The Secrets of the Realized Ones
Chapter 11: The Exalted Nature of the Severe
Ascetic Practices: The Method of Acquiring Food to Bring Beings to
Maturity
Toh 47
Degé Kangyur, vol. 39 (dkon brtsegs, ka), folios 100.a.–203.a
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First published 2023
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Table of Contents
Summary
In this sūtra, the narrative largely revolves around the figures of Vajrapāṇi, the yakṣa lord and constant companion of the Buddha, and the Buddha himself. 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 of the sūtra, Vajrapāṇi describes several events in the Buddha’s life: his practice of severe asceticism, his approach to the seat of awakening, his defeat of Māra, his awakening, and his turning of the wheel of Dharma. Following this, the Buddha gives a prediction of Vajrapāṇi’s future awakening as a buddha and travels to Vajrapāṇi’s abode for a meal. Interspersed throughout the sūtra are sermons, dialogues, and marvelous tales exploring a large number of topics and featuring an extensive cast of characters, including several narratives about past lives of Vajrapāṇi, Brahmā Sahāṃpati, and the Buddha himself. 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.
Acknowledgements
Translated by David Fiordalis and the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. A first draft was made from the Tibetan by Timothy Hinkle with the assistance of Tulku Tenzin Rigsang and others. David Fiordalis thoroughly revised the translation with close reference to the extant Sanskrit manuscript, as well as the Tibetan translation. Fiordalis also wrote the summary, introduction, annotations, and most of the glossary entries. Fiordalis would like to acknowledge Paul Harrison, who furnished him with his own digital images of the Sanskrit manuscript, and Péter-Dániel Szántó, who generously made his transcription of the manuscript available for readers.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Rory Lindsay and Nathaniel Rich edited the translation and the introduction, and Ven. Konchog Norbu copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The translation of this text has been made possible through the generous sponsorship of Jane and Leo Tong Chen, and their family.
Text Body
The Teaching of the Mysteries and Secrets of the Realized Ones
Chapter 11: The Exalted Nature of the Severe Ascetic Practices: The Method of Acquiring Food to Bring Beings to Maturity
The bodhisattva Śāntamati then requested Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, “Please use your inspired eloquence, Lord of the Guhyakas, to shine light on those occurrences that were the causes of wonders, beginning with a description of the splendid array of the Bodhisattva’s severe ascetic practices, his arrival at the seat of awakening, his defeat of Māra, and his turning of the wheel of Dharma, all of which you have witnessed.”
When this was said, Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, responded to the bodhisattva Śāntamati. “Śāntamati,” he said, “the splendid array of the Bodhisattva’s virtues is immeasurable. It would not be easy for me to describe them in full or in detail if I were to use the whole length of my life, even if it were to last for an eon. However, I could gesture at them to some extent.
“Moreover, Śāntamati, the severe ascetic practices of the Bodhisattva were not of a single type. In order to defeat the rival teachers and their followers, the Bodhisattva undertook various vows, physical austerities, and physical postures. The rival teachers and their followers longed to undertake them, too, but the austerities were so intense, so extreme, and so severe that they were unable actively to display them. However, they were all displayed by the Bodhisattva.160
“In this respect, Śāntamati, some beings saw the Bodhisattva standing on one leg. Some saw him standing with one arm raised above his head. Some saw him staring at the sun. Some saw him practicing the austerity of the five fires. Some saw him engaged in the ascetic practice of standing without ever sitting down. Some saw him standing [F.147.a] without moving. Some saw him standing with one leg held aloft. Some saw him standing on his head. Some saw him lying on a bed of thorns. Some saw him lying on a bed of cow dung. Some saw him sitting on a seat of stone. Some saw him lying on a bed of reeds. Some saw him lying on a bed of wooden boards. Some saw him lying on a bed of pestles. Some saw him lying on a bed of dust. Some saw him following the sun.161
“Some saw him wearing clothes made of nut palm leaves.162 Some saw him wearing clothes made of muñja grass. Some saw him wearing clothes made of balbaja grass. Some saw him wearing clothes made of kuśa grass. Some saw him wearing black antelope skin. Some saw him wearing monastic robes.163 Some saw him naked. Some saw him wearing clothes made of darbha grass. Some saw him wearing clothes made of tree bark.164
“Some saw him eating grains of millet.165 Some saw him eating grains of barley. Some saw him eating roots, leaves, flowers, fruits, shoots, seeds, and lotus roots. Some saw him undertaking a six-day fast. Some saw him abstaining from meat. Some saw him eating jujube fruits, kodo millet,166 mung beans, māṣa beans, grains of puffed rice,167 sesame seeds, or grains of uncooked rice. Some saw him sustaining himself only with water. Some saw him sustaining himself with drops of ghee. Some saw him sustaining himself with drops of honey. Some saw him sustaining himself with drops of milk. Some saw him eating no food at all. Some saw him free of fatigue. Some saw him sitting alone. Some saw him standing alone.
