The Questions of Gaṅgottarā
Toh 75
Degé Kangyur, vol. 43 (dkon brtsegs, ca), folios 222.a–225.b
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Bandé Yeshé Dé
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Table of Contents
Summary
In The Questions of Gaṅgottarā, a laywoman named Gaṅgottarā leaves her home in the city of Śrāvastī and visits the Buddha Śākyamuni in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. The Buddha asks her from where she has come, sparking a dialogue on the true nature of things. Among other things, they discuss the fact that, from the perspective of ultimate truth, all things, including Gaṅgottarā herself, are like magical creations, and thus no one comes or goes or pursues nirvāṇa. After their dialogue, the Buddha smiles. When Ānanda asks him why, he explains that a thousand tathāgatas of the past have already taught this discourse at this same location to a thousand different laywomen, all named Gaṅgottarā; and that through it they have all achieved nirvāṇa. The sūtra concludes with a brief explanation of the reasons why the present laywoman named Gaṅgottarā received this teaching and how it should be remembered in the future.
Acknowledgements
The initial draft was completed by Sophie McGrath and reviewed by Laura Goetz, who offered various suggestions. The translation was then revised and edited by David Fiordalis, who also expanded the introduction and the notes.
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
The Questions of Gaṅgottarā is a short but sophisticated dialogue that opens with a laywoman named Gaṅgottarā leaving her home in the city of Śrāvastī and going to visit the Buddha Śākyamuni, who is dwelling nearby in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. When she arrives, the Buddha asks her, “from where have you come?” and this question sparks a dialogue between them on the true nature of things. They discuss the fact that all things, including Gaṅgottarā herself, are like magical creations, and thus, from the perspective of ultimate truth, no one comes or goes or pursues nirvāṇa. They also discuss the implications of this idea for the ontological status of concepts found in basic Buddhist teaching, such as the five aggregates, dependent arising, rebirth in hells and heavens, even nirvāṇa itself. They then discuss some of the related implications for ethical themes, such as good and bad deeds, virtue, purity and impurity, and the correct practice of the path.
The sūtra is thus noteworthy not only for its teachings, but also for the fact that it features a woman as one of its main characters, and a laywoman at that—a laywoman who has the intellectual aptitude and fortitude to engage in a challenging philosophical discussion with the Buddha.1 Peter Skilling, who has also published a translation of this sūtra into English, compares it with the scene in The Teaching of Vimalakīrti wherein the goddess who lives in Vimalakīrti’s house engages Śāriputra in a sophisticated dialogue that is in some ways comparable to the one in this sūtra.2 At one point in that sūtra, however, the goddess magically transforms Śāriputra into a goddess to demonstrate her point that all things are like magical illusions. There is no such marvelous demonstration in this sūtra, unless we count the episode at the end wherein the gods produce divine flowers and sandalwood powders with which to worship the Buddha. However, that action does not seem intended to emphasize the idea that all things are like magical illusions. Additionally, the dialogue in the present sūtra is between the Buddha and a human woman, and the gender roles are the reverse of those found in The Teaching of Vimalakīrti, with the Buddha Śākyamuni in the teacher role and the laywoman Gaṅgottarā as the student.
After Gaṅgottarā’s discussion with the Buddha has concluded, he smiles. When Ānanda asks him why, the Buddha states that a thousand tathāgatas of the past have already given this same teaching at this same location in the past to a thousand different laywomen, all named Gaṅgottarā, and that all of these women practiced the path and achieved parinirvāṇa. Skilling points out the remarkable nature of this statement, which has the effect of emphasizing not only that many laywomen have received profound teachings from the Buddha but also that they have achieved nirvāṇa, the goal of the path.
