The Secrets of the Realized Ones
Chapter 17: Articulating Nonduality
Toh 47
Degé Kangyur, vol. 39 (dkon brtsegs, ka), folios 100.a.–203.a
Imprint
First published 2023
Current version v 1.0.7 (2024)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.26.1
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.
This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.
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 17: Articulating Nonduality
At that point, the bodhisattva Śāntamati said this to Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas: “The Realized One has made a prediction for you, Lord of the Guhyakas.”
Vajrapāṇi responded, “The prediction made for me, noble son, is one that has the nature of a dream.”
“What have you been predicted to obtain?”
“The prediction I have obtained, noble son, is for what does not obtain.”
“What does not obtain?
“A being, a life force, a person, an individual entity, and a human being—these do not obtain.233 The aggregates, elements, and sense spheres do not obtain. It is the same with virtue, vice, purity, impurity, the defiled, the undefiled, the mundane, the transcendent, the conditioned, the unconditioned, the afflicted, the cleansed, saṃsāra, and nirvāṇa—these do not obtain.”
“If they do not obtain, then what was predicted here?”
“What was predicted is the knowledge that comes from the understanding of what cannot be grasped by the mind.”
“If it were produced by duality,” Vajrapāṇi responded, “then one could not obtain a prediction. Since knowledge is not produced by duality, the predictions bodhisattvas obtain are only nondual predictions.”
Śāntamati then asked, “If knowledge is produced by nonduality, then who gives the prediction and who receives the prediction?”
“The one who gives the prediction and the one who receives the prediction are obtained by understanding that they are same. They are conceived from the position of nonduality.”235
“For one who has the position of nonduality, Lord of the Guhyakas, [F.169.b] what prediction can there be?”
“For whichever position one has, that position being the position of nonduality, there is a prediction precisely for the one who has that position.”
“For which position is there a prediction for the one who stands thereon?”
“For one who stands on the position that there is a self, there is a prediction. For one who stands on the position that there is a being, there is a prediction, as well as for one who stands on the position that there is a life force or a person.”
“On what is one standing when one is standing on the position that there is a self?”
“When one is standing on the position that there is a self, one is standing on the position of being liberated by the realized ones.”
“What is standing on the position of being liberated by the realized ones?”
“It is standing on the position of craving, becoming, and ignorance.”
Śāntamati asked, “On what is one standing when one is standing on the position of craving, becoming, and ignorance?”
“One is standing on the position of what is perpetually not born and not produced,” said Vajrapāṇi.
“Standing on what is not born is what kind of stance?”
“It is a stance that makes something known.”236
“What is made known by making something known?
“If one is making something known, it would not be something unknown.”
“What is not made known?”
“All that is made known does not make it known.”
“If it is not made known, then how does one give an instruction?”
“If one were to give an instruction, one would not make something known. Since one does not make something known, therefore one gives an instruction.”
“How is one instructed?”
“When one does not receive information.”
“How does one not receive information?”
“When one does not chase after words.”
“When one relies on the meaning.”
“How does one rely on the meaning?”
“When one does not see the meaning.”
“When one is not intent on meaning or lack of meaning.”
“When one is not intent on meaning or lack of meaning, then does one lack intent?”
“When one is not intent on meaning or lack of meaning, then one is intent on the Dharma.”
“If one is intent on the Dharma, is that not simply being intent on something?”
“One who is intent on the Dharma, noble son, is not intent on anything at all, because the thing on which such a being is intent is not a thing, nor is the one who is intent upon it a thing, either.”238
“What, again, is not a thing?”
“Where not even the word thing obtains.”
“Where not even the word thing obtains, what sort of Dharma can there be?”
“It is precisely the Dharma, noble son, to which words do not speak, because, as it is said, all things are inexpressible; they cannot be given voice, they cannot be put into words. Noble son, when one speaks the words ‘I speak,’ one misspeaks, and one who misspeaks possesses neither the Dharma nor the Discipline.”
“You really should not say, Lord of the Guhyakas, that the Realized One misspeaks when he speaks the Dharma!”
“Have I not previously explained, Śāntamati, that the Realized One has not articulated or pronounced even a single syllable? What beings perceive as the Realized One speaking occurs through the force of their own vows and in accordance with their own motivations.”239
“What is the fault of one who speaks?”
“One who speaks commits a fault of verbal action.”
“What is the fault of one who makes a verbal action?”
“The fault of uttering words by thinking of syllables.”
“What, then, is faultless?”
“What is not spoken, what is not pronounced, is not made known at all, and what is not made known is faultless. What is not made known as self or other, that is faultless.”
