The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva
Introduction

The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva1 is the twelfth and lengthiest among the texts in the Great Heap of Jewels (Mahāratnakūṭa) section of the Tibetan Kangyur, where it makes up nearly an entire volume. It is an extensive presentation of the view and conduct of the bodhisatva, the ideal Mahāyāna practitioner. The title, Bodhisatva­piṭaka, can also be translated as The Basket of the Bodhisatvas, implying that it represents a basket (piṭaka) of teachings separate from the traditional three‍—Sūtra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma‍—distinguishing the path of the bodhisatva from the lesser path of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.

The first chapter opens with the Buddha traveling through the kingdom of Magadha, ending up at Vulture’s Peak in Rājagṛha. There he is approached by the merchant Bhadrapāla and five hundred other householders who have heard about the Buddha and want to meet him and ask his advice. Having praised him, they ask the Buddha why he became an ascetic, and in reply the Buddha describes the various things one has to suffer in saṃsāra, such as the ten afflictions, the ten situations, and so forth, explaining that he understood the futility of a life invested in these things and therefore left the householder life to become a renunciant. He also elaborates on the twelve links of dependent origination, as well as the empty nature of all experiences, and admonishes the householders to give up their desires. The householders are so inspired by the Buddha’s words that they all become renunciants.

In the second chapter we are presented with the more miraculous side of the Buddha’s abilities. A yakṣa named Kimbhīra who is living in Rājagṛha makes various offerings to the Buddha together with a large group of yakṣas, and as a reply the Buddha displays a smile, followed by a miraculous display of light. This is an indication that the Buddha is making a prophecy that someone in the audience will attain complete awakening in the future. Ānanda asks the Buddha whom the prophecy concerns, and in reply the Buddha explains the course Kimbhīra will take on his way to complete awakening in the future. The scene is then prepared for the Buddha to commence his teaching.

The third chapter starts with Śāriputra asking the Buddha about the distinguishing characteristic of a bodhisatva, what it is that makes them special. The Buddha responds that it is bodhicitta, the mind of awakening, that makes them special, and he goes on to explain what this entails, elaborating on the bodhisatva’s insight and the way they will relate to their surroundings.

In chapter 4 the Buddha explains the ten ways a bodhisatva will perceive a tathāgata‍—as having an inconceivable tathāgata body, voice, knowledge, radiance, morality, and concentration, magical abilities, power, confidence, great compassion, and unique buddha qualities‍—and these are elaborated on in great detail.

Chapter 5 presents the setting that frames the main section of the discourse. The Buddha tells Śāriputra about the Tathāgata Mahāskandha and his encounter with the prince Vīryacarita, who is later revealed to have been the Buddha in one of his former existences. This chapter also presents Mahāskandha’s teaching to Vīryacarita on the four immeasurables.

The following chapters (6–11) present the six perfections and the four methods for bringing people together.

The main literary device in the text, as in much of Buddhist literature, is the list. Typically, the Buddha starts off by posing a rhetorical question to Śāriputra about the topic at hand, and he then answers his own question by stating that the particular phenomenon or issue in question can be divided into a certain number of elements or factors. Apparently for stylistic and perhaps mnemonic reasons, numerical consistency is maintained. A particularly frequent number in this text is ten, and in chapter 1 we see that every list presented is given a tenfold division, even when this is not the number of elements the particular list usually contains, as in the case of the ten kinds of error, which are the opposite of the tenfold, but more commonly the eightfold, noble path. Another recurrent device is to say that a particular topic can be divided into one part, two parts, three parts, and so forth, illustrating the variety of ways it can be analyzed.

The Buddha makes several references to various incidents in the past to illustrate his teachings, some of which concern his own previous lives. In a lengthy passage in chapter 9 dealing with vigor we hear of the two brothers Samvara (Disciplined) and Samvarasthita (Firm Discipline), sons of the merchant Suvicaya. The two brothers happen to meet the Tathāgata Abhyudgata, and being very impressed by him they develop faith and vow to follow the training of the bodhisatva. The vigor with which they approached the practice throughout many lifetimes is held up as an example of what is needed to traverse the bodhisatva path, and the fact that vigor is the topic discussed at greatest length in the text could be seen as an indication of the particular importance perseverance and the perfection of vigor play in the quest to become a successful bodhisatva.