Although the nirvāṇa that these women achieve is not the “unsurpassable and perfect awakening” of a buddha, but rather the “remainderless nirvāṇa” of a “worthy one” (arhat), there is no explicit claim made in the sūtra that this is somehow a lesser accomplishment. That it will be Gaṅgottarā’s future achievement is also suggested by the description of the light rays that issue from the Buddha’s smile, which the canonical version depicts as returning to disappear into the Buddha’s mouth. In other common descriptions of the Buddha’s smile, this indicates that the Buddha is giving a prediction of someone’s future awakening as a disciple (śrāvaka).3 In this way, the sūtra also combines two of the circumstances in which the Buddha smiles: he describes something that has happened in the same location in the past, and he gives a prediction of someone’s future awakening.
The strength and achievements of the laywoman Gaṅgottarā are also explicitly emphasized in the sūtra in another way. After the Buddha has smiled and given a brief explanation of how the sūtra should be remembered in the future, the narrator mentions a number of monks and nuns as being present in the audience, along with various gods and divine beings. These gods express wonder at the laywoman Gaṅgottarā of the present narrative and they praise her for her ability to converse with the Buddha without becoming weary. They explain this by saying that she has practiced virtue and the holy life for a long time and served many buddhas in the past, and that this is why she has now received this teaching. The sūtra concludes with the Buddha confirming what the gods have said and everyone rejoicing at the Buddha’s words.
There are no known extant Sanskrit witnesses to this sūtra, but translations of it, ostensibly made from Sanskrit manuscripts, are preserved in the Tibetan Kangyur and the Chinese Tripiṭaka. In both the Tibetan and Chinese canons, the sūtra is classified as part of the collection of sūtras known as The Great Heap of Jewels (Mahāratnakūṭa).4 The Chinese translation has been attributed to Bodhiruci, who was active in the early eighth century and who may have been responsible for compiling the Ratnakūṭa collection as we know it today.5 A translation of the Chinese is also available in English.6 The colophon to the canonical Tibetan translation states that the sūtra was translated by Dānaśīla and Jinamitra, along with Yeshé Dé, all of whom flourished in the late eighth or early ninth century. Its relatively early date of translation into Tibetan is also supported by its inclusion in the Denkarma (lhan kar ma), the catalog of Tibetan translations compiled in the ninth century.7 It is not mentioned in the Phangthangma (’phang thang ma).
No citations or references to this sūtra have as yet been discovered in other canonical works of Buddhist literature, as Skilling has noted. Another complete Tibetan translation of this sūtra can be found among the Dunhuang manuscripts.8 A comparison reveals that the Tibetan translation in this Dunhuang manuscript would seem to be quite closely related to the Chinese translation by Bodhiruci. In fact, Jonathan Silk has even argued that it was made directly from the Chinese translation.9 The precise relationship between all three translations requires more detailed analysis, but for the purposes of further comparison and the reader’s edification, we have included translations and transcriptions of many passages from the Dunhuang manuscript in the notes to our present translation from the Kangyur.
For the main text of the canonical Tibetan, we have based our translation on the edition in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the Pedurma Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the edition in the Stok Palace Kangyur (stog pho brang).
Text Body
The Questions of Gaṅgottarā
The Translation
Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas!
Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in Śrāvastī, in Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. At that time a laywoman named Gaṅgottarā was living in the great city of Śrāvastī.10
One day, the laywoman Gaṅgottarā left Śrāvastī and went to Prince Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park.11 When she arrived, she bowed down before the Blessed One with her head at his feet, and then she sat to one side.
Once she had sat down, the Blessed One asked the laywoman Gaṅgottarā a question, even though he already knew the answer:12 “From where have you just come, Gaṅgottarā?”
“Blessed One,” Gaṅgottarā replied, “if someone were to ask a magically created being, ‘From where have you just come?’ what would be the answer?” [F.222.b]
“Gaṅgottarā,” responded the Blessed One, “a magically created being neither stands nor sits. It does not lie down. It does not come or go. It does not die. It is not born. So, how could one declare that it has come from some place?”
“Blessed One, are all things like magical creations?” asked Gaṅgottarā.
