Toh 171The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Questions of an Old Lady”

Summary

This sūtra contains teachings given by the Buddha to a 120-year-old woman in the city of Vaiśalī. Upon
meeting the Buddha, she asks him questions concerning the four stages of life, the aggregates, the elements,
and the faculties. In response, the Buddha gives her a profound teaching on emptiness, using beautifully
crafted examples to illustrate his point.

After hearing these teachings her doubts are dispelled and she is freed from clinging to the perception
of a self. Ānanda asks the Buddha why he has given such profound teachings to this woman. The Buddha reveals
that the woman has been his mother five hundred times in previous lifetimes and that he had generated the root
of virtue for her to become enlightened. Because of her own strong aspirations, after dying, she would be born
in the buddhafield of Sukhāvatī, and after sixty-eight thousand eons she would finally become the buddha
Bodhyaṅgapuṣpakara.

Acknowledgments

This sūtra was translated from Tibetan into English under the supervision of Khenpo Ngawang Jorden by
Venerable Jampa Losal and the laywoman YangDol Tsatultsang, members of the Sakya Pandita Translation Group
(International Buddhist Academy Division), Kathmandu.

This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words
of the Buddha.

Introduction

Considering the cultural norms of the time, the fact that the teaching contained in this sūtra was
given entirely to a laywoman and, moreover, to a very old and impoverished laywoman, makes it stand
apart.

The setting of this text is Vaiśalī, the ancient capital of the Licchavis and of the Vṛji
confederacy of which the Licchavi republic was a member. The old lady, whose name we are never told, asks
the Buddha such profound questions that Ānanda realizes this is no ordinary woman but one whose wisdom
comes from merit collected in past lifetimes. As it turns out, the Buddha reveals that she has been his
mother for five hundred lifetimes.

The main body of the text, which consists of the Buddha’s teachings in answer to the old lady’s
questions, is an explanation of emptiness. To put it briefly, the Buddha says no phenomenon arises of its
own accord. Neither does any phenomenon give rise to any other phenomenon. All phenomena arise owing to
their dependence upon collections of causes and conditions. Hence, there is no independent phenomenon,
though we may use terms to indicate various phenomena as if they were independent. After the Buddha’s
teaching the old lady realizes this profound truth. The Buddha prophesies that she herself will one day
become a buddha. In earlier lifetimes he had planted roots of virtue and made strong aspirations for her
to do so.

The following modern works should be mentioned. Frye (1979) provides us with an English translation
from the Mongolian version of the sūtra. Research on the date and translator attributions of the Chinese
versions is to be found in Nattier (2007). Durt (2005) discusses the theme of the mahallikā (“old lady”) and the three Chinese versions (Taishō 559, 560, 561)
of the Mahallikāparipṛcchā. Most recently, Peter Skilling (2021) has included a
translation of the sūtra and some helpful notes on it in his collection Questioning the Buddha: A Selection of Twenty-Five Sutras.

There is no Sanskrit version extant. The primary Tibetan text used for the present translation was
the version in the Degé (sde dge) Kangyur, versions in the other
Kangyurs being also compared. The colophon of the sūtra states that it was translated under the guidance
of the abbots Jinamitra and Dānaśīla by the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé (ye
shes sde), from which we can conclude that this text must have been translated from Sanskrit
to Tibetan in the early ninth century ce during the first major phase of the translation of Buddhist
texts into Tibetan.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The Questions of an Old Lady

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. When the Bhagavān was traveling in the land of Vṛji, he went to the
great city of Vaiśālī, together with a large saṅgha of 1,250 bhikṣus and a
vast number of bodhisattva mahāsattvas. At that time, he came across an old woman from the city gathering
grass in the countryside. She was decrepit and had reached the end of her lifespan, being 120
years old.

The woman saw the Bhagavān coming from afar—handsome, inspiring, with senses tamed, mind tamed,
endowed with supreme discipline and serenity, guarded, faultless, senses controlled, pure and clear like
the sea, unclouded, upright like a golden sacrificial post, radiant with splendor clear and distinct,
wonderfully adorned with the thirty-two signs of a great being. When she saw him, faith grew in her mind.
Then, full of devotion, she approached the Bhagavān, bowed her head at his feet,
circumambulated the Bhagavān three times, and sat to one side.

