The Sūtra on Impermanence (1)
Toh 309
Degé Kangyur, vol 72 (mdo sde, sa), folios 155.a–155.b
- Surendrabodhi
- Zhang Yeshé Dé
Imprint
Translated by the Sakya Pandita Translation Group (International Buddhist Academy Division)
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2013
Current version v 1.22.16 (2024)
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Table of Contents
Summary
In this brief sūtra, the Buddha reminds his followers of one of the principal characteristics of saṃsāric existence: the reality of impermanence. The four things cherished most in this world, the Buddha says—namely, good health, youth, prosperity, and life—are all impermanent. He closes his teaching with a verse, asking how beings, afflicted as they are by impermanence, can take delight in anything desirable, and indirectly urging his disciples to practice the path of liberation.
Acknowledgments
Translation by the Sakya Pandita Translation Group (International Buddhist Academy Division, Kathmandu). This sūtra was translated from the Tibetan into English by Christian Bernert and edited by Vivian Paganuzzi.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Introduction
This sūtra highlights one of the most fundamental teachings of the Buddha—recognizing the impermanence (anityatā) of conditioned phenomena. The fact that such phenomena are impermanent (anitya) is listed as the first of the three principal characteristics of existence, the other two being the suffering, or unsatisfactoriness, of phenomena (duḥkha), and their no-self, or lack of an inherent substance (anātman). It is the clear understanding of the reality of these facts of life that can bring about a profound and essential change in a person’s worldview, marking the point of entry to the path to liberation.1 Impermanence is also one of the four seals of the Buddha’s teaching (comprising these three characteristics of existence and a fourth principle, that nirvāṇa is peace), often described as summarizing or epitomizing the Buddhadharma, and more particularly as the criteria that together enable the variety of Buddhist philosophical views to be distinguished from non-Buddhist ones.2
Sūtras on impermanence
The Tibetan canon contains two sūtras with the title Sūtra on Impermanence (mi rtag pa nyid kyi mdo), both found in the same section of the Kangyur (mdo sde, Toh 309 and 3103). The sūtra translated here is the first, the shorter of the two. Sūtras with equivalent titles are also found in other Buddhist canons, but their contents differ substantially from the one translated here. The Chinese Tripiṭaka, for instance, contains two sūtras so entitled (Taishō nos. 801 and 759), and in the Samyutta Nikāya of the Pāli canon, the collection of discourses grouped by themes, there are a number of different texts with the title Sutta on Impermanence (P. Aniccasutta).4
Note on the translation
The content of this sūtra is rather straightforward and its interpretation does not pose any major difficulties. One particular term, however, did present a problem of translation: the Tibetan dben pa, which commonly translates the Sanskrit viveka/vivikta and is usually related to concepts of isolation and seclusion. Here it seems to refer more specifically to the act of picking something out, separating it from other things and thus singling it out from them as special.
Text Body
The Translation
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas!
Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavān was dwelling in Śrāvastī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, along with a large monastic assembly. The Bhagavān addressed the monks as follows:
“Monks, four things are appealing, singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, and highly appreciated by everyone. What are those four?
“Monks, good health is appealing, singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, and highly appreciated by everyone. Good health, however, ends with sickness. Monks, sickness is neither appealing, nor is it singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, or highly appreciated by anyone.
“Monks, youth is appealing, singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, and highly appreciated by everyone. Youth, however, ends with the aging of the body. Monks, the aging of the body is neither appealing, nor is it singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, or highly appreciated by anyone.
“Monks, prosperity is appealing, singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, and highly appreciated by everyone. Prosperity, however, ends with its decline. Monks, the decline of prosperity is neither appealing, nor is it singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, or highly appreciated by anyone. [F.155.b]
“Monks, life is appealing, singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, and highly appreciated by everyone. Life, however, ends in death. Monks, death is neither appealing, nor is it singled out, considered valuable, pleasant, or highly appreciated by anyone.”
Thus spoke the Bhagavān, the Sugata, and having spoken the Teacher added these words:
When the Bhagavān had thus spoken, the monks rejoiced and praised his words.
This completes “The Sūtra on Impermanence.”
Notes
Bibliography
mi rtag pa nyid kyi mdo (Anityatāsūtra). Toh 309, Degé Kangyur vol. 72 (mdo sde, sa), folios 155a.2–155b.4.
mi rtag pa nyid kyi mdo (Anityatāsūtra). 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. 72, 434–36.
DiSimone, Charles and Choi, Jin Kyoung, trans. The Sūtra on Impermanence (2) (Anityatāsūtra, Toh 310).
Nyanaponika Thera, transl. Anicca Sutta: Impermanent (SN 36.9), translated from the Pali. Access to Insight, 30 June 2010, www.accesstoinsight.org. Retrieved on 10 May 2013.
“The Three Basic Facts of Existence: I. Impermanence (Anicca), with a preface by Nyanaponika Thera.” Access to Insight, 2 December 2011, www.accesstoinsight.org. Retrieved on 10 May 2013.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
four seals of the Buddha’s teaching
- bka’ rtags kyi phyag rgya bzhi
- bkar btags bzhi
- chos kyi sdom bzhi
- བཀའ་རྟགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞི།
- བཀར་བཏགས་བཞི།
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་བཞི།
- caturdharmoddāna
impermanence
- mi rtag pa nyid
- མི་རྟག་པ་ཉིད།
- anityatā
impermanent
- mi rtag pa
- མི་རྟག་པ།
- anitya
Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park
- rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba
- རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
- jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ AO
no-self
- bdag med
- བདག་མེད།
- anātman
singled out
- dben pa
- དབེན་པ།
- viveka
- vivikta
suffering
- sdug bsngal
- སྡུག་བསྔལ།
- duḥkha
three principal characteristics of existence
- bkar btags gsum
- བཀར་བཏགས་གསུམ།
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