Toh 125The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Gold Sūtra”

Summary

In this very brief sūtra, Venerable Ānanda asks the Buddha about the nature of the mind of awakening, the aspiration to attain the
awakening of a buddha for the benefit of all beings. The Buddha explains that the mind of awakening is like gold because it is
pure. He also teaches the analogy that just as a smith shapes gold into various forms, yet the nature of the gold itself does not
change, so too the mind of awakening manifests in various unique ways, yet the nature of the mind of awakening itself does not
change.

Acknowledgements

This sūtra was translated from Tibetan into English by Khenpo Kalsang Gyaltsen and Chodrungma Kunga Chodron. It was then edited and
introduced by the 84000 editorial team.

The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

Introduction

The Gold Sūtra presents a very brief but meaningful teaching on the mind of awakening, the
aspiration to attain the unsurpassed and perfect awakening of a buddha for the benefit of all beings. It consists of the
Buddha’s answer to a single question posed by Venerable Ānanda about how the mind of awakening should be viewed. The Buddha
declares that the mind of awakening is like gold because it is pure, and he gives the analogy that just as a smith may shape
gold into various forms, yet the nature of the gold itself does not change, so too the mind of awakening appears with various
unique attributes, yet the nature of the mind of awakening itself does not change. The Buddha then proclaims a single
four-line verse that succinctly articulates the nature of the mind of awakening and the way to practice it.

Gold is used as an analogy to illustrate the noble and precious nature of awakening itself in a number of canonical texts. Notably,
of the nine famous analogies set out in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra for the nature
of awakening or “buddha-nature” (tathāgatagarbha)
that is innate in sentient beings but concealed by different layers of
adventitious obscurations, at least two—a piece of gold that has been discarded by mistake in a heap of filth, and an
image cast in gold but still enclosed within its clay mold—explicitly mention
gold.
The analogy of pure gold whose nature does not change, despite being worked by a smith into different forms,
is also found in Vidyutprāpta’s Questions (Vidyutprāptaparipṛcchā,
Toh 64), but there illustrates the single nature of the dharmadhātu rather than that of
awakening. However, gold as an analogy for the mind of
awakening (bodhicitta), rather than for awakening itself, seems to be unique to the present text.

As far as we can tell, no Sanskrit or Chinese version of The Gold Sūtra exists. As there is no
colophon at the end of the sūtra, we have no information on when or by whom it was translated into Tibetan. The
sūtra is not listed in either of the two inventories of translations completed during the early, imperial period, and it appears to be found only in Kangyurs of
the Tshalpa line of transmission. There is a recent English translation of the sūtra, along with helpful notes, in Peter Skilling’s 2021
anthology, Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras.

The present translation is based on the version in the Degé (sde dge) Kangyur, with reference to the Comparative Edition (dpe sdur
ma).

The Translation

The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra

The Gold Sūtra

Homage to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was dwelling in the Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. At that time Venerable
Ānanda asked the Blessed One, “Blessed One, how should the mind of awakening be viewed?”

The Blessed One replied, “Venerable Ānanda, the mind of awakening should be viewed as being in nature like gold. Just as gold is pure by nature, so the mind of awakening is pure by nature. Just as a smith shapes gold into a multiplicity of forms, yet the
nature of the gold does not change, although the mind of awakening may appear to have a variety of unique attributes, ultimately
these never waver from the mind of awakening. Therefore, its nature does not change.”

Then the Blessed One proclaimed the following verse:

“The mind of awakening is pure.

Strive for the benefit of self and other.

Meditate on the insubstantial essence.

Be intent on what causes the birth of wisdom.”

The Blessed One spoke thus, and Venerable Ānanda, the entire retinue, and the world together with its gods, humans, asuras, and
gandharvas rejoiced and praised what the Blessed One had said.

This completes the noble Great Vehicle sūtra “The Gold Sūtra.”

Notes

Bibliography

Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park
jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ
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།