Bowing with her palms together in the direction of the Bhagavān, the woman then asked him, “O
Bhagavān, where does birth come from? Where does aging come from? Where do they go? O Bhagavān, where does
sickness come from? Where does death come from? Where do they go? O Bhagavān, where does form come from?
Where do sensation, notions, formative factors, and consciousness come from? Where do they go?
O Bhagavān, where does the earth element come from? Where do the water element, the fire element, the wind
element, the space element, and the element of consciousness come from? Where do they go? O Bhagavān, where
does the eye come from? Where do the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind come from? Where do
they go?”

The Bhagavān replied, “Sister, birth does not come from anywhere. Aging does not come from
anywhere. They do not go anywhere. Sister, sickness does not come from anywhere. Death does not come from
anywhere. They do not go anywhere. Sister, form does not come from anywhere. Sensation, notions,
formative factors, and consciousness do not come from anywhere. They do not go anywhere.
Sister, the earth element does not come from anywhere. The water element, the fire element, the wind
element, the space element, and the element of consciousness do not come from anywhere. They do not go
anywhere. Sister, the eye does not come from anywhere. The ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the
mind do not come from anywhere. They do not go anywhere.

“Sister, it is as follows: As an analogy, a fire arises based on a stick to rub with, a stick to
rub on, and also a person’s effort to generate it. That fire, moreover, once it has burnt the grass
and wood, will have no more causes and will die. Sister, where do you think the fire comes from and where
does it go?”

She answered, “O Bhagavān, that fire comes into being owing to the power of a collection of
causes. It ceases and dies when it lacks the collection of causes.”

“Sister,” said the Bhagavān, “likewise, all phenomena come into being owing to
the power of a collection. They cease and die when they lack the collection. Whatever the phenomena, they
do not come from anywhere, nor do they go anywhere. Sister, it is as follows: although the eye
consciousness arises based upon the eye and form, the eye consciousness does not have a producer, nor
anything that makes it cease. Nowhere is it brought together at all. The aggregates do not come from
anywhere, nor do they go anywhere. When one has accumulated karma through the conditions of the
consciousnesses, the fruits manifest as the results of three types in the three
realms. That fruit is empty too. It has no coming. It has no going. No one makes it arise. It is not
stopped by anybody. Sister, all phenomena have stopped due to their very natures.

“Likewise, although the mental consciousness arises based upon the ear and sound, the nose and
smell, the tongue and taste, the body and touch, and the mind and phenomena, the mental consciousness does not have a producer nor has it anything that makes it cease.
Nowhere is it brought together at all.
The aggregates do not come from anywhere, nor do they go anywhere either. When one has accumulated karma
through the condition of mental consciousness, the fruits manifest as the results of three types in the
three realms. That fruit is empty too. It has no coming. It has no going. No one makes it arise. It is not
stopped by anybody. Sister, all phenomena are inherently stopped.

“Sister, it is as follows: As an analogy, the sound of a drum arises based on wood, hide, and a
stick, and also on a person’s effort to make it arise. The past sound of that drum was empty, the future
sound will be empty, and the sound that arises at present is empty. The sound does not dwell in the wood,
neither does it dwell in the hide, nor does it dwell in the stick, nor does it dwell in the person’s hand.
However, because of these conditions, it is termed sound. That which is termed sound is also empty. It has
no coming. It has no going. No one makes it arise. It is not stopped by anybody. Sister, all phenomena are
inherently stopped.

“Sister, likewise, all phenomena depend solely on conditions, that is, ones such as ignorance,
craving, karma, and consciousness. When these latter phenomena are present, the terms death and birth are
designated. That which is designated death and birth is also empty. It has no
coming. It has no going. No one makes it arise. It is not stopped by anybody. Sister, all phenomena are
inherently stopped.

