Advice to a King (2)
Toh 215
Degé Kangyur, vol. 62 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 210.a–211.b
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
Imprint
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Table of Contents
Summary
While giving teachings at Vārāṇasī, the Buddha Śākyamuni discerns that the time is right to train King Udayana of Vatsa. When he meets the king, who at the time is embarking on a military expedition, the king flies into a rage and tries to kill the Buddha with an arrow. However, the arrow circles in the sky, and a voice proclaims a verse on the dangers of anger and warfare. Hearing this verse, the king pays homage to the Buddha, who explains that an enemy far greater than worldly opponents is the affliction of perceiving a self, which binds one to saṃsāra. He uses a military analogy to explain how this great enemy can be controlled by the combined arsenal of the six perfections and slayed by the arrow of nonself. When the king asks what is meant by “nonself,” the Buddha replies in a series of verses that constitute a succinct teaching on all persons and all things being without a self.
Acknowledgements
A draft translation by Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen and Chodrungma Kunga Chodron of the Sakya Pandita Translation Group was revised by George FitzHerbert and edited by David Fiordalis and Andreas Doctor.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Dawn Collins copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
Introduction
Advice to a King (2), which carries the alternative colophon title Advice to Udayana, King of Vatsa, is a concise and poetic discourse on the futility of anger and warfare, and on the liberating power of realizing the truth of emptiness—that all persons and all things lack any enduring self.
This is one of three sūtras (Toh 214, 215, and 221) included in Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line under the identical title The Mahāyāna Sūtra “Advice to a King.” The present sūtra (Toh 215) consists of advice given to Udayana, the king of Vatsa. The sūtra that immediately precedes it in the Degé Kangyur (Toh 214),1 consists of advice to Bimbisāra, the king of Magadha. Finally, a longer sūtra in the next volume of the Degé Kangyur (Toh 221) presents advice to King Prasenajit, the king of Kośala.
Only the third of these three (Toh 221) is attested in either Sanskrit or Chinese, while both Advice to King Bimbisāra (Toh 214) and the present text Advice to King Udayana of Vatsa (Toh 215) have no known Sanskrit or Chinese witnesses and exist only in Tibetan. In their colophons, both of these sūtras are attributed to the translators Dānaśīla and Bandé Yeshé Dé, who were active during the height of Tibetan imperial patronage of Buddhism in the late eighth and early ninth centuries ᴄᴇ. However, neither of the two texts is mentioned in the Phangthangma or Denkarma imperial-period catalogs,2 nor are they mentioned in Chomden Raldri’s late thirteenth-century survey of translated texts. Adding further to the uncertainty of their provenance, neither text is found in any Kangyurs of the Thempangma recensional line.3
Advice to Udayana, King of Vatsa features a short dialogue between the Buddha Śākyamuni and King Udayana, framed by a short story of the king’s conversion. King Udayana was a contemporary of the Buddha and king of Vatsa, one of the sixteen “great kingdoms” (mahājanapada) of ancient northern India, the capital of which was at Kauśāmbī.
This king (also known as Udayin or in Pali as Udena) is well known in Buddhist literature, and in Sanskrit literature more broadly where he is found as the romantic hero of many legends and dramas, including two plays attributed to Bhāsa, one of the earliest Indian playwrights.4 A story of this king’s conversion to the teachings of the Buddha by the monk Piṇḍolabhāradvāja is told in a similar form in The Hundred Deeds (Toh 340)5 and in the Pali Saṃyutta Nikāya.6 He and his two chief wives also feature as the main characters in the frame story of King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions (Toh 73),7 which is included in the Heap of Jewels (Ratnakūṭa) collection. Stories about him are also found in the Discipline (Vinaya) section of the Tibetan Kangyur,8 and in the extracanonical Divyāvadāna collection of stories.9 Narratives about King Udayana are also found in Chinese Buddhist texts, including one story, also told by Xuanzang in the travelogue of his journey to India, which attributes to him the commissioning of the first-ever image of the Buddha.10
The sūtra translated here tells a different tale of King Udayana’s conversion that is not, to our knowledge, found in other sources. Here, the Buddha encounters King Udayana while the latter is embarking on a military expedition to subdue a neighboring city. Initially, the king is angered by the inauspicious appearance of a mendicant at such a time, and he tries to kill the Buddha with an arrow. But the arrow balks, spins in the sky, and a voice then rings out with a verse on the dangers of anger, whereupon the king becomes respectful toward the Buddha and a dialogue ensues. Other stories about King Udayana, including the sūtra mentioned above, King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions (Toh 73), feature him shooting arrows that are thwarted from reaching their intended target.11
After the king pays homage, the Buddha first queries the king’s proclivity for warfare, informing him that all his conflicts are futile since they only lead to suffering in this life and lower rebirths in the next. He then explains that worldly enemies are trifling when compared to the greater enemy, namely the affliction of perceiving a self, which is the root of saṃsāra. When the king asks how this great enemy can be countered, the Buddha uses a military analogy to present the practice of the six perfections. This, he says, will enable the king to fell the great enemy of perceiving a self with the “arrow of nonself.” When the king asks what the Buddha means by “nonself” in this context, the Buddha replies with a condensed teaching regarding persons and indeed all phenomena as having no self, after which the king embraces his teaching.
