a major work that covers over two hundred pages in Tibetan, divided into twenty-five chapters. Tell us how you came to translate it and what the process was like?
David: I had been working on similar texts for many years. I felt very lucky to be given the opportunity to work on this text by Dr. Andreas Doctor (84000 Editorial Director) and Dr. John Canti (Senior Editor). With my background in Sanskrit, they decided it would be a good one for me to bring to completion; they assigned it to me, and I was very glad they did.
I started with a first draft that had been done over ten years ago, and was made from the Tibetan translation, which was all that was available to the translator at that time. A few years ago, a partial Sanskrit manuscript (Nepal, circa 1600s) became more accessible through the scholar Péter-Dániel Szántó’s transliteration of it. I also contacted my colleague Paul Harrison at Stanford University who sent me his scans of the manuscript.
84000: Does having the Sanskrit manuscript help to create a more complete and perhaps more accurate translation? Can you comment on that for our readers?
David: The text was originally written in Sanskrit, so having that available makes the translation much richer from a linguistic point of view. When you are able to read a text in the language of its composition, oftentimes more of the depth of the language can shine through. At the same time, having a great Tibetan translation of the text allows us to gain further insight into the way the text was understood in the original by the translators. So it goes both ways. It’s not so much that we are looking for something more authentic. Both texts have their own degree of authenticity. But with a text like this—with so much subtle word play and poetry going on within the language itself—having access to the source text helps us to see more of the artistry.
The challenge is to convey some of that artistry in the English translation. It’s not possible to do it in full, but one tries to do it at least in part so the reader gets a sense of how the text was meant to sound and the different levels of meaning it contains.
84000: Let’s talk about the narrative, which is very strong and readable. Can you walk us through the structure of the sūtra?
David: The basic narrative arc is fairly straightforward, and I try to give a sense of it in the summary to the translation. The central protagonist is Vajrapāṇi, who gives various teachings and receives a prediction of his future awakening as a buddha. In the first half of the sūtra, Vajrapāṇi gives a series of teachings on the mysteries or secrets of the body, speech, and mind of bodhisattvas and the realized ones. In the second half, Vajrapāṇi describes several events in the Buddha’s life. The sūtra concludes with the performance of two long dhāraṇīs, one by Vajrapāṇi and one by the Buddha, for the protection and preservation of the Dharma.
At the same time, there are also various digressions into both the distant past and into the future, so in the introduction I give a more detailed synopsis, tying the narrative to some of the basic teachings that are present throughout.
84000: Can you draw out some of the key teachings, or nuggets of wisdom, that would be of interest to our practitioner audience?
David: There really are so many nuggets that one could draw out and highlight. Probably one of the best known passages from this work—and one that is quite astounding from our point of view—is when Vajrapāṇi says how from the moment the Buddha attained awakening until his passing into cessation, he does not articulate and will not pronounce even a single syllable. (Introduction, 1.6)
Vajrapāṇi further explains that over that same period of time, the Buddha does not form any thought whatsoever. So he is dwelling in a constant state of meditative absorption. Yet various beings hear the Dharma and believe the Buddha is speaking to them according to their own aspirations and motivations.
That statement leads into the image of the Buddha as a wind bell, which illustrates one of the major questions posed by the work: what is the true nature of a buddha?
84000: That is the big question! How does the wind bell analogy help us to understand the Buddha’s true nature?
David: As Vajrapāṇi explains to the bodhisattva Śāntamati, a wind bell makes a sweet sound without being touched by a hand, but rather when it is moved by the wind. Likewise, the Buddha’s speech comes when moved by knowledge of beings’ motivation, but he does not need to make a special effort to produce it. Also, it is interesting to consider that the wind bell is an inanimate object. So comparing the Buddha to an inanimate object raises a difficult question about the nature of the Buddha that we could all begin to ponder in this age of artificial intelligence.
But to answer the big question, the whole work is promoting the idea that the Buddha simultaneously actualizes an infinite number of different forms while remaining constantly in a state of pure potentiality. We get a few analogies, like the wind bell, to help explain this state but at the same time it remains largely mysterious or incomprehensible, which reflects the “secrets” referenced in the title.84000: Can you point to some of the key verses or passages that would resonate most for our general audience?
David: There is something in the text for everyone interested in Buddhism, I think. For those who are looking for complex philosophical dialogues, infused with the mind-bending notions of nonself and emptiness, then one can find them throughout the sūtra. If one is looking for more straightforward teachings on basic Buddhist ethics and the values that infuse Buddhist practice, then one can find them, too, such as in Chapter 19, “The Protectors of the World” and Chapter 22, “The Explanation of Ajātaśatru's Questions.”
If one enjoys marvelous tales that portray the majesty of the Buddha, they are here, too, such as in the description of the Buddha's approach to Vajrapāṇi's domain in Chapter 18. If one is looking for classical episodes from the life story of the Buddha, this sūtra features creative and interesting tellings of the Buddha's defeat of Māra, his awakening, and his first sermon, in Chapters 11-14—stories on par with those found in a similarly important sūtra, The Play in Full.
84000: Can you suggest some ways that we could read this sūtra so that we can better understand and absorb its true meaning as well as make it part of our practice?
David: One thing I would encourage a practitioner—or really anyone interested in Buddhist literature—to do with this sūtra is simply to read particular passages slowly and carefully, reflecting on each sentence. One can choose the passage more or less at random, because virtually every sentence has something of value, as far as doctrine is concerned.
84000: Are there other ways that a text such as this one, which has a literary aspect to it, can help with our understanding and practice of Buddhism?
David: People who talk about the power of literature sometimes speak of the way that narrative literature can build or project a world of its own. We are all trying to live our own lives from a certain standpoint of what is meaningful to us, with certain values informing our daily lives, and in a certain kind of world that we conceive to be real or true. When people read Buddhist literature, they have an opportunity for their own world of meaning to be influenced by the world created in and by the sūtra. In that way, their own lives and practices can take on deeper meaning.
84000: David, thank you so much for your work in translating this significant text! We appreciate you and all those in our 84000 translation team for bringing the Buddha’s words to life to awaken humanity.
David: You are most welcome and let me also say thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share some thoughts with our readers about this wonderful sūtra!
Additional resources:
Full Publication: The Secrets of the Realized Ones