“What is the root of fault?”
“The root of fault is grasping.”
“What is the root of grasping?”
“Its root is fixation.” [F.170.b]
“What is the root of fixation?”
“Its root is false supposition.”
“What is the root of false supposition?”
“Its root is a view that takes something as a basis of cognition.”
“What is taken as a basis for cognition?”
“Forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and mental objects are taken as the bases for cognition.”
“What is not taken as the basis for cognition?”
“The propensity for craving240 is not taken as a basis for cognition, Śāntamati, because the Dharma that is taught by the Realized One has as its aim the abandonment of craving as a basis for cognition.”
While Vajrapāṇi, Lord of the Guhyakas, was giving this teaching, the minds of five hundred monks became liberated and two hundred bodhisattvas acquired an acceptance of the fact that things do not arise.
Bibliography
Primary Source Texts
’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.
*Tathāgataguhyanirdeśasūtra. Manuscript G10765. The Asiatic Society, Kolkata. [For an unpublished transcription of this manuscript, see Szántó 2021.]
Editions, Translations, and Other Sources
Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books, 2011. First published 1981.
Anesaki, Masaharu. “Docetism (Buddhist).” In The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 4, edited by James Hastings et al., 835–40. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1911.
Bendall, Cecil (1883). Catalogue of the Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———, ed. (1902). Çikshāsamuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhistic Teaching. Bibliotheca Buddhica I. St. Petersburg: Académie Impériale des Sciences.
Bendall, Cecil, and W. H. D. Rouse, trans. Śikṣā Samuccaya. London: John Murray, 1922.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (1978). “The Meaning of the Word ‘Tathāgata’ According to the Pāli Commentaries: Text and Introductory Essay.” Pali Buddhist Review 3.2: 65–83.
———, trans. (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom.
———, trans. (2012). The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, trans. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom, 1995.
Buswell, Robert E., Jr., and Donald S. Lopez, Jr., eds. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Cowell, Edward B. and Robert Alexander Neil, eds. The Divyāvadāna: A Collection of Early Buddhist Legends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1886.
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. The Play in Full (Lalitavistara, Toh 95). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2013.
Edgerton, Franklin. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit English Dictionary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953.
Gómez, Luis, and Paul Harrison, trans. Vimalakīrtinirdeśa: The Teaching of Vimalakīrti. Berkeley, CA: Mangalam, 2022.
Goodman, Charles. The Training Anthology of Śāntideva. London: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Hamano, Tetsunori 滨野哲敬. 如來秘密経の佛陀觀 [The Conception of the Buddha in the Nyoraihimitsu-kyō]. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 印度學 佛教學 研究第 38.1 (1987): 42–46.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīvsaṃgraha Collections. Beyond Boundaries 9. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021.
Hopkins, Edward Washburn. Epic Mythology. Strassburg: K. J. Trübner, 1915.
Ikuma, Hiromitsu 伊久間洋光 (2013). 『如来秘密経』の梵文写本について [On the Sanskrit Manuscript of the Nyoraihimitsu-kyō]. 印度學 佛教學 研究第 Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 61.2: 171–79.
———(2018). “Lalitavistara と『如来秘密経』の仏伝の対応関係” [On the Correspondence of the Lalitavistara with the Buddha’s Biography in the Nyoraihimitsu-kyō]. 印度學 佛教學 研究第 Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 67.1: 126–30.
———(2020).『如来秘密経』梵文写本における地名と民族名のリスト: 『大毘婆沙論』における並行説話との比較 [A List of the Place and Ethnic Names in the Sanskrit Manuscript of the Nyoraihimitsu-kyō: A Comparison with the Parallel Narrative in the *Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā]. 印度學 佛教學 研究第 Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 68.2: 101–5.
Jamspal, Lozang, et al., trans. The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra). New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2004.
Jones, J. J., trans. The Mahāvastu, Vol. 2. Sacred Books of the Buddhists. London: Pali Text Society, 1976.
Lalou, Marcel. Inventaire des manuscrits tibétains de Touen-houang: conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale (Fond Pelliot tibétain). Vol. 3. Paris: Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient, 1961.
Lamotte, Étienne (1966). “Vajrapāṇi en Inde.” In Mélanges de Sinologie offerts à Monsieur Paul Demiéville, 113–59. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
———(1970). Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa). Tome III: Chapitres XXXI-XLII. Louvain-la-neuve: Institute Orientaliste de la Université Catholique de Louvain.