The earliest Chinese translation available, made by Xuanzang in the seventh century ᴄᴇ, presents the last section of the text, following the presentation of the perfection of wisdom, as a separate chapter called Da zi zai tian shou ji (大自在天授記 , The Prediction of Maheśvara). This is, however, not the case in any of the other text witnesses and has therefore not been followed here.

After being presented with the four methods for bringing people together, which concludes the teaching given by the Tathāgata Mahāskandha to the prince Vīryacarita, the Buddha points out that the Tathāgata Mahāskandha did not make a prophecy about his future attainment of complete awakening. Later, he reiterates, when the Buddha, in the guise of a merchant named Suprajña, met and paid homage to the Tathāgata Ratnāṅga, he still did not receive a prophecy. Finally, we get the story of how the Tathāgata Dīpaṅkara appeared in the world, and how the Buddha as the apprentice brahmin Megha met him and made heartfelt and lavish offerings to him. Megha consequently receives the prophecy from Dīpaṅkara that he will become a tathāgata, arhat, fully accomplished buddha by the name of Śākyamuni. The Buddha addresses the question of why it was only then, in the presence of the Tathāgata Dīpaṅkara, that the prophecy came, explaining that although there was not a single act of goodness that he had not engaged in while on the bodhisatva path, it was only then, in the presence of Dīpaṅkara, that he realized the sameness of all phenomena and that his practice became free from attributes. Such a practice, he goes on, is what is laid out in the cycle of teachings contained in The Collected Teachings on the Bodhisatva, and any bodhisatva who wishes to receive a similar prophecy should therefore apply themselves to the teachings contained therein.

This, then, is the core message of the discourse. Although the practice a bodhisatva should engage in is laid out in meticulous detail, we are reminded again and again of the fact that the practices of the bodhisatva, although a necessary step on the way, are only provisional, a means to an end, and that one should not get stuck by investing the practice with any notion that it possesses a true reality, that there is a real self who is engaging in the practice. For, as the Buddha says, “One who does not cling to the idea of a self does not cling to the idea of morality. One who does not cling to the idea of morality does not violate the training, and as he does not violate his training, neither will he violate his morality, although he will still not exaggerate its importance.”

For the present translation we have mainly relied on the complete and unique Sanskrit manuscript of the Bodhisatva­piṭaka that was recently discovered, as well as on the Degé and Peking (Qianlong) editions of the Tibetan translation made by Surendrabodhi, Śīlendrabodhi, and Dharmatāśīla in the ninth century. The Sanskrit manuscript probably dates from the tenth century, and an edition of this is to be published in the near future.2 Concerning the Tibetan text witnesses, it has been shown3 that there are two main branches in the transmission of the Tibetan translation that exhibit consistent differences in terminology and style, and as Degé and Peking are representatives of these two, we have chosen to use them as our main sources for the Tibetan text. It has been noted in the translation when any of these three main textual sources disagree to a considerable extent. We have also consulted the two Chinese translations available in the Chinese canon, those by Xuanzang (645 ᴄᴇ) and Dharmarakṣa (1018–58 ᴄᴇ), when needed for clarification. We have also consulted the translation of the eleventh chapter by Pagel (1995), together with his considerations, as well as the translation of the Akṣayamati­nirdeśa­sūtra by Braarvig (1996), a text in which we find many sections that are identical to ones found in the Bodhisatva­piṭaka.

Recently, fragments of two manuscripts of the Bodhisatva­piṭaka have been identified in the Schøyen Collection, one dating from the fifth–sixth century,4 and one probably dating from the second–third century, the latter written in the Kharoṣṭhī script.5 Although the Bodhisatva­piṭaka was little quoted in the śāstra literature, the relative “abundance” of older text witnesses gives us a clue to the greater importance it played in the early Mahāyāna period.