The Play in Full
Going to the Temple
Toh 95
Degé Kangyur, vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1.b–216.b
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Munivarman
- Yeshé Dé
Imprint
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2013
Current version v 4.48.25 (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
The Play in Full tells the story of how the Buddha manifested in this world and attained awakening, as perceived from the perspective of the Great Vehicle. The sūtra, which is structured in twenty-seven chapters, first presents the events surrounding the Buddha’s birth, childhood, and adolescence in the royal palace of his father, king of the Śākya nation. It then recounts his escape from the palace and the years of hardship he faced in his quest for spiritual awakening. Finally the sūtra reveals his complete victory over the demon Māra, his attainment of awakening under the Bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the formation of the very early saṅgha.
Acknowledgments
This text was translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche.
Cortland Dahl, Catherine Dalton, Hilary Herdman, Heidi Koppl, James Gentry, and Andreas Doctor translated the text from Tibetan into English. Andreas Doctor and Wiesiek Mical then compared the translations against the original Tibetan and Sanskrit, respectively. Finally, Andreas Doctor edited the translation and wrote the introduction.
The Dharmachakra Translation Committee would like to thank Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche for blessing this project, and Khenpo Sherap Sangpo for his generous assistance with the resolution of several difficult passages.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The generous sponsorship of 簡源震及家人江秀敏,簡暐如,簡暐丞 Chien YuanChen (Dharma Das) and his wife, daughter, and son for work on this sūtra is gratefully acknowledged.
Text Body
The Play in Full
Going to the Temple
Monks, on the very evening of the Bodhisattva’s birth, there were twenty thousand girls born among the ruling class, the priestly class, the merchants, and the householders, such as the landowners. All of them were offered to the Bodhisattva by their parents to serve and honor him. King Śuddhodana also gave twenty thousand girls to the Bodhisattva to serve and honor him. His friends, his ministers, his [118] kinfolk, and his blood relatives also offered twenty thousand girls to serve and honor the Bodhisattva. [F.63.a] Finally the members of ministerial assemblies also offered twenty thousand girls to serve and honor the Bodhisattva.
Monks, at that time the male and female elders of the Śākya clan gathered and said to King Śuddhodana, “King, please pay heed. The prince should now worship in the temple.”
King Śuddhodana replied, “Yes, it would be excellent for him to worship in this way. Therefore, let the city be decorated! Ornament the streets, crossroads, intersections, and marketplaces. Send away all the hunchbacks and all the blind, deaf, and mute people, as well as anyone who is deformed or crippled. Gather everything auspicious! Beat the drums of merit and ring the bells of auspiciousness. Ornament the gates of this excellent city. Play the most pleasant instruments, cymbals, and drums. Assemble all the local lords and gather the merchants, householders, ministers, gatekeepers, and all the local people. Prepare chariots for the girls. Procure brimming vases. Gather the priests who are experts in recitation. Ornately decorate the temples.”
Monks, everyone followed the commands issued by the king. Then King Śuddhodana went to his home and spoke to Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī, saying, “The prince is to pray in the temple. Ornament him well.”
Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī replied, “Of course,” and dressed the prince lavishly.
While the prince was being dressed, with a slight smile and no hint of annoyance, he spoke these pleasant words to his maternal aunt: “Mother, where are you taking me?”
She replied, “Son, I am taking you to the temple.” [F.63.b]
The prince then smiled, laughed, and spoke these verses to his maternal aunt:
Monks, once the main streets, crossroads, intersections, and markets had been richly ornamented, with praises and benedictions of all kinds posted around the city, a richly ornamented chariot was prepared for the prince in the inner courtyard. With all auspicious circumstances having been arranged in this manner, King Śuddhodana lifted the prince onto his lap. Surrounded by priests, townspeople, merchants, householders, ministers, local lords, gatekeepers, local people, friends, and kinfolk, they traveled through the richly ornamented roads, intersections, crossroads, and marketplaces, which were enveloped in the fragrant scent of incense and strewn with flower petals, filled with horses, elephants, chariots, and foot soldiers, with parasols, victory banners, and flags held aloft, and resounding with many instruments. At that time a hundred thousand gods led the Bodhisattva’s chariot. Many hundreds of millions of gods and maidens scattered flowers from the sky above and played cymbals.
Monks, King Śuddhodana, accompanied by the great royal procession, splendor, and ceremony, brought the prince to the temple. As soon as the Bodhisattva placed his right foot in the temple, [F.64.a] the insentient [120] statues of the gods, such as Śiva, Skanda, Nārāyaṇa, Kubera, Candra, Sūrya, Vaiśravaṇa, Śakra, Brahmā, and the guardians of the world, all stood up from their seats and prostrated at the Bodhisattva’s feet. Right then a hundred thousand gods and humans cried out in amazement and delight. The fine city of Kapilavastu trembled in six ways. A rain of divine flowers fell, and a hundred thousand divine instruments sounded without even being played. Then the various statues in the temple all returned to their seats and spoke these verses:
Monks, when the Bodhisattva entered the temple, three million two hundred thousand gods gave rise to the intention to attain unexcelled, perfect, and complete awakening. Monks, these are the circumstances and causes related to the Bodhisattva’s equanimity as he was brought to the temple.