“Indeed, Śāntamati, the Bodhisattva displayed severe ascetic practices such as these and an immeasurable number of other demeanors. For six whole years, not even a single one of his demeanors was disturbed, and all of them were displayed to perfection. [F.147.b] With vows of the most distinguished kind,168 unsurpassable heroic efforts, and the most intense austerities, he displayed all these vows and austerities for six years and he did so in such a way that beings whose inclinations were mutually exclusive to one another did not see the mutually exclusive vows and austerities. Instead, those beings saw only the vows and austerities by which they themselves were guided and not the others.
“In this regard, Śāntamati, the Bodhisattva was irreproachable in every respect and he displayed this activity while being in a state of equanimity. Six hundred and forty million gods and humans within the three vehicles were brought to maturity by these severe ascetic practices. Furthermore, Śāntamati, those gods and humans with lofty aspirations, who had completed the preparations, saw the Bodhisattva sitting in a jeweled pavilion for six years absorbed in the all-pervading meditation,169 without moving and in a state of bliss, after which the Bodhisattva arose from that meditation.
“In this regard, Śāntamati, for those gods and humans for whom the important thing is the Dharma, who desire the Dharma, and who need to be brought to maturity through the teaching of the Dharma, they saw the Bodhisattva occupied by no other activity than teaching the Dharma. This, Śāntamati, is the practice of great compassion, which is called the coming together of the Bodhisattva’s great knowledge. It is the gateway to the guiding principles of the Dharma, which is called the descent into the inconceivable. It is the gateway to the knowledge of what is difficult to do, which is called the overpowering of all Māras and proponents of rival doctrines.
“When six years had passed in this way, Śāntamati, the Bodhisattva gave up the vows and austerities that he had previously displayed and went to the banks of the Nairañjanā River. There he took a bath according to worldly custom. His body cleansed, he came away from the Nairañjanā River and stayed there. A village girl named Sujātā came there holding a bowl of milk rice with honey, which had been made from the boiled milk of a hundred cows, and offered it to the Bodhisattva.170 [F.148.a] In addition, six hundred million gods, nāgas, yakṣas, and gandharvas were also standing there, each holding their own particular kinds of food and saying, ‘Good sir! Please eat my food! Good sir! Please eat my food!’171
“When this occurred, Śāntamati, the Bodhisattva received all the food, beginning with that of the village girl Sujātā, and including the food brought by the six hundred million gods, nāgas, yakṣas, and gandharvas, and he ate all of it. However, none of them saw the others. Each and every one of them had the understanding ‘the Bodhisattva has taken my food,’ and ‘having eaten my food, the Bodhisattva will awaken to unsurpassable and perfect awakening,’ and all of them were brought to maturity for the sake of their unsurpassable and perfect awakening.
“This, Śāntamati, this is the method of bringing beings to maturity by means of acquiring food, which is, indeed, the exalted nature the Bodhisattva’s severe ascetic practices.”
This was the eleventh chapter, “The Exalted Nature of the Severe Ascetic Practices: The Method of Acquiring Food to Bring Beings to Maturity.”172
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’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i gsang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryatathāgatācintyaguhyanirdeśanāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 47, Degé Kangyur vol. 39 (dkon brtsegs, ka), folios 100.a–203.a.
’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i gsang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa zhes 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), 2006–9, vol. 39, pp. 289–542.
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