“Sister, in this way, whoever understands the nature of a drum’s sound well also understands
emptiness well. Whoever understands emptiness well, understands nirvāṇa well. Whoever understands nirvāṇa
well has no attachment to any entity, and despite designating conventional things with all sorts of
terms—‘this is mine,’ or ‘that is me,’ or ‘sentient being,’ or ‘life force,’ or ‘living being,’ or ‘man,’
or ‘person,’ or ‘born of Manu,’ or ‘son of Manu,’ or ‘agent,’ or ‘inciter of action,’ or ‘appropriator,’
or ‘discarder’—they teach Dharma without attachment to these. They teach Dharma well. They teach the final
reality. They teach the final reality well.

“Sister, it is as follows: An artist or an artist’s apprentice spreads various paints on a canvas
that has been thoroughly cleaned, or on a flat piece of wood or on the surface of a wall that has been
wiped clean. He paints with ease whatever bodily shape he might wish, such as the features of a man’s
physical form, the features of a woman’s physical form, the features of an elephant’s physical form, the
features of a horse’s physical form, or the features of a donkey’s physical form, with complete limbs,
parts of limbs, and all the sense faculties. Well executed though the painting may be, it does not involve
any phenomenon at all being transferred from the artist’s hand or mind to the physical form depicted; and
yet we designate that form as a result of those conditions. That which is designated form is also empty.
It has no coming. It has no going. No one makes it arise. It is not stopped by anybody. Sister, all
phenomena are inherently stopped.

“Sister, it is likewise when there are meritorious formative factors. That is to say, although
bodies conducive to merit might result among gods and humans, in that case not even an atom is
transferred from this world to the world beyond. However, due to the formative factors, there are various kinds of rebirths. They are represented as physical bodies with
their bases of cognition.

“It is likewise when there are demeritorious formative factors. That is to say,
although bodies that are not meritorious result among hell beings, or in the animal state, or in the
world of the Lord of Death, or among the demigods, not even an atom is transferred in such a case from
this world to the world beyond. However, due to the formative factors there are various kinds of rebirths.
They are understood to be physical forms with their bases of cognition.

“Sister, it is as follows: As an analogy, a vast gathering of clouds arises because of the
nāga-power of the nāgas, and when those huge nets of clouds cover the
earth they let fall a heavy deluge of rain. After the heavy deluge of rain has fallen, the hills and the
valleys are quenched. When the hills and valleys are quenched, the rain later subsides. But these things
do not originate from the nāgas’ bodies or minds. The nāgas produced the vast gathering of clouds by
virtue of the nāga-power of nāgas alone.

“Sister, it is likewise when there are meritorious formative factors, that is to say, when
meritorious bodies result among gods or humans. It is likewise, too, when there are demeritorious
formative factors. That is to say, although bodies that are not meritorious result among hells beings or
in the animal state or the world of the Lord of Death or among the demigods, in such cases the activity of
the formative factor is empty, the agent of the formative factor is empty, and the fruits of the formative
factor are also empty. Sister, when there are formative factors for remaining static, consciousness will
reincarnate among the beings of the formless realms. That on account of which the consciousness
reincarnates among beings of the formless realms is empty, and the consciousness that reincarnates
among the beings of the formless realms is empty too. Why is this so? Sister, it is because all
phenomena are empty of essence. Even so, phenomena are designated. The learned are not attached to them. As
they have no attachment they do not dispute. Having no disputes is the supreme quality of the religious
mendicant.”

The woman said, “Since the Bhagavān has taught the profound Dharma in this
way, O Bhagavān, I, too, have penetrated these teachings with the eye of wisdom and will never be of two
minds about them again. I have no doubts. O Bhagavān, earlier, as I hadn’t yet heard these teachings, I did
have doubts. Now I am old, I am decrepit, I suffer, I am poor, I have no protector, I have no life, and yet
I do not die. O Bhagavān, after hearing these teachings I realize that there is no aging, no poverty, no
happiness, no sickness, nor is anyone ever ill, wealthy, or poor at all. I am freed from the notion of a
self.”