“It is so, Gaṅgottarā.”13
“Blessed One,” she responded, “if all things are like magical creations, why do you ask, ‘Laywoman Gaṅgottarā, from where have you just come?’ ”
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One answered, “since magically created beings14 do not go to the lower realms, and they do not go to the higher realms, and they do not go to parinirvāṇa, do you, too, Gaṅgottarā, not go to the lower realms, or go to the higher realms, or go to parinirvāṇa?”
“Blessed One,” Gaṅgottarā replied, “if I truly saw the laywoman Gaṅgottarā as being different in nature from a magical creation, then it would not be appropriate for me to compare myself to a magically created being by saying, ‘The laywoman Gaṅgottarā does not go to the lower realms, does not go to the higher realms, and does not go to parinirvāṇa.’ Nevertheless, Blessed One, I do not see myself as being different in nature from a magical creation.15 Since I do not see myself in that way, Blessed One, how can I declare in this way that the laywoman Gaṅgottarā goes to the lower realms, goes to the higher realms, or goes to parinirvāṇa?
“Even with this being the case, Blessed One, it is in accordance with the presence of mental straying, mental conceit, mental agitation, and vain imagining that one thinks the thoughts, ‘I go to the lower realms,’ ‘I go to the higher realms,’ and [F.223.a] ‘I go to parinirvāṇa.’16 Blessed One, the state of nirvāṇa17 is such that it never goes to the lower realms, it never goes to the higher realms, and it never goes to parinirvāṇa. The laywoman Gaṅgottarā has a similar state, Blessed One.”18
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One responded, “have you not set out for parinirvāṇa?”19
“Blessed One,” Gaṅgottarā replied, “if someone were to ask what is not born, ‘Have you not set out for parinirvāṇa?’ what would be the answer?”
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One said, “since the phrase ‘what is not born’ is a designation for nirvāṇa, what would be the answer?”20
“Blessed One,” Gaṅgottarā replied, “are all things the same as nirvāṇa?”
“It is so, Gaṅgottarā,” he said. “All things are the same as nirvāṇa.”
“If all things are the same as nirvāṇa, then why, Blessed One, do you ask, ‘Gaṅgottarā, have you not set out for parinirvāṇa?’ Blessed One, if someone were to ask a magically created being, ‘Have you not set out for parinirvāṇa?’ what would be the answer?”21
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One responded, “this question does not have an objective basis.”22
“Do the words that the Blessed One has spoken have some connection to an objective basis?”23 asked Gaṅgottarā.
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One answered, “even though this question does not have an objective basis, nevertheless, asking it will be of great benefit to the noble sons and noble daughters who are gathered here in this assembly.24 Why is this? When the Tathāgata had not awakened directly and completely even to what is called the true nature of things, Gaṅgottarā, how much less would there be a thing arising from it that remains in parinirvāṇa?”25 [F.223.b]
“If the Tathāgata had not awakened directly and completely even to what is called the true nature of things, and even less would there be a thing arising from it,” she replied, “how did the Blessed One properly plant roots of virtue in order to achieve awakening?”26
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One responded, “a root of virtue is not something that has an objective basis. During the time when the Bodhisattva was planting the roots of virtue, he never let go of inconceivability. During the time when he was not planting them, he also did not let go of inconceivability.”27
“With respect to the inconceivable, Blessed One, why is the inconceivable called the inconceivable?”28 asked Gaṅgottarā.