Two prior English translations of the sūtra have been published. An early, loose translation was published in 1973 by Thubten Kalzang Rinpoche et al., and a richly annotated and fine translation by Peter Skilling was published in 2021. This English translation was made from the Tibetan as found in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with variants recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma).
Text Body
Advice to a King (2)
Advice to Udayana, King of Vatsa
The Translation
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Thus did I hear at one time. When the Blessed One was teaching the Dharma to his retinues in the great city of Vārāṇasī, he saw that the time had come to train Udayana, the king of Vatsa.12 So, along with his retinues, he departed for Vatsa.
When he encountered Udayana, the king of Vatsa, the king was setting out with his four armies to conquer the great city called Place of Gold.13 However, King Udayana became angry. “Such an inauspicious encounter!” he exclaimed. “I should kill him!” And with this he drew a sharp, fishtail-headed arrow14 and released it at the Blessed One. However, the arrow spun in the sky and a voice rang out, proclaiming:
On hearing these words, King Udayana became devoted to the Blessed One, prostrated, and sat down to one side. [F.210.b]
Then the Blessed One said, “Great King, conflict and fighting lead to exhaustion, both here, now, and later in the lower realms, so why do you always do nothing but fight and create conflict?”
“Gautama,” replied the king, “no matter whom I fight, I never experience defeat. Since I am always victorious, I am inclined toward fighting and warfare.”
The Blessed One said, “Great King, these are lesser foes. Great King, there is another enemy, far greater and more hostile than them.”
“Who is that enemy?” asked the king.
The Blessed One replied, “This great enemy is called the affliction of perceiving a self.”
The king said, “Please explain. What is this enemy like?”
The Blessed One replied:
The king asked, “How can one fight this great enemy?”
The Blessed One replied:
The Blessed One replied:
The king said, “Previously, up until now, I have seen enemies where there were none, and I have been tormented by anger. Now that I have recognized the true enemy, I will be devoted to nonself to fight that enemy.”
“Great King, excellent,” said the Blessed One. [F.211.b] “You have vanquished the enemy of perceiving a self.”
Thus spoke the Blessed One, and King Udayana of Vatsa and the others rejoiced and praised what the Blessed One had said.
This completes the Mahāyāna sūtra “Advice to Udayana, King of Vatsa.”
Colophon
Translated, edited and finalized by the Indian preceptor Dānaśīla and Bandé Yeshé Dé.
Notes
Bibliography
Source Texts
rgyal po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo [Rājadeśanāmamahāyānasūtra] Toh 215, Degé Kangyur vol. 62 (mdo sde, tsha), folios 210.a–211.b.
po la gdams pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo [Rājadeśanāmamahāyānasūtra]. 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. 62, pp. 560–65.
Mahāvyutpatti with sGra sbyor bam po gñis pa. Bibliotheca Polyglotta, University of Oslo. Input by Jens Braarvig and Fredrik Liland, 2010. Last accessed November 2, 2023.