———(1976). Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa). Tome IV: Chapitres XLII(suite)-XLVIII. Louvain-la-neuve: Institute Orientaliste de la Université Catholique de Louvain.
———(1981). Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa). Tome I: Chapitres I-XV. Louvain-la-neuve: Institute Orientaliste de la Université Catholique de Louvain.
———, trans. (1987). L’Enseignment de Vimalakīrti. Louvain-la-neuve: Institute Orientaliste de la Université Catholique de Louvain.
La Vallée Poussin, Louis de, ed. Mūlamadhyamakakārikās (Mādhyamikasūtras) de Nāgārjuna avec la Prasannapadā Commentaire de Candrakīrti. Bibliotheca Buddhica 4. St. Petersburg: Académie Impériale des Sciences, 1903.
Liland, Fredrik et al. Bodhisatvapiṭaka: A Critical Edition. Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region (STTAR). Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, forthcoming.
Lévi, Sylvain, ed. Mahāyāna-Sūtrālaṃkāra: Exposé de la Doctrine de Grand Vehicule. Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, 1907.
Lewis, Todd. Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal: Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.
Malalasekera, G. P. Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names. Vol. 1. London: John Murray, 1937.
Nanjio, Bunyiu, ed. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. Kyoto: Otani University Press, 1923.
Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology, trans. The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva (Toh 56). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023.
Pāsādika, Bhikkhu, trans. (1978a). “The Sūtrasamuccaya—An English Translation from the Tibetan Version of the Sanskrit Original (I).” Linh-Son publication d’études bouddhiques 2: 19–30.
———, trans. (1978b). “The Sūtrasamuccaya—Nāgārjuna’s Anthology of (Quotations from) Discourses: English Translation (III).” Linh-Son publication d’études bouddhiques 4: 26–33.
———, trans. (1981). “The Sūtrasamuccaya—Nāgārjuna’s Anthology of (Quotations from) Discourses: English Translation (XIII).” Linh-Son publication d’études bouddhiques 14: 20–33.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Radich, Michael. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra and the Emergence of Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 2015.
Shāstri, Hara Prasad. A Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Government Collection under the care of The Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. 1, Buddhist Manuscripts. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1917.
Shaw, Sarah. The Art of Listening: A Guide to the Early Teachings of Buddhism. Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 2021.
Shingan, Shaku. The Secrets of the Tathāgata: A Mahāyāna Sūtra. Kamakura: Shaku Shingan, 2021.
Silk, Jonathan A. “Serious Play: Recent Scholarship on the Lalitavistara.” Indo-Iranian Journal 65 (2022): 267-301.
Study Group on Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, ed. Vimalakīrtinirdeśa: Transliterated Sanskrit Text Collated with Tibetan and Chinese Translation. Tokyo: Taisho University Press, 2005.
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, trans. The Lankavatara Sutra: A Mahayana Text. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1932.
Szántó, Péter-Dániel. *Tathāgatācintyaguhyanirdeśasūtra: A formatted diplomatic transcript of the Sanskrit ms (The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, G10765). Version 1.0. 2021.
Thurman, Robert A. F., trans. The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, Toh 176). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2017.
Tucci, Giuseppe, ed. Minor Buddhist Texts, Part III: Third Bhāvanākrama. Serie Orientale Roma XLIII. Roma: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1971.
Tuladhar-Douglas, Will. Remaking Buddhism for Medieval Nepal. London: Routledge, 2014.
Vaidya, P. L., ed. Lalitavistara. 2nd Edition. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1987.
Walshe, Maurice, trans. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom, 1995.
Wang, Junqi, Meifang Zhang, Xiaofang Lü, Xin Song, Kawa Sherab Sangpo, and Dazhen. “A Preliminary Study on a Newly Discovered Sanskrit manuscript of Nāgārjuna’s Sūtrasamuccaya*.” Journal of Buddhist Studies 17 (2020): 59–88.
Watanabe, Shōgo. “Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā—VII Ekakṣaṇâbhisamayâdhikāraḥ (1).” Tōyō Daigaku Daigakuin Kiyō 27 (1990): 136–117.
Winternitz, Maurice. A History of Indian Literature, Vol II: Buddhist Literature and Jaina Literature. Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, 1933.
Zacchetti, Stefano. The Da zhidu lun 大智度論 (*Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa) and the History of the Larger Prajñāpāramitā. Hamburg: Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, 2021.
Zin, Monika. “Vajrapāṇi in the Narrative Reliefs.” In Migration, Trade and Peoples, Part 2: Gandharan Art, edited by Christine Fröhlich, 73–88. London: The British Academy, 2009.