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One answered, “this teaching is not to be attained by the mind; it cannot be attained by the mind.29 Why is this? According to this teaching, when not even the mind itself has an objective basis, how much less so would the things that arise from the mind?30 The mind’s lack of an objective basis, Gaṅgottarā, is what is called the continuous stream of the inconceivable.31 That which is the continuous stream of the inconceivable is not attained. It is not fully realized. It is not known. It is not something to be experienced directly. It is not something to be attained. It is not afflicted. It is not purified. Why is this? It is because, Gaṅgottarā, the Tathāgata knows with certainty that all things are like space. All things, Gaṅgottarā, are unobstructed, just like space.”32
“Blessed One,” Gaṅgottarā asked, “if all things are unobstructed, just like space, then why does the Blessed One use verbal expressions like ‘form,’ ‘feeling,’ ‘conception,’ ‘formation,’ and ‘consciousness,’ as well as verbal expressions like ‘the aggregates,’ ‘the elements,’ and ‘the sense spheres’; ‘dependent arising’; ‘the intoxicated’ and ‘what is free of intoxication’; ‘the afflicted’ and ‘the purified’; and ‘saṃsāra’ and ‘nirvāṇa’?”33 [F.224.a]
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One replied, “just as one uses the expression ‘self’ even though the self has no objective basis at all, in precisely the same way, Gaṅgottarā, I use the expression ‘form,’ even though form has no objective basis at all. In the same way, too, I use the expressions ‘feeling,’ ‘conception,’ ‘formation,’ and ‘consciousness,’ even though consciousness has no objective basis at all. I also use the expressions ‘the aggregates,’ ‘the elements,’ and ‘the sense spheres’; ‘dependent arising’; ‘the intoxicated’ and ‘what is free of intoxication’; ‘the afflicted’ and ‘the purified’; and ‘saṃsāra’ and ‘nirvāṇa,’ even though nirvāṇa has no objective basis at all.34
“Gaṅgottarā, just as a mirage does not produce water and has no objective basis at all, in precisely the same way, Gaṅgottarā, I use the expression ‘form,’ even though form has no objective basis at all. In the same way, too, I use the expressions ‘feeling,’ ‘conception,’ ‘formation,’ and ‘consciousness,’ even though consciousness has no objective basis at all. I also use the expressions ‘the aggregates,’ ‘the elements,’ ‘the sense spheres’; ‘dependent arising’; ‘the intoxicated’ and ‘what is free of intoxication’; ‘the afflicted’ and ‘the purified’; and ‘saṃsāra’ and ‘nirvāṇa,’ even though ultimately not one of these things exists or has any objective basis.35
“One who practices the holy life without holding on to the Dharma as the final word, Gaṅgottarā, dwells in the practice of the holy life according to the well-stated Dharma and Discipline.36 [F.224.b] There are some who have self-conceit, Gaṅgottarā, who practice the holy life while thinking that their abiding by it has an objective basis, and I say that their practice of the holy life is not completely purified.37 When they hear a profound teaching such as this one on cutting off the continuous stream, those who do not practice the holy life with complete purity become terrified, and they do not become free from birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering, distress, and conflict; they receive their share of suffering, I say.38
“Whether now or after I have passed away,39 Gaṅgottarā, there will be those who teach this kind of profound teaching on cutting off the continuous stream,40 and ignorant people will come to conceive the idea that they have the intent to kill them. Due to their misunderstanding, these ignorant people thus come to generate a homicidal hatred and go to the lower realms.”41
“ ‘Cutting off the continuous stream, cutting off the continuous stream,’ ” Gaṅgottarā replied. “Blessed One, what is it that you call cutting off the continuous stream?”42
“Gaṅgottarā,” the Blessed One answered, “this teaching does not cut off the continuous stream; it is not the disintegration of it; it is not the destruction of it. For this reason, it should be called cutting off the continuous stream. It should also be called the ultimate endpoint. It should be called the continuous stream of the inconceivable.”43
Then, at that moment, the Blessed One displayed a smile. Various multicolored rays of light issued from the Blessed One’s mouth in such a way that blue, yellow, red, white, rose madder, crystalline, and silvery rays of light spread throughout endless, limitless world systems, reaching as far as the Brahmā realm, and then they returned and disappeared into the Blessed One’s mouth.44
At that point, the venerable Ānanda draped his upper robe over one shoulder, knelt on his right knee, and then, joining his palms together in a gesture of respect toward the Blessed One, he paid homage to the Blessed One [F.225.a] and said this: “Blessed One, the tathāgatas do not display their smile without a reason. What is the cause? What is the condition? Why have you displayed your smile?”45
“Ānanda,” the Blessed One replied, “I have direct knowledge of the fact46 that, in this very place, one thousand tathāgatas have taught this formulation of the Dharma, always starting with a single laywoman whose name was always Gaṅgottarā. All those laywomen went forth and achieved parinirvāṇa—that is, the state of parinirvāṇa without any remaining aggregates.”47
The venerable Ānanda then asked the Blessed One, “What is the name of this formulation of the Dharma, Blessed One? How should it be remembered?”