Modern Sources and Translations
84000. Advice to a King (2) (Rājadeśa, rgyal po la gdams pa, Toh 214). Translated by George FitzHerbert and the Sakya Pandita Translation Group. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
84000. The Hundred Deeds (Karmaśataka, las brgya pa, Toh 340). Translated by Dr. Lozang Jamspal and Kaia Fischer. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
84000. King Udayana of Vatsa’s Questions (Udayanavatsarājaparipṛcchā, bad sa’i rgyal po ’char byed kyis zhus pa, Toh 73). Translated by Ben Ewing and Lowell Cook. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.
84000. Upholding the Roots of Virtue (Kuśalamūlasaṃparigraha, dge ba’i rtsa ba yongs su ’dzin pa, Toh 101). Translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Online publication, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020.
Adval, Niti. The Story of King Udayana. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies, LXXIV. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Publications, 1970.
Apte, Vaman Shivaram. The Practical Sanskrit–English Dictionary. Poona: Shiralkar, 1890. Electronic version at Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2017). The Suttanipāta: An Ancient Collection of the Buddha’s Discourses Together with Its Commentaries. Boston: Wisdom.
———Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom.
Burlingame, Eugene. Buddhist Legends: Translated from the Original Pali Text of the Dhammapada Commentary, Part 1. Harvard Oriental Society, Vol. 28. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921.
Carter, Martha L. “The Mystery of the Udayana Buddha.” Supplement No. 64. Annali di Istituto Universitario Orientale 50.3 (1970): 1–42.
Panglung, Jampa Losang. Die Erzählstoffe Des Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya Analysiert Auf Grund Der Tibetischen Übersetzung. Studia Philologica Buddhica Monograph Series III. Tokyo: Reiyukai, 1981
Rotman, Andy. Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna Part 2. Boston: Wisdom, 2017.
Skilling, Peter. Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-five Sutras. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2021.
Thubten Kalzang Rinpoche, Bhikkhu Nagasena, and Bhikkhu Khantipale. “Rajadesananama-Mahayana Sutra II (The Discourse on the Great Way named Instructions to a King).” In Three Discourses of the Buddha, 13–18. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1973.
Glossary
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Attested in other text
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Attested in dictionary
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Approximate attestation
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Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
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affliction
- nyon mongs pa
- ཉོན་མོངས་པ།
- kleśa
anger
- zhe sdang
- ཞེ་སྡང་།
- dveṣa
Bandé Yeshé Dé
- ye shes sde
- ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།
- —
Blessed One
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavan
concentration
- bsam gtan
- བསམ་གཏན།
- dhyāna
Dānaśīla
- dA na shI la
- དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ།
- —
dharmakāya
- chos sku
- ཆོས་སྐུ།
- dharmakāya
discipline
- tshul khrims
- ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
- śīla
dualistic image
- mtshan ma
- མཚན་མ།
- nimitta
emptiness
- stong pa nyid
- སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།
- śūnyatā
five aggregates
- phung po lnga
- ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ།
- pañcaskandha
forbearance
- bzod pa
- བཟོད་པ།
- kṣānti
Gautama
- gau ta ma
- གཽ་ཏ་མ།
- gautama
generosity
- sbyin pa
- སྦྱིན་པ།
- dāna
karma
- las
- ལས།
- karman
nirvāṇa
- mya ngan ’das
- མྱ་ངན་འདས།
- nirvāṇa
nonself
- bdag med pa
- བདག་མེད་པ།
- anātman
perceiving a self
- bdag tu ’dzin pa
- བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ།
- ātmagrāha
perseverance
- brtson ’grus
- བརྩོན་འགྲུས།
- vīrya
Place of Gold
- gser can
- གསེར་ཅན།
- —
saṃsāra
- ’khor ba
- འཁོར་བ།
- saṃsāra
self
- bdag
- བདག
- ātma
six perfections
- pha rol tu phyin pa drug
- ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དྲུག
- ṣaṭ pāramitāḥ
Udayana
- ’char byed
- འཆར་བྱེད།
- udayana
Vārāṇasī
- bA rA Na sI
- བཱ་རཱ་ཎ་སཱི།
- vārāṇasī
Vatsa
- bad sa la
- བད་ས་ལ།
- vatsa
wish-fulfilling jewel
- yid bzhin rin chen
- ཡིད་བཞིན་རིན་ཆེན།
- cintāmaṇi