Then the Venerable Ānanda inquired of the Bhagavān, “Bhagavān, why have you taught such a profound
Dharma discourse as this? I wonder whether it is because this woman, who has investigated so well in this
way, is meritorious, learned, and naturally wise.”

“Ānanda, so it is,” replied the Bhagavān. “Ānanda, it is indeed just as you say. This woman is
meritorious, learned, and naturally wise. Ānanda, this woman was my mother for five hundred lifetimes.
Ānanda, in each of those lifetimes I also generated the roots of virtue so she could attain unsurpassable
and perfectly complete enlightenment. Ānanda, I cherished, revered, and respected this woman greatly. She,
too, thought, ‘I will engage in whatever conduct my son engages in and attain the unsurpassable and
perfectly complete enlightenment of the vehicle of happiness.’ ”

“Bhagavān, why is she so poor in this way?” inquired Ānanda.

The Bhagavān answered, “Ānanda, when I took up the conduct of a bodhisattva, I became a renunciant
in the doctrine of the bhagavān, the tathāgata, arhat, perfectly complete Buddha Krakucchanda. At that
time, Ānanda, this woman was my mother. Because of her attachment she did not want to let me go, so I
stopped eating my one meal per day. Later, she agreed to let me go. Ānanda, it is because of the ripening
of that karma that she is as poor as she is. Ānanda, this is the last time she
will be poor. Ānanda, after death, this woman, who no longer craves a woman’s faculties, will obtain a
man’s faculties in the Sukhāvatī buddhafield of the bhagavān, the perfectly complete Buddha Amitābha. Once
born there, she will make offerings to an innumerable, immeasurable, inconceivable number of buddhas;
guide an innumerable, immeasurable, inconceivable number of sentient beings to enlightenment; make an
innumerable, immeasurable, inconceivable number of sentient beings ripe for enlightenment; bring an
innumerable, immeasurable, inconceivable number of sentient beings to enlightenment; and, having brought an
innumerable, immeasurable, inconceivable number of sentient beings to enlightenment, in six million eight
hundred thousand kalpas she will become the tathāgata, arhat, perfectly complete buddha named
Bodhyaṅgapuṣpakara in this trichiliocosm. Ānanda, the wealth and enjoyments of sentient beings of this
buddhafield will be like those of the gods of the Thirty-Three.”

Thus did the Bhagavān announce, and having spoken these words, the Sugata, the Teacher, added the
following verses:

“Ānanda, behold this old lady

Before me, with palms joined,

Who will become a buddha, excellent among humans,

Named Bodhyaṅgapuṣpakara.

“She, giving up a woman’s form,

Will go to the realm of Sukhāvatī,

Venerate the victor Amitāyus,

And become a peerless buddha, conqueror of the three realms.

“Venerating, too, the many guides

Who dwell in other worlds,

The great sages who benefit those realms,

She will become a peerless buddha, excellent among humans.

“Having also heard the Dharma from them all,

With a purified mind, she will become accomplished in the same fashion.

Remaining in the immovable, supreme mind of enlightenment,

She will cause countless sentient beings to practice the Dharma.

“At that time there will be no inferior beings;

No beings with various bad bodies or bad color;

None dull, lame, and likewise none blind;

And no lepers with stumps for arms.

“At that time the sun and moon, fire, lightning, and gems

Will no longer be what shines,

For the guide Bodhyaṅgapuṣpakara’s mighty light

Will everywhere be all-illuminating.

“The same stature, marks, and complexion

As those of the supreme gods of the Thirty-Three

Will be natural to those beings who at that time

Will fill that exceptional buddhafield.

“There will be no women belonging to Māra’s faction,

No female māras, no retinue of Māra.

When the Tathāgata teaches the Dharma there,

Even the word tīrthika will be unknown.

“When the Tathāgata teaches the Dharma there,

Even the words the lower realms,

The pretas, animal birth, the beings of hell,

And even the word woman will ever stay unheard.

“At that time, there will be no classifications of vehicles,

Like the vehicles of the śrāvakas and the pratyekabuddhas in this world.