“Ānanda,” the Blessed One replied, “you may call this formulation of the Dharma Stainless. Remember it as the one you may call Stainless.”48
When this Dharma discourse was taught, the minds of seven hundred monks and four hundred nuns were freed from the intoxicants and did not grasp any more. Then the gods of the desire realm and the gods of the form realm magically created divine flowers and sandalwood powder and strewed them over the Blessed One while saying, “It is marvelous that such a laywoman lives in the city of Śrāvastī! Not only does she converse with the Tathāgata but also her body does not become weary from it. In the very same way, this laywoman Gaṅgottarā has served victors of the past, generated roots of virtue, practiced virtue for a long time, practiced the holy life for a long time, and venerated many buddhas!”49
“So it is, divine ones,” the Blessed One said. “For a long time, she has served victors of the past, generated roots of virtue, [F.225.b] and practiced the holy life.”50
After the Blessed One had spoken these words, the laywoman Gaṅgottarā was delighted, and so was the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas, and they rejoiced at what the Blessed One had said.
Thus concludes “The Chapter of the Questions of Gaṅgottarā,” the thirty-first of the one hundred thousand chapters of the formulation of the Dharma known as “The Noble Great Heap of Jewels.”51
Colophon
Translated, edited, corrected according to revised terminology, and finalized by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla, along with the chief editor and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé and others.
Notes
Bibliography
’phags pa gang gA’i mchog gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryagaṅgottaraparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 75, Degé Kangyur vol. 43 (dkon brtsegs, ca), folios 222.a–225.b.
’phags pa gang gA’i mchog gis zhus 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. 43, pp. 638–49.
Pelliot tibétain 89. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Accessed through The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online.
’phags pa gang ga’i mchog gis zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. Stok Palace Kangyur vol. 39 (dkon brtsegs, ca), folios 373.b–378.b.
Chang, Garma C. C., ed. A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras: Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra. 1983. Reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.
Fiordalis, David V. “Buddhas and Body Language: The Literary Trope of the Buddha’s Smile.” In The Language of the Sūtras: Essays in Honor of Luis Gómez, edited by Natalie Gummer, 59–103. Berkeley: Mangalam Press, 2021.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Schuster, Nancy. “Changing the Female Body: Wise Women and the Bodhisattva Career in Some Mahāratnakūṭasūtras.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 4, no. 1 (1981): 24–69.
Skilling, Peter. Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2021.
Silk, Jonathan A. “Out of the East: Tibetan Scripture Translations from Chinese.” Journal of Tibetology 9 (Beijing, 2014): 29–36.
Silk, Jonathan A. “Chinese Sūtras in Tibetan Translation: A Preliminary Survey.” Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology 22 (Tokyo, 2019): 227–46.
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.
afflicted
- kun nas nyon mongs pa
- ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ།
- —
Bandé Yeshé Dé
- ye shes sde
- ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།
- —
dependent arising
- rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ།
- pratītyasamutpāda AO
higher realms
- mtho ris
- མཐོ་རིས།
- —
lower realms
- ngan song
- ངན་སོང་།
- —
parinirvāṇa
- yongs su mya ngan las ’das pa
- ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།
- parinirvāṇa AO
Prince 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
state of nirvāṇa
- mya ngan las ’das pa’i dbyings
- མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་དབྱིངས།
- nirvāṇadhātu AO