This concludes the eighth chapter, on going to the temple. [121]
Colophon
Colophon to the Sanskrit Edition
Colophon to the Tibetan Translation
This was taught and translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, and Munivarman, and the translator-editor Bandé Yeshé Dé, who proofed and finalized the translation.
Bibliography
Source Texts
’phags pa rgya cher rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryalalitavistaranāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 95, Degé Kangyur vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1b–216b.
’phags pa rgya cher rol 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), 2006–2009, vol 46, pp. 3–434.
Foucaux, Phillipe Édouard. Rgya Tch’er Rol Pa ou Développement des Jeux, Contenant l’Histoire du Bouddha Çakya-mouni. Première Partie—Texte Tibétain. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1847.
Hokazono, Kōichi (1994). Raritavisutara no Kenkyu. Volume 1 [study of Lalitavistara, chs. 1–14]. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 1994.
———— (2019a). Raritavisutara no Kenkyu. Volume 2 [study of Lalitavistara, chs. 15–21]. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 2019.
———— (2019b). Raritavisutara no Kenkyu. Volume 3 [study of Lalitavistara, chs. 22–27]. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 2019.
Lefmann, Salomon. Lalita Vistara. Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1882.
Mitra, R. L. (1853–1877). The Lalita Vistara or Memoirs of the Early Life of S’a’kya Siñha. Bibliotheca Indica: A Collection of Oriental Works, Old Series, nos. 51, 73, 143, 144, 145, 237. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1853–1877.
Secondary Sources
Bays, Gwendolyn. The Voice of the Buddha, The Beauty of Compassion: The Lalitavistara Sutra. Tibetan Translation Series, vol. 2. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1983.
Foucaux, Phillipe Édouard (1848). Rgya Tch’er Rol Pa ou Développement des Jeux, Contenant l’Histoire du Bouddha Çakya-mouni: Traduit sur la version Tibétaine du Bkahhgyour, et revu sur l’original Sanscrit (Lalitavistara). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1848.
———— (1870). Étude sur le Lalita Vistara pour une édition critique du texte sanskrit, précédée d’ un coup d’oeil sur la publication des livres bouddhiques en Europe et dans l’Inde. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1870.
———— (1884). Le Lalitavistara, Développement des Jeux: l’histoire traditionnelle de la vie du Bouddha Çakyamuni. Première partie. Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. 6 Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1884.
———— (1892). Le Lalitavistara, Développement des Jeux: l’histoire traditionnelle de la vie du Bouddha Çakyamuni. Seconde partie: notes, variantes, et index. Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. 19. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1892.
Lefmann, Salomon (1874). Lalitavistara: Erzählung von dem Leben und der Lehre des Çâkya Simha. Berlin: Dümmler, 1874.
Lenz, Robert. “Analyse du Lalita-Vistara-Pourana, l’un des principaux ouvrages sacrés des Bouddhistes de l’Asie centrale, contenant la vie de leur prophète, et écrit en Sanscrit.” Bulletin Scientifique publié par l’Académie impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg I.7: 49–51; I.8: 57–63; I.9: 71–72; I.10: 75–78; I.11: 87–88; I.12: 92–96; I.13: 97–99. St. Petersburg: Académie impériale des sciences, 1836.
Miller, Robert. The Chapter on Schisms in the Saṅgha (Saṅghabhedavastu, Toh 1-17). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, forthcoming.
Mitra, R. L. (1881–1886). The Lalita Vistara or Memoirs of the Early Life of S’a’kya Siñha, Translated from the Original Sanskrit. Bibliotheca Indica: A Collection of Oriental Works, New Series, nos. 455, 473, 575. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1881–1886. Republished, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1998.
Silk, Jonathan A. “Serious Play: Recent Scholarship on the Lalitavistara.” Indo-Iranian Journal 65: 267–301. Leiden: Brill, 2022.
Vaidya, P. L. Lalitavistara. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts, vol. 1. Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1958.
Winternitz, Maurice (1927). “The Lalita-Vistara.” In A History of Indian Literature, Vol. 2, 249–56. 3rd ed. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1991.
Further Resources
Goswami, Bijoya. Lalitavistara. Bibliotheca Indica Series, vol. 320. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 2001.
Khosla, Sarla. Lalitavistara and the Evolution of Buddha Legend. New Delhi: Galaxy Publications, 1991.
Thomas, E. J. “The Lalitavistara and Sarvastivada.” Indian Historical Quarterly 16:2 (1940): 239–45.