All will be endowed with a complete mind of enlightenment,

Dwell in loving-kindness, and be compassionate.

“As birth in that buddhafield will always be miraculous,

Everyone there will be free from birth in the womb.

They will remember past lives and, supremely intelligent and learned,

Retain upon hearing them whatever excellent teachings they study.

“Such are the qualities arrayed as features of that realm

That, even by speaking of them for eons at a time,

The tiny fraction of them one could thus describe

Would be less than a single drop of water compared to the ocean.”

When the Bhagavān had spoken, the venerable Ānanda and the old lady, the bodhisattvas and bhikṣus,
and the world with its gods, humans, demigods, and gandharvas all rejoiced and praised highly what the
Bhagavān had taught.

This completes The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra, “The Questions of an Old
Lady.”

Colophon

The translation was made, edited, and approved by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra and Dānaśīla, and the chief editor and translator Bandé Yeshé Dé.

Notes

Abbreviations:

D
Degé Kangyur

N
Narthang Kangyur

Bibliography

three realms
khams gsum
ཁམས་གསུམ།
tridhātu
The three realms are the desire realm (kāmadhātu, ’dod khams), form realm
(rūpadhātu, gzugs khams), and the formless realm (ārūpyadhātu, gzugs med
khams), i.e., the three worlds that make up saṃsāra. The first is composed of the
six sorts of beings (gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings), whereas the
latter two are only realms of gods and are thus higher, more ethereal states of saṃsāra.

formative factors
’du byed
འདུ་བྱེད།
saṃskāra
The various conditioning factors and circumstances that affect rebirth,
including primarily (but not only) karma. Formative factors also
constitute one of the five aggregates and figure as one of the links in the twelve links of
dependent arising to account for how karma eventually leads to rebirth.

mental consciousness
yid kyi rnam par shes pa
ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ།
manovijñāna
The Abhidharma speaks of five consciousnesses that grasp physical objects
(form, sound, smells, tastes, bodily sensations) and are correlated with their respective physical
sense faculties (indriya, dbang po), i.e., the eye, ear, etc. The mental consciousness, on
the other hand, is said to have as its faculty simply the mind (manas, yid). It
grasps all that exists, including what is presented by the physical consciousnesses as well as
mental and abstract objects. These six consciousnesses, added to the twelve bases of cognition,
constitute the Abhidharma schema of eighteen domains or spheres (dhātu, khams).

sacrificial post
mchod sdong
མཆོད་སྡོང་།
yūpa
A post set up as a marker to which offerings may be presented. Described in
the Maitreyāvadāna (“The Story of Maitreya”), which in the
Kangyur is found within the Bhaiṣajyavastu (in Vinayavastu, Toh 1, Degé Kangyur, vol. kha, folios 29.a–32.b); a
matching passage from the Divyāvadāna is translated in Rotman
(2008), pp. 121–24.

born of Manu
shed las skyes
ཤེད་ལས་སྐྱེས།
manuja
Manu being the archetypal human, the progenitor of mankind, in the Mahābhārata, the Purāṇas, and
other Indian texts, “born of Manu” is a synonym of “human being” or
mankind in general. Also rendered “son of Manu.”

son of Manu
shed bu
ཤེད་བུ།
mānava
Manu being the archetypal human, the progenitor of mankind, in the Mahābhārata, the Purāṇas, and
other Indian texts, “son of Manu” is a synonym of “human being” or
mankind in general. Also rendered “born of Manu.”

final reality
yang dag pa’i mtha’
ཡང་དག་པའི་མཐའ།
bhūtakoṭi
The ultimate state that can be experienced in the realization of reality, and
a near-synonym of nirvāṇa; sometimes also translated as “the
reality limit” in contexts describing a partial nirvāṇa that needs to be transcended.

Nāgas are associated with springs, streams, rivers, and water in general, and among their many magical powers is the ability to
produce rain.

Among the many magical powers of the nāgas is the ability to produce rain. Presumably this ability is what is meant here by “nāga-power,” although this appears to be the only mention of the term in the Kangyur in connection with clouds and rain.